Breeding Advice

[Guest Paulo]

Found this good article on Ad Shaelackens website:-

 

The rise and fall of Lin

 

The rise and fall of Lin

 

 

 

Taiwanese Lin (the name is fake) and Belgian champion Louis (his name is also fake) had been friends for a  long time but the good relationship had come to an end.

 

Lin used to buy pigeons from Louis but with those birds that he bought in the last few years Lin lost both a lot of money and  reputation.

 

Normally the seller is to blame when birds are no good but this time it was the buyer.

 

About 20 years ago he started buying pigeons and right from the start he was successful with the off spring.

 

But as I said, those birds that he bought in the last few years let him down.

 

Here is the story, maybe some people can learn from it.

 

 

 

THE PAST

 

The first birds that Lin bought were real good birds and the deals that they made were very simple.

 

Lin faxed the Belgian champion ‘I want 10 birds’, he paid them and little later he got his birds.

 

He left it up to Louis which birds since he trusted him, he did not know the birds but only knew the Belgian performed well and so did others with his birds.

 

Every 2 years or so a bunch of birds were shipped and to this day Louis still remembers the fourth shipment.

 

Then his client asked for pedigrees and Louis, who in fact was more a racer than a seller, had a problem.

 

Pedigrees?

 

He did not know what pedigrees were but with some help of a friend he managed to make them. They were handwritten, since a computer was something that he had never seen at the time.

 

 

 

TIMES CHANGED

 

Now that he had pedigrees Lin learnt more about the origin of the birds till he found that many of them descended from 2 cocks.

 

Let’s call them cock A and cock B.

 

This was reason for Lin to change his ‘buying behaviour’.  

 

Unlike before he did not ask for a bunch of birds but he had special wishes.

 

He just wanted a few birds, preferably direct children from the basic birds, for which he was willing to pay a far higher price.

 

Louis sold him what he asked for but did not understand.

 

Why did Lin only want pigeon from birds that had become so old?

 

Why offer so much money for babies of these old timers that had lost much of their vitality?

 

Louis himself preferred to breed birds of younger parents for his own use and not just a few but a bunch every year.

 

‘Breeding good birds is like a lottery, the more tickets that you get the more chances  you have to win he always said.

 

‘The road to success is to breed many birds, race many birds and cull many birds’ was his motto.

 

If you only breed a few babies from very old birds you  cannot race successfully anymore was his opinion.

 

 

 

DISAPPOINTED

 

The performances of the off spring of the direct babies of the 2 basic birds were so disappointing that Lin changed again.

 

You won’t believe it but he asked Louis to mate a certain cock with a certain hen.

 

And Louis got orders such as the following:

 

 

 

‘Please breed me:

 

- 2 babies of a son of cock A mated with a daughter of cock B’.

 

- 2 babies of a son cock A mated with a granddaughter of cock B.’

 

- 2 Babies of a son of cock B mated with a sister of cock A.

 

 

 

Later on he even asked Louis to only breed from hens with yellow eyes or mate birds with pearl eyes with a hen with yellow eyes.

 

Once it even happened that Lin asked for 5 inbreeds of cock A that should all haveyellow eyes.

 

Questions more stupid than that Louis had never heard but since they had a long and good relationship he bred the birds that Lin wanted.

 

This lasted for a couple of years and then Lin stopped buying. His results even became poorer and he lost confidence.

 

 

 

FINISHED

 

Lin was finished but in his club a new champion had stood up.

 

Let’s call him Chen.

 

In the good days Lin had told Chen that he had gotten his good birds from Louis.

 

Chen thought the best method was to beat Lin with his own weapons so he applied to Louis and asked him if he could buy pigeons.

 

‘No problem’ Louis reacted but he had learnt his lesson and asked what kind of birds Chen wanted.

 

‘Whatever’ Chen said, ‘I trust you. Just ship me 10 birds of your best, I leave it up to you which ones. I do not care much about pedigrees and even less about the colour of the eyes.’

 

Louis sent him 10 birds and 2 years later the name of the King of that club in Taiwan was not Lin but Chen.  

