Letter from the Editor:
Well, I can officially take back my title of being “anally” organized! I first want to apologize to some of the members whose information was wrong time and time again. The way I had things set up, your information was in several places. So I’d change things in one place and forget the others. Or end up missing one. Well I’ve fixed all of that now. I’ve also simplified a few things so I won’t have that problem again… hopefully. So if your information is wrong, chances are its wrong everywhere. There is a current member’s list included in this bulletin. Please make sure all of your information is filled out correctly and I have phone numbers listed for you. Please take the list out of the bulletin and keep it in your phone book for future reference.
Man, I tell you. That last bulletin was a real treat to get sent out to you! After I had everything finally all typed up, I had issued with the ink I purchased. I got the first three pages printed off of one ink cartridge before it was empty. (That’s not normal or very good.) I have two printers. One is super fast and makes it not such a chore. The other is very slow but does a good job. I always buy the ink for the fast printer. Well that’s the one I had issues with. Of course it would happen when HarleyJohn was napping so I couldn’t leave and get the ink all squared away until after he woke up! So I had to print off most the pages with the slow printer. Yes, there were several fun days at our house with that. Thank you Chad for taking the time out of work to run and get me ink so I could keep going and get it finished. Needless to say because of the business I bring to the ink place (on behalf of the club); the problem was fixed with new ink without any issues. So I should be set and ready to go for this next bulletin.
Hard to believe that by the time you all receive the next bulletin, there is going to be another new Guell member added to the pigeon world. J I’m sure there will be a photo of the new little Miss Guell in the next bulletin. The anal organization didn’t stop with cleaning up the club’s records and information. Our whole house got hit! Poor Chad. Thankfully there have been no other health issues with me concerning our daughter since the last bulletin. Everything is going fine now. Our son had his first sleep-over at his aunt’s house. I think poor Chad was going to have a heart attack the whole time HarleyJohn was gone. It was a HUGE step for him.
Well I hope everyone is off to a great start with their birds this year. Tugging around two children at the shows will be interesting but I’m looking forward to the challenge. It’s either that, or staying home from the shows and that’s NOT an option.
Remember to send me your letters and your club dues. Look to see if you’re all paid up or if you’re one that owes. The member’s dues list will be later in this bulletin.
Oh and just in case some of you are wondering why checks for your dues are not clearing right away, I try to wait until I get a few to take to the bank. I send out the receipts right away to help myself keep track of the dues I receive.
FAITHFULLY HIS~ Jaclyn
Letter from the New Club President:
It is May 22nd as I am writing this article. The birds are all mated up and settled in. I must say that fertility has been outstanding in the 1st round. From 10 pair of baldheads my 1st round fertility was 23 good out of 24 eggs. My dun check was the only one with only 1 good egg. Hopefully now some of these will turn out to be clean marked and nice birds.
The voting is all over with for club officers. Jacky, should have a list of the officers and directors in this bulletin. I was elected President, and I feel there is much work to do. The first thing that needs to be addressed and corrected is our voting process. We ended up with only about 5 votes doing it through the bulletin. So, I will put it in the bulletin for everyone to digest and talk about. I propose that any voting that needs to be done, takes place at either the NYBS or all age national. This way at least we will get 10-20 peoples opinions. I understand the argument that this doesn’t give the members that are unable to attend a chance to vote. So in addition to taking a vote in person; what ever is being voted on will also get put into the bulletin for the non attending members to have a chance to vote as well. I don’t see any other way for this to work. I would like to vote on this at Louisville this year, so if you are unable to attend Louisville and have an opinion on this matter, please call or email your opinion.
We have received some very good feedback about our website. I am in the process of incorporating some really good ideas from Jeremy Geiman into the website, so again I encourage all of you to get familiar with the website and send us your ideas to make it better. It is www.baldheads.com. Also if any of you have pictures that you would like on the website, please email them to Jacky or to myself, and we will get them on there. The show roller guys have been doing a lot of communicating on there message board, I would encourage all of you to try out our message board too.
