It is not the first time Peter has reached the top of the podium, he had for more than ten years, been one of the best fanciers in Denmark with a lot of titles at national, section and club level.
In a hard season it was not until the last flight from Freiburg that the titles were decided, and that in a very hard competition against other top lofts in Denmark.
Results of races in the championship
Limburg 650 km 1,2,3,4 in section of 33 birds (4/8)
National 6/55/59 of 602 birds
Limburg 650 km 1,3,14 in section of 99 birds (3/8)
Region 1 / 11 / 88 / 180 of 628 birds
Baden-Baden 815 km 3,4 in section of 33 (2/4)
Region 3 / 4 / 5 / 8 of 163
Wurtzburg 710 km 1,6 in section of 83 (2/8)
Region 35 / 65 of 512 birds
Antwerpen 630 km 1,9,19,25,45 in section of 235 (5/23)
2 / 20 / 70 / 123 of 991 birds
Giesen 690 km 1 in section of 97 (1/9)
Region 1 of 612 birds
Gøttingen 515 km 1,2,3,25 in section of 140 (4/11)
Region 16 / 25 / 34 of 571 birds
Freiburg 910 km 1,3,15 in section of 79 (3/22)
Region 5/4 of 329
National - 5/16 of 729 birds
Drive and system
Peter works hard with his pigeons all year round and spends a lot of hours in the loft, nothing is left to coincidence - he always has an eye for the birds health and he also ensures that they get the best possible feeding and health care.
Peter is always looking for new ways to improve his loft and his racing team, and is not afraid to buy new birds to try out.
Before the season all birds get a cure against canker, after this he starts the training and the old birds get about 20 training flights - from 20 to 50 kilometres, so that all birds are in good shape before the season starts at the beginning of May. The birds are never trained more than 50 kilometres.
The system he races is a traditional widowhood system with 60 cocks and also about 15 pairs on the old natural system. The widowhood system is raced so that the cocks do not see the hens before basketing - but after a race they are together for the rest of the day and a couple of times in the season they are together until Sunday morning. Normally each pigeon has to fly each other week in the national races where the season ia from week 21 to week 32 - but if a race is hard the birds can have more than 2 weeks rest when they a participating in short distances up to 125 km.
When he is not working with his own pigeons he is also member of the Danish board and he worls hard here also with arranging transport for the races and other stuff.
Strain
As in other sports, it is not possible in any competition in the pigeon sport to stay at the top of the national competitions and win a title without a very high class of bloodlines in your loft.
His strain of top birds has been created over a long time (35 years) and his goal is to breed pigeons that can perform at the top level in the sport at all distances. The old basis strains in his loft are from some of the best fanciers from Belgium and Holland - Floor Vervoort / Frank & Mariette Van den Eynde / Flor Engels / Constant Denisse / Peter Van De Merwe / Van den Wegen.
The 3 last years has seen more birds imported from Ulrich Lemmens in Balen and these birds are very promising and have already shown their potential with a lot of top prizes, so the future looks bright.
Breeding
Peter’s vision in breeding is to take a good number of birds from his known good pairs each year and also make a lot of different crosses each year to test his new birds.
Each year he breeds about 200 youngsters for himself and all of these go through a tough training regime with every youngster having about 4 – 6 flights up to 200 km.
The loft
The loft is by Danish standards, a big loft with good space for all the birds – on the back of the loft there is space for breeding pairs and youngsters.
When you visit Peter you will notice the air in the loft is excellent.
Top birds
246-09-0651
Winner of the last marathon flight from Freiburg 910 km and he was also, a couple of weeks, befor no. 7 from Giessen 690 km, all section results.
The strain of this bird on both father and mother's side is from Ronny & Constant Denisse from Kappellen.
246-11-0059
One of the best birds in the season 2013 – he had a lot of good races, all results are section results:
week 25 with 24 / 440 Stendal 350 km week 23 with 14 / 99 Limburg 650 km week 25 with 1 / 83 Wurzburg 710 km week 27 with 19 / 235 Antwerpen 630 km week 29 with 1 / 97 Giesen 690 km week 31 with 26 / 140 Gøttingen 515 km
The father is from G. Kouters and the mother is from a fancier in the section, John Jakobsen
246-11-723
One of the new ones – also with a super season in 2013, all results are section results:
week 23 Hannover 30/269 week 24 Osnabrück 13/273 week 26 Minden 3/162 week 27 Altona 54/427 week 29 Minden 1/256 week 30 Soltau 31/204 week 31 Soltau 8/226 week 32 Freiburg 15/ 79
The strain of this is Peter's own mixture.
From Denmark we wish all fanciers the best for the new season, 2014.