Daniël Aerens from Drongen wins
1st National Montelimar hens
2nd National Pau 2.180 pigeons !!
Besides being a busy businessman is Daniel Aerens also an owner of a succesful loft of long distance and extreme long distance pigeons.
In 1984 moved Daniel into Drongen to lead more of a calm country life. There he has been quietly building his extreme long distance imperium, that is now coming into the spotlight. He started with pigeons of Cyriel Martens from Deinze, and of the late Norbert and his son Filip Norman from Westkapelle mainly from the line of ‘Neptunus’ (father of 2 national winners) and the ‘Herman’. From these pigeons Daniel managed to acquire his first long distance pigeons in the early 90’s - besides many others for example these: 1st Provincial Barcelona, 1st Provincial Limoges, and he became also the 1st Provincial Long distance Champion in East Flanders. A clear sign that he was on a good track. Then he got several pigeons from Jozef Vandenbroucke , for example a direct son of the famous ‘Didi’, a daughter of ‘halfsister Didi’, which up to now plays an important role in the loft.
In 1995 and 1996 Daniel moved in the direction of “Mekka of the extreme long distance” in Steenbergen in Holland, where he went to get pigeons from the legend of the long distance Anton & Lucie Vander Wegen. Also the adding of a ‘dochter Romario’ (acepigeon of the Belgian extreme long distance) from Van de Poel-Buckley, was a strong step to strenghtening of the breeding loft.
It is a true collection of first class pigeons, which are the background of Daniel Aerens’s loft. His loft is making each year a stonger and stronger imprint at extreme long distance events. This has grown into an absolute climax in 2002, when following prominent titels were achieved:
|
*** The Golden List 2002 ***
|
|
1st Champion of Belgium’s extreme long distance
1st West European Super Marathon (WESM) 1st Europacup 1st Champion Extreme long distance Entente Belge 1st Champion Royal Belgian Flying Club ‘Long distance and Extreme long distance’ 1st Champion ‘Extreme Long distance & Long distance’ Union et Liberté Gent Winner ‘Silver Wing’ Bruge Barcelona Club ... Etc … |
In 2003 went Daniel Aerens’s loft on and managed to achieve 67% national prize ratio at extreme long distance events. His five first pigeons on Barcelona, were also his five first pigeons on San Sebastian. Daniel was the one and only Belgian that has succeded in taking such victories. Further he won also the 1st + 2nd Provincial Perpignan hens competition (259 p.) in 2003. It was the hen, ring number 4390442/01, who have gotten the mentioned 2nd Prov. Perpignan (only to be beaten by a loft mate), and who in 2004 won with flying colours the 1st Prize National MONTELIMAR against 616 hens.
Take a look at her origin:
Father : 4400106/94 “DE 106”
Won besides many others Limoges 1.337 p. 104, Perpignan 5.765 p. 228, Barcelona 13.659 p. 1375
GF : The “ZWARTE PAU” 4160348/88 (from the mentioned cross of Cyriel Martens x Norman pigeons)
GM : “Schoon Blauw Norman” 3267256/92, a sister of 2 x 1st National Argenton winners owned Norman, and thus from the golden couple ‘Neptunus’ x ‘Edith’
Mother : 4116292/99 “BLAUWE 292”
A sister of the 1st Barcelona 1999
GF : 9504349/95 direct Anton & Lucie Van der Wegen, Steenbergen (NL), and also a father of the 1st reg. Barcelona !
GM : 3089624/89 “Josephine”, a daughter ‘Halfzus DIDI’ of Jos Van den Broucke’s.
It is very obviouos that this first class hen didn’t come out of nowhere, but that top blood is flowing through her veinst. A very good line, because a week after the national Victory of Montélimar, Daniel almost got a second national victory, but finally it was the second National Pau. This excellent cock, the PAU 4166209/00, 2nd national Pau comes from the same‘golden line’, just see for yourself:
Father : 4282329/92 “De MARSEILLE”
Won 1st regional Marseille !!
GF : 3089634/89 “Blauwe Van den Broucke”, from the Didi-line
GM : 4522555/87 “De 555-Duivin”, a daughter of the main couple (Cyriel Martens).
Mother : 4227805/97 “De 805-Duivin”
GF : 9504349/95 direct Anton & Lucie Van der Wegen, Steenbergen (NL), and also father of the 1st reg. Barcelona and grandfather of the 1st Nat Montélimar !
GM : 4273140/98 “140-Duivin”, 1st reg. Barcelona (and daughter of the ZWARTE PAU 348/88 x Schoon Blauw Norman 256/92, also the grandparents of the 1st Nat. Montélimar !!).
Besides the 2e National Pau, also the 1st regional ORANGE was won in the club of Ghent that weekend. There is no doubt about it, that the Aerens-team is now in his best condition. His team consists of 50 old widowers and 10 hens, that are raced on the nest (this is not counting the yearlings). The hens were in fact added in the last moment, because there were more races added to the the national long distance calender. The intention is to give more opportunities for good pigeons to race. This seems to be an very good approach. The hens were then after Montélimar separated, only to be coupled now. This way they have a youngster of 3 to 5 days before they are basketted for Perpignan.
The young pigeons don’t participate in races the year of their birth. They are allowed time to grow and to develop their strength and resistance. The cocks and hens are basketted for the first time as yearlings and they race from Limoges or possibly also from Beziers or Perpignan. According to Daniel the advantage of this is that they record fewer losses and that pigeons are less subject to all kinds of health troubles, that are often encountered with young pigeons, such as adenovirosis that appears almost every year among the young pigeons. The only disadvantage is a lack of flight routine and because of that, one cannot expect directly top performances. But this is not such a big setback, because the real athletes reach their full strength at the age of three or more and then they fly the marathon flights at their best. Therefore, only from two years of their age are the young pigeons put among the widowers and made a part of the widowers’ team. In this way, one can slowly build a team of old pigeons, that still have all their power and explosivness and they can put it to a good use in extreme long distance flights. This is an approach that has proven to be rentable and Daniel Aerens can now harvest the fruit of his hard work. This is again a proof, that you don’t become a champion of Belgium for nothing, there is always a lot of planning and vision behind it! The loft of Daniel Aerens, one of our current national top lofts for long and extreme long distance, is the good example of it.
