1) Tell us a little about yourself? When you were born? Did your family have birds? When did you first start with pigeons? When did you first race? What was the name of the first club you flew in? Where do you fly today? Have you ever flown as a partnership, If so who was your partner and when?

The Kriegbaum Loft is a partnership made up of George & Valerie Kriegbaum. We each had very different starts in pigeon racing. George was introduced to pigeon racing as a very young boy, his grandfather raced pigeons. His grandfather was George J. Kriegbaum, who helped chartered & flew with the Wellwood Pigeon Club in Lindenhurst, NY back in the 1940's & 50's. We still have some of the original larger IF diplomas which he won back then. George's grandmother told him his grandfather had a friend who worked on a tramp steamer and traveled the world; in his travels he would bring back pairs of racing pigeons for his grandfather to "try" (this was long before mandatory quarantine). Grandpa Kriegbaum had passed away long before George got his first pigeon. George acquired his first pigeons at age 13 and at age 16 joined and flew his first race in the same Wellwood Pigeon Club in 1974. However he only flew in two races, before other things became more important (girls & cars), still pigeons had made an impression on him. After moving to New Hampshire he once again obtain pigeons and joined the Rochester Pigeon Racers in 1981.
George then joined the Sanford Racing Pigeon Club in 1991, and flew there until 1995.

Valerie was raised on a dairy farm upstate NY, moved to NYC and worked there for eleven years, then relocated to NH to raise a family. In 1991 she was first exposed to racing pigeons, when her husband came home from work with six homers, which were given to him by Ollie Birolini of Braintree, Mass. "What are we going to do with these things? They just mess all over the place!" I asked, after all, the only pigeons I had seen were NYC pigeons. My ex-husband told me "These are racing pigeons and we're going to race 'em." Those pigeons never got raced but we raised a number of young from them in 1992, joined the Hooksett Pigeon Flyers and flew with the Northeast Concourse Inc. I learned about racing that first year, read everything I could find, asked questions of the club members, and then followed directions from Ollie. My husband's work took he away from home, so it was myself & my thirteen-year-old daughter who took care of the birds and trained them. We got a third in the club and 17th in combine in our first year. In 1993, the Northeast Concourse changed flying directions and flew out of Canada to give all lofts a more even flying distance. The Northeast Concourse was made up of nine clubs from the Central Maine Pigeon Club in upstate Maine to Souhegan Valley Racers in southern New Hampshire a distance of 182 miles! We flew our first Old Bird Series race and took First in the club. The second race with 33 lofts competing in the South Section we took First Place. We finished the series with four club wins and one Combine win (66 lofts & 700 birds). I was elected race secretary of the club and then elected President of the Northeast Concourse, Inc. for 1994 and again 1995, while continuing to be club race secretary. In November 1995 there were personal changes and the partnership of George & Val began. We flew with the Rochester Pigeon Racers (RPR) until we moved here to central N.Y. in 1998. We fly with the Central New York Combine, our first year we flew young birds with the Binghamton (BNG) Club. The BNG club only flies young birds, so for old birds 1999 we flew with the UVC club. Meanwhile we chartered the Lisle (LYL) Club and flew with it from 1999 until 2002 when member relocations forced the club to disband. We joined the Ithaca Racing Pigeon Club (ITH) where we fly today.

2) Do you think your position is a good one as far as combine races are concerned? How big is combine? Club?
We currently fly in the Central New York Combine that is really spread out. From Rochester in the west to Utica in the east is 136 miles and from Binghamton in the south to Watertown in the north is 145 miles that’s 19,720 square miles. Our loft is located in the south being just eight miles north of Binghamton in Whitney Point, NY. We fly on the short end of the combine. At the club level we are again on the short end, we have a 35-mile drive to get to the club. Our loft is off to the east side of the main line of flight from our club and the most of the rest of the combine. Our birds have to break from the flock and race home. If I could pick my loft location, it would be further north and to the west.

