I.F. INTERVIEW REPORT FOR CHAMPION FLYERS

By CHARLES BARBIEREJohn Glemser

3rd IF Hall of Fame 2010 , 5-25 Lofts SOJ IF 09 2870

10th Champion Loft 2010 5-25 loftsJohn Glemser, the 59-year old champion Pigeon racer flying with the South Jersey pigeon club (SOJ), is the current President of the SOJ club, a position he has held on and off since 1981. The SOJ club is part of the Greater Western Combine (GWC). John first started keeping pigeons in 1963 and started to race on his own in 1973 with the South Jersey Racing pigeon club.

As a young boy, John found an injured pigeon and nursed him back to health. From the school window at his grade school in Camden, N.J., he could see birds circling about a block from the school. After about a week of watching this flock fly, John started looking for from where the birds were coming. It turned out the loft was only a few blocks from his home, so he stopped for a visit one day after school and met Joe the Barber, a pigeon racer. He was an Old Italian immigrant who spoke with an accent. "Joe told me to come back on Saturday morning, and he would let me see and handle the birds."

From then on, he was hooked on racing pigeons. Every Sunday morning Joe the Barber would loft-fly the birds and sit in an old chair up against the house to watch how they flew. John could always see a tear in the eye of Joe the Barber, but never knew why until he became a young man himself. John reminded Joe the Barber of his home and family in another country. Joe the Barber was here in the states all alone with just his birds. The joke was that Joe the Barber gave John the honor of cleaning his loft and sweeping the hair off the barbershop floor, a money paying job. When Joe the Barber passed away, he left John his loft and birds. John has had pigeons ever since that day.

Fats Schofield of Morrisville, Pennsylvania blood lines are the family of choice for John Glemser. His breeders are chosen by performance, eye sign and bloodlines. He retains twenty pairs of breeders and breeds them in individual breeding cages.

Numerous pigeon fanciers consider the Schofield family strain to be the best all-around pigeon breed of all time. From 100 to 600 miles, this family of birds can fly fast or slow, they still come on top of the race sheet. The Schofields excel at the distance as old birds, but perhaps have been even more successful at the 300 and 400-mile Young Bird Futurities. Each year early before the start of the breeding season, John plans on paper the potential breeders which he would like to couple up that year. Each pigeon is closely evaluated in order to try and transfer the best winning traits of each breeding pair into the young.

When John does bring a foreign pigeon bird into his loft, it must be a bird with high performance bloodlines. John said he prefers birds with a high performance bloodline, like he has already in his loft. John says, "I am fortunate enough to have a friend like Paul Walsh, who is always willing to add his knowledge and birds, to my loft." Paul also flies a similar family of pigeons as John, here at Glemser lofts. The way John tells us, "I inbreed my champion racers or breeders for stock birds, and I will out cross birds for flying."

Years of good pigeons and experience in the sport has John on an elevated level. He considers breeding a skill, and it is his job to try to breed champions and develop strong racing traits. He strives to breed the bloodline combination that no one else has and to win with those birds. It is John’s desire to breed a well-built medium sized bird, with strong feathers, a nice step in the wing, good eye and just as important, a bird with ‘personality.’ Without super health one will never breed winners.

John begins his breeding early in November. The lights in the loft are adjusted to 16 hours a day of artificial day light. His breeders get an injection for PMV, and Salbac. All breeders will then go through a full treatment for canker, coccid and respiratory medications. Once this initial treatment of medication for the breeders is complete, breeders are put on Health Guard every day for the length of the breeding season. John also uses V8 juice once a week on the breeders feed during the breeding period. He believes in a worming treatment on the first Sunday of every month with Ivomec in the pigeon’s bath water. All breeders get a bath at least once a week during breeding season.

All his breeders are down on eggs in November. John will take all these new eggs and throw them away and let the birds go down on a second set of eggs. There will be no fights in the breeding pens, and all breeding pairs will all go down together easily and lay the second time in ten days. He will get one hatch, with all young birds being an identical age. Once hatched, John will take the babies away from their parents at 25 days old. The breeding pairs will all go right back down on eggs again if they have not already done so.

There is a Double door entry into his breeding loft, which is for the security of the birds, and the whole breeding loft has heated floors. John layers the floors with straw to save the heat, and then puts all the babies on top of the nice warm straw. All the parents will take care of baby pigeons on the floor, as they do in their nest. They will feed every young bird that wishes to be fed on the floor.

He likes the babies to stay in the breeding loft to build their immune system. John feels that without a good immune system, birds will develop sickness, which will keep them from becoming good racers. Young sick birds are eliminated.

