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Who races better than Ad Schaerlaeckens (6-10)

Who races better than Ad Schaerlaeckens?

 That is what a pigeon magazine said in the summer of 2019. Every year my results are fantastic but 2019 was outstanding. The percentage of prizes that were won is unique. We started the season with 12 hens. Eight of them were among the 10 first Ace pigeon in the Fed, a big competition in a vast area.

 THE BEGINNING

It was back in 2006 that I decided to race in Belgium. Maegh Bros had a big loft empty, I filled it with a round of babies and from the very first race my birds were so much better than the birds that they already had that we got rid of them immediately. In the first year we became 1st champion youngsters, one year later 1st champion yearlings, again one year later 1st champion old birds. After having raced in Belgium for 3 years only we were already at the top. Then, in 2011, we had a serious problem: Paratyphoid. Babies did not grow up nicely, birds came back from the races tired, real good birds got lost.

Ad Schaerlaeckens

 LATER

How can such a thing happen to Ad Schaerlaeckens people wondered. Well, paratyphoid was the last thing I thought about, because the birds were treated every year. Still it was paratyphoid indeed, a well-known vet had always given the wrong medicine. This time we used Baytril and problem solved. Only one year later the results were as sensational as they were before. In 2012 we became 1st overall champion in ‘Union Antwerp’ as well as in ‘ZAV’, another Federation. We beat the big shots in the province.

With 2 or 3 birds we also participated in the national long distance races and mostly all birds won a prize. Our ´006´ even won 1st NATIONAL Argenton. Provincial it had a lead of 10 minutes in hard weather at the greatest distance.

The father of 006 (08/250) was a son of Extreem x Mother Leeuw from Wouters. The mother was a halfsister of ´Cow Girl´ from Rik Hermans and a granddaughter of famous Di Caprio. From then we only had successful years. In 2017 people said ´it is impossible to race better’. That is also what they said in 2018 and see: 2019 was our best year ever. As for Middle Distance fanciers agreed that NO ONE in Belgium did better.

Super racer and basic breeder

  SOME SPECIALS

ALL birds performed so well that I really cannot say which was the best. Therefore I will give some examples of birds that stand out for special reasons.  

-Of course that is the national winner Argenton, 13-006. This multiple first prize winner is a fantastic breeder as well. A direct daughter 18-732 became 3rd NATIONAL ACE KBDB Middle Distance yrl 2019.

 -14-976 became ´Ace bird´ 2 years in a row. It won: 747 p – 1st, 235 p – 1st, 541 p – 1st, 1.235 p – 2nd, 1.130 p – 2nd, 799 p – 2nd, 811 p – 2nd, 811 p – 3rd, 762 p – 3rd, 1.832 p – 4th, 1.844 p - 5th and so on.

 - 08-682 was another super. It won as a baby in four succeeding races: 952 p – 2nd, 1.023 p – 3rd, 911 p – 4th and 1.092 p – 11th. According to ´Superduif´ it was the 3rd best youngster of Belgium. Unfortunately it got lost, but its nestsister, 09/683, was to become mother of ´Ad´ the 1st NATIONAL Ace KBDB and 1st Olympiad bird, raced by Marcel Wouters. The sisters 682 and 683 descended from Ace Four.

 - 17-749 is a special one as well. It won in 3 weeks’ time 958 p – 1st , 1.004 p – 3rd, 632 p – 3rd, 862 p – 6th. Maybe there were better pigeons but none that got such results in 4 succeeding races. The 1st prize was won with a speed of 2,200 mpm. The 3rd prize with strong headwinds.

2nd Ace in the Fed 2019.

Results 2019

Week after week our stunning results were the talk of the day. Below I do not refer to the best results in recent years but ALL results in 2019 are summed up. ‘Provincial’ refers to the so-called ‘Overkoepeling ZAV Grensverbond’.  

 April 22nd Release station Noyon

18 Yearlings entered, 13 prizes. 28 Old birds entered, 21 prizes.

April 29th  No race due to bad weather.

May 5th Noyon:

Yearlings: 1st, 2nd, 12th, 13th, 16th, 21st etc (513 yrl). 10 birds entered, 9 prizes !!!

