Harold was about 10 years old when he came into contact with the pigeon sport. Now about 40 years later, he is one of the leading long distance lofts in the Netherlands. It was in 1998 that he fully specialized in the extreme long distance. In the first years he only raced in the afternoon releases, but the ZLU races with morning releases were soon added. As we see in many top lofts, that a super breeding couple is the basis of all successes, this is certainly also the case with Harold. De 1336 x Morsie is one such wonder couple that produced several toppers by Harold such as Rosco, Benjamin, Yolanthe, Zilverstar, top racerLimoosje and, perhaps the best known breeder, Rooie Japie. This stock, which has been built up over the years, is very easy to cross with pigeons from a.o. Jelle Jellema, Arjan Beens, Schoolderman and also the pigeons of G. and J. van Nieuwamerongen. Below is a number of beautiful championships of the past year with a number of super results over the years:
Harold has about 140 racing pigeons (old and yearlings). The racing pigeons are raced both on the nest as well as on widowhood with cocks and hens. The youngsters and the other racing pigeons reside in the beautiful new loft with the aviary at the front.
NL06-1745600, De Deugniet
A pigeon that has made an important contribution to the performances for years is De Deugniet.
De Deugniet comes from H. Schoolderman of Wierden and before he showed his talents as a breeder he was a great racing pigeon in the lofts in Den Ham and won a.o:
After this he became (grand) father of such as:
NL18-1525753, Miss Orange
Miss Orange is a granddaughter of De Deugniet described above but also of Rooie Japie, the most famous son of the super couple De 1336 x Morsie. Miss Orange herself won in 2019 a 1e NPO and 4 National Orange against 2.569 pigeons. She was the only pigeon that came through on the day of release and arrived after more than 15 hours of flying at 10:19 PM. With this she had a lead of 148 m.p.m. over number 2 and from one of the longest distances.
NL18-1510342, Miss Periqueux
Another granddaughter of De Deugniet who won a 1st NPO is this one, Miss Periqueux. As a youngster, Harold gave her to the Brothers ter Meer (Almelo) where she won the 1st NPO (2,644 p) and 4th National against 7,112 pigeons as a yearling from Periqueux. Her father is a son of De Deugniet who was coupled together with the '241 of Arjan Beens. Mother is De Goede Jaarling (31st Periqueux 1.258 p and 243rd Periqueux 2.745 p) and comes from co-breeding of Zwiers x Jellema
NL15-1303206, Red Dawn
Red Dawn is once again proof of successful crossings between Harold's own kind (Rooie Japie) x Daughter Jan III of Arjan Beens. Rooie Japie is himself (grand)father of no less than 24 top 20 NPO / Nat. pigeons. Red Dawn won himself a.o.:
NL14-1741601, Het Veens Blauwtje
A topper of the purest kind, that's how we can safely describe Het Veens blauwtje. She is a daughter of Carteus Giant (Hans Eijerkamp and Son). Mother is Koosje and in her lineage we see a.o. 1e Nat. Dax (2001), 1e Nat. St.Vincent (2002) and 1e Nat. Brive (2002). Het Veens Blauwtje won herself a.o.:
NL19-1352883, Robin
The icing on the cake in 2020 was without a doubt Robin. In 2019 Harold obtained this hen from Robin Bakhuis (Westerhaar) and as a yearling she turned out to be a true phenomenon. In her first marathon race she won a 19th Limoges against 2,068 pigeons. A few weeks later she again won an absolute top prize from Periqueux with a 9th National S3 against 8,064 pigeons. Normally it would be the end of the season after this, but Harold says the following about this, "Racing 3 times is a great exception, but before the basketing for Bergerac she was so beautiful that I basketed her again for Bergerac despite the 2 previous top prizes." When only a few pigeons were reported on Saturday morning, Robin landed at a quarter to ten with the result....1e National against 25.628 pigeons. Looking at her pedigree, her genetics are not a stranger to top results because in her pedigree we see, among other things, the lines of Olympic Miss Gijsje, Olympic Zara and Olympic Sper 022. Below you can see all of Robin's achievements in a row:
Finally
Above you can see just a small selection of all the successes of recent years. Successes that are not only achieved in their own loft but also in other lofts. To conclude, you can see below a number of fanciers who have performed with a direct and / or descendant of the Zwiers pigeon: