Breeding good pigeons (part 2 of 2)
ACE FOUR AND STUFF
I myself had my 145 and 144: ‘Ace Four’ and his nest sister ‘Supertje’. In their year of birth they became 1st and 2nd Provincial Ace, with over 11,000 birds average in the races then. ‘Never happened before’ it said then in pigeon magazine De Duif. Mr Simonsz made a study of the off-spring of those birds, which you can read somewhere else on this site. (articles)
‘Ace Four’ (96-5660145) is often described as one of the best breeders of his generation. The following birds in Belgium alone are among its descendants.
-‘Ad’ from Marcel Wouters, 1ST NATIONAL Ace KBDB and 1st Olympiad bird.
-2nd and 7th NATIONAL Ace KBDB from Luc van Mechelen.
-‘Bas’, National Ace from Boeckx.
-NATIONAL (!!!) winners from Vanlint, Rubens, van Oeckel, Jespers v d Wegen, Jochems van Hasselt, Rik Hermans and more.
-Even ‘Bolt’ from Leo Heremans, the most expensive bird ever (320,000 euro) descends from Ace Four (through Verkerk).
NETHERLANDS
In the Netherlands it is even more impressing, in fact a never ending story. The following fanciers are some of the many that ALL had a NATIONAL Ace that descended from Ace Four, or his son Home Alone, or his sister 144.
-Looyschelder: Best sprint bird of ALL Holland.
-Maas: Best Middle Distance bird of ALL Holland.
-Verbree: Best cock of ALL Holland.
-Verbree: Best hen of ALL Holland.
-Pieper: Best Middle Distance bird of ALL Holland.
-Henri van Doorn: Best young bird of ALL Holland.
-v d Zijde, Leytens and many others had National Aces.
-Kennes: Best Middle Distance bird of ALL Holland.
-Verkerk, v d Merwe and others won numerous firsts against many thousands of birds with off spring Ace Four.
-‘Johnny Boy’, an illustrious breeder, is a descendant of 230: Brother Ace Four.
- Swichtenberg became NATIONAL Champion of ALL Germany with off-spring Ace Four. Capon became NATIONAL Champion of ALL Germany with off spring Ace Four and also in Ireland, China, Taiwan, Australia and USA (Stanley Meyler) those birds are winning. ‘Those birds’ are the off spring of the 2 birds of the same nest that were such spectacular racers. And believe me, there are many, many more.
LATER ON
Later on I had the 2 sisters 026 and 091. They were two lookalikes, I could not tell them apart. They were daughters of my Home Alone, so grandchildren of Ace Four. Both of them were fantastic racers, from the same flight they once won 1st and 3rd from over 9,000 pigeons. It is reminiscent of their ancestors 145 and 144. Those 2 sisters that raced so well also bred me supers. Jespers v d Wegen got a daughter of one of them (091). They called her ‘Fleur’ and her children and her off spring performed so spectacular, mainly on the national Long Distance races, that this hen was often described as the best breeding hen in Belgium.
Those 2 sisters are a nice example of what I mean: Two good racers of the same nest often means good breeders as well.
04-025 was a brother of those sisters. Descendants of 025 won 1st National for Jochems van Hasselt, 2nd National Montlucon (27,000 pigeons) for Luc van Mechelen and a grandchild of this 025, called ‘Indy’ from Falco Ebben won 6 firsts in the Fed against many birds and 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 13th National NPO !!
CROSSINGS
It should be well-known that nearly all super birds are products of crossings. Therefore I cannot help smiling when I hear foreigners talk about their pure Leo Heremans or their pure ‘Gabys’. Neither Heremans nor Vandenabeele have ‘their own family’. Their best racers as well are crossings and crossing is what they both believe in. Fanciers that sell many pigeons to foreigners all face the same problem: These foreigners nearly all want inbreeds to a ‘basic birds’. The more they see that one bird in a pedigree, the more eager they will be to buy. How naive. Regarding this I remember what a great name from Antwerp once told me when it was spring: ‘My best breeders are mated now with birds that I imported from local fanciers. In summer I will change the matings and then I will mate them with related birds. The result of this inbreeding will be many shit birds but it seems that shit birds are what many clients want.
AGE
Also beware of a breeding loft filled with pigeons that are too old. I myself still have some of those old-timers. In their younger years they gave me good birds but recently I do not even race their babies because I know I waste my time. Why I still have those old birds? Foreigners insist to have their babies. They have little interest in babies off yearlings. Concerning this I have some examples that may be food for thought. Every year I import about 8 babies from a friend. Most of them are from proven older breeders. Nearly every year there is a good one among these 8 and guess what?
Without an exception it is always a baby of his yearling racers. Never ever did I get a good bird from his ‘top breeders’. Another example is smart old Roeper, that fox from Germany. He once ordered a bunch of babies from Leo Heremans. He had one condition though: The mothers of the babies that he wanted should be yearlings.
Apparently fanciers who sell all their breeders ‘older than’ know very well what they are doing.
FREE MATINGS
And what if you do not know how to mate your birds? When you have birds of the same quality, not related and not too old? Let them choose the partner themselves. It has scientifically been proven that this will result in more vital birds!