I turned into a believer (01-04-2025)
You don't want to know what I have ever been up to get the best out of my pigeons. When I heard fanciers whispering behind the palm of their hands about some 'secret', I wanted to know more about it and tried it out.
No matter how foolish it seemed after all.
Believe it or not, there was once a mirror in a breeding box to 'get the pigeon in it angry'. It all didn't work out much and inevitably came the period when I believed in almost nothing and joined the club of fellow sportsmen who claimed:
-'The only thing that matters is good birds.'
-'They can do it or they can't.'
- 'Motivation is nonsense.'
THINKING DIFFERENTLY
But I retraced my steps. 'Only fools do not change their minds', a Greek philosopher knew. Tricks that make pigeons perform better definitely exist, I know now.
That's really different from what I once thought.
A video about the late Koen Minderhoud, would convince even the biggest skeptic. Very nicely made by the way.
GEELOGER
When you say Minderhoud, you think 'Geeloger', the famous pigeon.
That it is no exaggeration to say that it is a pigeon that is not born every year can be confirmed by Albert Derwa in particular. And it was indeed through a kind of trick that he could fly minutes ahead, even on provincial races. To make tricks work, you have to see things. And Koen did.
Like the loft mate of 'Geeloger' who had chosen the feeding trough as a resting place. It 'was his' and he couldn't be turned down there.
While many superior racers are housed in a box 'somewhere above', the 'Geeloger' was housed in a lowest box. 'How perfect do you want it to be', Koen thought.
AND THEN
And he also thought of what I had once written: 'Tricks only work if they are built up. So don't fiddle around or make pigeons nervous shortly before basketing.' What Koen did was, as the week progressed, put little by little the feeding trough with that fierce cock on it, to the breeding box of 'Geeloger'.
The day of basketing, the rivals were almost nose to nose. One on the feeder, the other in his nest box.
When the day of basketing approached, Koen had to be present or there would be deaths. And Koen, driven as he was, WAS present. Victories with minutes ahead was the result.
The urge of a pigeon to go home is mainly based on the urge to defend or even expand one's own territory.
MORNING
In the last century I had good contacts with Gust Christiaens, certainly known to the not so young among us.
Gust was a special one, certainly not a gray mouse. He lived not far from Brussels. At that time I still thought that distances mattered when you were going to train your pigeons and so it could happen that I ended up with him on a Saturday morning. He was putting pigeons into a basket and was shocked.
'Nervous Gust? Already putting the birds it in baskets now?'
"I was just about to start vaccinating," he said. That was a lie and we both knew it. Was he perhaps doing something he preferred to keep secret? Indeed.
DUTCHMAN
Gust: 'Well, I'll tell, but don’t tell nobody.
These are pigeons on a nest and have to be basketed tonight. Only simpletons only take them from the loft in the evening. When they have bred for hours, they are happy the next morning that they can fly. Like cows that are just coming outside.
Have you ever thought about why hens perform better on a nest than cocks? Because they skipped a brood. At night, that is. If you put them in the basket before noon, you can be sure that the cocks will also skip a brooding. They want to go on the nest, which is in their nature, and therefore hurry home.'
I know of two 'sprint specialists' that do the same. Is that why they play so well? I can't prove anything, but it looks like it.
EXTRA EGGS
I tried in my own loft with my 684. It got an extra egg a week before basketing for Orleans and then another one every day. So the day before basketing she sat like a chicken over far too many eggs, constantly carefully working with her beak to keep those eggs under her.
Her cock got no chance to breed.
Then came the day and I pooled some extra money on 684 when basketing Orleans. In the morning W d Bruijn was on the phone. 'Way too heavy for youngsters', we agreed.
14-684 Won 1st S-National (2,158 p) after she had won the 4th in the Fed the week before against 1,445 pigeons.
From Orleans with more pennies than all the rest combined.
The following year two sons, nest mates 389 and 390, would triumph two weeks in a row in the Fed "HvB" against resp.1.533 and 972 pigeons. I cleared all three because I was so stupid (then!) as to think that breeding good pigeons was a piece of cake.
HOW COME
A good bookkeeping also taught me that one pigeon is not the other. Pigeons react differently and not all of them are happy if you keep adding eggs. I once wrote here about different racing methods, with possibly the most successful being 'widowhood with hens'. So with the partner at home.
Possibly even better was two hens paired with one cock.
Such 2 hens of mine were once the two fastest of the total release of about 34,000 pigeons.
But I stopped yhis system because of the work and the stress.
Especially after the arrival of the first pigeons you had to be in the loft or there were deaths between all those flying feathers of fighting hens.
During the week it was again important not to let alienate the hens. Many fanciers who race 'total widowhood' do it simpler. Just more hens in the loft than cocks. Due to circumstances, Dutch Co Verbree had to manage this year with 3 cocks and 10 hens. A lost year? Hmm. Not really. .
Photo: Two hens paired that hated each other won 1st and 2nd from over 8,000 pigeons.
Out of a magazine. Two OTHER hens of mine won 1st and 2nd against no less than 34,034 birds.
They were mated !!!