3) Do you have an original family of pigeons? How do you select your breeding pairs?
When we moved here from New Hampshire we took our best fliers and best breeders and combined them as our breeding foundation. We have over the years bought very little to add to our breeding, we just take the best from our old bird team to breed from. We never take from the young bird team, as a bird we retire must prove its self for years before we breed from them.

4) What type of birds do you now fly? Big, med., small, strain
We like birds that are of medium size; however once in a while our breeders will throw an offspring that is really large or sometimes small, nevertheless we will race them. We find some of the small-bodied hens have a whole lot of "heart" and will race home against the worse winds! The medium size bird does seem to be more consistent in all different kinds of races.

5) Do you pair some cocks to more than one hen, to speed up the testing of the stock birds?
I believe the best is passed on thru the hens. We do mostly natural mating; the hens and cocks pick each other. We have never had very much luck force mating pairs. It has always been my opinion by pairing one cock to many hens your family line gets closer much faster and new blood needs to be introduced that much earlier. The five or six foundation pairs we started with still have many years of line breeding offsprings before they become closely bred.

6) What championships have you won, in the club, combine or nationally?

1994 Club and Combine Short Average Speed Old Bird 100-300, Section Average Speed Old Bird 100-600 miles.
1995 Club and Combine Short Average Speed Old Bird 100-300, Champion Bird Young Bird Series, Combine Diploma Champion
1997 Club and Combine Short Average Speed Old Bird 100-300.
1998 - We relocated from New Hampshire to New York.
2001 Club and Combine Champion Loft Old Bird Series, Short Average Speed Old Bird.
2002 Club and Combined Old & Young Champion Loft, Champion Diploma Winner.
2003 Club and Combine Short Average Speed Old Bird, Champion Loft Old Birds, Champion Bird Old Bird Series
2004 Club and Short Average Speed Old Bird, Champion Loft Old Birds, Champion Bird Old Bird Series.
2005 Club and Short Average Speed Old Bird, Champion Loft Old Birds, Champion Bird Old Bird Series.
2005 We had our first IF Grand Champion pigeon, IF 98 RPR 113 BC-Hen. With another six to eight birds just a few points shy of championships.

7) Can you give us a little history on your Champion bird? Please list your bird's record that enabled you to enter into the champion bird competition. Champion Loft if you qualified for this Please lists your flying results?
Pedigree of your champion bird - example is the mother was never raced but became a good breeding hen her sire is NL???/89 who won 1st Orleans etc, etc,

EXAMPLE. Races entered.
Races and diploma’s won level bird competed at.
IF-01-LYL-123 is a red check cock we bred from the flying team. He flew two races as a young bird, and got himself lost and was returned by another flyer. As a yearling he flew two combine races, and in a special yearling money race with 18 lofts/81 birds at 300 miles he won first place money. In 2003 he was raced four times, on a 400 miles race with 25 lofts/262 birds we had a four bird drop and he trapped fourth and was 4th in the combine, in a 100 mile race with 30 lofts/489 birds we had a 13 bird drop in which he trapped 8th and that was he’s position in the combine. As a three-year bird in 2004, he was again shipped to four races. His best race was 150 miles 26 lofts/442 birds he trapped 9th out of 11-bird drop and placed 9th in the combine. In 2005, I raced him six times, to the loft he was 1st, 4th, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, and 3rd each time out. His combine results:

4/24 2nd Combine 100 miles 23 Lofts 381 Birds
5/1 24th Combine 100 miles 23 Lofts 296 Birds
5/14 2nd Combine 150 miles 25 Loft 362 Birds
5/22 15th Combine 300 miles 29 Lofts 418 Birds
6/4 2nd Combine 300 miles 27 Lofts 286 Birds
6/18 10th Combine 250 miles 21 Lofts 273 Birds.

