Gerard

Try and get/buy good birds from fanciers racing nearly the same distance as you do. Do not get into these sales "best of the best". Fanciers will never sell their best birds. Ask DNA from the yb and parents. Have the basket to select the birds. Use your ears and select what would be good for your system. Give quality food and talk to the birds.

I strenghten the stock with Kipp & Sohne hen. She's a daughter from 1st int Barca. For next year 20 yb from Jelle Outhuyse (http://www.jelleouthuijse.com/) and Auke Smid(http://www.aukesmid.nl/) will strenghten the loft. Those guys are the best for extreme long distance (Barcelona 1330km up) I do have 2 de rauw sablon (cock and hen), 1 jan aarden cock and 1 harm vd Bij hen for sale right now.All breeders

Only Beaphar Vitalith thats about it.

My main goal is to win Barcelona International. To win another far distance is nice, but not really a goal........

He was on 11 day youngsters when he was basketted.

Before he went to Limoges as furthest 497 miles (800km). Most flights are westerly orientated, which I do not prefer. The plans are to train my birds myself on the easter orientated cities. Some other provinces race from there, so probably my birds can be basketted by one of them clubs.

total of 5900km ( 3666 miles )in 28 races.

As a yearling they will have appr 13-14 races max 700 km ( 434miles ). Overall 3500-4000 km over the season.

Depends a bit on the weather conditions. Like last season the weather was mostly bad, well at the time when I was at home. But yb's go 200 - 250 km ( 125 - 155 miles)

I don't work with the darkness system, because its 2 much work for me but especially for my wife when I am not at home.

All my birds get the 3 P's vaccination (paramixo, paratyphus and pocks) at least once a year. I don't do any other treatment unless really really needed. I don't do pre-treatment just "in case".

No special preps when the yb's go to their own loft. Food is a bit smaller in size, just for a couple of weeks and then eat the same as the older flyers. At the end of the day pigeons eat what they like..........just as humans. You hear fanciers telling "my birds leave no grain", probably cuz they are starving. Mine leave what they don't like. These leftovers go to the ducks in the park. They just love it.

Breeders eat what he flyers eat (Matador) during the season. In wintertime I feed the breeders Havens 4 seasons mixed with Matador rest. Both Flyers and breeders have always feed to eat. I believe that animals eat as much they need. I don't believe in hungering the birds as some fanciers do. Young birds need time to grow, so not much races in their 1st year.

Actually it just took 3 years to go for Barca. Check this, its about he ped thing. http://www.pipa.be/en/newsandarticles/reports/dispute-between-vandersanden-ferdi-veltwezelt-be-limbourg-eric-brussegem-be

Yes, due to my work offshore I am limited in time. Hopefully this changes when my product is going to run on the market. http://www.pigeontimes.com/indexeng.html. Besides that I don't like short distance, to many birds in a short time and all prices gone within minutes. I do think long distance birds are easier to handle 2.

Not sure about that as the peds are manipulated for ages. Software gives anyone a chance to build any ped they want. I would obtain to have every bird with DNA. Well at least when they costs you more than a 100 grant. But to be honest I bought van der wegen, and some other strains. But not 100% sure if they are real...........hope you get my point. At the end of the day the basket is your best selector and go from there I would suggest. Build your own strain, have them certified with DNA (only the good ones), keep records of the birds. So, in fact there is no strain, well not a 100% sure strain. There are more bad birds than good birds born every year. It's amazing that some people can get rid of those who are not good enough in their first year.............even the yb's of the best strains. Mine actually stay in my loft no matter what. The birds who don't come back from a race are probably not good enough. But here's another thing.... maybe the fancier was/is not good enough and basket-ted the bird which wasn't in a good condition or whatever............. So may points to discuss. But the fact is there, even the so called best (paper)birds of the best strains can be worthless.

After 10-14 days. Yb's are removed when about 36 days. Much more days than common, but that's cuz my wife doesn't want the yb's taken away when they still have "yellow hair" as she calls it. All yb's need to eat and drink themselves, if she hasn't seen that than the yb's will not be removed from the parents. It's a mam's thing I guess.

Racers end of march.

It started actually when I was a young kid. My granddad had pigeons and I loved being at his loft. Getting older, going school, blabla at 17 I joined the navy for 13 years, after that till now offshore worker. I started racing Barca 3 years ago. My fav cock, just 2 years old, flew the 1340km race in 2011(832 miles 1121.8220yards ). He was basketted this year again, but he never came back. To be honest........I miss him. He's just THAT special bird. My loft helds about 60 pigeons, most of them 2012 birds (45). The others qualified birds for the extreme long races. Next to that 6 breeding pairs including the parents of the Reade. At the end of the day, once you get into pigeons................. you're poisened with this fever. Never lets you go.Attache dis Vince who won 1st St Vincent 2012.

Is there in fact a real so called "strain"? I do think there's to much things that can be easily manipulated to make a so called "strain". There's no one looking after any pairing or offspring, no dna or what so ever. Maybe I sound negative, but I had this trouble with a bought de rouw sablon. The top cock Locco was steriel and just had 2 proven offspring. He was in my peds of 2 birds I bought for 700 pounds. So, just wundering whats worth a ped or so called strain.....

Dunno about this eye theory. In first I think its just fantasy, there is no scientific evidence or what so ever. Kinda amazing when you just look at a digital eye scan code. The amazing thing for me is how it is possible for humans to read this code in a pigeon eye. Just impossible. I would just say.......... its fantasy Why do people pay for to have their pigeons being "eye scanned" by someone telling he knows the eye of a good racing pigeon. I had this bird who got lost on a race. Some guy caught the pigeon and rang me to tell me this was a marvelous pigeon, he could see that looking in this pigeon eye. 2 days later I went to this guy to pick up my bird. 3 weeks later basketted the pigeon on a short silly race...............never came back.

Thank you guys......... feel honoured