The Swallow pictured here is winner of the 2009 USC Annual Meet held in Des Moines, Iowa in December. The owner/breeder is Perry Mueller of St. Louis, Missouri. This young hen was chosen the best Silesian and later became the champion of the show. Perry also had the best Fairy Swallow, Fullhead Swallow and Thuringer Spot Swallow and all of these winners were young birds! Perry is currently one of the top breeders of exceptional Swallows in the United States. He is also a certified USC judge!

In the following paragraphs Perry writes about his history with Swallows:

I started keeping pigeons at the age of six. My dad got them for me! Later, at the age of 15 he brought me home a pair of black white bar swallows. The guys at work would sell him their culls for three dollars a pair. My dad worked nights and some of the best memories I have are of him waking me up in the morning and telling me he had a surprise in the garage for me.

I fell in love with those swallows and later that year I took my life savings of $50 and went to see Doc Hummel who lived about an hour from me. After looking at all of Doc's birds he asked me what color I liked and I replied "all of them". Doc suggested I buy the blue, silver, ash red and cream colors in various markings and I bought 10 birds. I was able to mate any of these together without any problems. This was my start in breeding swallows!

I got to be good friends with Lynn Hummel and traveled to some shows with him where I started meeting other swallow breeders. In those days I tried different colors. The blue barless Silesians were rare and ended up being my favorites. I breed from 12 pair of them now. I've bred silver barless off and on. I'm breeding from a couple pair now just to compete with some of the other breeders. I have a few pair of blue and silver check Silesians as well! I was able to import a nice pair of black spangle Fairys from Klaus Burkhart a few years ago and have a nice stud of six pair going now. In clean legs I'm breeding from 8 pair of red white bars and a couple pair of yellow white bar and some spangles. I also keep some Archangels in gold black and copper black.

I've been breeding swallows now for over 35 years. 50 pair is my max number. I find that any more than that starts to turn into work! I've held all offices of the United Swallow Club and am currently the president. I was fortunate to receive the NPA Master Breeder Award for Swallows in 2008!