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Old German Owls – Page 28 – Purebred PIGEON
B
reed of
the
I
ssue
- O
ld
G
erman
O
wl
How I Got Started in the
Old German Owl Breed
By Kelley Baumgartner
H
i all - my name is Kelley Baumgartner and I am from
Woodville, Ohio. I am just starting my third year with
Old German Owls. I’m not new to the showing arena as I
started showing horses when I was 13 years old. I showed in 4-H
and local shows in my hometown of Ashland, Ohio. I was hooked
and had horses for the next 20 years.
After Ken and I got married, we continued showing/raising
horses until our two boys, Kurt and Kevin, came along. Because the
boys were into sports and other activities,
we found ourselves not having enough
time to give to the horses so we sold them.
Kurt was playing baseball and we turned
our horse barn into a batting cage! Within
a few years, we enrolled our boys into 4-H,
something Ken and I both did as kids. We
asked them what they would like to show
and they settled on goats, lambs and dairy
beef feeders. The barn was back to an
animal barn. Kevin, our youngest, was just
nine and he decided that the cows were too
big for him so he wanted something dif-
ferent. We turned to our good friends, Joe
and Lisa Braun, for advice. Their daughter
was showing rabbits and poultry and Kevin
decided to try the rabbits. Within a few
years we had a rabbitry in our barn, along
with the goats and lambs!
Joe asked Kevin if he would like to at-
tend a pigeon show with him to see what it was like to show pigeons.
He and Ken went to the Fremont show and Joe told Kevin to look
around to see what breed he would be interested in (Joe had Giant
Homers and they were a little too big for Kevin to handle). He looked
all around the show hall and decided on the German Beauties. Some
very generous men, Izzy Didion, Bob Hammons and Jeff Wozniak,
each gave him a pair to get started. He brought them home and our
pigeon life began!
After years of successfully showing/raising pigeons, Kevin had
his last year of 4-H and was going off to college to study pharmacy
(I will never forget the day when Kevin had a phone interview with
the pharmacy admission board and all they wanted to talk about
were his pigeons as they had never heard of anyone showing them.
He still thinks that is the reason he got accepted into the pharmacy
contingent program!) Ken and I decided we could either keep the
rabbits or pigeons and continue showing ourselves. Joe and Lisa
said, “Keep the pigeons, we will go to the shows together and have
some fun,” - so we did!
After showing for a few years, I decided I wanted my own
breed. I did the same thing Kevin did and went all around at the
2017 NYBS to decide what I would like to show/raise as my own.
Thanks to fellow German Beauty breeder/friend, Jeff Wozniak, I
decided to try the Old German Owls - after all they were just the
cutest!! Jeff helped me to get started, with five breeding pairs, and
I still tease him to this day that he sells me pigeons for “lunch
money” so he can eat at the shows! He is a great friend, mentor
and a good sport!
Raising Old German Owls, or OGOs
for short, are a little different than German
Beauties. At this point we had Beauties for
the past seven years and now didn’t know
what to do with these new “little” guys.
We came home and changed some pens
around, built different nest boxes and were
in the OGO business.
My first year showing was 2018 and
I was happy with my results. I learned a
lot from Jeff, Bob and Leonard Kuzminski
and Joe Granger - these guys are the best.
At my first NYBS I added some birds to my
flock from Bill Henderson and Mike Con-
ner and added them to my friend list! I was
also lucky enough to add a beautiful red
bar cock bird from Len. Through that first
show season I had some class winners/best
and I won my first Overall Championship
at Des Moines with a cute red shield hen. That same show Ken won
the German Beauties and Joe won the American Show Racers - we
had a great 10-hour ride home!!
I became a sponge anytime I was around the veteran breeders
and appreciated all the help/advice they are willing to give. Joe
and Lisa are definitely our source of any information, our traveling
buddies and above all great friends and I love them for that (we
are also camping buddies so we spend a lot of fun times together).
That is one thing I can say about pigeon people - they are the nic-
est, most genuine people who are always willing to help, no matter
what breed you have.
The 2019-20 show season ended up being a great show year
for me - I earned 200 points towards Master Breeder and had many
color/best wins. I also had two overall Reserve wins and made
many more friends. I had a great time helping my friend Len Kuz-
minski at the shows with his job as show secretary – I have found
my new favorite thing to do!! I also have given pairs of birds away
to three different youths to help them get started - I love watching
Kelley’s creme bar was 2nd Reserve at Bay City and
1st Reserve at the Reading show