 

 

 

LOUIS

 

Meanwhile Louis kept on winning.

 

His performances were as good as before and his motto  was the same as before:

 

‘Breed many babies, race many and cull many.’

 

Of every 50 birds he bred he kept 5 maximum, the 5 very best.

 

He did not care for pedigrees, he did not believe in inbreeds, he knew nothing about line-breed and the colour of the eyes was the last thing he was interested in.

 

He even practised free mating since all the birds that survived the selection were good.

 

After having read this you may think Louis is a simple man.

 

That is correct, but he is a simple man with common sense.

 

Who was right and who was wrong?

 

The winner is always right and the winner was Louis.

 

And so far Chen as well.  

 

As I said: So Far!!!  

 

[Guest Paulo]

"STRAINS, NAMES AND EYES"

 

When somebody in Holland or Belgium races outstanding the result is that foreigners who are after good birds get interested in the pigeons of such a man. And the first question the champion in Holland and Belgium has to answer is: 'What strain do you have?' 'What strain?' The champions in Holland and Belgium often do not understand. 'What does this man want, a strain or a good bird?' they wonder. This is not strange because the majority of the superbirds in Europe are products of crossings! Moreover the question may rise if 'pure strains' really exist? In my opinion they don't.

 

HOFKENS

Take the late Mr Hofkens and his so called strain. Hofkens is a great name, especially in America. He was a butcher and lived close to me. He was of an older generation but still we were kind of friends. That's why he asked me twice to organise an auction for him. That was when he was still alive of course. Because of my activities for these auctions I am pretty well informed about his birds, his results and the origine of his birds. Well, Mr Gust Hofkens himself did not believe in a strain and never wanted to have one. Later, after his death, others would show off with 'strain Hofkens'. If Hofkens would be able to read the publications about him and 'his strain' which appeared after his death he would turn in his grave. In America, and not only there, they claim to have Hofkensstrain pure whereas Hofkens himself never even thought of keeping a family 'pure'. He was always looking for better birds. He bought pigeons wherever he could provided they were good and preferably from racers in his own area. Because the pigeons he wanted were those from people who beat him in the races. When Hofkens died his birds were totally auctioned. How popular they were is shown by the fact that some days before the auction took place part of the birds was stolen despite a policeman guarded them they and night. I still have the auctionlists. They show that about one third of his birds were 'imports', so pigeons he got from other people, birds which did not even wear a ring from Hofkens. Another third he bred off of birds he imported. And pigeons with parents and grandparents bred by Hofkens himself? He hardly had such birds. Fanciers who bought pigeons in the auctions later pretended to have 'Hofkensstrain', even if it were pigeons that Hofkens did not breed himself or pigeons which Hofkens bred off of birds he purchased himself somewhere else.

 

OTHER EXAMPLE

I will give another example: Jan Aarden, a famous name all over the world for long distance. Now, some decades after his death many people in Holland claim to have pure Jan Aardenstrain. Most of them know better but the name sells! And what again is the truth? Just like Hofkens Jan Aarden was always looking for the best, he bought birds everywhere and though he was not a very succesful racer it must be said that later other fanciers were succesful with the offspring of his pigeons. But… they were not 'a strain' either. What he did have was also a mixture of birds. Like I said before epecially the American pigeonfanciers are very naive. They show off with pure Bekaert, pure Wegge, pure Verheye, pure Hansenne, pure Bricoux, pure Huyskens van Riel, pure Genette etcetera, etcetera. Names completely unknown to the younger generation in Europe. For example Wegge and Huyskens van Riel.

 

Wegge and Huyskens van Riel. Wegges birds were auctioned in 1903! Again the same story: They were nearly all crossings. Now almost a century later some Americans claim to have them pure. Isn't it ridicoulous? Huyskens van Riels pigeons are also kept pure in foreign countries. However, Geroges, the son of Jef van Riel himself admits that in his birds is not much blood left of his late father. And if there would be one person in the world who could have Huyskens van Rielstrain it would be him. But he is an honest man who does not want to misuse the name of his father. Moreover… also his fathers pigeons which destroyed the races in the late fourties and early fifties were products of crossings. In 1946 Jef van Riel bought a round of eggs from Jos van den Bosch. He CROSSED these pigeons with his own and an explosion of superbirds was the result.

