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Any one looking for accomodation the Belvedre has rooms, is nice warm, and a good buffet breakfast, only 5 mins from winter gardens

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Copied from Facebook 6th January 2026 Stuart Wilcox Auctions @ Blackpool 2026. We have our normal high quality Auction program on Friday the 16th of January and Saturday the 17th of January 2026 at the Savoy Hotel Friday Night 16th January May Pigeons Viewing 4.15pm - Sale Starts 5.00pm Stuart Wilcox Viewing 5.30pm – Sale Starts 6.15pm UK Golden Duif Viewing 6.45pm – Sale Starts 7.45pm Saturday 17th January Champions Auction Viewing 1.15pm - Sale Starts 2.00pm Flanders Collection Viewing 15.15pm – Sale Starts 4.00pm Syndicate Lofts Viewing 6.45pm – Sale Starts 7.45pm I will present each auction list separately and in order – This one is the famous Golden Duif UK Auction on the Friday Night, a particular favorite with fanciers and one of the highlights of the weekend. A strong line up as normal, all selected by Rik Harmans Some rooms are still available at the Savoy for the Blackpool Show Weekend - Fri 16th and Sat 17th £55 a night Bed & Breakfast for Friday and Saturday £65 a night with evening meal! To book early before all the rooms are gone call 0161 923 0300 and mention Stuart Wilcox to secure the above offer price

Billy Looker of Mitcham. I first became aware of Billy Looker and his wonderful team of pigeons when he won the Three Borders Federation from Messac in the 2015 season, after which I invite him to my home to have some birds photographed for this article. He came to Claygate in February and on seeing his six pigeons and their race performances it was clear to me that his great performance started long before his Messac success. His 2015 Federation winner was his yearling blue cock, now named ‘The Fed Topper’, and he is a son of Bill’s champion stock cock, ‘Lenny the Lion’. The blue cock was raced on the roundabout system and recorded from Messac (258 miles) 1st club, 1st Three Borders Federation, 3rd SMT Combine (1,164 birds). Billy has raced his old birds on the roundabout, with outstanding results for several years and tells me, he can accommodate 24 pairs, and finds the system very enjoyable. During the racing season the cocks are in with the nest boxes and the racing hens are on perches. The racers are let together on the marking day and on their return from the race they are left together for one hour, before going back on the system. Bill’s loft is 20ft long, with four section and the young bird section has a 5ft aviary so the inmates can enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. The structure is fitted through out with roof lights, for nature light and vents at the bottom and at roof level for good ventilation. Deep litter is not used in the racing loft, as Bill like to keep an eye on the birds dropping at all times. He has eight stock pairs which are housed in a 8ft breeding loft and he uses deep litter in this loft, which he says has never been a problem to the birds. The race birds are paired up in January and normally they single rear a youngster and then the hens and their youngsters are removed at around 16 days, and then they are on the roundabout system to start racing. They then start to get regular exercise around the loft and once they are going well at home, Billy starts to train them for about eight tosses up to 30 miles before the first Federation race. As previously stated the racers see their mates on the marking and they are never broken down with their feeding. Training tosses along the south coast are preferred and Billy tells me that he never trains during the racing season, unless their form drops and then he will give them a tosses or two to bring them back. He has started enjoying channel racing in recent seasons and likes to pick his races for certain pigeons. The old birds are fed on Mariman’s Varimax and Super Power 50/50 mixture, and he has found there is no wastage, and they fly well on this feeding. The main racers in the loft today are: The blue hen, ‘The Combine Hen’, winner of 2010: 2nd club, 3rd Three Borders Federation, 3rd SMT Combine (1,557 birds) Yelverton and her nest sister ‘28106’ winner of 1st club, 2nd Three Borders Federation Exeter, the blue chequer pied hen, ‘Mason’, winner of: 2014: 21st section, 40th open BICC Falaise (old hens), 6th section, 27th open BICC Guernsey (old hens), the handsome blue pied cock, ‘The Flash Cock’, the winner of: 1st club (234 birds), 1st Three Borders Federation (1,424 birds) Blandford (92 miles), the blue chequer WF hen, ‘The Alencon Hen’ winner of 1st club, 2nd Three Borders Federation, 3rd SMT Combine (749 birds) Alencon, 23rd section, 45th open BICC Falaise, 3rd club Fougeres, 3rd club Falaise and of cause the 2015 Messac Federation winner, ‘The Fed Topper’. A very impressive team of racers! Billy is a heating engineer and has been self-employed for eight year. He tells me his wife isn’t interested in the pigeons, but his two children, Crystal aged seven and Billy junior aged one, love them and like them to fly and feed them. They both have their favourites and Billy’s nephew, Mason, helps him with the cleaning out and feeding. Mason is five years old and he sometimes goes to the pigeon club with his uncle Bill for marking. Bill has always been interested in ‘Country Sports’ and fishing, which he has had a lot success at. He likes Ferreting and shooting, and has done a lot of Clay Pigeon shooting. Billy says his most thrilling thing in his time in pigeon racing was winning the Three Borders Federation from Messac in 2015. He has several premier positions at the top end of the Combine result, including 2nd open and says his main aim now is to win the Combine! The families in keeps are good at short and long distance racing, but he enjoys the long distance events best and his best performance to date was winning the Three Borders Federation from Messac (258 miles) in 2015. Billy says it is a big ‘thanks’ to Lenny Jenkins for his help and advice over the past few years and thanks also to his mum, who helps him out with the pigeons when he away working and can’t get to the loft. The main family kept at the Mitcham loft are: Staf Van Reets from Lenny Jenkins of Dagenham in Essex, plus some of Lenny’s own family of pigeons and the very successful Muller / Aarden pigeons from the Padfield Brothers in Wales. Billy Looker was born in London in 1984 and has lived in Mitcham all his life. His dad has always been a Fancy Pigeon fancier, starting many years before Bill was born, so pigeons have always been a big part of the Looker’s life. Billy has had Fantails and Tumblers all his life and had his first race birds in 1998, when he formed a racing partnership with Wayne Gardiner. Billy told me, sadly the partnership only lasted a few seasons, but he really caught the racing bug! He started racing again on his own in 2007, with a few gift late breds and in 2008 he had his first team of racing young birds. He purchased some youngsters from the Breeding Station, which were Soontjen and one of them won two firsts in the Mitcham club. Bill has still got that hen and she has bred some real quality youngsters over the years. He can remember racing in the very strong Mitcham FC back in 1998 and one of the best flyers then was Frank & Sue Carson and says they still are today. His biggest mistake in his novice days was overcrowding and over feeding, but since meeting Lenny ‘the lion’ Jenkins in 2009, he has looked back. Billy has learnt a lot about feeding and conditioning the birds in recent years. In his early days the young Billy was gifted pigeons from every one, which performed ok, but soon realised that if he wanted to really compete against the best he needed to invest in good pigeons that were winners. His first club was the Mitcham FC, which was then based at the Bull PH in Church Road and his first loft was nothing fancy, just a 12ft structure with two sections and open door trapping. He remembered at that time everyone was talking about the new thing, the ‘darkness’ system and he taped black bin liners over the young bird section windows, but it worked, because he won races. Text & Photos by Keith Mott (January 2026)

