Q and A (06-03-2026)
Q and A
With quite a few years of successful pigeon sport in my luggage and countless columns about pigeons, it is not surprising that people sometimes ask questions.
Especially in a sport that is under so much pressure and threatens to go straight into the abyss, I try to answer it. Because although I also have many questions, fortunately there are still many questions that I dare to answer.
YELLOW DROPS
Yellow drops have almost become commonplace in Belgium. The Dutch are not (yet) really enthusiastic about it.
Already in WW 1 they were used as a disinfection. Later it was the Belgian Prof. Dr. Van Grembergen with whom I maintained good contacts, who discovered that the acriflavin was also very useful in pigeon sport.
Still later, the Dutchman Jaap Koehoorn brought them back to the attention and the sequel is well known. Which vet doesn't sell them today?
They can be administered by means of a drop in each nostril, over the food and in the drinking water. In the nostrils have the most effect. It must be said that the yellow do not heal. They are only useful with pigeons that are canker-free.
Administer before or after the flight?
Asking top players doesn't make you any wiser. One does this, the other that way.
'It doesn't matter', you would think.
What I do know is that you can save yourself quite a bit of money. Grab a calculator, see what such a little bottle costs, how much it contains, how many bottles 'in a liter', take the price of a liter and start calculating.
FORM
Much has already been said and written about shape and shape signs. Not surprising. In the past, pigeon sport was mainly about money.
You could earn a lot on the races, so you could also lose.
This was especially the case in the years when most people had little to spend and many pigeon fanciers worked extra hours to be able to pool.
That money on the results has largely disappeared, the will to win certainly not. What counts is form, as we know.
It seems to me to be even more important than quality.
I would rather put my money on a mediocre pigeon in super shape than on a super pigeon without form.
Especially with a tailwind, although no one has to agree with me of course.
Now someone asked if it is correct that there is no shape if the little feathers do not cover the flights but, how do you say it, 'sticking in between'. I do believe in that. That happens to pigeons that don't take a bath. And which pigeons don't take a bath? The ones without form.
JUDGES
Whether you can tell from a pigeon whether it is a good one is the question of all times.
I am often suspected of it, but that is really too much honor. There are clues, one is more handy than the other, but even the best pigeon whisperer in the world is not 100% sure. It is much easier to remove the BAD ones from the rest. Some pigeons have such great flaws that they simply cannot be a good one. So:
Don't take people who are willing to judge your pigeons for money too seriously.
They may be of good will, but many are charlatans.
SPRINT ALSO LONG DISTANCE?
Can pure sprint pigeons also handle further distances?
It is a frequently heard point of discussion and an item that also interests me. Especially when I saw that pigeons from men such as Daniels and Brent Lambrechts which stemmed from pure sprint pigeons won top prizes on the Nationals.
Pedigrees and results show that there are Sprint pigeons that can handle the further distances, while for others there is clearly a limit.
There are even pigeons that can hardly be beaten from about 100 km but that perform barely 100 km further a lot less.
It seems to me that the 'sprint pigeons' with the soft feathers are also the pigeons that can handle say 500 kms, not the pigeons whose feathers break easily.
REINFORCEMENT
Almost all fanciers, from large to small, from relatively unknown to world famous, look for reinforcements from time to time. Or call it crossbreeding material.
Where can you find those better pigeons? Results say a lot, but not everything. Suppose you are looking for Sprint or Middle Distance type. How seriously should you take the results of a club or of the Sprint champion where most of the fanciers focus on the long distance? Or vice versa: You are looking for long distance pigeons, you find a long distance champion, but in a region of Sprint racers where few race long distance. Then performance does not mean much.
Conclusion? It doesn't matter whether you are aiming for Sprint, Middle Distance or Long Distance: You have the best chances in regions where fanciers specialise in what your discipline is.
So don't fall into the trap of misleading results.
There are following truths:
- Where many fanciers have few pigeons together, the competition is stronger than where few fanciers race a lot of pigeons together.
- And also: The better pigeons are in regions where there is a lot of pooling, so much money is at stake.
- Also that Dutchman who claims: 'I prefer to get them from someone who knows how to dominate the long distance with a headwind on the furthest distances' certainly has a point.
FERTILIZATION
Up to what age do cocks fertilize and hens lay eggs?
Hard to say. Here a cock from 2018 was culled that did not fertilize anymore, a cock from 2013 still does (occasionally).
You may remember what I once wrote about Klak? Two fine cocks, brothers, who still looked perfect had stopped fertilizing. The father, (externally) completely worn out, was still fertilizing.
SO MUCH BETTER
Why is it that the Dutch perform so much better in the extreme long distance?
Simple: Because they have better pigeons. And why do they have better ones? Because they raced them en masse in the extreme long distance.
Belgians did not. And you can't select pigeons that you don't race.
'Survival is a matter of selection and adaptation' Darwin said:
He could have been a good pigeon fancier.
The late Roger Buvens. According to many one of Belgiums best. If not the best.
He raced very few pigeons and fanciers who race fewe birds will never get the attention abroad
that they deserve.