Good to know (03-10-25)
Some basic principles
As a teenager I didn't really know. I spent a lot of time in nature and at home among the pigeons. Sometimes I wanted to leave, after the girls, but when I was behind the girls I wanted to go back to the pigeon loft. Or at the birds in the wild. But as with most, I calmed down a bit. I started keeping pigeons and kept them. Not easy then because everything had to be done by bike. That was an old bitch who was laughed at a lot in the club.
LEARNED
So I started keeping pigeons and soon learned: A loft with some pigeons in it is not enough. Especially as a beginner you need someone. Someone with experience, a kind of mentor, who you can turn to if necessary. Pigeon sport is not difficult they say. If you are familiar with it, no.
There were plenty of pigeon books but I couldn't or didn't want to pay for them. In the weekend I needed money to pool on the pigeons and for at least two colas. One for me and one for a possible blonde hookup.
CLINT EASTWOOD
'A good man knows his limitations,' dixit Clint Eastwood.
'In other words; One wise man knows his limitations.'Thomas from Hoogstraten is such a wise man. Earlier one could read about him here. Although not lit by anyone, he got a taste for it. That only got worse, but he did realize that he needed someone if performance was the norm. And it was. After a year, a certain A S had to select pigeons properly. The competitors now knows what that has led to.
Unlike Thomas in his thirties, I was surrounded by pigeon fanciers as a teenager, I was a good student and already champion at the age of 19. From the local club, that is. That village was different then than it is now. About 12 cafes, all with billiards, now not even one.
ROCK AND ROLL
Cafés were the home base of pigeon clubs in the south of the Netherlands and Belgium and the café owners were only too happy with them.
Pigeon fanciers digested and treated when they raced well and every week someone had raced well. It was the time of rock 'n roll, so we learned English in a short time. I still remember many songs by Elvis and Co. Dutch-speaking only ONE, learned in military service. At the time female singers came scantily clad to provide entertainment. I can still hear such a full room roaring 'we want to see boobs'.
That did not come from the mouths of adolescents but prospective officers.
A friend still sings it. Of course not in the vicinity of his (grand)children because then you run the risk that your wife will call a shrink.
At that time I had already mastered some basic principles of pigeon sport, others would follow.
Lesson 1
As with everything, set a goal before you start and take into account your possibilities and limitations. Dixit Clint Eastwood.' If you have little time, little space and little money, you have to adjust your goal. 'Wanting it all' is almost a guarantee for failure.
Lesson 2
As a beginner, you have to make sure you have good contacts. This can lead to loft visits and they teach you that loft is a simple but also complicated matter at the same time. You know that the environment is important for all living things to be healthy, but you notice that good lofts (which are lofts on which people perform well) can differ enormously. One on a flat roof is different from a closed garden. A loft by the sea is different from inland. You also see more and more pens with a front of mesh.
Lesson 3
Only spend money on pigeons when you have proven to yourself that you can keep them healthy and make them perform. Also realize that if a couple already gave good ones, that is no guarantee that this will ever happen again. And as far as breeding is concerned, it seems that pigeons produce worse offspring the longer they are paired. Avoid links old x old and change them annually.
Lesson 4
When it comes to selection, set the bar at the right level. If you have ambition, make sure you can continue to get over it.
Start valuing prizes per three until you are at the level that only those per ten count.
Lesson 5
Learn to read results. Don't just pay attention to early pigeons but also to prize percentages. People who succeed remarkably often when they get something are those people who know how to estimate results at their correct value. First prizes don't say everything. What also counts is where and against whom they were achieved. It is best to buy in a region where people specialize. In a region that races strongly in the long distance you should not be for sprint pigeons. And vice versa. What value does a champion Sprint have in a club where long distance is the norm.
Lesson 6
Avoid medication as much as possible. Young people in particular have to fear for a future without medicines against canker, paratyphoid and so on.
The fewer medications you use, the better they will work when you really need them. Never cure an entire loft to cure one or two pigeons. Racing better after a cure is not the result of a medicine that makes pigeons fly 'faster', but by being freed from pathogens.
Lesson 7
Pigeon sport is a selection sport all year round. Selecting on the basis of health is more important than anything else.
Many never succeed because of too many pigeons due to too much love for the pigeons.
Lesson 8
Learn to live with it and accept that it is not a fair sport. Not a sport with equal opportunities. Also that a smile and a tear are sometimes very close to each other. There is still a lot like that, but with the above may be helpful to beginners and others.