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Home › Trips and Visits › Trips › Mark Kitchenbrand and family - February 2009

Mark Kitchenbrand and family - February 2009

Mark Kitchenbrand & Family
You can see the impressive race result record on the left from 2003 since now. ( Mark only started racing pigeons in 2003 )
From left to right : Johan De Beer ( Marks partner and one of the wealthiest men in South Africa - more information will be updated later about Johan ), Mark, father Bill, brother Billy and brother Kevin.
Here we are in the Kitchenbrands games room with a bar, a snooker table, an indoor pool, a fridge full of drinks, etc... Mark is telling us about the history of pigeon racing in his family.
The Kitchenbrand’s story started in 1907, when J.J. (Joe) Kitchenbrand started pigeon racing in Heidelberg (South-Africa). J.J.’s children Don (used to play for Glasgow Rangers – professional football player !), Ivan (who is a legend in his own right) and Veronica (the deaf and dumb daughter, who was a real pigeon expert) were into pigeon racing, too.
The next generation, John’s sons Leslie and Otto Nicholas, raced very successfully.
A pigeon magazine from 1958.
Mark has loved sports his whole life and he practised following sports on high to very high level : cricket, soccer, tennis, golf ( 6th handicap ), snooker, athletics…
Mark also has an impressive collection of limited edition sports memorabilia.
Mark Kitchenbrand and family - February 2009
Mark and I talked for hours about the pigeon sport, business, but also about family, friendship, warmth, education, values in life, etc…
Mark started with pigeons together with his wife Naomie much later than his brothers, it was in 2003.
We had also the honour to see Mark’s top pigeons…visiting Mark Kitchenbrand’s lofts is like visiting Fort Knox or a maximum security prison. Electronic fencing, special guards, locked gates and a signboard that declares you cannot refuse to be searched when departing.
Few of Marks trophees.
The national newspaper reports about Mark buying Birdy in 2008 ! I was very pleasantly surprised that when I mentioned the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race to a South African most of the time he or she knew what I was talking about. So the SCMDPR clearly is a very well known event in South Africa.
Once in the backyard you need to sign in before sharing tea and cake at reception.
You are then asked to put on a dustcoat. After that there is another door that you have to pass and then you could view the pigeons through the loft aviaries.
I have handled about 30 pigeons in Mark’s loft...
Mark and Nikolaas inside the aviaries.
The loft manager of Marks breeding loft.
What a high quality pigeons !!!!
The pedigree of Birdy.
number 1 - more info will follow later
number 2 - more info will follow later
number 3 - more info will follow later
number 4 - more info will follow later
Another view of the breeding loft.
number 5 - more info will follow later
On this picture you can see Birdy.
Naomie & Nikolaas.
Birdy was so far mainly coupled with Zander, a bold blue cock that finished 6th in the SCMDPR 2007. I have seen some youngsters of this couple and they are so beautiful, especially one hen, which looks just like her mother. PiPa & Mark made a deal ; the first youngster ever sold outside South-Africa from Birdy will be that particular hen, and it will be auctioned on PiPa. More information about this will follow later.
During the day a group of german fanciers visited Mark. The 3rd from left is Mr. Esser who is the breeder of Zander.
Mark & Jana.
Before entering the pigeon loft. The pigeon loft is very well protected.
To conclude the visit to Marks loft, one can say that the best fanciers from all over the world send their best youngsters to the Sun City Million Dollar Race. These best compete for 4 months intensively against each other. And the last years these best of the best have been bought by Mark Kitchenbrand. So do we exaggerate when we say that Mark Kitchenbrand is busy to build a breeding colony on the highest possible level in pigeon sport ?
Mark has so much trust in PiPa that he is strongly considering giving PiPa the exclusive right of selling his pigeons outside South Africa. The only problem might be the export of pigeons outside South Africa.
The indoor swimming pool, beautiful !
A visit to the loft of brother Billy who was not home at the time of our visit.
Another loft of Billy...
In the evening we brought a visit to father Bill.
On Friday Bill didn’t feel sick anymore and he told his sons to basket a certain pigeon for that weekend, only one, not the others. And this pigeon won a car in that race!! On Monday Bill decided he was ready to go home and that is exactly what he did. This shows the strength of the character of the Kitchenbrand family. Bill started working in the mines when he was 16 years old.
Mark Kitchenbrand & Family - February 2009
Bill, Mark and Nikolaas examining the pigeons of father Bill. Like we already told you earlier, father Bill is just like his sons extremely competitive. A saying of father Bill we heard during our visit : “I want to win 1st prizes, no 2nd prizes, because 2nd prize is just like kissing your sister. Tell me honestly, do you want to kiss your sister every week?”
Bill brought up his children with a strong sense of discipline and can now be very proud of what they achieved in life. Kevin and Billy raced pigeon since their were little children together with their father and in 1989 they started to race pigeons independently. Both of them achieved outstanding results. Bill, Billy, Mark and Kevin have together timed over 500 winners in pigeon racing, thanks to their extraordinary pigeon racing skills. Father Bill won no less than 4 cars so far !
Naomie and Marks mother.
Naomie, Mark & the rest of the family, thank you so much for taking care of us the whole day. We had a great day that we will never ever forget. You are lovely people, and we hope we can build up a nice friendship together !
Kristof V - 18/02/2009
Tags: Mark Kitchenbrand