8) Story on parents, brother, sister that breed or flew well for you?
IF 01 LYL 123 RC-C came from breeding in our flying team, he’s the result of two of our foundation families mating together. His parents flew very well for us young birds in 1999, but were lost in 2001 racing. We did not fly old birds in 200 because of moving, and I believe that hurt the old bird team - the combination of breaking them to a new location and be “locked” up and not racing for a year. The paternal grandmother is an IF Champion bird, while the maternal grandmother was a combine section winner, and the grandmother’s nest mate was a combine winner. We have the breeding and racing records of these two families of birds that go back for four, five and six generations. That’s the most rewarding part of racing to see these birds develop into champions. I talked George into keeping breeding records starting in 1995. He told me he just takes what the birds give him and racing them to the best of his ability. Now, with ten years of record keeping he says it does help.

9) Do you race imports?
We do not own or have ever owned imports. We have never spent more than $150.00 on any one bird and both times the bird was not worth half that price.

10) When you select birds do you just go to auction or the Internet and buy a bird or do you scout out other champions and obtain birds from them?
When buying birds we buy what we like the looks and feel of, not the paper they come with. We have developed our own strain that works for us and have only three outside pedigreed birds in our loft. We have picked out young birds at auctions that have gone on to become combine winners in Old Bird races. We have purchased a couple of inexpensive breeding pairs off the Internet whose offsprings have flown well for us.

11) How many birds do you fly on s your old bird team and young bird teams? Do you prefer old bird or young birds flying?
We enjoy Old Bird flying the best! We would like 30 to 40 birds on our old bird team, but over the past five years our old bird team had grown to over 120 birds. With our training we do not lose a lot of young birds, we do not cull (we let the basket do the culling). So we split the team and flew his and hers. George flew all the blue bars and checkers and Val got all the “pretty birds” reds, chocolates, grizzles, and splashes. The completion at the loft level is exciting! Oh, you should hear some of the bets! Even with the teams split the way we did it, we still took first and second in the combine champion loft and average speed. You see our “pretty birds” can fly as well as the blue bars and checkers.
Young bird racing is a way to get Old Birds. We feel if a bird doesn’t get to a few young bird races, it will not be a good Old Bird racer. We raise about 40 to 50 birds for our Young Bird team; if more than that too many are added to the old bird team.

12) Do you cut flights, pull tail feathers, do you have your birds finished with body molt when races start, or are you a natural flyer if so when do you start to breed?
We do not cut nor pull feathers. We have always flown natural and our breeding starts when I open up the nest boxes sometime around the second week of February.

13) Do you fly to the perch? Do you fly widowhood? Separated sexes, or just hens? If you fly natural or widowhood please explain your method in old birds and young birds.
Val believes the Kriegbaum Loft flies so well because all the birds’ just love it here & they fly home to George. She remembers a 500-mile race where we had six hens setup on eggs and ready for the race, and George wanted to send this one unmated cock bird. Not only did the cock bird beat all our hens home, he won the combine. Throw all those books I read about racing out the window, here the birds do what they want. We just fly to the perch & fly natural. We have considered widowhood but have not yet tried it.

14) Do you use a system? For young birds? Old birds? Which ever applies? Dark? Widowhood? Etc. Explain your system day by day from preparing for the first training toss to the last race how many hours of light per day do your birds get? From what time to what time is light used? When do you go on natural light? How do your birds molt as old birds if you were on a young bird system? How do you feel about people using different systems that compete with you?
We fly natural in old birds. Our birds go out twice a day (weather permitting). Two-road training tosses a week a 40 and a 60-mile toss, other wise they get flagged for 45 minutes morning and afternoon. They do not get open loft, it’s “in the air or in the loft” here. Open loft will only attract hawks. Our birds are always on natural light.

