Absurdism in pigeon sport (04-09-25)
Absurdism in pigeon sport
It's been a while since I was with Roger Engelen. A recent photo in the Duif reminded me of that. At the time, there was a little blond guy walking around who seemed to love pigeons at such a young age.
In the loft he could not reach the top boxes but that was not really a problem. I can still hear him say where fresh eggs were.
The photo of now scared me. Shot up so much in those few years. I have one of those too, every time I see him I am shocked too. Heavy voice, now looking up at him, only I am not the lucky thing Roger has: No interest in pigeons.
STILL ENGELEN
I exchanged with Roger at the time. I gave him a couple that had already given good ones. Couldn't miss I thought. Roger bred for me.
Exchange or co-breeding? It's always a matter of waiting. Usually there is only who will be happy.
When Marcel Wouters and I did joint breeding, we were both happy. Marcel had the best pigeon in Belgium (Den Ad) from a hen from me, co-breeding with Boeckx was also success for both. But I digress.
Roger gave me a bird that gave a real good youngster.
If people wanted pigeons, I recommended youngsters from 'my Engelen', even though that name didn't mean much to them. Roger is not looking for publicity.
Now I hear they succeeded with youngsters from that Engelen. A bit painful was that it stopped fertilizing very quickly. Now I was 'lucky' to still have the nest sister. Well, "lucky?" She was still laying plenty but all babies were junk.
SEAGULL
The Belgian Bourges racers followed the logic with a westerly wind at the end of May. The East overwhelmed the National Competition. The Flemings who had passed (5,000 pigeons less than in 2024) were right. I wouldn't let myself be led to the slaughter on the west side with that wind either.
The West Flemings had basketed 5560 old birds. Of these, only 56 won prizes, starting with the 1,348th National prize.
The first ones fell in the far northeast of the country. National winners are sought after by the Chinese. Would they also take the circumstances into account? Yet sometimes strange things happen.
WEATHER AND WIND
A personal anecdote about this. When there was still a lot of pouling here, I had a pigeon that had already won a lot of guilders. I expected that again that day. Tailwind should not be a problem. It wasn't before.
But alas. When all birds were home, one was missing: he, the first nominated. We, the onlookers, all agreed, it had flown too far, not so strange with tailwind and a speed of 1,900 mpm., so we looked to the north. Result: Nobody had seen the pigeon coming. Suddenly he was there, straight from the right direction. Not being able to follow??? ‘Impossible with such a prize list’.
It surprised me so much that I went to see if he wasn't injured.
HOW DOES IT EXIST
From a regional fancier also a strange story.
He had had a cock that performed tremendously for four years. And as a breeder? Hmm. The youngsters bred from it the first year were not satisfactory, so the following year he was coupled with another hen. Worthless youngsters again, as in the years that followed.
When the pigeon became too old to fly, the owner didn't know what to do.
- Keep breeding from a pigeon that never gave anything but rubbish?
- Use as a feeder
- Cull? You don't cull a pigeon like that.
He was allowed to stay and much to every body’s great surprise he gave one good one after the other with different hens.
STILL STRANGE
Also strange how young from the same parents can differ so much. Don't they have the same genes? Pigeons may not be people, but it happens that man and woman, who neither can read a note, give birth to a miracle of singing. Talent sometimes comes out of nowhere. Two of my grandchildren, twins, are nothing alike. Not in appearance, not in character. Sometimes (!) it is no different with pigeons.
MISCONCEPTION
To stop the dreaded paratypoid, I thought for many years that nothing beat Baytril. Until I heard about two outbreaks shortly after a cure.
Because I heard similar sounds from two vets, I had become a bit wiser (I thought): 'The solution is not Baytril either.'
Until I heard what had happened to a good player from Zeeland. Paratyphoid had been detected in his pigeons. He had an antibiogram made which showed that there was no resistance to Baytril alone. So that was used to fight the infection. With good results.
TOGETHER
What's also bizarre? That it happens so often that loft mates arrive together from a race. Inexplicable. Did they stay together after the release of many thousands? Can they find each other during their journey home?
It has even happened that pigeons arrived wing after wing from a hard Barcelona.
CLICK AND KLACK
With one person you have a click, with the other not or less. Very normal. I had a click with Klak. He even came here to see Orleans youngsters get home from the race. Jos once had two cocks from his best that no longer fertilized. A bit strange because they were 'full' and vital. Their father, then 15 years old, thin and worn to the bone it seemed, still fertilized without any problems.
COMPLETELY BIZARRE
Organizations also sometimes act bizarrely. The pigeon that won INTERNATIONAL Barcelona in 2024 was not even on the podium NATIONALLY (in the Netherlands). How to explain that to outsiders? You would put the last syllable of pigeon "sport" in quotation marks for less.
Absurdity and Remaining duivensportrev.docx