Kyleakin Lofts

Well done all.

I heard a rumour they were working on a new development, genetic engineering, to ensure all children were born with an inbuilt mobile communication / gaming device within their cranium. :D

:D

Good morning all.

Happy birthday Lindsay.

A New or Modern Kind of Pigeon by John Clements You have to be quite old (I’m 82) before you can tell the real difference between the good and the bad - between the real pigeon and the pretend pigeon - between the good fancier and the pretend fancier. These are all deep questions of which history or time tends to sort out for us. When it comes to here and now and being modern we often back completely the wrong thing and what is worse we do it time and again in every age. This brings me on to what is happening in the sport today. There has emerged quite recently (within the last 10 or 15 years) a new or different kind of modern pigeon and a new and different kind of modern fancier. The traditional top loft and top pigeons of yesteryear such as 'Twilight' - 'Cinderella' - ‘News Lad’ and many of the multiple performance British pigeons Louella used to buy have now been surpassed in the public mind by pigeons that put up excellent performances but for only one year only after which they are never heard of again although the loft becomes famous and thought of by the majority to be the real thing. How this is achieved is open to question (I have written about the sprint aspect previously) but this modern system that concentrates on one year achievement now includes Long Distance pigeons. The system runs counter to what used to happen. In the old days top pigeons that performed well were the reference birds of families or strains of pigeons. It was these quality birds that were expected to regenerate the loft and breed future top pigeons. Under this new system this is no longer the case. Pigeons fly outstandingly well for only one year and are then fail in later years. They fail because a constant 'buying in' of stock is also a vital part of this modern one year system. The system requires a steady stream of new pigeons bred from imported stock to replace those that are spent. To attempt to understand what is going on I have now adopted a habit of noting ring numbers and year of birth from published results. A pattern is beginning to emerge. Outstanding one year performances are usually achieved by relatively young pigeons or distance pigeons you would not expect to have reached their peak under traditional racing methods. I shall continue with my research, but my initial reaction is that these outstanding 'one year' pigeons are not good for the sport and do not create 'Strain Building’, real creative lofts or real creative fanciers who are interested in breeding as well as racing. This new attitude instead creates a poor alternative, that of short term commercial success. Looking inwardly at myself it is possible that I could be driven by envy or a reluctance to move with the times. I may be one of those fanciers who sees a golden age in everything that happened in the past. I myself don’t think so but I am sure this charge will be levelled against me. Nevertheless, which ever happens to be the case many fanciers will not be aware of this new phenomena or understand how modern pigeons are now raced. As far as I know no one has ever written about it before or attempted to understand what is happening and how the pigeon world is changing. This whole story has the makings of a Dickens novel. The novel would trace London characters like Wally Pope in the fog and mist of the Thames. It would gradually move up river past the Royal Palaces of Westminster - Hampton Court and Windsor to finally reach characters in the Regency towns and cities of the Cotswolds. From my point of view the novel would be a tragedy, others might think it a triumph of human ingenuity derived from modern thinking. Like all good novels the choice would be down to the reader.

Well done all.

Well done all.

Good morning all.

Well done all.

Good morning all.

Well done all.

Well done all.

Well done all.

Well done all.