Two sets of 5 high Pipo boxes available can deliver

Copied from Facebook 5th January 2026 Maurice Mattheeuw’s fascination with pigeons started early, leading him to develop a deep knowledge of their care and training. He dedicated himself to refining bloodlines, breeding pigeons known for their remarkable speed and endurance. The Mattheeuws pigeons can do far more than just race 100 to 400 km. Maurice has also been crowned 1st champion in several other clubs. And that’s not even counting the countless 1st prizes he adds to his honors list every season. Over the past five seasons, his record looks like this: 28x 1st in 2007 24x 1st in 2008 40x 1st in 2009 40x 1st in 2010 35x 1st in 2011 #fblifestyle

CLICK ON LINK BELOW https://loftbuddy.winfort-lofts.co.uk/

Hope he gets caught, pure eveil scum bag

Copied from Facebook 4th January 2026 IAN MCKAY Aberdeen Federation of Racing pigeons Young bird Breeder / Buyer sale 612 club 615 Gt Northern Road Aberdeen Sunday 19th April @ 13:00 penning The need to raise more funds to fulfil our intention of purchasing a new transporter for 2027 brings the B/B to the fore as in the past it has not been well supported and we would like to put forward to all members a request to support the sale by donating and/or buying a bird, if you feel for any reason you cannot donate a bird we would like you donate £20 to help with this project for a new transporter. Your £20 can be paid to your club sec or straight to the Fed Transport account: SC 87-34-01 Ac no 00020441 There will as usual be a raffle on the day so we require prizes. If you could donate towards the raffle could you let us know please. The following have started it off by donating. A Williamson 2 Bottles W Davidson. 1 Bottle Bacardi I McKay. 1ltr of Whyte & McKay’s whisky

