Articles

29/12/2012 - The pigeon is still an unsolved mystery and scientists have not yet been able to explain the amazing sense of orientation of the pigeon. Did you know that...

26/12/2012 - We have been discussing this topic in previous articles and we return to the subject because we hear the following question a lot: is it true that youngsters bred in winter will lose their value later on; no matter how successful they were in their year of birth?

24/12/2012 - Christmas day is here, which means that the new year is about to begin. While we were having Christmas dinner I was thinking about all the fanciers around. I wish them good luck, good health and a successful season in pigeon racing. At the same time I was wondering what will come out of the young birds that are about to hatch.

14/12/2012 - Our ideas about pigeon fancying have changed a lot compared to the year 1900. At the same time some things are still exactly the same as back then. It seems that people had already discovered some important truths about pigeons in the early 1900s.

11/12/2012 - One of our regular visitors, a great champion himself, sent us a letter and asked us to publish it on our website. The writer of this letter is surprised to see that so many fanciers hold to theories that should help them to recognise the best pigeons in their loft, especially in winter.

01/12/2012 - This is about sparing your pigeons. In recent years fewer and fewer fanciers would spare their pigeons outside the season. However, more and more fanciers agree that you should not put too much strain on your young team of racers, but why is that?

30/11/2012 - Here are some facts we would like to discuss: for anybody who knows a pigeon thoroughly – which is the case for any good fancier – it is not difficult to notice the physical qualities or any infirmities of one of his pigeons.

28/11/2012 - A late youngster is basically a youngster that was born after the racing season. We could say that any pigeon born after 15 July is considered a late or after season young bird.

24/11/2012 - Evolution or revolution in pigeon breeding? There is not a lot of difference between the two as both evolution and revolution indicate a change. There is only a small difference between the two but there is one.

23/11/2012 - In the 40 years that we have been involved in pigeon racing we have regularly experienced some new theories, each of which were said to be infallible. Nevertheless, each of these theories found their way to the paper basket, because they did not work out in practice.

21/11/2012 - There used to be a pharmacist in Germany who was known for having pigeons that won one top prize after another. One of our colleagues interviewed him a while back and now I would like to discuss some of the most interesting topics.

17/11/2012 - That is when we saw the introduction of widowhood. Our way of racing has not changed a lot since this new method came into use. However there is clearly some room for improvement for the system of widowhood itself.

17/11/2012 - Family breeding consolidates characteristics: a fancier uses well developed pigeons for this method, the pigeons he is most happy with. It allows him to maintain his breed or, to be more precise, to have pure bloodlines in their descendents.

15/11/2012 - The energy ability on which a pigeon can draw in a season are limited, so that when you prepare a pigeon for racing, you must not work it too hard so that it is able to draw on these reserves to the full when racing starts. For the reader who has read what we have written about the future

13/11/2012 - Most of the pigeons have finished the moult by now. Some pigeons that have bred later in the year have some bald spots and some of the older pigeons are still dropping their primaries. It is important to keep them as calm as possible.

12/11/2012 - In addition to a good moult and a good winter routine it is important to prepare for a successful season even before your pigeons are paired for breeding.

11/11/2012 - Fanciers who are not familiar with the normal development of a pigeon will find it more difficult to recognise abnormalities and deviations from the normal development compared to a fancier with a thorough knowledge.

06/11/2012 - Do not neglect the natural environment. Many fanciers are convinced that their breeding birds should live as close to the natural environment as possible in order to have strong and healthy young birds in the nest bowls.

21/10/2012 - We have a set of basic rules in pigeon racing that cannot be stressed enough. Every time you bring up the subject people will say: “That’s old news, I already knew that!”

14/10/2012 - To stick with the facts of Wittebouck: three of the four basic pigeon breeds, the tumbler, the ringbeater and the platneus pigeon have only been known since contemporary history. The tumbler was first mentioned by Aldrovandi and Willoughby.

11/10/2012 - About a hundred years ago (not two hundred years) we already had some pigeons that performed very well. They would in fact cover the distance between Bordeaux and Anwerp as fast as a pigeon could do today.