Andre Moonens, Strombeek-Bever - glorious winner 1° National Bourges 30.759 Youngsters - Fastest pigeon of the 55.781 participating pigeons!

Film national winner

A much asked and heard question before the race was… how many youngsters would be basketted at national level? Because up until then not a weekend went by in which there were no ‘losses’ by the youngsters! Many would have seen it as a success if there were 30.000… and there were, with 30.759 youngsters at the start (although more than 6.600 less than last season)… this in addition to 10.903 old birds and 14.119 yearlings… or a total of 55.781 participating pigeons… a reduction of 9.000 compared to last year! A tendency which can be noted in virtually all of the national races over the last few weeks… the ‘tough’ sport season 2010 lets itself be felt at all levels! In this Bourges they also had to ‘work’… in beautiful Belgian summer weather, under more or less clear blue skies, with a slight northern to NW-wind and temperatures of around 23to 24°… beautiful racing weather for the pigeons!

Two days prior to the liberation many specialists in the ‘grand middle distance’ will have secretly dreamt of winning this classic from Bourges… a phenomenon occurring every year! Something which is a permanent reference on the business card…  The honour went this time to a well-known figure in pigeon circles, namely Andre Moonens… the ‘street boy from Brussels’, as he sometimes dares describe himself… from the suburb of Brussels, Strombeek-Bever-Grimbergen. Three weeks ago at a ‘BBQ’ Andre said that his pigeons were ‘blazing’… and he nourished the hope of getting them to the start of the ‘nationals’ in this condition! A mission which he seems to have completed perfectly… translating itself into ‘national victory’ from Bourges Youngsters, and also the fastest of the entire participating team of 55.781 pigeons. Andre clocked his ‘winner’ at 12h48’56” from a distance of 447,711 Km or a velocity of 1283,08 m/min. It was a matter of seconds for the second place national between the combinations Jespers-Vd Wegen and Vd Linden A. & Zoon. An interesting fact here is that in Holsbeek by Herman & Johnny Jepsers-Vd Wegen 3 pigeons landed at the trap at the same time and were clocked at 12h58’36”, 58’45” and 58’46” respectively… in the end good enough for 2-4-5° place national with 1281,9- 1281,48 and 1281,42 m/min… the Vd Linden pigeon thereby nestles itself between these in third place nationally with 1281,60 metres!

Winner ‘Petra’

Stamboom nationale winnaar

It is the young hen ‘Petra’… that brought the victory to Grimbergen, and with this opened the gateways to ‘eternal fame’ for Andre Moonens (professionally ‘clerk’ by the police)… who in pigeon circles became known as co-carer of the Marc De Cock colony, a task that he fulfilled for 8 years (until 2008)… the nice thing about this story is that the same evening, Marc De Cock also won 1° National Narbonne, meaning that the champagne could flow freely by the ‘pigeon friends Andre & Marc’… ‘master’ & ‘servant’, both on the highest ‘national podium’… the pigeon sport is sometimes so beautiful!
Winner 1° Nat Bourges 30.759 youngsters is ‘Petra’ B10-2137074, a dirty blue hen bred from a crossing Louis Vandeneynde x Vd Wijngaert & Son x Erik Limbourg.

Father: The ‘Louis’ B06-2042512, a direct Louis Vandeneynde GF: ‘Son Blue Florizoone’ B00-2394434… a crossing R.Florizoone x M.Pollin
GM: ‘Marcel Junior’ B05-2062059... daughter of ‘Marcel Senior 857/004’ (a direct Marcel Aelbrecht, and inbred to the ‘Dream Couple’) x ‘3° Prov Ace pigeon Middle Distance’ 535/03.

Mother: ‘Blue white pen Johanna’ B08-2110294… obtained as egg from Johan Vd Wijngaert.
GF: De ‘13° Prov Ace pigeon All Round’ B05-2257352 (by Johan Vd Wijngaert & Son)
GM: ‘Granddaughter Slimmen’ B05-2257311 (the ‘Slimmen’ won 3 x 1° Prov by Paul Driessens, and was later a super breeder in the lofts of ‘Erik Limbourg).
A week previously a full brother of ‘Petra’ won 1° Angerville against 2.993 youngsters… this national victory is then anything but coincidence!
Andre has been actively involved in the pigeon sport for more than 35 years, since somewhere in the mid ’70’s… so as stated earlier, was in between co-carer of the colony of Marc De Cock for 8 years, raced for a time together with veterinary surgeon Dirk Moens… to finally started again alone in the pigeon sport from around  2008.