Jac Steketee of Bruinisse 2013 Last year I wrote “The performance level of Jac Steketee and his pigeons carries on to this day.†It was true in 2012 and it is still very true in 2013, so here we will have a look at 2013 but just before we do let me expand a little on 2012. I also wrote “Looking at the 2012 Barcelona result we find that Jac Steketee sent an entry of 10 pigeons and timed 3 in the ZLU (Dutch National) result. His first pigeon was 10th National, that is 10th from an entry of 6,392 pigeons and 1,159 fanciers and it was 27th International from an entry of 25,320 pigeons.†That 27th International was of course an exceptional performance but what I failed to mention was the other two pigeons in the result the first being NL09-3903327 who was 513th National and 1,371st International closely followed by NL08- 3802844 who was 517th National and 1,401st International. So we come to 2013 and one of the most successful International fanciers decided to try something new, well new for him. There is no better person than Jac to describe this himself. “This year I have the pigeons for the first time on nest and race them on eggs and youngsters from 10 to 12 days. After the season started they make flights from 100-300km and 500km and then they go to Pau and Barcelona. I decided to play Pau because the pigeons were in such good condition that I was wondering if they are even good enough to go to Barcelona? The results from Pau were good; it was a very fast race the start was in the morning 6.45am and most of the pigeons were at home in the evening. The pigeons had a nest with eggs from 10 days and they go back on the nest. The eggs hatched out and then they had youngsters from about 10 /12 days and then they go to Barcelona. Barcelona was a complete different race, very hard and the same pigeons as from Pau make a good race from Barcelona. It means that they don’t have any problem with a fast or slow race. But in my mind I think they are best in a race like Barcelona.†This came as a bit of a shock to me, not the quality of the pigeons of course I was well aware of that, no the method. I had after all just spent the last few years not exactly copying, but learning from the widowhood techniques I had heard and seen being used in Holland and adapting them to my circumstances only to find one of those who I admired most reverting to what I had come to think of as an old fashioned way. Here was a long standing master of the art completely revising his method and to great effect. Perhaps I will have to think again. What it clearly demonstrates to us all is that no matter how good you are there is always something else you could try. So what were these results of 2013 and what were the birds? At Pau, Jac sent 6 pigeons from a total of 841 Netherlands fanciers who sent 3,124 pigeons and an International entry of 8,576 pigeons. At a distance of 986.094km or 612miles 1285.5yds he timed four pigeons that qualified for both the National and International result 152nd National 559th International NL09-3903357 Vel.1122.56mpm 378th National 1,491st International NL08-3802844 Vel.1031.101mpm 466th National 1,769th International NL08-3802843 Vel.990.85mpm 467th National 1,770th International NL00-3002744 Vel.990.85mpm At Barcelona, Jac entered 13 pigeons from a total of 1,297 Netherlands fanciers who sent 6,909 pigeons and a total International entry of 25,294 pigeons. At a distance of 1149.33km or 714miles 285.85yds he timed 6 pigeons that qualified for both the National and International result. 66th National 168th International NL09-3903357 Vel.848.947mpm 82nd National 202nd International NL08-3802844 Vel.843.01mpm 117th National 306th International NL08-3802843 Vel.829.164mpm 768th National 2,495 International NL01-3009636 (Under 800mpm) 19:10:53 999th National 3,239th International NL09-3903371 05:17:42 1,501st National 4,034th International NL00-3002720 08:14:15 NL09-3903357 also flew Perpignan in 2013 when he managed to score 534th National from 4,978 pigeons however the full International result is not yet available so we cannot be sure of his position there. Where do the pigeons of Anton Schults fit into the 2013 story? It was Anton Schults you will recall who with “Richardâ€, a pigeon grounded in the Steketee strain, took 1st Dutch National and 6th International Barcelona 2012 and here with NL09-3903357, the pigeon that clearly led this set of races we see the Schults name again. As soon as you look at his pedigree you see all the mainstay pigeons I have mentioned before “De Marseilleâ€, “De Stam Doffer†and “Stayer†figuring prominently but interestingly on both the sire and dams side appears a pigeon from A. Schults which is itself bred from a Steketee cock down from “De Marseille†when paired to a hen from A. Gebraad’s. Anton says “Adrie Gebraad got his pigeons mainly from Nipius, Th. de Groot from Steenbergen and Lazeroms. One of his top pigeons, “De 34†was a grandchild of the famous “Zilvervosje†from Bakker Meesters of the Heen. This line of the “Zilvervosje†is also a line which is found in the pigeons of Batenburg’s famous Witbuik.