Albert Derwa with 'De Zoon'
They have had a few great seasons and 2012 was no exception. These are the achievements of 2012:
Union Hageland 5:
Date Released in Distance Number Category Prize
14-04 Momignies 104 km 613 yearlings 1-2-9-11-29-30-32-38-61, etc. (15/ 21 p.) 14-04 Momignies 104 km 455 old birds 2-15-32-46, etc. (7/ 9 p.) 21-04 Soissons 201 km 335 yearlings 4-5-9-16-17-24, etc. (11/ 19 p.) 21-04 Soissons 201 km 220 old birds 4-5-7-28, etc. (7 /8 p.) 29-04 Nanteuil 241 km 394 yearlings 2-33-40-47, etc. (10/ 20 p.) 29-04 Nanteuil 241 km 273 old birds 4-29-42, etc. (5/ 8 p.) 23-06 Soissons 201 km 1.831 youngbirds 1-4-19-23-49-75, etc. (32/ 58 p.)
Middle Distance Flemish Brabant: 12-05 Pithiviers 354 km 440 old birds 2-48-71, etc. (7/ 8 p.) 12-05 Pithiviers 354 km 554 yearlings 2-4-15-26-73-74, etc. (11/ 18 p.) 26-05 Pithiviers 354 km 837 old birds 4-5-9-17-22, etc. (8/ 8 p.) 26-05 Pithiviers 354 km 784 yearlings 2-3-5-12-29, etc. (12/16 p.) 21-07 Pithiviers 354 km 978 youngbirds 3-4-5-7-8-9-10-14-18, etc. (44/ 56 p.) 11-08 Pithiviers 354 km 845 youngbirds 1-3-4-21-23-24-28, etc. (26/ 30 p.) 18-08 Pithiviers 354 km 412 youngbirds 1-2-4-6-7-8-11-12-14-30, etc. (26/ 31 p.)
Albert plays both with the cocks and the hens. In the beginning of the 2012 season he basketed the cock and the hen of his couples together. After a while he noticed that the cocks were not performing as they should so he decided to keep the female partners at home. These partners joined the training flights of the other racing pigeons. As a reward for their achievements in the past season they could send their top class pigeon ‘De Zoon’ to the Olympiad in Nitra as the third pigeon in category D for Belgium.
'De Zoon'
This is unusual because ‘De Zoon’ has only been basketed once this season for the race from Momignies. He won a second prize against 455 pigeons. ‘De Zoon’ had had an amazingly successful 2011 season and the fanciers were in doubt. Should they basket the pigeon again with the risk of losing him or should they just enjoy the prizes he has already won? Given the already impressive coefficient of this pigeon they decided to no longer basket ‘De Zoon’.
Here is an overview of the most important results of ‘De Zoon’:
Datum Release site Prize Against Distance(km) 09-04-11 Momignies 7 590 104 17-04-11 Soissons 1 212 201 24-04-11 Soissons 1 577 201 01-05-11 Nanteuil 1 615 241 07-05-11 Pithiviers 9 1,263 354 14-05-11 Pithiviers 4 1,373 354 21-05-11 Pithiviers 1 1,200 354 28-05-11 Bourges 1 460 457 11-06-11 Chateauroux 5 8,092 506 02-07-11 Argenton 3 407 535 14-04-12 Momignies 2 455 104
Imagine having such an excellent pigeon in your loft! He feels great too, with vibrating muscles and a soft plume. It must be a great sensation to see this pigeon arrive home after a race of between 100 and 500 km. Consider that in 2011 there were a few races where ‘De Zoon’ arrived home simultaneously with his brother ‘Primo’ B09-2027029, who is one year older. This was also the case in Chateauroux, where ‘De Zoon’ won a fifth prize against 8092 yearlings and ‘Primo’ settled for third against 6281 old birds. The two brothers stem from the great racing and breeding hen ‘Paulien’.
The Derwa family
Albert takes care of the pigeons and his wife Francine carries out the administrative tasks for this top class pigeon loft. She knows quite a lot about pigeon racing as well. Albert is retired now but he still goes to the monastery every day, where he started as a maintenance worker in 1977. He used to work fulltime in a hospital; now he works part-time in the monastery. He works three hours a day, usually as a maintenance worker but sometimes he also makes biscuits for the nuns. Could it be that the tranquillity and loyalty of Albert have a positive influence on his pigeons as well? One thing is clear: Albert really enjoys his pigeons and everything related to it. This explains why he has a fairly small team of birds. “Tranquillity and a good overview” is beneficial both for the fancier and the pigeons. Francine couldn’t agree more.