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City Bird
Interview with Chance C. Lee
Interview with Loko Moob
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What is your name?
Nrhoua Xiong
Where are you from?
Sacramento CA
Where do you live?
Sacramento CA
What is your age?
04/10/91, do the math
Do you have a family?
Yes, my moms, my pops, my 3 older brothers, 2 neices, 1 sister-in-law and a big load of pigeons.
Religious? Not Religious?
I don’t know yet.
Are you working or are you a student?
I’m working with a family business right now.
When did you get your first pigeon?
I acquired then in 04, or 05 don’t really remember now.
When did you get your first parlor?
I got them in 06 or 07, don’t remember, but I remember that it was in the summer. Had them for too long LOL.
What other kinds of pigeons do you have?
Birmingham rollers that go back to Joe Emberton, his runt stuff, and a few other birmingham rollers from a line my brother and his friends developed in the late 90s. Also have ferral pigeons my brother acquires from trapping them in at his workplace, but they do not last long. Usually sell them or eat them in 2 weeks.
Do you consider yourself a breeder?
I consider myself a lover of parlor rollers.
What is your loft/coop/pigeon dwelling like?
I have a big loft and rabbit cages that can hold up to 300 birds if I wanted to push for that many.
What feed brand/mix do you use? Why?
Every breeder has their preferences you got to learn how to work with your family. I give my breeders winner’s cup 12 percent and poultry maker, while I give my young weaned birds winner’s cup only. The reason why I do not give my young birds poultry maker is because it makes them fat and ruins the conditioning. Poultry maker is there for my breeders because it helps me produce and keep the unweaned birds fat and healthy until they can eat on their own.
What is it about parlors that makes you so stoked about them?
Parlors are easier to handle than any other performance breed of pigeons in my opinion. All I have to do is feed them and give them water,when time comes they will perform for me. I live a busy life and do not have time to watch my birds fly so they are the best performing breed of pigeons for me.
Why, out of all the pigeon breeds do you choose to keep parlors?
Parlors are easy to manage and they perform right in front of you. I don’t have time to fly any performance breeds and I’m a competitive kind of guy.
Would you consider yourself a novice, intermediate or a pro when it comes to parlors?
To be honest, I have been breeding parlors since the mid 2000s and I believe I am still a novice at this. Good thing I love about the breed, and possibly my family of birds is that there is always something to learn from these guys. I am always learning something new when I go into the loft and I doubt I will ever stop learning.
Do you understand pigeon genetics?
That’s a tough one, I understand color breeding but unlike the book, you never know what you get from each egg and each breeding. If there was a gene to make your parlor rollers roll farther, that would be the something I’d like to understand. LOL.
What are your future plans with regards to pigeons/parlors?
I just want to enjoy the parlor rollers that I have and hopefully breed enough to continue to have them in my life. To me the roll doesn't really matter, although having it would be nice. I believe that parlor rollers not only should roll long, they should also be good parents, and be able to reproduce on their own. Those are the birds I want to work with, who needs a far rolling bird if it won’t be able to produce for you?
What bugs you the most about the parlor world?
Lots of things bug me about the parlor world, but talking about it won’t get anything done. I love meeting new people, competing against the locals and most definitely I love having my family of parlor rollers and even learning from them.
What does the parlor world need?
The parlor world needs a lot of things. But simply put, sometimes too much competition kills it. Sometimes people expect to pay a lot of money and get a bird that will roll 200 feet every time they perform the bird. That would be pretty rare to find. Everybody has their own ideals on what their standards of a parlor roller should be, but there aren't many people who are willing to work with what they have to get their birds that way.
Do you compete with your parlors? How do you feel about the competitions? Changes?
Yes I do compete with my parlor rollers locally in Sacramento. I love competitions within our club. The best thing about parlor roller competition is meeting the locals who also share the same passion for parlors that I do. It would be fun to win and have something to brag about, especially when you beat a close friend, but having a great time with people and parlors is the key to keeping the sport to continue.
What do you look for in a bird? For example, if you were to buy a parlor, what are the main things that you look at, feel etc?
I haven’t looked for a parlor roller for a while now, but if I did buy a parlor roller, I just want to make sure it comes from a breeder who is reliable. If it is coming from a breeder who is a veteran breeder, there must be a reason why he kept and bred the bird. If the bird is a sibling or parent of a bird that certified, that’s even better.
You never know what you get until you perform the offspring you produce. If out of 6 birds I do not get a good bird, I switch the pairs. After a while you get to know what your birds can produce and that’s when the true breeding process begins. The best birds aren't what others have, it’s what you have and can work with.
Interview: Loko Hmoob
Do you have one favorite bird? If so, why?
I’ve had many favorite birds over the years but the birds I remember the most are 3 birds I had that died in 2009. It’s a shame they died to a dog attack but these 3 were birds that I still remember. A black white flight hen, and a grizzled hen and her father, a grizzle cock I named Godzilla. The black and white flight hen was a pure sister to my 6333 opal hen that I acquired from my buddy named Chang Vang, this hen’s brother rolled a good 166 feet and boy I tell you, she may have not been able to roll as good as her brother but I could throw her onto any cockbird and she would produce better birds than her brother could, not to say that her sister I have now, 6333, can’t throw any good birds herself but it’s just not the same anymore.
The grizzled hen and her father, that I named Godzilla, were the first parlor rollers I acquired. My brother passed them onto me and that was when I fell in love with parlor rollers and knew that this was the breed for me. This pair actually produced roll, though I was a novice at the time, this was one of the best pairs ever. Both could barely roll to the 20 foot mark, but I tell you, I produced a good amount of birds off this pair and somehow after a few rolls I could get the offsprings to go a good 50 feet or so the same day. If only I still had this pair I think I would be better off but everything happens for a reason.
Describe your daily interaction with your parlors. For example, do you wake up and take care of your birds? How often do you feed them? How much time per day do you spend with the parlors?
For the breeders, I feed them every Wednesday and Sunday. During the summer I have to check up on them twice a week because the weather in California is hot and usually the water dries out.
During the winter I check up on them once a week because the water lasts longer. I leave the breeders with enough food to last them a week, it’s the water that determines my visits. Right now it is summer and I have to check up on them to make sure they have enough water every 3 to 4 days, they usually last but it’s good to refill the water up. I add a little bit of bleach into the water every 3 weeks to keep the water bowl clean. It doesn't affect my breeders at all.
For the younger birds, I try to keep them conditioned. Everyday I feed my young birds ust enough but keep them starving. They get excited every time I walk into the loft and some even flip when they see me.
On Wednesdays I like to take the younger birds out of the loft, put them in an outside cage and gently spray them with the water hoes. Most of the young birds love it and will hold a wing in the air or try to fly after being sprayed. Then I put them back.
I rarely touch them for any other purposes until come time for competition and I have to lock them in.
Do you have any pictures of you parlors that you can share?
http://www.freewebs.com/parlorrollers/apps/photos/
Any advice to give to beginners?
For Parlor Roller beginners I’d say “if they can roll 10 feet, breed them and see what you get. To get started it doesn't matter if you have a 10 footer or a 200 footer, it’s what you can produce from them. Try to understand your family of birds and work with what you have first.”
by Darren Seelye
What bothers you most about parlor pigeons?
A lot of things but if you take care of your pigeons and make them happy, they will produce good results for you.