Journal---News

1/7/2013 Happy New Year to everyone. The loft has been prepared and ready for the 2013 entries. I know there is a lot of competition out there for your OLR entries and there are many good ones out there. Everyone is excited to see their first youngsters and make the decision on where to enter the babies. The M&M Classic loft is open to start receiving entries on Feb 1st. I get asked often what is the best time to send out the ybs's and early, late or in the middle of the acceptance period. There are a variety of opinions and I am sure there are pro's and con's for each. But I can tell you what seems to works best for me. I prefer the yb's birds to be 28-35 days old and I think the best receiving time are the ones from the first week in March to the first or second week in April. As stated above the loft is ready for bird starting Feb 1st. If you have any questions pop me an email and I will get back to you. Thanks Mike

1/20/13 Below is some interesting information from the Pipa website about vacinating your YB's for PMV at 21 days old and before you enter them in OLR's. The following practice is also recommended by Dr. Walker.

Like I told you earlier in this article, the circi-virus virus will especially attack all those organs that are very important for building up a good and strong immunity. If this immunity fails, pigeons can die due to this ‘banal- infection’!!

All this means that also infected pigeons cannot have that strong immunity after a vaccination!!!

Suppose you vaccinate your pigeons against paramyxovirosis, but on that moment your pigeons are already infected with the circo-virus. After this vaccination, the pigeons aren’t able to build up an immunity like they should be, because the organs that are responsible for this are infected and don’t work like they should do!! So, it is possible that a vaccination doesn’t work properly, not due to the vaccin ( Colombovac pmv ® or Nobivac paramyxo ®, are very reliable vaccines) or the way of vaccination, but because there was an infection with circo at that moment.

To prevent all this it is much better to vaccinate your young birds as soon as possible, this means when the youngsters are 3 weeks old (so this is the time of weaning the birds)

In this way you prevent (so far as you can prevent it) that the pigeons are already infected with circo-virus before you vaccinate them.

During practice we learned that those pigeons which have been vaccinated very early (at 3 weeks), that they had apparently also a greater resistance against fe adenovirosis.

All this is of course is no certainty you wont have any problem’s with all the other diseases, but we all see a very positive effect on the immunity of the pigeons after they had been vaccinated when they were very young!!

Vaccinating before three weeks is of no use because the youngsters during that period receive maternal immunity from the parents ( through the egg and the cropmilk.)

Because you vaccinate at the age of 3 weeks, this means you cannot vaccinate at the same time with the pox (not with Colombovac pmv pox® or Ovoperisterin®,)

To build up much resistance against the pox it is necessary that the pigeons are at least 6 weeks.

Thanks Mike

2/8 It is very exciting to see the first birds delivered to the loft. It is always exciting to see the first results of our matings and hopefully a 2013 Champion on the horizon. Couple of scheduling notes for bird drop off. I will not be able to accept birds on 2/22-2/25. I will be in Las Vegas at the Tournament of Champions Race. Please plan accordingly. Note the shipping address to mail the birds is Mike Gonigan, 7861 S. Endow Rd. French Camp, CA 95231. (209) 814-7002. Also, I have missed calls over the last several weeks. This is important to note, because they occur when I am at work and when I am attending my daughter's basketball games. First, if it is during the day it is best to text or email me and I can respond pretty quickly and second my daughter's last basketball game is 2/12 and I will be home most evenings after that. Thanks for all the support. Mike

3/7 Everything is going well at the loft. I have reserved spots at 267. I will be at the Martinez Club House Sunday 3/10 and able to pick-up entries. If there is anyone that will not be sending entries and is on the reservation list, let me know and it could open spots for someone else.

Thanks for the support. Keeping checking the website for updates and make sure you refresh your browser for the latest info, http://www.mmclassiconeloft.com/

I could also pick-up Golden State Classic birds for Joe and Karen Silviera also..

Thanks Mike

4/7 Good Morning, Wow the last 3 weeks have been very busy, with a multiple events going on. The TIPES OLR portal is working again. It has the 3/19 file showing. I will send in an update later today. I have over 180 birds in the loft and many have arrived since Friday and more coming today. The birds are doing fine 120 plus birds have been out. I will be in MTZ next sunday 4/14 to pickup entries. The race is basically FULL based on reservations and current received entries. We are within the last 30 days to receive birds. If someone is not going to ise their spots please let me know, I have a few on a waiting list to put birds in the race. I can also pickup Golden State Classic birds at MTZ and get them to Joe and Karen. Thanks Mike I appreciate all the support.

4/21 Another 2 weeks have passed and birds are still coming in. We have a couple of more weeks to receive birds. Everything has been let out except for birds that have arrived after 4/9. I can't say everything has been perfect, but thing are pretty much good. I have lost a few off the loft and contacted the owners for replacements. I has very windy here the last few weeks and getting the birds out every day is impossible. Some days the winds have been over 20mph. I have lost connection with the one loft portal and working with Tim and Tipes to reestablish connection. I have about 272 birds, will update soon. Thanks Mike