Jelger was involved in pigeon racing already at the age of seven and he has a particular way of countering his opponents. His very own pigeon breed, based on pigeons of Van Loon and Camphuis, have allowed him to excel on the sprint and middle distance races in recent years. He used to share a breeding loft with Anne van Meerkerk but today he has runs his own breeding loft. It proved a success.

It is rather remarkable that his young birds are only basketed for the natour flights. The reason Jelger does this is because he also wants to go on holiday with his family. Keep in mind that he is a busy man: he runs an administrative office and he is the financial director of a furniture business. Last season (2012) the weather conditions were so bad that his young birds were only raced once. These youngsters are bred mid to end of January (the breeders and racers were paired in the end of December). Before the competitions they were basketed about five times for a distance of 35 km. They immediately did training flights of 60 to 75 minutes. They are released around noon every day.

Jelger pays more attention to good results than to championships. 2012 was a very busy year for him so he only had time to basket his pigeons for 15 races. Still, his pigeons did an excellent job in those races:

Meer - 124km against 2,693 pigeons:
3,4,5,7,8,12,14,15,20,21,30,31,32,34,35,36,38,40  45/41
Nijvel - 228km against 1,812 pigeons:
1,2,3,4,5,10,11,14,15,24,25,26,29,37              40/30
Nijvel - 228km against 1,640 pigeons:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,11,13,17,18,22,23,26,31,34,35,37  38/32
Soissons - 379km against 1,552 pigeons:
1,3,5,6,7,9,10,15,19,22,38                        40/27
Soissons - 379km against 1,084 pigeons:
1,2,3,7,16,17,35                                  25/17
Meer - 124km against 2,494 pigeons:
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,14,24,26,27           23/21

Miss Magic: one in a million

Miss Magic is obviously a unique pigeon, a one in a million bird. She won a lot of ace pigeon titles in 2012 and a few titles in 2011 as well. She was bred from the excellent bloodline of Jelger’s ‘Superbreeder 013’ combined with the lines of Camphuis and Van Loon. She had already won a fourth National Ace Pigeon Natour WHZB in 2011. Jelger basketed her only 12 times in 2012, which makes her achievements even more impressive: she won no less than nine (!) 1:100 prizes in those twelve flights. She also won the following titles in these races:

These are her achievements:

  1. Strombeek – 2,402 pigeons
  1. Meer – 2,172 pigeons
  1. Soissons – 1,552 pigeons
  1. Grimbergen – 882 pigeons
  2. Nijvel – 2,481 pigeons
  2. Pommeroeul – 1,666 pigeons
  2. Breuil le Vert – 1,266 pigeons
  2. Chimay – 1,138 pigeons
  2. Soissons – 1,084 pigeons
  3. Meer – 2,494 pigeons
  4. Meer – 2,693 pigeons
  4. Morlincourt – 1,649 pigeons
  4. Soissons – 955 pigeons
  5. Laon – 2,286 pigeons
  5. Duffel – 2,243 pigeons
  5. Nijvel – 1,881 pigeons
  5. Meer – 1,782 pigeons
  5. Strombeek – 1,739 pigeons
  5. Nijvel – 1,640 pigeons
  6. Duffel – 2,974 pigeons
  8. Meer – 2,770 pigeons
10. Pommeroeul – 1,812 pigeons
14. St Job in t Goor – 2,429 pigeons
14. Nantieul – 1,264 pigeons
She wins a total of 23 prizes 1:100 (1%)

Miss Perfect: an apt name

This is obviously a very appropriate name. She has an outstanding list of achievements and she belongs to an outstanding pigeon fancier. This is an excellent and wonderful looking pigeon in the hand. That explains why a lot of fanciers would love to see this pigeon move to their own loft.

She probably has not won as much titles as her aunt ‘Miss Magic’ but her results were at least as impressive! She is her aunt because ‘Miss Perfect’ was bred from a sister of ‘Miss Magic’. This illustrates once more the excellent breeding qualities of the pigeon family of Klinkenberg. You can recognise the big champions by their successful team of racing pigeons and it seems that Jelger is one of them: his pigeons ‘Miss Magic’ and ‘Miss Perfect’ are not at all his only successful racing pigeons. There is for instance ‘Blue Shining’, winner of two teletext notations (in the final two middle didstance races). She did not do a single flight in her year of birth and as a yearling she was trained very carefully. This shows us that there are many ways to gather a team of successful racing birds. It was also thanks to these top class pigeons that Jelger was awarded as 5th National Loft Champion Middle Distance in 2012. This is a great achievement and we hope that the future will bring just as much success for Jelger. Good luck in 2013!