It all started around the year 1987 when the farm next to my ancestral home was bought by Roland Verstraeten, a highly performing pigeon fancier in the speed category. Very soon my neighbour woke my interest in the pigeonsport. In his youth, my father also had bred pigeons, and so he was again bitten by the “pigeon virus”. In this way we started back then with our own built loft with the speed races, Quievrain approx. 50km and Noyon approx. 160km.
Trial and error
The starting years were not so good in terms of performance, but that didn’t prevent us to fully enjoy our mutual hobby. Around 2005 however there was a change in a positive sense with the acquisition of pigeons from some local stars namely Eddy Vandriessche and the late Marcel De Beck. Since then we could also hold our ground on the speed races.
Transition
Considering the fact that seeing the homing of the pigeons always gives me a thrill, then as now, in 2012 I switched to longer middle distance with the same birds as before. When in the first year longer middle distance I immediately won a 1e provincial race on Bourges, I was instantely fond of the heavier stuff.
Fabian
The first provincial title was won by “Fabian”, named after Fabian Cancelara, the favorite cyclist of my late father. In 2014 that same Fabian won the first national Poiters in very heavy circumstances. He was the only bird who flew 1100m/m. Despite the various offerings, Fabian was not sold and was placed on the breeding loft where he has revealed as a true superbreeder of the colony.
Ellis
Ellis is our second big name who, as a youg hen, achieved to win the title of acepigeon GMD KBDB 2016, this on 3 national flights. Furthermore she was the best bird over 4 national flights for youngsters. It is no coincidence that Ellis is a granddaughter of Fabian.
Likewise, Ellis was not sold and she moved to the breeding loft together with her parents. In 2017 this already resulted in a sister of Ellis who flew extremely good on the national races.
Going further
From 2017 on we also participated in long distance races with considerable succes due to the offspring of Fabian. Also that same year we raced with old and yearling hens on the widowhood system, with their mates staying at home. In 2018 we started with new and bigger pigeon lofts.
And the successes continued…
In 2018 we won the 1st national on Cahors with Totti and the 4th national Ace KBDB GMD with Artemis.
2019 brought another national victory with Salvatore, who won the 1st national Limoges.
The future…
End 2020 we sold all our old birds in a total sale, so in 2021 we started with a rejuvenated breeding loft. On the lofts there are only pigeons from 2019 and 2020 left. They (both hens and cocks) will participate more in long distance races. For the result, we will see at the end of the racing season.