BishopPlace Loft, New York. Our story is self explanatory, We are a small racing loft thats "In-It, To-Win-It", thats It. I created this website to be in touch with fellow sportsmen and to give a little recognition to a few deserving pigeons. My birds are Imbrecht based, however, I don't focus on fancy pedigrees, only hard tested, race proven, prepotent pigeons.
The Original BishopPlace Loft
This is the original BishopPlace loft from which I started racing back in 1994. It wasn't fancy or large. It was a 6' by 10' converted roller loft that was never filled with more than twenty-two quality pigeons. Those twenty-two birds flew their hearts out for me. I once clocked a little splash hen from a 400 mile Northeast Union race at 9:10PM, more than one-hour after sunset. Of 210 birds shipped, she was the 5th of only 5 day birds in the club. Some of the positions those birds earned were as follows:
1st Club, 1st Combine, vs 802 birds, 52 lofts @ 286 miles
1st Club, 5th Combine, vs 900 birds, 61 lofts @ 183 miles
1st Club, 6th Combine, vs 976 birds, 66 lofts @ 183 miles
1st Club, 9th Combine, vs 558 birds, 38 lofts @ 383 miles
1st Club, 14th Combine, vs 437 birds, 39 lofts @ 383 mile
1st Club, 16th Combine, vs 556 birds @ 286 miles
2nd Club, 2nd Combine, vs 802 birds, 52 lofts @ 286 miles
2nd Club, 11th Combine, vs 2,113 birds, 148 lofts @ 183 miles
2nd Club, 15th Combine, vs 1,962 birds, 143 lofts @ 142 miles
Those birds also won numerous 3rd, 4th and 5th places. You may note that I didn't list any 500 mile results. Well all my birds go to 7 or more of the 10 races per season and as a result, I never had a properly rested bird to ship to the 500 mile races. Hell, all my birds shipped to the 500 mile races were shipped to the previous weeks 400 mile race in addition to having been shipped to at least 6 other races. What can I say? Notwithstanding, the birds still managed to place in the top 10 club positions.
1st Club, 1st Combine, vs 802 birds, 52 lofts @ 286 miles
1st Club, 5th Combine, vs 900 birds, 61 lofts @ 183 miles
1st Club, 6th Combine, vs 976 birds, 66 lofts @ 183 miles
1st Club, 9th Combine, vs 558 birds, 38 lofts @ 383 miles
1st Club, 14th Combine, vs 437 birds, 39 lofts @ 383 mile
1st Club, 16th Combine, vs 556 birds @ 286 miles
2nd Club, 2nd Combine, vs 802 birds, 52 lofts @ 286 miles
2nd Club, 11th Combine, vs 2,113 birds, 148 lofts @ 183 miles
2nd Club, 15th Combine, vs 1,962 birds, 143 lofts @ 142 miles
Those birds also won numerous 3rd, 4th and 5th places. You may note that I didn't list any 500 mile results. Well all my birds go to 7 or more of the 10 races per season and as a result, I never had a properly rested bird to ship to the 500 mile races. Hell, all my birds shipped to the 500 mile races were shipped to the previous weeks 400 mile race in addition to having been shipped to at least 6 other races. What can I say? Notwithstanding, the birds still managed to place in the top 10 club positions.
The Interim Loft
I was forced to take a hiatus from the racing game due to "life events" such as a divorce, etc. I managed to keep a few descendents of my original diploma birds in a 3' by 3' by 8' loft, if you could call it that. Due to the extremely small size of my interim loft, about once per month while I was feeding and watering the birds, one would make a "mad dash" past me and escape. I went from having 12 birds housed in that loft to 5. I lost a few very well bred birds needlessly this way. After realizing that it was only a matter of time before I would lose the remaining 5 birds, I became motivated to build a real full size loft. What can I say?
The Fancy Loft
In 2008 I built a loft which was basically the same size (cubic feet) as my original loft. I decided I would deliberately keep it small in order to force myself to breed and maintain just a few top quality pigeons versus playing the numbers game like many pigeon racers do. It is my contention that less birds equal less cleaning, lower feed and medication costs and provides you with the opportunity to analyze birds on an individual, versus flock basis. My goal is, and has always been, to perpetually maintain a team of at least 10, but no more than 28 old birds, with each and every bird on the team being a multiple diploma winner. If a fancier were to find themself with such a team, he would without exception, be a very, very, formidable competitor on race day. I leave the breeding to the breeders and the selling to the salesmen. All I want to do is win or score high in the races, plain and simple.
The "Functional" Loft
In 2011 after 3 years of being back into racing, I asked myself "Why were my birds not winning as often as they had in the past?" I was racing in the same combine, against many of the same competitors, with the descendants of the birds that had performed so well for me in the past. As such, I believed that the birds shoud have been performing much better than they were doing. I came to the conclusion that the fancy (space-age) loft I had built in 2008 was not properly suited to bring the birds into condition and maintaining that condition for racing. I had basically built that loft in a day to replace my interim loft. Alas, I acquired the assistance of a good friend (and roller flyer) and built a more functional loft based on the designs of my original 1994 loft, with lots of ventilational and sans the fancy translucent roofing, etc.