Our young bird team is divided in two and they fly every other week. They get road training every day if the weather permits until the first race. We start them out at five miles and increase five to ten miles every toss until we are out to sixty miles. Once the races start, we road train three times a week, and flag every day. For the young birds we train in two directions due south and southwest (we race from the SSW), each day I go one way and then the other the following day. Once past twenty miles out the direction switches start, Monday 30 miles to the south and Tuesday 30 miles to the southwest which would be 40 miles from where the young were released the day before. I believe it teaches the birds to “home” instead of leaving the crate and flying in the same direction each toss.

15) Explain how you would prepare a team of birds to go into a 300-mile fut. race? Please do a Sunday-to-Sunday preparation schedule
The preparation for any money or futurity race begins at the first training toss of the season. Flying and winning money races are more in the training than the week-to-week preparation.

16) Explain how you would prepare a team of birds for shipping to a 400 mile O.B. race? Please do a day-by-day preparation Sunday to Sunday.
The preparation for the 400 is like any other race; Sunday we flag both morning and night 45 minutes with plain drinking water. Monday flagged both morning and night with sulmet in the water. Tuesday we train them out 60 miles in the morning and flag in the evening back to plain drinking water. Wednesday we flag morning and evening with garlic in the water. Thursday we train out 40 miles, flag in the evening and plain water. Friday we flag in the morning and ship in the afternoon with honey in the water. Saturday we fill the feeders and wait for returning birds from the race.

17) Describe you loft? Here is an example! My loft is 32 ft by 12 ft. and is divided into 5 compartments 6x8 with a 4-foot hallway. Do you have a separate breeding loft? Is there airflow in loft, fans, etc?
Our flying loft is of wood structure; vinyl sided that measures 6 foot by 28 foot with 5 sections. Our breeding loft is also wood structure, vinyl sided and that measures 16 feet by 6 foot with two sections. Both lofts have large openings for airflow and stay open all year long. Anyone is welcomed to come by to see it and our birds.

18) Describe how you feed? Hopper, or individual seed? In the nest box or on the floor? After a flight around the loft or is it when they return from training? Is there a set time in the morning or at evening? Which mixture do you use? Do you feed once or twice a day and why do you feed this way?
We feed the race team twice a day in hoppers, plus if young are in the nest we add extra grain in the nest boxes. Before and during the race season we flag our birds every day 45 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon, afterwards they get fed. If we take them out training in the morning they still fly 45 minutes in the afternoon. The breeders get fed once a day and all birds get economy mix Baymore grain. We never feed any higher protein grain than 11 percent; it’s a waste of money in my opinion.

19) How do you train your birds’ single toss in a flock or on the training truck? Do you time your birds from training and if so give us example? How often do u train and at what distances? Or do you just loft fly and if so how long?
We use teamwork here, George crates all the birds and Val drives them down the road for tosses. George waits at home and feeds them once they return, usually before Val gets back home. We mix the training up, some days all together, some times a crate at a time and young birds go just three at a time a few tosses. Once young birds are trained to home from at least 40 miles out, we like to train with another flyer who's loft location is away from us to teach the birds to break.

20) Do you have any regular training schedule to take the birds down the road or do you loft fly regularly explain what you do? Explain the reasons why you do certain things
Our training has to be flexible with the weather in central NY changing all the time. We get our share of rain here, we do not take the birds down the road in the rain, we will get them to loft fly when the rain lets up.

21) Is there any kind of health program you follow regularly? If so explain it to us. How do you medicate and for what reason?
Keeping the birds healthy is a major key to racing well. We find that keeping a “closed” loft will yield a healthier team. Once you start racing, birds will catch anything on the truck or trailer. We medicate for cocci every Monday. We watch the birds closely to see that they stay healthy.

22) How often do you race your champion bird, how about the rest of the team?
At the beginning of the season we break our team in half, one half goes one week and the other half goes the next week. We have found over the years that usually we never get great results from any one bird two weeks in a row. We have also found by doing that we can race the birds well into their 7th or 8th year.

