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 Thank you for visiting our web site. Shewmaker Genetics has been in the animal breeding business for over forty years. During this time we have established a number of world class herds in a number of species. For the past dozen years, we have concentrated on the breeding of racing pigeons.
The key cornerstones of our program are a superior gene pool, carefully designed matings, extensive contemporary group testing and collaboration with our customers. This is the same approach we have taken in other species and it has worked very well. But just as that famous wine slogan says, "no wine before it's time!"; breeding superior pigeons takes time and effort. While we are pleased with our progress, we still have a lot of work to do.
We are now offering our test birds for sale in a unique auction format. The first group started September 1st 2007 and a second group started in late November. These two tests are designed to get the “publishing” details worked out. We have been testing about 8 groups a year for several years now and it is one of the most important aspects of our program. The “new wrinkle” is to let our customers select their birds from the same test groups we select from at the same time we are selecting. Click here for full details on the test auction program.
As you browse through our site, you will see that we maintain a rather large number of families. We acquired these families as part of the process for establishing our initial gene pool. Over time we will distill these down to only three or four lines. Some of the originals may be left intact and new ones may be formed by blending; time will tell how it plays out. The objective though is crystal clear - develop world class families of racing pigeons that perform at the highest levels generation after generation.
Our primary focus is on breeding and testing. We do not spend much time on marketing and sales. We do sell birds, though we are extremely selective in what we offer for sale. There are often waiting lists for birds off particular pairs or from certain lines. Let us know what you need and we will work with you. In 2008 we will be listing on this site birds available for sale during the shipping season.
We are going to enter more of the futurity races in 2008 and we are willing to enter into a limited number of Partnerships. Click here for details on Futurity Partnerships.
You will find a great deal of other information on this site. It is the repository of all of our theories and practices. We keep no secrets. We share it with the sport with the only proviso that it not be reproduced or distributed without our permission (personal use is fine). Under the Racing, Sales, Lofts and Articles sections, there are special pages or links that are specifically for beginners to the sport.
We are currently redesigning our web site. We began the redesign on August 30, 2005 but we were not happy with the navigation. We started over on December 4, 2005 and believe the navigation is much cleaner for visitors to the site. We thought we would be able to finish it in a few weeks, but here we are two years later and there are still large parts that have not been completed. We really are going to try to finish it up for the beginning of the 2008 breeding season. We have had several excellent breeding and testing seasons and our 2008 pairs are gong to be very special - certainly our best to date. In the “Site Map” visitors can clearly see which pages are published and which are coming. The “Site Map” link is located at the top right of every page. This is probably the best way to check out new content. I am currently working on the “Top Ten Lessons Learned”, adding a few every few days.
One of the nice features of this new site is a pedigree analysis that we will publish for many of our reference birds. It figures the percent contribution of all ancestors that appear in the first nine generations. You can see an example on Armstrong's page. We include one of these with all the birds we sell. It doesn't mean much if a bird appears once in the ninth generation, but as you can see from Armstrong, the "Bange Van 51" appears 17 times in 9 generations of Armstrong, making a contribution of 8.7%. That can be useful information.
Please visit us often to become familiar with our birds and our program. Always feel free to contact us. I work very long hours and I know it can be difficult reaching me, but leave a message and I will get back to you. It is never a problem when you call. We are continually looking for a few good customers who will work with us to move both of our lofts forward. Our birds are hard working and honest. If you are the same, we would love to work with you.
Hints for Contacting Us
P.O. Box 460, Elk Grove, CA 95759-0460
Voice Mail: (916) 687-8816
Cell Phone: (916) 662-5339
Email: dave@shewmaker.com
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