Exactly one year ago, my wife and I launched our Kastle Pigeon store. It was the culmination of more than three years of research and internal debate. When I returned to racing pigeons 10 years ago, starting a small business wasn't on my radar. Like most pigeon breeders, I was constantly trying to learn how to get the most out of my birds without screwing them up. That's easier said than done as we are faced with constant "expert" advice and advertisements. Through my friends at the neighboring Alltech headquarters, I discovered their scientifically researched and tested products. I was tired of wives' tales, anecdotes and unproven theories about supplements. The Alltech products worked on my birds and I knew they would work...
I'm a visual learner. There's nothing I like better than having a graphic or video explain a concept I may only vaguely understand. I think we can all agree that antibiotic resistance is a real thing. A bad thing. A really bad thing. But drugs and bacteria operate at a microscopic level and understanding exactly HOW they interact requires a bit of imagination. Until I saw this video from Harvard University. Researchers at Harvard and the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology created a giant petri dish 4 feet long. They created barriers of antibiotics at different intervals of increasing strength. With the help of time lapse photography, watching the bacteria growth occurring over 12 days is reduced to a few minutes. ...
A big wing-slap on the back for film maker and producer Steve Shaffer for winning an Emmy this past weekend at the Ohio Valley Emmy Awards show. Steve, who works for Kentucky Educational Television (KET), shot and produced this fun video about me in 2016. It was broadcast as a 9-minute segment in their very popular Kentucky Life show. I'm so very happy for Steve for being recognized for his talent and hard work. He certainly had his work cut out for him when he turned the camera my way! Steve began filming in 2015 and followed me through the breeding season and into the summer of 2016. Remarkably, he filmed me banding a baby (Kastle 1691) who has turned out...
Check out a video shot exclusively with a drone of 400 racing pigeons flying over the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. (More videos and photos will be added to this post as they are ready.) During a trip to the mountains of North Carolina, I stopped in to visit with Tim Kirschner at the Breeder's Fall Classic. It was a fantastic opportunity to photograph and video some spectacular pigeons. Tim has an equally spectacular view from atop a mountain at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The health of the birds and their eagerness to fly, even in the hot temperatures were impressive. The birds clearly WANTED to fly. They were happy and healthy. Tim is a user of Acidifier Plus...
Steve Simes lives not too far away from me in Kentucky, so I'm lucky that I get to see him in person every once in a while. Steve has a beautiful loft and even more beautiful birds housed inside. When I started selling the Kastle Pigeon supplements, Steve was one of the first to begin using Acidifier Plus. He sent me this update to let me know how it has been working for him. I'm so happy to hear the great news, Steve! "Approximately three years ago, despite properly medicating, I began to lose several homers each year to what appeared to be Coccidiosis; sadly, in amongst them were some of my most prized birds. I started using Acidifier...