John’s SOJ club has 22 flyers, and the GWC combine has approximately 75 flyers each flying season. John’s loft is in the middle, and he is considered a long ender. "The clubs in front of me have lofts competing against me, which are 60 miles short of my loft. The races are from the west, and southwest."

John’s champion bird for 2010 old birds is SOJ IF 09 2870 BB C. This flying machine won in the 2010 Old Birds series at the SOJ Club: 1st 224 miles, 1st 311 miles, 1st 200 miles, 1st 400 miles, 2nd 170 miles, and 5th 170 miles. John’s whole race team for 2010 old birds consisted of a team of 14 birds. He dominated SOJ club with the first five positions almost every week. He won seven of the eight races flown, and his birds were yearlings. This is the first time since 1995 that John has flown in the Old Bird Series.

The bird SOJ IF 09 2870’s brothers and sisters would come together with him every week no matter what the distance. This team was 10 to 20 minutes out in front, every week, but SOJ IF 09 2870 was the one who knew how to hit the board and run into the loft first. When asked what type of system he used, John states, "I used all the systems at one time or another. The best system is healthy pigeons. "Birds win races." I send the same birds every week. When the bird shows they are not in the top 5 % they are rested for two weeks, and are given some very light road training with a few 25 miles tosses. Sometimes when you fly a bird hard three to four weeks in a row, it pays to give the bird a rest. You will see rested pigeons, blow out, get nice and light, come back to a picture of health, and race even better."

Starting in the beginning of the racing season, he road trains pigeons to get the birds into racing condition. "The team needs to have one long toss or a few short tosses. It depends on how they react in the loft as to what they get. If they are racing in the top 10% of the club and are healthy, they will be raced every week. Activity in the loft will let you know when to race them. Stop those birds which need a rest. Hens and cocks are trained together. Going to the same training location, they are released 20 minutes apart. There may be a crate to go short and the next crate will go long. My main rule is to give them what I think they need."

"Rich Underwood is my pigeon trainer. Together, we strive to determine expected performance for the birds." A GPS is used at the toss location, and the exact distance is calculated. When considering weather conditions, and noting the distance, a very good estimate of timing and expected performance for the birds can be made. In this way, comparisons between expected and actual speed performance are easy to determine. He feels that it is important to train the birds under conditions very similar to the actual races.

When asked what special treatment he gives his birds after a race to help them rebound, John states that he does have a program that he uses, but he does not want to reveal it. Products from www.PigeonPlus.ca are used to keep the birds healthy. When asked, "How far do you race your yearlings?" John would say, "Up to 400 miles. If I think pigeons that are in tiptop shape, I might send a couple to the 500 mile distance." He has had a lot of success with 500 mile races.

YOUNG BIRDS

John puts the lights on 24 hours a day, in the breeding lofts. He does this until May 1, and then the lights are turned off. "That is my first hatch only." They are loft flown as soon as possible. The birds are bred early, and John keeps a team of 50 young birds. Once he has them grouping and flying for at least 45 minutes a day, he starts to road train them up to 15 miles.

After the birds have been out to the 15-mile station, he will pull 9 and 10 flights and shut the birds down in the loft. They will go into a full body molt. By shutting them down, it takes all the stress off them. They start molting rapidly and get plenty of baths and a high protein feed.

The next hatch he flies natural and they are not raced until second half of the season. The young birds at this time are all trained every day for 35 miles. Twice a week the birds go to 60 miles. When the second team takes over, the first team will be shut down and saved for old birds. If any culling needs to be done, this is the time. Then all birds are locked down. Six weeks before the first race he will start training his race team again. He finds that after you settle them and train them out to 15 miles then shut them down, it takes all the stress out of them, and they start their molt.

He gets them finished molting before the season starts. "Go slow with them when you first start them up again. It is not the distance you take the birds. It is the confidence that you build in them with many short tosses. It builds confidence in the birds and creates a close bond with the fancier. You must remember young birds are rookies; you are the coach who teaches your team systematically. Once they get it, they will keep it for life. It is your team and they must respond to what you teach. Never push them too hard and hurt them, for they will always remember and not forget the hurt."

John says he does not use any one system, in particular. What he recommends and does at his own loft is a combination of parts from different systems, which fit in according to his loft and birds. He states, "Keep it simple once you start a system and stay with it until the end of your season. If you do not like the results, cross that system off and start a new system. Keep modifying and trying older and newer ideas until you get a system that works for you."

