We all know the top colony of Luc and Hilde Sioen, they moved in 2022 and start at their new location on an old horse stable with some summer youngsters. Afterwards, the new loft was built in 2023 and the first early youngsters arrived here. Now they are back at the level they used to be at and that is simply national top. They now win the national flight from La Souterraine with the yearlings and win 2nd and 5th National La Souterraine with the old pigeons. The father of the winner is the grandfather of the 2nd and 3rd pigeon and the mother of the 2nd and 3rd pigeon is also the same and the fathers of the 2nd and 3rd pigeon are 2 nest brothers of each other. The stock of this colony mainly consisted of national top flyers and national winners where of course “Cameron” was a very special pigeon with 2 x 1st National. Now in these 3 arrivals “Cameron” is always present and this breeding line will become the strategy for the coming years.

How do you play the group of old and yearlings?

We keep the game simple with classic widowhood, in the winter period our pigeons did not breed but we let them come together once a week for a day and sometimes also a night. This way they stay familiar with each other and do not pair with each other. The cocks are no longer paired in the spring while we paired the hens around mid-March and let them raise youngsters. Normally we do this a month earlier but that did not work now.

When the youngsters are 14 days old, 1 youngster goes away with the hen and the other stays with the cock. This way the hens do not lay a second time which is not necessary for us and they can start on widowhood.

The hens come outside once a day from February to the end of April and from then on the pace is high with 2x a day. There is never any compulsory training here, a pigeon will indicate itself whether it wants to train or not but usually they do.

The cocks were darkened and the hens not in the spring and the cocks have now thrown 1 feather and the hens 2. But that is no problem to complete the season until the beginning of August.

When basketing, the cocks get the nest dish and the hens get their cock for half an hour. When they come home they usually stay together for a few hours but never until the next day. We find the age of the cocks of the hens very important, cocks that are as old as possible are ideal to motivate racing hens.

What do you find important in the loft?

The pigeons have to adapt to our system and that is not antibiotics. We have not treated the airways for 10 years and our selection standard for the breeding loft remains the same. We keep this up from young pigeons and the bad ones are eliminated.

We give our pigeons a yellow drop in the nose when they come home, we do this with all pigeons, even those that have not been with us. For the airways we use drag sand every week, we have pigeons that have mucus every week and pigeons that rarely have this. But pigeons that have this weekly will never become a breeder with us, because this is also bred into your stock and is therefore hereditary.

We also keep an eye on what happens in the loft, our hens are in small boxes and there is nothing on the floor. So they can safely go to the floor but mating with each other is under control here. With cocks it is a bit different, if you have few pigeons in a loft one can take over the floor or the food box and the other pigeons are disadvantaged. When there are enough pigeons in a loft you will have few problems with this. That is why we solve this by feeding the widowers a day longer than the hens and also feeding the cocks the last few days outside their shared food box and then in their living box so that they certainly have enough energy. These are small details but in those details sometimes lies the difference between a pigeon full of motivation or no motivation at all.

In terms of feeding we use mixtures from Beyers and Vanrobaeys. In the beginning this is light with mainly Galaxy Sport and Recup. Afterwards we feed with sport and in the last few days a fatty mixture is added. When they return home they get the mixture they left with, for speed this is even lighter than when leaving for a national flight.

BE 24-3021003 “Lorena” Blue Hen
1st National La Souterraine 5.288 yearlings
8 Prov Orléans 1.567p
12 Prov Orléans 2.780p

Arrival : 13:42:56
Distance : 529,931km
Velocity : 1252,99m/min

Father BE 19-3007995 Perfect Cameron
Super breeder
Grandfather of “853/23” 2 Nat La Souterraine 4,971p
Grandfather of “063/22” 5 Nat La Souterraine 4,971p
Is a son of “185/18” Thieme won himself 5 Nat (z) Argenton 1,462p x “024/17” Cameron won 1 Nat Argenton 15,235p – 1 Nat Limoges 9,661p

Mother BE 21-3015287 Jessie Jr
Super breeding hen
Mother of “853/23” 2 Nat La Souterraine 4,971p
Daughter of “508/15” Inbred Blue Ace Erik Limbourg x “792/16” Jessie won herself 8th Nat Ace Pigeon heavy middle distance KBDB 2018 – 
1 Nat (z) Argenton 804p – 1 Prov Argenton 1,794p – 1 Nat (z) Chateauroux 1,856p – 4 Nat Argenton 11,823p - 21 Nat Chateauroux 8,640p – 61 Nat Bourges 20,397p

BE 23-3030853 “Pauline” Blue white feather Hen

2nd National La Souterraine 4.971 old birds 
3 Prov Toury ’25 3.711p
4 Nat (z) Bourges ’24 440p
20 Prov Toury ’25 8.498p

Father BE 21-3015249 Special Inbred II ( Inbred Cameron )
Nest brother of “250/21” Special Inbred is father of “063/22” 5 Nat La Souterraine 4,971p
Son of “995/19” Perfect Cameron is son of “Cameron” 1 Nat Argenton 15,235p – 1 Nat Limoges 9,661p x 
“060/19” Beauty Cameron is daughter of “017” 1 Nat (z) Bourges x “Cameron” 1 Nat Argenton 15,235p – 1 Nat Limoges 9,661p

Mother BE 21-3015287 Jessie Jr
Super breeding hen
Mother of “003/24” Lorena – 1 Nat La Souterraine 5.288p
Daughter of “508/15” Inbred Blue Ace Erik Limbourg x “792/16” Jessie won herself 8th Nat Ace Pigeon heavy middle distance KBDB 2018 – 
1 Nat (z) Argenton 804p – 1 Prov Argenton 1,794p – 1 Nat (z) Chateauroux 1,856p – 4 Nat Argenton 11,823p - 21 Nat Chateauroux 8,640p – 61 Nat Bourges 20,397p

BE 22-3086063 Blue Cock

1 Nat (z) Argenton ’23 1.151p ( fastest 2.182p )
4 Nat (z) La Souterainne ’24 417p
5 National La Souterraine ‘25 4.971p
7 Nat (z) Argenton ’24 772p
49 Prov Clermont ’25 10.053p
98 Prov Clermont ’25 8.422p

Father BE 21-3015250 Special Inbred ( Inbred Cameron )
Nest brother of “249/21” Father of “853/23” 2 Nat La Souterraine 4,971p 
Son of “995/19” Perfect Cameron is son of “Cameron” 1 Nat Argenton 15,235p – 1 Nat Limoges 9,661p x 
“060/19” Beauty Cameron is daughter of “017” 1 Nat (z) Bourges x “Cameron” 1 Nat Argenton 15,235p – 1 Nat Limoges 9,661p

Mother BE 21-3015277 Beauty Axana 
Daughter of “974/19” Special Gabo is son of “Olympic Gabo” Olympiad pigeon Poznan 2019 and won 1 Nat (z) Limoges herself 1,410p – 27 Nat Limoges 15,789p – 33 Nat Limoges 14,922p – 35 Nat Brive 9,278p – 44 Nat Limoges 6,372p – 48 Nat Tulle 4,469p x “080/16” Axana won best old pigeon over 6 and 7 heavy middle distance races in 2018. She won 1 Nat (z) Argenton – 2 Nat (z) Chateauroux 1,856p – 2 Prov Chateauroux 3,402p – 40 Nat Chateauroux 8,634p – 59 Nat Chateauroux 18,793p – 63 Nat Gueret 5,331p

Buelens Kim