Marcelis
Eric Berckmoes was fascinated with pigeons and pigeon racing in general from an early age, and he developed into a particularly motivated fancier, winning national titles and even a world championship title in the junior competition. His parens moved from Schoten to Brecht and Eric got to learn Albert Marcelis, the fancier who dominated the sprint competition at the time. They became close friends and Albert gave two of his best pigeons to Eric: his world famous Sprint (BE97-6549507), Olympiad Pigeon Sprint Liévin 2003, and Donkere 18 (BE97-6549518). The bloodlines of both these pigeons can still be found in most of today's champions of Eric Berckmoes.
The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Sprint and Donkere 18 continue to gain excellent results for Eric Berckmoes, who had an excellent 2014 season: he took a first national prize in zone B1 in two consecutive races, winning a 1st in the zone from Argenton II with the one year old hen Chloé (click here for the pedigree of Chloé BE13-6024198) and a 1st in the zone from Tours old birds with Christine one week later (click here for the pedigree of Christine BE13-6024301).
Young stock pairs
The strength of this pigeon breed can be attributed to two amazing breeding pairs. These pairs have bred quite a number of great racing birds, and Eric had the luck of discovering their breeding qualities when they were still very young. Both breeding pairs are related to Donkere 18 and Sprint.
Favoriet 2 (BE09-6241383) x Eline (BE09-6241312) are the parents of:
4th-6th-26th-55th-62nd-70th … Nat. Zone
Click here for the pedigree of Favoriet 2
Click here for the pedigree of Eline
Jens (BE09-6241246) x Saartje (BE09-6241183) are the parents of:
1st-3rd-9th-11th-12th-14th-26th-29th-… Nat. Zone
Click here for the pedigree of Jens
Click here for the pedigree of Saartje
Red Angel
One of the best pigeons of Eric is without doubt Red Angel (BE09-241197), a direct son of stock sire Donkere 18. Red Angel was not only an excellent racing bird but also a top class breeding pigeon. He is the sire of the 1st national Argenton II in zone B1. We take a look at the palmares of Red Angel as a racing bird:
Chateauroux Nat. 10th 22,718 p. Quievrain Lok. 1st 313 p. Bourges Nat. 55th 17,138 p. Argenton Prov. 39th 7,132 p.
You can find the pedigree of Red Angel here
Anke
The very best pigeon and one of the key players in the Berckmoes pigeon family is Anke (BE11-6289163). She is also related to the two stock sires Sprint and Donkere 18, and she has an impressive list of achievements:
Noyon (224km) 110/620 Melun (327km) 11/1,647 Dourdan (382km) 257/1,799 Dourdan (382km) 24/1,309 Bourges I (496km) 36/3,153 National Zone B1 Châteauroux I (544km) 255/3,270 National Zone B1 Montluçon (572km) 21/2,545 National Zone B1 Guéret I (607km) 124/1,736 National Zone B1 Argenton I (572km) 7/2,038 National Zone B1 Bourges II (496km) 124/9,639 National Châteauroux (544km) 10/476 National Zone B1 Argenton II (572km) 99/730 National Zone B1 Issoudun (520km) 75/636 National Zone B1 La Souterraine II (609km) 43/4,144 National Nevers (493km) 49/243 National Zone B1 Guéret II (607km) 94/2,656 National
Anke competed in 14 national longer middle distance races in 2013 in which she was able to win an impressive 12 prizes. This makes her the best pigeon in all the national longer middle distance races of 2013! Click here for the pedigree of Anke. Besides her impressive results as a racing bird she has also proved a great breeding bird at an early age. She is the dam of Camilla (BE13-6024076), winner of a 5th, 18th, and 29th national Zone B1. Click here for the pedigree of Camilla.
National success
Almost every pigeon in the collection of Eric traces back to the lines of Albert Marcelis, whose pigeons have significantly increased the level of quality of this pigeon breed. Donkere 18 and Sprint have developed into Eric's number one stock sires. Their bloodlines can be found in the pedigree of his best pigeons, and they have bred quite a few prize winners. We take a look at the best national results of Berckmoes in recent seasons:
3rd national Gueret with “Bang” (bloodline “Sprint” & “Donkere 18”) 7th national Argenton I with “Anke ”(bloodline “Sprint” & “Donkere 18”) 8th national Bourges with “Bourgesman” (bloodline “Sprint”) 9th national Gueret with “Gueretje”(bloodline “Sprint”) 10th national Chateauroux with “Red Angel” (son of “Donkere 18”) 11th national Argenton with “Den Zao” (bloodline “Sprint” & “Donkere 18”) 11th national Limoges with “Sven” (bloodline “Sprint”) 17th national La Souterraine with “Angel” (daughter of “Donkere 18”) 17th national La Souterainne with “Kletskopke”(bloodline “Sprint”) 17th national Narbonne with “Bonne” 19th national Gueret with “Mataboe”(bloodline “Sprint”) 20th national Bourges with “Sven”(bloodline “Sprint”) 21st national Monluçon with “Anke” (bloodline “Sprint” & “Donkere 18”) 24th national Gueret with “Sven”(bloodline “Sprint”) 25th national La Souterainne with “Sproetje ”(bloodline “Sprint” & “Donkere 18”) 36th national Bourges with “Anke ”(bloodline “Sprint” & “Donkere 18”)