His loft is 12 ft. by 12 ft. with all air coming in through the bottom and out through the top. Exhaust fans are in the roof on a thermostat set for 80 degrees. He keeps this temperature setting all year.

John’s first race station is 122 miles to his loft, but he does not train to that station. He only goes to a GPS location 75 mile from his loft. After the young bird races have started, he backs the birds off the longer training tosses and just goes to about a 40 mile training spot, twice a week, and the rest of the training is done by loft flying. John says you must know your birds. You can understand what kind of shape they are in and how healthy they are. He does this by watching their actions as they loft fly. Feed and water are in the loft when they return from training on the road or at the loft. Routinely, the birds are feed another can at night, in case there are late birds from a race or training. "I like to give them a treat once in a while, whether it is candy seed or peanuts, which is hand fed. I feel that is the best way to get to know your birds and help your birds to have trust in you. I believe you must have that bond between man and bird for them to do so well in the races."

A healthy bird will fly for one hour or more without being chased. A super healthy pigeon will fly for 1/2 hour, dip, dive through the sky, and hit his lift, only to look around, do a dance, and be back in the air. Spend time with your birds, get to know them, and they will tell you when they are ready to win. Always go with your first pick for your pool bird when you are looking at the birds prior to shipping, because that is the bird you are going to get.

When asked about bird entry limits, and clocking limits, John was quick to state that he would like to see the entry limit to 20 birds per loft. In the GWC combine, there is a 60-bird limit, and some people have two lofts in 1 yard and are shipping 120 birds from one location. That has a drag on the combine birds. In the SOJ club, they have a 30-bird limit and two birds clocking limit. He would like to see a change in the combine and club to make things equal to everyone.

His advice for new flyers when selecting their breeders would be to seek out a local flyer and try to buy some late hatches at a reasonable price. Do your homework on this loft; make sure he is a consistent flyer. Visit his loft a couple of times. Look for bright eyes and bright sheen. A clean loft, but not spotless is recommended, but most of all, healthy pigeons. If they are healthy, you will see it. You can also look for eye signs and body type that you like. If he is a good flyer, he will sell you some of his best and tell you how to mate them. If the birds are pedigreed, make sure he writes a pedigree for you. Be sure to check that the mother and father, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles are all performing pigeons.

His advice for advanced Flyers is to stop fighting over the small stuff. "After all, we see each other more than we see our own friends and family. We all have that common bond. Do not be afraid to help work at the club and help a young flyer. The rewards are great when you help a new flyer get to the top. If he wins, you win. In addition, that is just a great feeling. I still get calls from newcomers who I helped. When he wins, I feel that it is because of my birds and the things that I taught him."

John’s goal in the sport is to enjoy it for as long as he can. He says he does enjoy the breeding season, because, "I am always trying to build a super pigeon. It gives me great joy to put a pair together and produce winners. Not only for me, but also for who ever I choose to give birds to."

In 1995, John won IF champion loft. He has won GWC combine average speed many times, and the SOJ club average speed many times. He has won his club futurity seven times, the Patterson Sprint race and several other local futurities. "I have also bred many futurity winners for close friends." He has won first auction bird, with birds that were sent in by friends for him to fly. "I like to clock a friend’s bird first, to my loft if I get two together. It makes both of us feel good. If I win, it is a bonus. Two happy men for the price of one."

In 2010 futurities, John has won 9th in the Eastern Classic-- 85 lofts and 529 birds, and TRI STATE BOND RACE-- 73 Lofts 640 birds, John Places 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, & 24th. PERTH AMBOY OPEN FUTURITY Flown: 10/31/2010, Birds: 1001, Lofts: 115, Station: CADIZ , Ohio. John Places 1st, 2nd, 4th, & 37th. Also in October 2010, he scored, for average speed in six local Futurities and one Combine.

If John had the opportunity to change something in the pigeon game, he would like to see younger flyers come into the sport. "Many old timers pass on and there is no one to replace them. I’d like the programs the IF has for new promotion to include beginners." You can see his pigeon videos on You Tube. Just type in John Glemser in the You Tube browser and you will find them. He has made videos on ‘Medication Programs,’ ‘Proper Ventilation,’ ‘Some Tips & Tricks’ and even a video on ‘Keeping Hawks at Bay, for a Short Time.’

John would like to thank the IF membership and officers for these 2010 awards. Undoubtedly, many hours of effort have been spent to compile the IF Awards on a national basis. "Thank you to the IF for the opportunity to participate in the awards and special thanks to Charlie Barbiere for putting this article together. I hope the IF keeps getting bigger and stronger."

Yours in the sport, John Glemser