Old birds 2nd, 3rd etc against 928 birds. 10 pigeons entered, 9 prizes.

 May 5th Chevrainvilliers:

A middle distance race on the same day:

6 Yearlings entered, 4 prizes.

16 Old birds raced, 12 prizes to start with 10th from 1.154 birds.

May 12th: Chevrainvilliers

Yearlings, 16 birds entered, 14 prizes (!) to start with 3rd from 830 birds.

Old birds: 5th, 6th etc against 1.622 birds. 26 birds entered, 23 prizes !!!

Interprovincial: Against 3.414 birds: 7th, 9th etc. 26 birds entered, 23 prizes.

May 18th: Chevrainvilliers

Yearlings: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th, 26th, 27th, 32nd etc against 975 birds. 13 Birds were entered, 11 prizes were won ALL IN THE FIRST HALF!

Old birds:1.651 old birds: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 12th etc. The 19th bird from 22 won 218th prize! Total 551 prizes were to be won.

Interprovincial 3,348 pigeons: 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th etc. When I have 4 birds no one else has four. Not even those fanciers that entered 80 or more pigeons.

The 3rd best pigeon at Middle Distance of ALL Belgium in 2019.

   May 25th: Chevrainvilliers

Due to East wind our location was very bad. Still a very good result again.

Yearlings: 14 pigeons entered, 11 prizes to start with 9th and 10th from 732 birds.

Old birds. Again we were the first to have 4 pigeons. Our 4th bird won 17th prize from 1.250 birds. And again 19 prizes from 22 birds.

Interprovincial: After our 19th bird (from 22 !!) still 160 prizes were to be won. We raced 8 old birds and won 8 prizes.    

June 1st Toury

Again the wind was against us, but nevertheless a super result again:

Yearlings: 12 birds entered, 12 prizes were won !!!!!!!

Old birds: 20 birds entered, 17 prizes! Again by far the best, despite the bad location.

 June 8th Toury:

Stormy weather. Speed 2.200 mpm. But again fantastic. Again the first who had 4 birds.

Yearlings: 3rd, 6th , 10th, 14th, 22nd etc. 11 prizes from 13 birds entered.

Old birds: 4th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 19th, 25t, 27th etc against 734 birds.

Interprovincial: Our 5th bird won 27th prize from 1.398 pigeons, to start with 6th.

Once more we were the first that had 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 birds.

 June 15th Melun

Yearlings: 1st, 6th etc. 8 prizes from 12 birds.

Old birds: 2nd, 9th, 11th, 12th,against 814 birds and again the first to have 4 pigeons.

Also Interpovincial the first who had 4 birds, 1.913 pigeons in competition.

 June 22nd Melun  

Yearlings: 1st , 16th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd etc. Seven birds entered, 6 prizes in first 10%.

Old birds: 1st, 2nd, 16th, etc. (687 p). 11 prizes from 14 birds entered, 8 in first 10%.

June 29th Melun.

Yearlings: 1st, 2nd, 6th, 8th, 14th.

Old birds: 1st, 2nd, 10th, 12th, 18th, 22nd etc.

Interprovincial 952 pigeons: 2nd, 4th etc (9/18).

 July 6th Chevrainvilliers

Yearlings 1st, 3rd, 7th, 11th, 12th, 14th etc. 8 Yearlings entered, 8 prizes and 7 of them on top.

Old birds: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 11th, 12th, 21st, 22nd etc against 563 birds. The 4 first nominated birds in front. At prize 22 we have our first 9 nominated birds !!!!!

Interprovincial 1.270 pigeons. 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 15th, 16th, etc. 12 birds entered, our 12th bird won 113th prize. Then, when all our birds were home, still 300 prizes were to be won and two third of the fanciers that participated did not even have one pigeon.

Two times Ace pigeon in the Fed called ZAV.

 July 13th Orleans    

Our worst race of the year but still 8 prizes from 10 birds in the race.

 July 13th Noyon young birds

16 prizes from 24 young birds to start with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 13th. The first young birds were 3 minutes ahead and also beat all yearlings and old birds, 1.474 total.

July 20th Chevrainvilliers

Yearlings: 2nd, 14th, 18th etc. 8 birds in the race, 7 prizes !!