We voted on bringing back the auction at Louisville to help the club raise money. If you have a bird or birds that you would like to donate to the club, let me know by October 1st. I will remind everyone in the next bulletin as well. It was suggested that the judge at Louisville look at the birds being offered for the auction on Friday night to make sure that they are quality birds that would help people. I am for this. I would like to get some feedback from all of you on this topic. What we don’t want are people using the auction as a place to dump birds that no one else wanted. That was the reason we stopped running the auction. Also what I would like to do is, after the Judge looks at the birds to be donated, the birds selected would be placed in the judging area with cards to place silent bids the night before the auction. Then we can take the silent bids and start from there at the intermission of the show with a live auction. Another idea, for those that don’t like the judge picking out which birds are worthy of being in the auction, would be to eliminate any bird that didn’t have at least a $10 bid from the silent auction cards by 8 or 9 PM Friday night. Again these are just some ideas, and I hope to hear from all of you.
Here is another idea. What do you think about making Junior entries free at all nominated point shows? The Juniors would have to pay the entry fee to the host club and then the club would reimburse them. Or instead of free entries, a $20 cash reward for champion junior? Does anyone think either of these ides would increase Junior participation? Maybe every Junior that enters a bird would receive a bird from a Master Breeder to assist their breeding program?
Well that is probably enough stuff for all of you to digest for this bulletin, just be aware that your new President has a passion for this hobby and is going to make a lot of suggestions and hopefully improvements to make our club a good one.
On the personal side of things, HarleyJohn is 2 ½ now and is just starting to enter the TERRiBLE 2’s. I always said ‘no not my boy he is too good for that to happen’. WOW, was I wrong. We are still very blessed as he is great kid… most of the time. But boy oh boy can he be stubborn. (must have gotten that from his mother LOL) He loves going out to Grandpa’s house and seeing the pigeons, goat, llama, and roosters. We are also expecting a baby girl this summer. Jacky is due July 6th.
I hope everyone has a great summer and good luck on your breeding season. I hope to hear from several of you about these issues, if not a phone call, or an email, then maybe an article for the next bulletin with your thoughts and views. Thanks!
Chad Guell 920-375-0823 cguell@holidayautomotive.com
(*Editor’s Note… if you KNOW my husband and father-in-law… it’s pretty hard to blame the stubbornness on poor little ‘ole me! LOL! I guess that is what happens when both parents can have a stubborn streak… although mine is WAY smaller then Mr. Guell’s.) J
It’s been a while since I’ve written a report and a lot has happened in that time. As some of you know I had major back surgery last April. I am now back working after a successful recovery. The only problem continues to be my legs which still have not fully recovered from all the nerve damage caused by my back. The surgeon said it would take at least a year and it sure looks like he was right. I’m showing steady improvement every day.
We had a great time in January at the NPA Lancaster Grand National. It was good to see Bob Kuzminski, Bob Taylor, Berry Wagner and Dave Wendt make it to our show. We had a total of 12 exhibitors and there were some really nice birds shown. Bob Kuzminski took Champion Baldhead with a powerful Blue Check young cock. Second was Jay Turner, who only showed one bird, with a Dun/Silver old hen. I understand that Jay is getting out of the balds and he gave the Dun hen to Bob Taylor after the show. I sure wish that Jay would reconsider and possibly stay in the baldhead hobby.
The next two spots went to Bob Kuzminski with a pair of Blue Check cocks and Bill Baltozer had the 4th Reserve with another Blue Check cock bird. The Blue Checks were a strong entry, especially the Champion bird that was shown by Bob Kuzminski.
Last but not least, we had 2 junior exhibitors who were Amanda Werner and Paul Zadarlik Jr. Amanda won Champion Junior Exhibitor with a nice Red Bar young hen.
I put my birds together the first of the year this year and finally had my first hatchling yesterday the 27th of February. So far the fertility rate is about 60 percent. I am currently breeding out of 26 pair but hope to cut back some more next month. The price of feed has really gone up here. Last time I bought feed, it was $65.00 for a hundred pounds.
I’m working on crossing some blue bars into my cream bars this year to see if I can improve the size and confirmation of the cream bars. Seems like a long time since I had a good cream bar and then it was because I put a blue bar on a cream bar. Really looking forward to seeing what I raise.