Copied from Facebook 4th January 2026

Copied from Facebook 4th January 2026

All the best for 2026

Happy New year everyone🥳🎉

All the best everyone, hope you have a good one, and all the best for 2026 Dougie/Michelle

On behalf of Fifer and myself, I would like to thank all the members of Basics and wish each and everyone of you a Happy New Year, and a prosperous 2026

Copied from Facebook 30th December 2025 by: tuspalomas in Colombofilos karel meulemans Karel Meulemans' famous palomar of Arendonk is a legend in Colombophilia. A breed of pigeons that has been scattered all over the world like the Janssen themselves, with the difference that Karel has won the same many 1st prizes, starting in the 50s to continue winning even today (2007). Most fans think Karel's pigeons are mid-ground. This is not true, Karel started with the big bottoms in the 90s, loose 700-850 km. Won his first National in 1995 and became champion of Belgium KBDB in 2001 from those distances. He wanted more, the real long distances too. He set up his mind to be on top of the big funds and became a famous fund maker in the province of National Antwerp. Race and History Karel Meulemans now 74 years old, retired in 1990. He used to work on a farm, his own farm. After World War II it started with pigeons. Met a fellow Adriian Wouters who traveled together his pigeons. They had a famous breeding couple famous in the world: "Oude Van Den Bosch X Janssen, a few years later he had Frans Marien as a Colombophile partner. Marien & Meulemans came to be very successful in the middle. Raising and flying their pigeons, many Colombophiles got first prizes in the middle background with descendants of their pigeons. In 1980 Frans Marien died and all the pigeons were sold at a public auction, Karel bought most of the best travellers: Chalet, Prins , Het Schoon , Donker , Bonte Duif were crossed with the best of Hofkens pigeons. Karen immediately succeeded. Her daughter Linda began to be interested in pigeons and formed tandem with her from 1981-1990. In 1986, some famous pigeons like Karen were stolen from their pigeon farm. In 1990 in Tandem Meuleman and Damen began, Damen the husband of Linda Meulemans, Linda and Walter Damen live in a house near Karel. The big success in the big fund started in 1995. Meulemans and Damen won the 1st National of Dax, 2nd International and 8th AS long bottom pigeon. The base traveling pigeons in the 90s were Montargis 245/88 (son of Het Schoon Donker), the super female in the middle background 467/95 (1st Bourges and 7th National Argenton) sister of the main breeder 118/90, the 401/95 (daughter of Montargis), 347/91 ( mother of Dax's 1st National and sister 118/90), 345/91 ( blue female with 1st Melun among 1,780 pigeons, 8th National Argenton among 27,499 pigeons), the red 311/90 (father of the 1st National of Dax, cross between chalet, Prins and Georges Bolle. But the main breeder was 118/90 which has an interesting story when Meulemans and Damen got the KBDB large fund national championship in 1999,3 sons of 118/90 were their best travelers, these three brothers, Pantano 868/96 , 590/96 and 591/96 won numerous awards. On the day of the national championship in Ostend they asked Karel to bring some pigeons to teach the guests there attendees. Karel showed the 118/90, but at night this male was stolen, Karel had to go home without the father of his three best travelers in the year 1999, he was disappointed, but he knew that the male was no longer fertile, had not had children in the last two years. A few months later, the 118/90 returned to the palomar of Karel Meulemans, the thieves probably tried to get him out, but to the power, they had released it. The father of 118/90 is the 758/89 obtained from an egg from Van Gils brothers of the 1st National of Marseille with his 1st National of Pau 87 , the mother of 118 /90 was the 233/89 ; from the old line Meulemans and Het Schoon Donker. Method: Karel, Linda and Walter have 65 widows, including the yearlings. All widows are coupled on March 20, old widows can peck 5-6 days and yearlings 17-20 days, not pichones. After the Perpignan all widows can hatch eggs twice but never piglets. In 2001, Karel arrived to travel 6 females to the natural, participating up to mid-back in the first position, in the second position, they went up to 550 km twice. , in the third position with 2-3 days pichons were sent to Perpignan 965 km. Karel won 40-43-161 National 5 women he ruled. Karel advises beginners to at first focus on the loose speed and half bottom, it takes many years to succeed in long distances and some amateurs to focus on all modalities and not specifically on one do not reach success in any and lose interest and stop traveling pigeons.

Well done all

Sighthill 2025 presentation day 🍻

Hi l think probably 18x 9 flat roof

What size of hut are you looking for

I used Alex Wight from Fife ...also known as RV Woodcraft