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Coalburn Presentation Evening 🐦⭐️

Copied from Facebook 8th February 2026

Copied from Facebook 8th February

Good morning folks

Morning folks

Morning folks

Copied from Facebook Barcelona dreams sometimes come true! Thanks to Bruno Messiaen for acquiring this story which hopefully will inspire fanciers like myself to fly Barcelona. Rene Verborg Belgium- 1st International Barcelona 1994(29,329 pigeons) René was born on the Pauvre Leute in Marke on 18 November 1918. His father Gustaaf Verborg was a pigeon and rabbit skin salesman and mother Maria Christis took care of her two children. As soon as he could ride his bike, René was given the task of bringing the inspectors to the two classrooms on Sunday morning, in Aalbeke and in Bellegem, where father Verborg then basketed for Arras. At the age of 14 René left school to work. He was successively employed by various employers and started playing and basketing with the pigeons independently because father no longer had much interest in them. During WWII there was no pigeon game, but René still kept his pigeons. When the war was over, he started playing in his own name, but because the family moved a few times, the results were somewhat lacking. Together with a business partner, he opened a garage in Marke. The collaboration lasted eight years until René joined the transport company Nuyttens and five years later at Linofil. In the age of 40, he bought 10 youngsters from André Vandewalle in Wevelgem, which he succeeded well with. He played well and won many awards. That led to the changing of pigeons. Where father had always played at the speed, René was looking all these years to catch up and move from speed to middle distance and the long distance to finally make Barcelona his dream flight. A dream come true when in 1994 he not only won Barcelona nationally on 12,399 pigeons but also became internationally primus against 27,329 pigeons! He had 11 pigeons with him at the time. His "Blue Barcelona" made his dream come true! Pictures showing Rene when aged 76 with his champion Barcelona International winner

If only 1 bird vomiting from those treated may just be an individual birds reaction to the treatment. Isolate this bird and keep an eye on it

THROWBACK: The Legacy of the late Norbert Norman Norbert Norman, a flax manufacturer, left his father’s home in 1945 and settled in Oostrozebeke, about 10 km from Oeselgem. He immediately began keeping pigeons at his new house and raced there with great success until 1978. The key foundation birds then were the unbeatable pigeons from the Catrysse brothers of Moere and a hen from Van Hee’s “Atomic” line in Wervik. In 1970, under DESMET-LIPPENS name, they entered the Barcelona race for the first time and stunned everyone by winning 1st International Barcelona, a victory that Norbert’s father had predicted. This champion was the only National winner ever sold by father and son Norman, and it became the most expensive bird ever sold at the time. In 1971, Norbert made a 250,000 Bfr bet with André Busschaert that he could place a bird in the top 100 National at Barcelona. He succeeded, placing two birds—91st and 96th. That same year, Norbert and Filip claimed their second National win, taking 1st National Limoges in Oostrozebeke with a 20 m/min lead. In 1977, they outdid themselves by sweeping 1st, 2nd, and 3rd National Limoges and placing six birds in the top 10 National. Over the years, they added many more titles, including 1st National Pau hens 1973, 1st International Pau hens 1973, 1st National Limoges 1984, 1st National Limoges Derby 1984, 1st National Argenton 1989, 1st National Argenton 1991, 1st Primus Interpares in 1982, and 1st Ace-pigeon.

hi i treat before breeding with 4+1 every year , this year one of my yearlings has vomited ! Anyone seen this before ?

Copied from Facebook 2nd Federation 2026

Fife Federation Breeder Buyer Sale 23rd- 30th March Organiser; thunderbigbaws aka Brian Chalmers --------------------------------------------

Copied from Facebook 2nd February 2026 All An informal meeting has been arranged to discuss any matters, questions, sponsorship (already £500 prize money per race guaranteed) relating to the Amal races for the 2026 season. All officials and any Fed members are welcome at Kennoway Bowling club, Cupar Rd, Kennoway, Fife KY8 5LR on Sunday 15th February at 1300 hours. Chairman: Brian Chalmers

BHW ‘SHOW OF THE YEAR’ BLACKPOOL 2026. Thousands of fanciers made the drive up to Blackpool in mid-January 2026 for the main event of the Show Racer calendar, the British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’. Everyone anticipates and looks forward to this wonderful weekend in Blackpool, not only for their annual fill of ‘pigeon fun’, but mostly to meet up with good pigeon friends. This year’s event attacked a show entry of nearly 2,000 birds and ‘Best in Show’ over all at Blackpool was won by a beautiful Show Racer blue cock owned by Jill and David Fisher of Bideford in Cornwall and when I spoke to Jill after the event she said, that the partners were thrill at wining ‘Best in Show’ at Blackpool for the second time. I rang to congratulate Jill on her return from ‘the main event’ and she told me, ‘we are so pleased with our 2026 Blackpool Best in Show winner, which we have named ‘Beau’. He is a yearling powder blue cock, bred from a pair of dark chequers that have both been good winners for us and won multiple times. Previous to winning BIS at Blackpool in 2026, ‘Beau’ also qualified for the Blackpool Supreme Champion class in 2025 as he won Best Show Racer as a youngster at the South West Show Racer Society Open show in December 2024. ‘Beau's’ nest mate is another blue bar cock which has also won well for us. My younger sister Denise Kean attended the Blackpool Show with me and she has her own team of show racers which she has been doing very well with. Denise, along with her daughter April, another pigeon girl, help run our, now all girl, "Ven Lofts" stand at Blackpool and so it is still a real family affair. Blackpool 2026 was a memorable one for the whole family as Denise also managed to secure her first Blackpool class winner. We were both so chuffed with our success and I can't help but think that Dad would be so proud to see us both on winners' row’. Jill, your dad, Mervyn was always so proud of his lovely family! Congratulations to you all! Text & Photo by Keith Mott (February 2026)

