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The price of top pigeons today can be quite high. It is not uncommon for a top bird to cost $5000 or more (sometimes much more). In part this is almost certainly due to the large capital prizes offered to the winners of a number of futurities. While this is a reality that we must deal with, there are two points that buyers of pigeons need to keep in mind.
First, there is an old saying, "The price of quality is almost always high, but paying a high price does not guarantee you will get quality". Years ago we had a large swine breeding operation that sold breeding stock. One year we purchased with some partners a national champion for $15,000. It was quite a substantial price at the time. The boar was the talk of the industry. The breeder who sold him was honorable and honestly represented him. The fact was though that the boar did not breed very good hogs. We sold him for sausage a few years later and culled all his offspring from our breeding program.
Second, there are two currencies that can be used to obtain quality racing pigeons. Most people think only in terms of Euros or Dollars, but the other currency really has much more buying power. It also has another fantastic advantage in that we all have plenty of it (or rather I should say, we all have the same amount at our disposal). This second currency is time. We all get 24 hours per day and 365 days in a pigeon racing calendar. Let me cite an example of how the time currency can be spectacularly more effective than the traditional currency we usually think of. About the same time that we purchased the national champion, my partner and I went to a breeding stock sale put on by a new breeder deep in the hills of West Virginia. Almost no one else came and we were able to buy what we viewed as the top boar in the sale for $200. The boar went on to become one of the top breeders of his era and was the sire of many high priced boars. Now it took us four or five hours to drive to this sale. If just one of our competitors had driven the same five hours and had been at the sale, we might well have entered a bidding war and the boar might have gone for several thousand dollars. Fact was that we spent the time and they didn’t. Believe me, time really is a currency and it can completely out bid the Euro or the Dollar.
Given the current market and the time and money we have invested in our breeding operation, we believe we have a program which offers high quality birds at reasonable prices. In fact, when you factor in the testing and culling that we do, we believe our program just may be one of the very best values in the sport. We do have some very expense elite birds, but frankly, most people are probably better off with our base priced birds. They lead to the same place, though they require a larger investment of the time currency.
Here is how our birds are priced:
We don't have the time, feed, or pen space for birds that are not exciting prospects. However, the fact remains that until a bird establishes a record, all the hope and hype in the world can't make the bird any better than the genes it was born with. It is for this reason that we establish each year a base price for breeding stock and, for the most part, only sell animals above this base price who have an established record as flyers and/or as breeders. The one exception is that sometimes we buy key breeders who are very expensive or very old. Youngsters from these purchased breeders are sometimes priced for more than our base price. In 2006 over 60% of our pairs will be priced at the base price.
The base price for 2006 will again be $250 (U.S. Dollars). This is the minimum price we need to charge based upon the very significant investment we have made in our breeding stock. We have gone to great lengths and expense over the past ten years to acquire one of the strongest gene pools that we believe can be found anywhere. This price includes shipping to any location within the U.S.
We make a big point of this base price policy for two reasons. First, you have our promise that there is a justified reason for the higher priced birds. Second, you need to realize that just because the offspring of a given pair are priced at the base price, doesn't necessarily mean they aren't as valuable as the higher priced birds. In many cases, today's base priced birds will be the top priced birds of tomorrow. The base priced birds represent a real opportunity for astute buyers and beginners to get outstanding stock at a reasonable price.
We cull from the bottom and sell from the top. In fact, the majority of the birds we raise are never offered for sale as we cull approximately 75% of what we raise.
Our breeders are basically divided into four groups, three of which we sell from:
Pairs Being Tested as Breeders- Birds in this group represent great potential. They are not placed here unless we have very high hopes that they will eventually become elite breeders. Sometimes they are new purchases. Other times they were great race birds. Many times they are off the elite breeders. There are a limited number of individual breeding pens and the competition to become a breeder is intense. While they certainly do not all pan out as great breeders, this is still a very select group. Youngsters from these breeders are mostly priced at the base of $250 or $400 if a graduate of our testing program.
The Proven Breeders - Birds in this group have distinguished themselves with respect to their breeding record. Youngsters from these breeders are mostly priced at $400 or $550 if a graduate of our testing program.
The Elite Breeders - These are the very top breeders in our loft. They are the result of years of buying, breeding, testing and culling. They represent the future of our loft and are the foundation birds around which we are building the next generation. We breed them for ourselves and while we do sell some of their offspring, we would more often than not prefer to keep their youngsters. They are what you might call our private or reserve stock. Youngsters from these breeders are individually priced usually from $750 to $2500 when available.
Pumpers - We utilize a number of pumper pairs for raising many of the eggs off the elite breeders. The birds we use for these pumpers are a kind of insurance policy. Sometimes they are birds that were formerly in the test breeding program and we are simply waiting for their offspring to prove out one way or the other. Other times these pumpers are top stock candidates for which there just wasn’t room in the breeding program. The pumper pairs are never allowed to raise their own eggs.
We are happy to work with our local youth flyers. Any legitimate youth flyer can purchase young birds for $20 each. We can work out a “sweat equity” program for the youth flyers for whom the $20 price is a barrier. We don’t really need their labor, but it has been our experience that outright gifts of birds to youth flyers is less effective in building good new flyers than giving them an attainable opportunity to earn their birds. They must be a member of an organization (4-H, Boy Scouts, AU, IF, etc) and be actively involved in the care and racing of their birds (this isn’t a program for Dad or Mom to get new breeders). The birds must be picked up at the farm as we do not ship squeekers.
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