Let me offer you a little history: I began flying birds as a 12-year-old and remember clearly my first race. It was so exciting when my first bird came. And best of all, I grabbed the countermark and then my bicycle and peddled as fast as I could 2 miles to another flyer’s loft for official clocking, as I had no clock myself. “PeeWee” was the bird’s name and that was the beginning. As a young adult in 1971, I joined the 20th Century Racing Pigeon Club along with Don Kelsey, who is today the loft manager at ADL. Now 33 years later, Don and I are still involved with pigeons together, along with the wonderful help of his wife Pat and my wife Sheila. We are both lucky to have two very understanding wives.
My relationship with Campbell Strange began 6 months prior to his sell-out auction. Campbell had contacted me personally to handle this sellout auction sale. It was during this time that the dreaded “Campbell disease” hit. Simply said, some of the greatest birds in the world resided in his loft and for 25 years had been producing winners all over the world. Knowing this, we now had the opportunity to be part of the “Campbell Dynasty”. What an opportunity it was! Some of the greatest birds in the world were now ours. World famous "Super 73" family, "Hekkenklak", "Mr. Aristona", "DeVerona", "Avenger". All world champions! And later, we purchased many more.
Our goal has been to carry on the Campbell tradition:
A) Fair prices
B) 100% guarantee
C) Highest quality birds
We continue to buy the older “proven breeders”. We believe, because they have bred winners, there is a greater chance that for you the buyer they will again breed winners. We also continue to do things that are different. “Dream Bucks”, introduced in the summer of 2003, offered cash certificates that could be used in the fall toward purchases of our birds (1st year over $30,000 in discounts). Several fall buyers reported “I sure wish I had purchased more “Dream Bucks”! December 2003 we also introduced what we feel is the fairest way to buy a bird at auction. A one dollar ($1) starting price and no reserve or protection. What a risk for us at ADL. But, is there a fairer way to set value than let the market (you, the buyer) set the final value? Our plans are to continue to test next year with this approach and we will reserve the right to make changes when necessary.
In ’05 and ’06, we entered a few one loft money futurity races and were very fortunate to have some of the following results: 1st drop Flamingo International; 1st place Texas Challenge; 1st place Texas Shoot Out and twice first @ Vegas Connection Race, 1st Vegas Classic-Champion bird, twice 2nd @ World of Wings Truck Race. We sent birds one year to the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race in South Africa, winning overall 63rd and 65th. In ’08, the winner of South Africa had our "Hekkenklak" blood.
I then became President of the World of Wings, and for the last four years, only flew a few races. My time with the dream of an American museum occupied extensive time and commitment.
I then decided, with my business ventures and president of the World of Wings, I could not handle sales of pigeons. As I truly felt the pigeons financially were very good to me and it was pay-back time to the pigeon support. So I made a substantial financial donation to the museum and agreed to be their President for the last four years.
Several years ago I sold all my birds as a total sell out. This sale set an American record in dollars for an internet sale and I believe that record still stands. During week 2 of 10 weekly sales, I was approached by a good friend that I had flown with 20 years ago in the Chicago area – Mr. Ed Radkie. Ed was just getting back into birds and had asked me which ones to buy in the last 8 weeks of the sale, and would I be his partner if he did most of the work and moved to my town of Sterling, Illinois. This I agreed to and he purchased over 40 of my best at this sale. Then for several years, we split youngsters and in the summer of ’09, I re-purchased all the birds plus many from prior buyers. This was done at great expense as no one really wanted to sell. But, after some time and a lot of money, I again had the Campbell Strange families back. I am pleased to say that Ed Radkie and I are still best of friends. He is truly a great guy.
I am now planning for semi-retirement, and in 4 more months (Jan ’10) giving up my position at the World of Wings museum. I encourage all to learn about your museum and help where you can financially. Just one bag of feed per year will preserve our pigeon history – Please consider World of Wings in your will or again, just one bag per year per flyer will keep this going.
I am now searching the world for the best proven pigeons to buy as I believe when you buy a bird, it is a game of percentages, and the best opportunity is to buy the best. Our Campbell Strange families after 30 years are today winning world wide and in America, they have nearly won every major race. I believe “one good pigeon is worth a 100 maybes”.
Some of our latest purchases are: "Smokin’ Joe", "Campbell", "Blue Lady". All these are "Super 73" or "Hekkenklak" and are some of the biggest winners in America with Hall of Fame, AU Champion awards. And best of all, these 3 are 1st of All American long distance winners. Wow – What a trio and they are now being mated in to the "Hekkenklak", "Super 73" and "Fire Flight" families.
I welcome back my past customers and future new buyers. At ADL, you are buying proven birds from proven families – the Super 73s, Hekkenklaks, Fire Flights and Mr. Aristonas get the job done. And their records are awesome! This I have known for over 30 years. When we enter races, we use crosses of these families, but keep the breeding loft straight. The racers are known as “Hekken-Loons” and “Hekken-Fires” - A perfected and proven performance of families bred for world competition.
America's Dream Loft
Jim Gabler
© America's Dream Loft, All rights reserved.