†So here, in NL09-3903357, we have the confluence of lines which on both sides lead back to the “SAAR†of Oomens Brothers and the very foundation of today’s Dutch long distance racing pigeons. Interestingly “Richard†was bought by Batenburg-Van de Merwe becoming the “New Witbuik†and we can perhaps see here the reason why. Louella have also invested in Anton Schults pigeons so if it is too far to go over to Bruinisse you can get some HERE. As you will have seen it was a trio of pigeons that stood out at Pau and Barcelona so what about the other two. Well the first remarkable thing about them is that they are a nest pair. To have two pigeons that make the top 500 of the Barcelona International is one thing but for them to be a nest pair is really quite extraordinary. Frankly I do not know if this has ever been achieved before but if it has I would be very interested to know. Again when we look at the pedigrees we see the familiar mark of “De Marseille†and “De Stam Doffer†but on this occasion again on both sides of the pedigree another very famous name “De Parel†of van der Wegen. As I said before Jac is aware of the need occasionally to bring in some fresh blood and here we see two examples of it but the other thing to note is that the blood is of an equivalent quality. Here in this introduction we see not only “De Parel†who had a magnificent racing career including some outstanding performances from Barcelona in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 but also “De Stephan†who had perhaps an even more impressive record through those same years mainly from St Vincent and Bergerac. This is not the first time these two pigeons have flown Barcelona of course they have both flown the race each year since 2010: Year Nat. Birds NL08-3802844 NL08-3802843 2010 7,016 645th Nat. & 2,268th Int. 1,063rd Nat. & 3,276th Int 2011 7,046 68th Nat. & 115th Int. 489th Nat. & 904th Int. 2012 6,392 518th Nat. & 1,401st Int. Not placed 2013 6,909 82nd Nat. & 202nd Int. 117th Nat. & 306th Int. While I do not suggest that any old bird can put in a good performance from Barcelona, because clearly it takes an exceptional pigeon to do it even once, it takes a really exceptional pigeon to make multiple performances like these and here we have it from a nest pair. Just to illustrate the multiple performance angle in a little more detail if w position total of 3,986, you can see all 135 HERE. It was this series of top performances that led to NL08-3802844 being crowned ACE Barcelona Pigeon 2010 to 2013 by the Z.L.U. in 2013. With a total entry in excess of 25,000 pigeons in each race and conditions varying from one of the toughest races to one of the fastest to put up consistent performances like these is quite exceptional and with a nest mate not far behind makes is really quite extraordinary. It seems to me that we can learn several lessons from all this and the first of these is that you must have a family of pigeons that can perform in the races in which you wish to compete. This has been the mainstay of Jac Steketee’s successful racing career over decades. Secondly you must not be afraid to introduce new pigeons to that family but you must look carefully at their origin and the contribution they can make and then monitor their effect over time. This again is something that Jac has managed to do very successfully. Finally you must not become so tied to your method that you cannot consider trying something new and here again we have seen a compelling example from Jac Steketee. When we look around it is very easy, I think, to become dazzled by the claims and sales talk that comes from many fanciers and the commercial organisations they support. It is very easy to think if I buy this bird or this strain because of the name alone success will automatically follow. It is nonsense of course but it is an easy line to fall for. The truth is you cannot achieve great things without great input and this can mean hard work, knowledge, money and always that essential element “lady luckâ€. Lady luck alone is not likely to make you a winner but however good you are and however good your pigeons are you still need her on your side. So if you want to be a winner you have to be prepared to put in the work and if you are prepared to put in the work you need to know that the materials you are working with are capable of producing the results that you want. If Barcelona is your aim then I think you can see that the pigeons of Jac Steketee could provide you with the right materials, so if you are interested he normally offers young pigeons for sale by auction during the winter months via www.toppigeons.nl/ , but please don’t get carried away with bidding as I shall be looking to add to my stock as well. Nigel Lane

