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staf van reets pigeons are the best pigeons the u.k has ever seen

HOW CAN YOU SAY WHICH HAVE BEEN THE BEST BIRDS IN THE U.K.IN TH LAST 30 YEARS,
IT DEPENDS ON MANY THINGS SUCH AS DISTANCE, E.T.C.THE STAF.VAN.REETS ARE VERY GOOD FOR SHORT TO MIDDLE DISTANCE RACING BUT I CERTAINLY WOULDN.T PUT THEM IN THE SAME CLASS AS THE KIRKPATRICKS OR JAN ARDENS WHEN IT COMES TO LONG DISTANCE RACING.

horses for courses ah,it the same in pigeons,depending on the distance, & ya system,i race sv reets,but,  like,pigeon man,have some other birds for the longer races. Speckled.

personally i would prefer pigeons bred from winners i.e if i wanted sprint birds i would want pigeons bred from generations of sprint winners, and the same goes for distance birds,  no matter what the so called" breed "is. i think we can be fooled a bit by adverts and breeds and sales,,,,,,,,i often wonder what breed the bucshearts are??/

Jimmy, was George Busschart not quoted as saying 'if the pigeons are in my loft, they're Busscharts'. Also read another piece that the modern Busschart was the equivalent to the 'old' Kirkpatrick. Personally, I'd rather have a modern winning line of Kirkpatricks, they've peppered many years with class performances.

I personally believe in horses for courses, so to speak.

Here in the USA birds that say fly well in the South do not fly well on other courses. Or well on the East Coast don't do as good on the West Coast.

My personal preferences are Van Reets for races up to 300 Miles, Janssens for the Middle distance and the old families for the longer distances.  There not as many long races over here as in the UK, the American Flyers are more in tune with the 300 mile young bird futurity races which is very sad as fewer and fewer clubs fly long.

We have had a great deal of luck with Bekaerts and birds bred from our one Desmett Matthys Cock and our Barker Cock.

yep ,  i agree with you all just hope this pol gives a bit of interest, staf van reet pigeons are now doing the distance round here ? i have a staf van reet cock 87 belg 6723401 i beleive he was the first mealy direct from staf in the UK , son of great vale of 81 still going at eighteen ? know  to over 200 first prize winners at all distances up to 500 miles children and g children ,all over the u.k in all types of weather ........ the weathe the stafs are winning in today is more unpredictable ,wet and adverse than the good old days ? ........has it changed in the u.s,a ? if it has i bet the stafs are winning over there ?

Hello Silverwings,
Yep the Staf's are winning all over the place here.One thing that a lot of people don't grasp is that SVR'S are extremely determined birds even in bad weather.  Three years ago we won a concourse (combine) at 790 ypm with a Van Reet Hen. Kids of our birds have won at upto 500 miles and a mealey son of one our VanReets flew in the South West Open this year and won the State of Georgia by an hour flying 502 miles and was 9th open flying against birds from 7 Southern States Another thing I have noticed about the SVR'S they come home on a smash race.  We ha a horrible smash at 200 in young birds and I only had 9 birds from 39 sent to two liberations home on the day, 7 were Van Reets.
all our birds are bred down from Dean Pallets birds, a guy in Boston bought most of his stock when he sold out.  They are all very muscular big birds with the exception of Champion Leyton Express who is very tiny and so are his children, they are proving fantastic over the longer distances

i think the best birds are busharts as they will go from the first race to the last race in all weather

i think the best breed of pigeons  are the ones that are winning for you and no one else, there is no such pure strain of pigeon as most people cross birds in some kind of form,at the momment iv got about 70% peter van den eijden the rest are made up of kirkpatricks, bussartts,van geels catrysse heinz 57 you could say

wings 04 , having watched the progress of the buschearts and witnessed first hand the awesome power of turner bros dark uns , competing against them at club and fed level i agree with what you say ,i have seen their top sprint pigeons win 80 miles at the start and the same bird win the 500 mile event at the back end ?as you know buscheart had birds from all the over belgium cattryse, nachtergales etc basicly buscheart refined their  qualities to win the shorter events in the u k , and over the years the uk fancier evolved them to go that extra mile ,the fact they were derived from distance pigeons in the first place , made it easy for them ? the same thing will happen to the staffs as is the case with most of the pigeons imported over here, we modify them to suit our needs ? and in another few years some other un modified speed pigeons will be over here and the cycle starts all over again ? when the  the uk fancier finally  learns to define his current pigeons ie: shortrer forearms , slower breathing rythms, flight ventilation ,and so on  only then will the massive influx of van this and that stop ...............anybody want to have a thread on the finer detail between sprinters and  distance birds ? .....we can learn from each other !

surely if there were better breeds, than others, it would show up in all the futirity races around the world, as there are many breeds racing to the same loft, and as far as i can see ,theres no one particular breed that out shines any of the rest, maybe im wrong,,,,i would preffer a pigeon that has winning lines flying in the terrain, it has to fly in. ie up in scotland,i would rather have birds bred off s,n.f,c winners, than a bird from holland flying the same distance,and as bruno says the old kirkpatricks are as good as any,providing their bred direct off winning distance lines  ,and as far as sprint races, i would not be afraid to cross these sprint breeds to find out what suited me.
i remember asking  famous fancier, what the best breed is,,,his answer was, for selling ,,a pure breed,,for racing a cross, and really if you go far enough back , their all crosses

I dont think there is such a thing as the best 1 big race and you have got a popular name and everyone wants it its the birds that have been around for 30yrs and are still doing it that probably should be classed as the best

my dad had karel hermans for over 30 years still winning & still got the orignal lines think janssens winninig the poll at the mo but there are so many strains of these

As most top breeders pair best to best and loan each other pigeons. They create a family of birds which have been blended from several strains the basically they are cross breds and their are very few old pure original famlies left.

quality not quantity

Cross breds are what started a particular strain in the first place! Surely Jansen, Busheart, Van this and Van that are all started from them cross breeding old strains and starting there own. I have mainly Bushearts and van reets, but I have also blended other birds into them, so are they not my own strain now??

Thats a point sbelbin we been racing the same birds for well over 20yrs now and were they originated from u couldnt get anymore because they died years ago so do the now become our strain now?

Yes they do rose

well the hermans i have been crossed with other breeds however still have some that are pure dad had em since the 70,s so maybe i should rename em & he never been any lower than 3rd top prize winner in over 30years

I was just thinking what u said shadow we could have some funny named birds going round if we all used our surnames