Not much news from anyone around here as we have lost all our baldhead breeders in this area. I feel like I’m the last of a dying breed. I know the economy is tight and that is probably causing people to cut back on things. I still run into some pigeon breeders every now and then in this area, but most don’t show. They just raise birds for the fun of it.
Hope all of you have a great breeding season and I look forward to seeing you at the shows in the fall.
Frank Podufalski
To the Membership,
The ABRC has completed its 3 years with the NPA National and we now have to make a decision. Do we stay with it or move? It is my opinion that the NPA National is not the best show for the ABRC National both in quality and financially. We need some input from around the country. So let’s hear from the membership.
Dave Wendt
Hello every one, May Day May Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes here we are well into the next breeding season. I am wondering what I will do with all my bands. I got started late again this year and the first rounds of eggs were about one percent fertile. Now I’m beginning to have about sixty percent fertility. Then there always seems to be a few that leave the nest after a week or so. I do have about eight banded and as usual, most are blues. I was trying to get different colors this year. I hope to still get enough dilutes. Maybe next year it will happen. I hate to think that already, but that is what we usually end up saying.
Barry and I picked up a load of feed last month. The prices are still high the way they were late last year. It is getting difficult to find people that even sell the feed. We travel about seventy five miles to pick it up right now. I use just an economy mix and add soybeans instead of extra peas. Then when it’s conditioning time, I start adding more corn and safflower.
Thank you to all four or five people that took the time to vote. Yeah, that’s what it was. As I have said before, we need to go back to voting at the young bird show. It is our best representation of our members. I know Chad has a lot of ideas for the direction we need to go, but it is still going to take all the members to make us the great club we can be. So bring the beer along to the shows and meetings. We know Dennis will attend. His vote was the deciding vote to put me over the top in the huge ballot turnout that establishes me as the ‘Joe Biden’ of the club. For those who don’t know or care, he is the Vice President. Personally I would like to forget. I do not think it is a virus going around now, it is just the ether wearing off from the election, and everyone is puking.
So batten down the hatches, find some fun and raise a few good birds this year. There may be a tax on your bands next year. Have a great summer! Butch Guell
Hello! The breeding season is in full swing, or at least we all wish it to be. I know that here in South Dakota, as well as other parts of the US; the weather has been playing havoc on all the birds’ routines. After two or three 70+ degree days, then getting followed up by blizzard, then warmer weather, then again a blizzard, in a two week period, three blizzards with a total snow fall of 40". I am grateful that my birds are still producing. So far to date, out of six pairs I have 13 banded and 5 more that just hatched. Those numbers are for both my baldheads and non-baldheads combined. I have been working with Chad, to get a district point show together here in South Dakota, in conjunction with the Black Hills Pigeon Clubs annual Short Grass Pigeon Show. This is an all breed, all age show. I am also trying to get a U.R.C.A. point show at the same time. The show is scheduled for October 17, 2009. I am currently trying to get a judge lined up. I know a lot of you out there are thinking this show is to early in the year, yes it is early, but that is just because this show will be held in a new, seldom seen, and almost forgotten part on the baldhead world. I would urge every one to think about showing here; this show has a really laid back and relaxing atmosphere. There are also many places for the families to go, such as Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Mountain, or the many local stores and malls. I will be putting more information in the next bulletin, as well as an entry form. If anyone has any questions feel free to email me at: geimanj@hotmail.com or you can call me at home: 605-342-1850 The best of luck to all of you, and hope you raise many champions. Jeremy Geiman
ELECTION RESULTS
As mentioned in some of the members’ letters, we only had six members contact me either by the phone or mail with their votes. Given the lack of participation with other ‘mail in’ requests, this time I was actually pleased I got the response I did. However, when you look at the number of members in our club, having six of them doesn’t seem that great.
The results go as follows:
President – Chad Guell, Vice President – Butch Guell, Secretary/Treasurer – Jaclyn Guell. The districts: #1 – Pete Dempsey, #2 – Bob Taylor, #3 – Frank Podufalski, #4 – Steve Olsen, #5 – Bob Evertson, #6 – Vacant, #7 – Jeremy Geimen, #8 – Vacant and Director at Large – Bob Kuzminski.
Thank you to the six of you who took the time to contact me and put in your votes.
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