Well done

Copied from Facebook 29th January 2026

In the First World War, pigeons were used extensively for carrying messages. In the First World War, pigeons were used extensively for carrying messages. German marksmen were deployed to shoot the birds down. Pigeons were carried in tanks and released through tiny portholes in the side. Mine-sweeping boats carried pigeons so that in the event of an attack by a U-boat, a pigeon could be released with a message confirming the exact location of the sinking boat, often resulting in the crew being saved. Seaplanes carried pigeons to relay urgent information about enemy movements. In the Second World War, pigeons were used in active service in Europe, India and Burma

R.I.P Bob, condolences to the family

A TRIBUTE TO BOB WILSON OF STRATHMIGLO I was very sad to receive a message from my good friend, Terry Turpie today informing me that the Scottish champion pigeon racer, Bob Wilson had passed away at the age of 93 on 24th January. About ten years ago I went on a weeklong tour of Scotland filming for my video series and had the great pleasure to visit his loft and meet this great pigeon racer. Bob was a lovely man and made us all very welcome! Bob lived in Strathmiglo, a village near to Auchtermuchty in Fife and he owned and ran ‘Strath Garage’, the busy village garage. Bob’s racing loft was sites behind the garage and his very successful stock birds team were housed in the attic above the garage. Bob start up in pigeon racing in 1970 and was very successful with the Kirkpatrick bloodlines and after a short time out of the sport he restarted with some Belgium stock birds. He was only really interested in Federation racing up to 400 miles and has always raced his birds to the nest on the Natural system. One of his best performances in the early days was in 1979 when won the Fife Federation from Weymouth with 2.700 birds competing and lifted all pools. The pigeon was a four year old blue chequer cock which was set up especially for the race. Bob thought he had messed up when the cock took nine hours to come home from an 80 mile training toss on the Monday before the Weymouth race, but the game pigeon still came and won the very strong Federation the following Saturday. In recent years Bob had won it all in the Federation, but he got a his best thrill when he had the only four birds home on the day of liberation in the club from a very hard Sartilly (525 miles) race. On my visit to his wonderful loft, Bob showed me a handsome young blue cock and had flown all six young bird races that year to the nest box and had won: three firsts, two seconds and one fifth. On one race this game pigeon was feeding four youngsters in the nest box! Brilliant pigeon racing! Bob was a Natural racer and paired up his 20 pairs of racer on the full moon in February. He was always looking to improve his racing team and brought in the odd birds every now and then to try out and beat his own racers. In recent years the Blue Van Bruans were very successful for the Wilson loft. Bob’s 50 young birds raced the full programme up to 300 miles and were always paired up and raced to eggs and youngsters. Bob was a lovely man and when he passed away, Scotland lost one of its great racing pigeon champions! Our sincere condolences to the Wilson family and Bob’s many friends. Bob Wilson RIP. KEITH MOTT (26th JANUARY 2026

William Nicholls of Mitcham. William Nicholls made a good 1981 racing season great when he won 1st SMT Combine Le Mans with a wonderful 3,842 birds competing. His winner was his good Sion / Sheppard blue chequer cock, ‘Sez U’ and he had previously won many firsts racing inland. William has always been interest in pigeons before starting racing in 1975 with young birds. On starting he joined the Streatham SRFC and obtained some Sion stock birds from Less Stagg of Sunbury. William told me, Bill Eldridge introduced him to the Streatham club, otherwise he learnt about pigeon racing through reading books and keeping his eyes and ears open. Since starting up in 1975 he had won: thirty two firsts, twenty seconds, twenty four thirds in the very strong Streatham and Mitcham clubs. In 1981 his racing team was made up with the Les Stagg Sion pigeons and Busschaerts direct from Belgium and from Ron Hallam. The Nicholls pigeons were raced on natural, but William had a go at widowhood in his own way, without a lot of trouble. He said it was a nice sight to see the widowhood cocks trap on race day. The birds were fed on a first class mixture and were paired up in February. His racing loft was a converted furniture lorry, which still stood on its tyres and wheels, and he had a Kidby loft in which he kept his 20 pairs of stock birds. William kept his 20 pairs of racer and his 80 youngsters in the furniture lorry. He maintained the most important factor in good loft design was good airflow and he said, that good training was most important too, with his old birds getting a 40 miles toss three times a week and the youngsters getting a 30 miler five times a week. He line bred and liked a half-brother / half-sister mating, but was against having latebreds, having found them to be useless. William was dead against deep litter, saying it was unhealthy and preferring the scraper. He had no interest in the eyesign theory and was only interest in winning bloodline in the stock loft. At that time William thought his team were set up about right, with the Sions winning from Blandford (80 miles) through to Bergerac (450 miles) and the Busschaerts doing the sprinting. Text & Photos by Keith Mott (January 2026)

Copied from Facebook 23rd January 2026