Good morning all.

Well done all.

Well done all.

Well done all.

Well done all.

Hans Knetsch, Katwijk Despite having to overcome some obstacles and running out of time, I have still been able to pay a visit to Hans. Monday IRUN, Tuesday shipping for BERGERAC, Wednesday shipping for NARBONNE, Thursday clocking in and Friday, Saturday and Sunday the arrival of the pigeons, so it certainly was a bit of a challenge to visit a loft and do an article… . But Monday was the day, so together with Willem van de Velden we left 7 o’clock in the morning for Katwijk. Hans Knetsch hardly needs an introduction as so much has been written about this through and through pigeon lover and sportsman over the years. Year in, year out we see him realise the highest scores. But he is not only famous for his racing, also as a breeder, he has laid the foundation for many other top fanciers, such as the Barcelona ‘specialist’ Willem v.d. Velden from Boskoop. Willem’s success was built on a complete first round of young Wanroys from Hans. Having arrived at Hans’ I also meet Wim Schaddé from Dooren, a clever young guy who took away the best young from both Hans and Willem and look what happens: last year in Barcelona he was ‘steenvroeg’ (very early in) and now again in Barcelona in the Glazenstad 3rd , 7th and 14th and in the National 39th, 92nd and 239th. Hans beams when he hears the young fancier talking about his pigeons and keeps quiet about his own successes, despite the fact that his pigeons came in early one after the other in the section 12 “De Kuststrook†and Zuid-Holland this year. Hans never brags, for he is still a real lover and hobbyist, totally non commercial, a man who lives for his pigeons. When asked, he comments that at his age, he has become less aggressive and more laid back. Hans has indeed been involved with pigeons since 1948, but as a steersman of an ocean liner he had a lifestyle away from home so there a few time gaps. After returning to a life on land, he picked up the fond and he went to Rosmolen in Valkenburg near Katwijk. Rosmolen had the real Wanroys via J.B. Hendriks and had won a couple of cars with them. They did not come cheap, says Hans, but until now he has no regrets. Lately, he has been cross breeding the wanroy with an Aarden pigeon (van Geel) and a pigeon from Steketee, the latter from the same origin( Aarden, van Wanroy). After some digging into their past Hans found that the Hendriks’ bloodline from Steketee came from the same father as the pigeons he got from Rosmolen. In my opinion, Steketee has done a lot better by racing more rigorously. What his pigeons have accomplished over the last 25 years borders on the impossible. Because of their commercial value, a large number of fanciers now race with his breed. With Hans this is different story; he rather gives them away and thoroughly enjoys it when others become successful with them. His game is simple, as a young only de natour. As a yearling 5 to 6 tosses and then Bergerac. Once they reach 2 years, two afternoon releases and at three years old he has a good look and decides which ones are capable for the afternoon releases of ZLU, because Hans loves to play both disciplines. A pigeon goes seldom three times overnight in a season. Full feeding with Mariman Super M, 20% super diet, 10% ‘snoepzaad’ (‘treat’ seeds) together with crushed peanuts. These are put in small pots in the breeding loft during the last two days also in bowls on the floor to keep them eating. No vitamins, because according to his opinion the birds moult too easily. Medication, very little, only a yellow pill before basketing. His best pigeon at the moment is the Asduif Perpignan, 3x in the first hundred. There are 6 lofts, two for 12 widowhood cocks and a nesting loft for about 30 pairs, a loft for the young ones with a run in which Hans keeps roughly 60 young pigeons. For the breeders (old racers) also a loft with run. Their layout is Southeast, East, Southwest and Northwest, so you can say that they can fly in all directions… Air comes in via open ceilings, no heating just a little glass at the front. The winning hen, "Jopie" NL04-1941602, was found on the loft a little after five, because Hans was having a snooze on the couch. It’s a small real black Wanroy. She was sent on a young of five days. Her father was still doing a 3rd in South Holland, so she comes from a good nest. Hans ended up in this IRUN with a number of early pigeons and with the strong South Westerly wind this is a real achievement. Especially to take them off the coast, but this he has been doing the entire season… Hans on behalf of the committee and all the members congratulations with your achievements! Wim van Rijk.

Good morning all.

Well done.