Old birds: 1st, 4th, 12th, 15th etc. 12 birds entered, 11 prizes !!! (372 o.b.)

Interprovincial 1st , 4th etc 10 prizes from 12 birds.

 July 28th Chevrainvilliers, last race for old birds.

Yearlings: 1st, 3rd, 10th, 13th . FOUR birds in the race only !!   (so 4/4).

Old birds: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 15th, 19th, 21st (238 o.b.) Again a 100% score. 7 birds in the race and 7 top prizes in first 10 %.

Interprovincial: 1st, 4th, 6th, 14th etc. Here again 7 prizes out of 7 and all of them in the first 10%. There were 58 participants. When we had ALL OUR BIRDS HOME 40 of them did not even have one pigeon.

 July 31st Chevrainvilliers

Young birds: We had 12 young birds in the race and they were ALL twelve on the result sheet IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE PRIZES.

In the Fed we started with 1st, 2nd, 8th, 13th, 15th and so on.

Interprovincial 1st, 2nd, 8th, 15th, 18th, 31st etc against 1.039 pigeons.

We had the 1st and 2nd fastest birds of the whole release (3,800 pigeons) and with 12 birds in the race we beat champions like Stefaan Lambrechts (he raced over 100 birds, and van Oeckel (he raced over 200 birds).  

683, the mother of 'Ad' Marcel Wouters. The best Middle distance bird of ALL Belgium.

 PERCENTAGE

A well-known auction site published the prize percentage from an internationally well- known champion. He won 21 prizes from 39 birds, 17 prizes from 52 birds, 31 from 50 pigeons etc. With all respect, but if this is ´real good´ what should I say?

And you know what is important to know? EVERY RACE, in all kinds of weather, the birds performed super.

 ACE PIGEONS

We race few birds but nevertheless we had a record amount of Ace Pigeons. Four Aces in the first 10 Old birds and 5 Aces in the first 10 yearlings. So 9 Ace pigeons total in the Fed and 8 of them were hens. It is astonishing when you realise we started with 12 hens only.

Old birds: 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th Ace.

Yearlings: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th Ace.

 The 4th Ace bird yearlings is 18-732. It won in 4 weeks time 1st, 1st, 1st in the Fed. Furthermore also 3rd, 3rd etc. It became 3rd NATIONAL ACE KBDB. So in the whole country there were only 2 better yearlings at Middle distance. Why was this bird ‘only’ 4th Ace in the Fed? That is because of different calculation.  

 FAMILY

I do not have a family. Inbred pigeons are good for business. I like pigeons that can win and good birds are crossings in most cases. Most of those fantastic racers are my own old bloodlines crossed with imports. The imports with which I was happy I got from M Wouters, Gaston v d Wouwer, Hermans, Scheele, van Mechelen, de Bruijn, Heremans.

Especially the off spring of ´Ad´ (the National Ace KBDB) stands out, descendants Home Alone and Ace Four are among the Ace birds and also a cock from Scheele and a hen from v d Brande turned out to be fantastic breeders.

Indeed these are not the most world famous names. I did get birds from those internationally known ‘stars’, with breath taking pedigrees, but they failed hopelessly. The more fancy the pedigree, the poorer the quality, as it seemed. Especially 13-006 is a once in a live time breeder. Another excellent breeding hen is ‘264’, a daughter of ‘Ad’, the NATIONAL Ace.

Full brother of Diamond Lucy (17-709).

 METHOD

We race both sexes. Before the season the pigeons are trained four times. During the season no training tosses in between the races any more. The hens are darkened the whole season.

If there is a secret it is selection the whole year round. In 2018 we got rid of birds that won over 30 prizes and also babies that won 8 prizes from 8 races. So birds such as others do not even have were not good enough and could go. All according to my mantra: ´Eliminate your bad birds, sell your good birds and keep your supers´. In cold weather in spring the heating is on. Before basketing we do not show the partners.

Supplements? None at all. Like Verkerk, de Bruijn and others I experimented a lot. I tried out all kinds of supplements but none of them had any effect on the condition.

SUMMARY 2019

YEARLINGS

Date.  Number of birds entered.   Number of prizes that were won.