 

Names So succesful racers, (the champions in Holland and Belgium) do not care for strains and they no not care for NAMES either when they want to buy. The press made the names and it is funny and sad at the same time to see that even today certain people who are completely unkown in Holland and Belgium as they mean nothing as racers are famous all over the world. They cannot show results but their strong point is that these 'paper tigers' know how to manipulate the media. They advertise, they know what people abroad like: Strains, impressing pedigrees and photos and they offer what people abroad like: Strains impressing pedigrees and photos. But their business is good: They sell! Because they have other qualities than breeding good pigeons: They have a good nose for money! It is rather frustrating for the real champions with the superbirds to see Japanese, Americans and Taiwanese buying such 'paper birds'. Have you ever heard about William Geerts? You sure have. Have you ever heard about an old man called Fond Jacobs? Probably you have not. But it was the birds of good old Fons Jacobs that made Geerts famous!

 

 

 

Mr. Boeckx; No strain, no great name, siple lofts but super results

 

PUBLICITY

So what's the conclusion? Very many champions in Holland and Belgium became famous with pigeons they got from completely unknown fellowsportsmen. These 'fellowsportsmen' are the real champions, unknown is they may be. They do not advertise, they do not want to pay middlemen for publicity, very often they do not even like publicity and they do not want to pay exporters or importers to make them 'big shots' abroad. Because money is not that important to them. What makes them happy is good pigeons and good results. For those people the press can go to hell. They want to win races, others may have the fame.

 

Moreover they can sell anyway. Not to foreigners but to fellow sportsmen in their own country. Its the resultsheets that make their publicity.

 

Mr X and his neighbour the Janssenman I would like to finish this article with one more example which shows what I mean. There is this Janssenman. A guy with many pigeons directly from Janssen Bros. As a racer he means nothing but he is known all over the world. Coincidentally his neighbour, let's call him Mr X, is a great champion and hardly to beat in the races. In fact he feels sorry about the poor results of the Janssenman next door and he hopes every weekend this man will have a good race. But in vain. The neighbour is just a loser. However… people from all over the world want the pigeons of this loser. It often happens that they stop at the house of Mr X. They see his loft 'so there must live a pigeonfancier' and they stop there to aks Mr X where the famous Janssenman lives. What such foreign visitors do not realise is that not the Janssenman is the real champion but the guy where they ask his address.

 

WHY?

'Why', I often wonder, do foreign pigeon people not ask about results when buying birds? They want good results themselves but when buying birds they want names and strains. And… not to forget they want pigeons with special eyes: Colourful 'rich' eyes, so-called breeding eyes. Why do they like pigeons with rich eyes? I don't know. What I do know however is that scientifically the eye means nothing. Again in America pigeonpeople are crazy about 'eye-sign'. The fact that we even do not have a Dutch word for 'eye-sign' means enough. Good birds. That's what pigeonpeople all over the world are after. But if foreign buyers would know about the (poor!) results of some famous European names their eyes would pop out. But their eyes would even more pop out if they would know about the sensational results of fanciers whose names are completely unknown to them! Whose fault this all is? As I said before: The media, the press! One of the reasons that I said 'okay' when Mr Lin asked me to write for him in this magazine is that I consider it as a duty for every man who writes about pigeons and pigeonsport to open the eyes of people who have been brainwashed too much in the past in this materialistic world.

 

[blaz]

good post well done

[Guest Paulo]

I like Ad Shaelackens he talks a lot of good common sense along with mr Georges Busschaert he's one of my top pigeon racing heros

[peterpau]

Mate tiz a good post. I have no particular strains here, and never worry about the pedigree once the bird is here. All I do with them is put 'em in a draw and forget 'em. All young are rung and have there details written down, but then I never look to see what they are bred from till seasons end. Then it is time to check what you have left and any that have no young left are out.