23) Do you believe in bird entry limits, do you believe in clocking limits?
Yes we believe in both bird entry and clocking limits especially if it’s for the good of the club or combine, but our combine flies under AU rules. Yes it looks good on a race sheet to take the first 15 positions but you quickly become the enemy and eventually you are ousted thru club boundary changes or reorganization. It is very true what they say it is lonely at the top.

24) Have you any advice for new flyers? Have you any advice for advanced Flyers?
The only advice is developing a system and stick with it and no matter what happens don’t change. Pigeon racing is one sport that change is not always good. Find a mentor in the combine next to yours and ask for their advice. Where he/she is not competing against you they will give you good advise. Talk to everyone and ask their opinion then do what feels right for you and your birds and stick with it, after all Rome wasn’t built in a day. Today new flyers expect to win because they purchased expensive birds. The price you pay for a bird does not always reflect how well it will race.

25) Is there a flyer, breeder or book that has helped you become a better pigeon flyer?
Without a doubt, Don McCue of Alfred, Maine! He started racing pigeons as a boy and we got to know him when he moved to Maine and flew with the Sanford Pigeon Club. With over fifty years of racing experiences his advise to us was priceless! He always told you the truth regarding training & racing and his insight to keeping pigeons is endless. He’s a great asset to pigeon racing and there should be more great flyers like him.

26) Do you have any kind of goals in the sport? Compose a list of awards your have received club, combine and national awards if any.
1994 Combine 1st in 100, 150 and 200.
1995 Combine 1st in 100 & 200.
1996 Combine 1st in 150 & 500.
1997 Combine 1st in 150. .
1998 - We relocated from New Hampshire to New York.
2001 Combine 1st in 100, 150, 150, and 300.
2002 Combine 1st 150, 300, Special Band Race, and Yearling Special Race.
2003 Combine 1st 150, 250, 400, and Yearling Special.
2004 Combine 1st 100, 150, 250, and Special Band Race.
2005 Combine 1st 100, 150, 250. 300, 400, and Special Band Race. We won 8 out of the nine old bird races in the club.

27) As a champion you must have learned from your mistakes.
Val learned to quarantine any new bird or returning lost bird from your flying team during the races. George learned plain clean drinking water is all that is needed to race. He found that the birds raced just as well with just water, as to adding a different chemical to their water everyday…. actually they raced better. Or maybe we just became better handlers.
28) How often do you clean out your lofts, and how often do you disinfect?
We keep the loft dry. It gets scraped once a month or two, it’s what the old timers use to call deep litter. George learned this down on Long Island as he used to be paid to clean lofts once the litter was flowing over the five-inch board blocking the door that’s when the old timers wanted their loft cleaned. We believe it helps the pigeons build antibodies in their systems in the loft. We fly with flyers that scrape their loft everyday, but their birds start to break down as soon as they go on the race truck the first race. It’s like sending you children to kindergarten; they come home with every germ there. Our birds seem to stay healthy going on the race truck.

29) If you had the opportunity to change something in the pigeon game what would it be?
The first and biggest thing I would change is take out the money. Big prices on pedigreed birds, big entry fees and bigger payouts are killing this sport. Too many people now are just raising birds for the out of area money races and the numbers racing old and young bird regular races in the clubs are dwindling. Our loft has done very well over the years and never spent over $150.00 for any one bird and only did that twice in the 35 years of having pigeons.

30) If you have a list of good books or videotape please recommend some.
George has never taken the time to read any books or view any tapes, Val read a number of books: but most of what I read I found did not work or make a difference with our team of birds. For instance, I was informed that you had to wait at the release site on a training toss for 15 minutes to let the young birds settle and you had to face the crate towards home before releasing the birds…not true…today I just stop, let the birds out, and drive on to the next release site.
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We would like to thank the I. F. for the chance to speak to other pigeon flyers. The I. F. awards program is a chance for any and every flyer to demonstrate their flying success. This was the first time we submitted our results and Paul Walsh was very helpful answering our questions.

By: Paul Walsh
Paul@walshloft.com

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