22/4             18                13

 

5/5               10                9     (Sprint race)

 

5/5              16                12   Middle Distance race

 

12/5             16                14

 

19/5             13                11

 

25/5             14                11

 

1/6               12                12    

 

8/6               13                11

 

15/6             12                8

 

22/6             7                  6

 

29/6             8                  6

 

6/7               8                  7

 

13/7             10                8

 

20/7             8                  7

 

29-7             4                  4

 

31/8             12                12 yb

Halfsister 18-732 was 3rd NATIONAL Ace KBDB Middle Distance yrl on father's side.

 OLD BIRDS

 Date.  Number of birds entered.   Number of prizes that were won.

22/4             28                21

 

5-5               16                14

 

12/5             26                23

 

19/5             22                19

 

25/5             22                19

 

1/6               20                17              

 

7/6               22                19

 

15/6             20                14

 

22/6             14                11

 

29/6             18                9

 

6/7               12                12     

 

13/7             10                8

 

13/7             24                16 (yb)

 

20/7             12                11

 

29/7             7                  7

 NOT ONE BAD RACE, who in Belgium did better? No one, people say.  

Ad S with loft manager Roger

REFERENCES

In Holland and Belgium it is well-known how many real super pigeons descend from my loft. A summary:

 -Luc van Mechelen´s superbreeder ‘Adriano’, he got from me. It became father of 4 NATIONAL Aces KBDB. Direct children from my birds won for him 1st National and a 2nd National as well.

 - Jochems van Hasselt bred 1st NATIONAL Issoudun from a bird of mine.

 - R v d Zijde had the NATIONAL Ace long distance. Both parents were mine.

 - C Maas had the NATIONAL Ace Middle Distance. Both parents were mine.

 - Co Verbree had both the best cock and the best hen of ALL Holland. The father he got from me.

- H Kennes had the 1st NATIONAL Ace Middle Distance. The father was mine.

- B Pieper got the 1st NATIONAL Ace Middle Distance. The father was mine as well.

- Boeckx Belgium had the 4th National Ace Sprint KBDB. Bred from a cock of mine.

- C Leytens got TWO pigeons from me. One produced his World champion Long Distance, the other became father of his 1st Olympiad bird Sprint.

- Ebben got from me his ‘Indy’, a bird that won 6 x 1st. In 2018 he raced 2 youngsters of mine. They became 1st and 2nd Ace Combine.  

 -Henri van Doorn had the 1st NATIONAL Ace young birds. The mother was mine.

 -Maarten Huijsmans bred the 5th best young bird of Holland from a cock of mine.

 -Swichtenberg became NATIONAL CHAMPION of ALL Germany with my birds. He had 3 hens in the best 15 from all Germany. All 3 bred from my pigeons.

B v Oeckel won 1st, 3rd and 13th NATIONAL Zone with birds bred from my pigeons.

P vd Merwe had 2nd National Ace and bred winners against 20,000 pigeons bred from birds he got from me.

 ‘Bubbels’ from Verkerk and ‘Fleur’ from Jespers vd Wegen are iconic breeders, they got them from me.

 B v d Brandt had the best long distance bird of ALL Holland in 2015. His NATIONAL Ace was bought by Great wall. The mother was bred from 2 birds of mine.

 Florian Hendriks had the best long distance bird of Holland in 2019 (3 races). It is a descendant of ´Mattens´, ´Sissi´s partner´. It is pretty far indeed but without ´Mattens´ this bird would not exist.

 Algarve The winner of the S Final 2019 in the greatest one loft race in Europe was a half Schaerlaeckens. Also the bird that won the Golden Australia One Loft Race, winning 50,000 USD, was bred from a Schaerlaeckensbird, through Jason Stig.    

I am talking about NATIONAL level and this list is not complete.

 At auction of the late Klak, a very good friend.

 IN CONCLUSION

As a 20 year old I was already a champion in pigeon sport. In the 80-ies and 90-ies they called me Mr Orleans. This was because of my results in the biggest race in the world with up to 200,000 participating birds. Several times I was the best of Holland. How my birds are doing recently one could read.

Ad Schaerlaeckens, 20 years old