Six members attended the Jan. 14 meeting at the Beaumont Library. It became evident to everyone that our numbers wouldn’t support flying this year. Kip made a motion and the membership agreed that we would pay our IF dues out of the club treasury in order to keep the club going and to order our LKY bands. If LRPC members want to fly this year, we would need to become members of the Bluegrass Racing Pigeon Club (Frankfort). Their racing schedule (tentatively) is scheduled to start on April 17. I will post their race schedule here when it is confirmed.

Frankfort club dues are $200 per season. Additionally, AU dues are $25. Frankfort club gathers to ship birds on Friday nights and opens clocks again on Sunday nights at Simon Parker’s house.

The Lexington RPC has also decided to try to host a One-Loft Race. John James is finishing off a new loft at his farm and will house the birds. Details are still being worked out and will be announced here later. The initial proposal was to charge $10/bird for LRPC members and $15 for non-members. The birds would have a three-race schedule.

Below is a map of the race stations used by Frankfort/Louisville. Most of them are the same as the LRPC with the exception being the shortest race (Franklin?).

View Bluegrass Racing Pigeon Club Race Stations in a larger map

Tory releases Speckles at Camp Nelson - one of their nine tosses from the 17-mile point.

Tory Stephenson, daughter of David and Angie, won the overall medallion in her school’s fourth grade science fair with her project titled “Flight Time.” For her project, Tory wanted to determine if weather conditions played a factor in the amount of time it took one of her birds to get home from a 17-mile release. On to Districts!

From her project:

From the results of my experiment, I learned that it appears temperatures between 24 degrees and 68 degrees do not have an effect on the birds. There wasn’t much precipitation during our experiment so we can’t tell if it affects the birds. Our data suggests that when the wind is coming from the south (tail winds) the birds would come home faster than when the wind is coming from the north (head wind). The air pressure between 29.85 and 30.26 didn’t seem to effect the pigeons. Extreme weather conditions quite possibly would effect the pigeons but we didn’t experience any extreme conditions. The birds flew a route home from the same release point every time. They may have learned the route home to become faster.

Bob reports that the 2010 bands have arrived early. If anyone needs them before our Jan. 14 meeting you should call Bob to make arrangements to pick them up at his house after Jan. 1.

Bob, Kip, John and David showed up for the club meeting at the library Thursday night. John handed out diplomas from the young bird season and there was discussion of the club’s fee structure. Out of a concern for the club losing money during a racing season due to a low number of birds flying, they recommended that the fee structure be changed to a ‘per-season’ fee instead of a fee based on the number of birds a loft flies.

After a unanimous vote from the four members present, the club will now charge a $180 fee per season per loft which is to be paid at a point prior to the first race of that season. The $180 includes club membership dues, race fees and IF membership dues. There will no longer be race entry fees paid on shipping nights. Bird limits are still under discussion.

Bands are still paid for separately.

The clubs next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 14, 2010 at the Beaumont Public Library.

We will have a club meeting to wrap up the young bird season and discuss what went right and what went wrong. We will also hand out diplomas, etc. The meeting will be a 6:30 PM Thursday November 5th at the Beaumont Center Public Library.

Please mark this date and time on your calendar and plan to attend. If you have any questions you are welcome to ask.

If you know of any potential new members pass this information and an invitation on to them.

Congratulations to John James, who had a bird – IF09LKY 9131H + BC -place FIRST in the Midwest One Loft 150-mile race on Sept. 20. There were 370 birds from all over the country in this race.

Originally, John’s bird was listed as finishing third and it arrived with another bird. The first place bird was since disqualified as it’s entry fee was not paid. The second and third placing birds, which dropped together, will share the first place money of $1500 according to John.

The Midwest One Loft website is here, and the link to the race results is here.

At the 2009 Kentucky State Fair, LRPC junior member Amber Barrow won 4th place in white homers.  In grizzles, she took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th.  She also took best overall grizzle, beating the best OB hen and OB Cock. Additionally, she won Junior Reserve Champion.

Amber Barrow with her best overall grizzle at the Ky State Fair.

Congratulations to Amber.

Stormy weather is predicted for Saturday. The club will collect birds on Saturday night, May 9, for a Sunday morning release from Oneida (100 miles). Clocks will be set at the traditional 7 p.m.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: All club dues will need to be paid on Saturday night in order for your birds to be included in the race. There are many club members with unpaid dues. If you need to know your standing, please contact Richard Green.

See you Saturday!