It was instant success, because last year Andre won the 1° Provincial Ace pigeon ‘Small Middle Distance’ Youngsters 2009! That Andre could race the pigeons… has been known for a long time, but after the ‘provincial Ace pigeon’ last season, and now the ‘national victory’ from Bourges… nevertheless testifies the ‘great class’! Of course we would love to go into a more detailed explanation of Andre’s success method.

First and foremost ‘good pigeons’ are necessary as starting point. In addition to the aforementioned sort from Louis Vandeneynde (Brussegem), Van De Wijngaert (Vilvoorde) and Erik Limbourg (Brussegem)… there are also pigeons from Ward Moons (Zemst), Marc De Cock (Temse), Petrus Dehaes (Jette) and Karel Boeckx (Turnhout). With these sorts, a team of 20 breeding couples was formed from which 100 youngsters are bred. This year, for the first time, it was a team with 40 yearlings (cocks and hens), which were raced according to the system of ‘total widowhood’. The youngsters however are raced with the ‘sliding door’. They reside in lofts with aviaries (see photo’s), where the pigeons can come and go as they please… in other words they can enjoy the open air and ‘sniff oxygen’ as much as they want. Definitely an advantage in very warm to ‘tropical days’ so as we had several times in 2010. Due to the constant head wind in the first instance, followed by a few tropical days and weeks… Andre started training his youngsters later than usual.
Prevention is still always ‘better than the cure’. That’s why the youngsters were trained ‘frequently’ and in very ‘small steps’. ‘They always are’, says Andre… ‘they have to be home before me, otherwise I don’t go any further… and remain at the same liberation place… until they arrive home before me!’ This is how I only came to be in Noyon for the first time during the weekend of the 27th of June… but it was directly ‘prize’ with 1° + 2° prize and a chain result! It hasn’t stopped since, with a recital of top prizes every week… and pigeons that storm home ‘one after the other’… finally resulting in the national victory last week from Bourges. There were only 16 hens entered for this race by the way… the rest raced on Sunday from Noyon… and it was also ‘prize’ here, beginning with the 1° prize against 484 youngsters… and 7 pigeons by the 15° prize! A sign that the pigeons are in ‘super’ condition! Although he got a shock two weeks ago… when the pigeons were troubled by their eyes (one eye cold)… something which apparently suddenly happens in many lofts by fanciers that switch over from darkening to lighting, so as by the lofts of Andre Moonens. Luckily Andre has in Dr Dirk Moens a good friend and pigeon colleague… and a few eye drops cleared up the problem in no time! Qua feed, Andre completely trusts ‘Matador’ and the attached feeding schedule is followed… at the start of the week they are purified with ‘Start’ mixture, and this is later swapped for the ‘Sport’ mixture… and the last few days plenty of ‘Turbo Energy’ (fatty mixture). And if there are any doubts… then Andre consults Eddy Noël (feeding advisor Matador for Belgium)! The range of by-products from Backs is also followed here!

The youngsters are raced with the sliding door then as soon as they are well-coupled (usually somewhere between the middle and end of June)… whereby the cocks are normally kept in the middle distance, whilst the hens take part in the ‘nationals’! Once the youngsters have been separated… Andre becomes one of the biggest sponsors of our Belgian treasury (via diesel use)… because they then hardly ever or never train at home anymore… but are trained self on the Tuesday and Wednesday from a distance of 65 à 70 Km… a compulsory training to keep them ‘sharp’. They are allowed to train together (cocks and hens)…out together, home together… after they have been home for half an hour the sexes are separated again. Before leaving for a race they come together again for a short time… sometimes half an hour to an hour… depending on! This is how they were also prepared for Bourges! Despite the fact that they came ‘hard’ before this race… I totally didn’t expect such a stunt, says Andre… I still can’t believe it. They had previously only flown 2 x Noyon and 2 x Angerville… which in fact is a minimal preparation for a national race from Bourges!

Once again it is evidence that with ‘class’ and  ‘condition’ in the lofts, a great deal is possible… pigeons that are capable of allsorts! That was more than proved this weekend by Andre Moonens! Wherefore a ‘hearty congratulations’ Andre… you’re a real ‘crack’

Father of the first nat Bourges II youngsters

Pedigree father national winner

Mother of the first nat Bourges II youngsters