The loft and care

Flying

Most yearlings fly the sprint and middle distance races according to the racing program. In 2022 we had five of the six middle distance flights two nights in the basket. To keep up we look at the general condition of the pigeons and when there is doubt about whether they will come back or not we keep them at home.

We race the young pigeons carefully so that we still have a lot of young cocks for the next year and some well-trained pigeons olso. The young pigeons have been darkened more and more in recent years. We didn't do that before. We do this to try to basket more pigeons on the last and longer young pigeon flights. We breed around 50 young pigeons to race on the young pigeon flights.

Some yearlings are raced all long-distance flights and some 2-year-old pigeons are raced all middle-distance and long-distance flights but we think that that is hard for the pigeon because in the long term they are also expected to fly early. Recently we olso have pigeons that we only race on the sprint flights, we do this to try and fly better because they can get tired from the longer races. Which pigeon to basket is a hard task, it's based on looking at the flight results, the overall impression after a heavy effort and how quickly they train again after the heavy effort.

Late youngsters participate in the late tour or in some cases the cake flights. If we olso breed later summer youngsters they will mainly be raced in the sprint and late tour in the following season.
We mainly lose pigeons to birds of prey. There is a falcon in Leeuwarden and several hungry species of birds of prey are active in Ferwerd. Cats are olso a danger, luckily the dog chases them away on the ground and the cat chases them away up on the loft.
We only train the young pigeons when they have been roaming to other places. When they are ready, we take them a little further away, depending on what they encounter along the way and how many we loose.
We try to prevent field flying by giving products with minerals and by giving the pigeons time to roam around in and around their own loft. The pigeons also bathe outside on the flat roof or in the plastic bin on the ground.
We keep the pigeons indoors in December, after the season they are olso given rest and in the winter months we try to let the pigeons outside as much as possible and train them to keep them healthy and well conditioned.

The loft

All cages are homemade and in the garden behind the house. We have a breeding loft with a run that houses about 12 couples. Most cages have a light panel in the roof and an attic with a sliding part that can be opened and closed for better ventilation.

We have one flying loft for Jesse with two compartments. On the left about ten old cocks and on the right about twelve yearlings. Both have a run in front of them. The loft has about half a meter of stone wall that was placed on a concrete subfloor and the wooden shed was built on top of that. This is done so that the bottom planks do not rot so quickly, to prevent vermin and to make the coop a bit drier than if there is no concrete and stone wall underneath. The outdoor planks are weather resistant due to the type of wood and the varnish on them, insulation plates are used between the outdoor planks and the inner plate. Olso to make the lofts drier. Sije has three racing lofts with approximately 15,10,8 cocks and each with a run.
We have a cage for underlay couples and old fighters with about ten cocks in it. Also with a run in front and a hen box in it so that more can be put in.
We have a young pigeon loft, a loft for the racing hens and a loft for the widow hens. There is also a run in front of the young pigeon loft. Since 2023, we have separated the young hens from the young cocks, the young hens then join the racing hens in the larger loft and the cock stay separate in the smaller loft of the racing hens.

The care

We put a pigeon that has an qurable illness in a basket in the garage at home and we put it back in the loft when it's all healed up. The medicine cabinet changes with what helps to make the pigeons healthier. We do watch the pigeons alot to know if they are allright or to see what is wrong with the pigeo . The sooner we see something that is unusual the sooner we can do something about it. We go to the vet De Vries who lives in Hallum. Sometimes we go to a different vet. We go to stores in the area who sell pigeon supplies. Sometimes we buy stuff online. We try to clean the cages and refresh the straw 5 times a week but we do not think cleaning the lofts is the most important thing to do. We do not let the breeding pigeons outside so we have to give them a bath in the avery.

Feed, drinks and by-products

We give the pigeons fresh water olmost every day and we clean the pans to prevent cancer (het geel).
We give the following products to the pigeons if we want them healthier and have more energy:
- Beyers premium Koopman all-in-one
- Candy seeds and peanuts
- Grit extra from Beyers
- Pikkoek from natural

Selecting

We select the racing pigeons based on health. We don't want pigeons to make us sick or for sick pigeons to make healthy pigeons sick. A pigeon that comes home later than the rest can still be a champion bird we olso have pigeons that do not fly fast as a young pigeon or as a yearling, but do become very good at two years old. We try to breed from the best and ofcourse get more pigeons who are affordable but very smart and fast we are careful with our healthy young pigeons so they can stay healthy and alive for a long period of time. We do not keep pigeons that do not perform well in the long term and we do not breed from them either except when they are brothers/sisters or closely related to the best birds then we do breed with them.

We olso select/choose which pigeons can and cannot participate in the heavier and longer flights, those that can easily fly for a longer period of time are taken to the long distance, pigeons who do not show fatique during the season and the pigeons that have already flown wellover longer distances in the past are olso taken along.
For breeding we also select/choose where we will and will not breed from, the real breeding pairs where the pigeons with the results or the breeding results are highly valued. more young will be kept from them. We try to take everything into account to create the best breeding couples. To make matters even more complicated, we have noticed that the best pigeons do not necessarily come from the best racers or the best pedigrees. The health and character of the pigeons is very important to us.

Breeding

We try to put our breeding ideas on paper. The big secret of 2023 was that we bred from a Belgian hen from the Schroeven-Hermans team. They fly very well with hens. We think that that can have a significent positive impact on our breeding because we mostly fly with the cocks. The old-fashioned traditional widowhood with cocks means that the hens can only be selected based on pedigree, build/appearance and performance as youngsters.
We don't care about small or large pigeons. We do not breed based on build or size, but we will not easily make pairs which are both small or big.
Sometimes we buy pigeon nest mats and sometimes we let the pigeons themselves bring straw or tobacco stalks to the stone nest dish. We break down nests that are too high because the eggs and young can fall off. We breed by our own ideas and we look at the pedigrees. The feeling is often based on what we are told, what we see in the loft and in the air.
We started pigeon breeding on November 27, 2024. In the past we did this during the Christmas holidays because otherwise there was no time for it due to work.
The pigeon is ringed 7 days after the eggs hatch. We put the ring numbers in compustam 9.4. We do this for our own use and because we need all ring numbers for the mandatory vaccination. 25 days after hatching, when the skin under the wings is completely feather, the pigeon is weaned, or in other words, taken away from the parents to another loft that does not contain territorial cocks. We often leave small young pigeons with their parents for a little longer.

Loft reinforcement

We want to breed good pigeons but we are olso always looking for loft reinforcements. Below you will see a pedigree of a pigeon bred by M. Dhanyns from Evergem. We fly with this cock and see on the pedigree that 12 of the 14 pigeons from the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents have been basketed and have olso won prizes. Of the other two, 1 is a sister of an early racer and 1 is a daughter of the plets, which is a pigeon with a name. The pigeon still has to proof if it can fly home!