The first international flight is over, Pau was flown on Friday in very warm and heavy temperatures. On the day of the release itself, not many pigeons came home in Belgium and the winner was clocked on Saturday morning in the Antwerp Lake. This at one of the furthest distances from us at 6:37 in the morning at Gino Verheyen. The winning pigeon is a 4-year-old hen that has never missed on the international flights and is nevertheless a permanent value of this colony. Because of this victory, she can stop her racing career and focus on breeding. Gino is someone who has focused on the long distance from the beginning and is gradually building his colony with national toppers.

Nest game is the regular regularity here

The pigeons fly their first flights here in April on the speed on widowhood, they are coupled for the first time at the end of April and from then on the nests are broken down depending on the flight that is to come. They are made sure that almost 4 weeks before basketing, they are broken off so that they go into the basket after 10 to 14 days of brooding. Of course, you never have complete control over this, the pigeons for Agen will brood a little longer than usual because they lay faster, but that is nature.

In the winter period, Gino lets his pigeons outside 2 to 3 times a week, mainly to prevent crooked flyers and to prevent the wings from becoming stiff. Only during the moulting period do I keep the pigeons inside for a month because then the risk is too great if they have too few feathers for the birds of prey. He is not afraid of winter form and the pigeons are fed more sparingly so that they remain fast enough for the birds of prey. In the season itself, they come out more often of course. In the beginning this is once a day, but towards the flights of truth, I start letting all nest pigeons out very early in the morning from the beginning of June. I take them all off the nests and the hens fly without a flag for half an hour, the cocks keep this up longer and usually stay outside for an hour. In the afternoon they get a good meal before I open the loft for several hours of open loft. Even in very warm weather they have trained very well here so I saw that their condition was good. In the evening they are allowed outside again, this is very late to get used to flying late in the evening in the twilight. I do this almost daily to get the pigeons used to this. So the pigeons fly a lot at home during the season itself and with an open loft they go inside to drink and they can do what they want.

Here the pigeons are played as much as possible per pair on the big flights and in the winter I keep busy with this to pair them on paper so that the work is done for April when it is time.

I almost always feed full feed on the heavy long distance, I feed as little peas and beans as possible. I add a mixture of P40 grains and cat biscuits to my food so that they get animal proteins as a reserve. In addition, I feed them as rich in fat as possible during the last 4 days before basketing, but the pigeons will never go into the basket with a full crop.

As for tricho, there has been no treatment since last year, the pigeons do regularly get a yellow drop in their nose and when they return home, the pigeons get 1 to 1.5 days of drinking water in their living box to prevent the infection of other pigeons. I certainly try to change the water 3 to 4 times a day, especially now with these very hot days, I also find that helps against tricho. I also never treat preventively and visit Stijn Rans if something is wrong. I treated them for the airways at the end of April and that is usually all.

Winner Pau

BE 21-6124051 “Viviani” Hen

1st National Pau 3,028 old birds ( 12 I.Nat 11,906p )
15 Prov Agen ’24 742p ( 130 Nat 6,435p )
82 Prov Agen ’23 638p ( 513 Nat 5,831p )
108 Prov Narbonne ’24 498p ( 956 Nat 4,983p )
118 Prov Agen ’22 1,164p ( 611 Nat 7,331p )

Arrival : 06:37:53
Distance : 982,280km
Velocity : 928,53m/min

Father NL 19-1663494 Kleine Holleman – Gebr.Holleman
Son of “NL 471/17” Inteelt 6 is ½ brother of 1,4,7,12,13,16,18,19,42,45, National and is inbred to the “Jellema Doffer” x 
“NL 757/13” Donker won himself 16 St.Vincent 3,278p – 61 Bergerac 1,410p – 90 Cahors 8,594p and is also mother of 89 Nat Narbonne and 129 Nat Agen. 

Mother BE 20-6245898 Blue white pen – Erik Joris
Daughter of “963/09” Mister Bond Francois Struyf is a full brother of 43 Nat Marseille x 
“666/17”Dark white pen is a daughter of 1 Nat Limoges 15,643p

Buelens Kim