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Testimonies on the breeding, feeding and training of pigeons
Stefan Mertens, Belgian National Champion of small middle distance young pigeons
Translation from a Dutch article, published in the weekly De Duif (The Pigeon), on November 8th, 2006
Geraardsbergen: the gateway to the Flemish Ardennes, with two feet in the river Dender and with the head over the Wall! There are three famous "walls" in the world, they say with unconcealed pride: the Chinese, the Berlin... and the "Wall of Geraardsbergen". The Berlin wall has already tumbled down, the Great Wall of China may be the longest... but ours is the monument of the "Tour of Flanders". It has made world stars suffer, yell, cry, bend... and break!
Modesty is not in their vocabulary because they have by far the oldest "Manneken Pis" they claim. When the one in Brussels started peeing, the statue in Geraardsbergen had already filled the Dender! And then there is the krakelingenworp (cookie throwing)! Geraardsbergen has been besieged for many months and was gradually starving... or at least that's what the enemy thought. But one morning a few of the besieged townspeople threw a few baskets of food over the walls as a bluff. The besiegers couldn't believe their eyes. If there was still food aplenty all their efforts had been in vain, so they would be better off scramming! Amongst the krakelingen (cookies) there is also a real golden jewel valued at 750 euro! And the mattentaart (regional sweet pastry), the calling card of Geraardsbergen, was the first Flemish regional product given European protection!
But it also reached the history books in the field of pigeon racing! Anyone in Belgium involved in pigeon racing has undoubtedly heard of the late Hector De Smet from Geraardsbergen. His famous "Prince" was from 1950 and became a legend in the years that followed! But a new "prince" may have arisen in 2006! Stefan Mertens... young... ambitious... and with limited funds he made it to national champion of small middle distance young pigeons with much bravura! He is the living proof that the little man who still has to go to work and who has to make the most of his free time can successfully cross swords with the mega-lofts with money and manpower! It was a triumph with a tear for Stefan Mertens at the tribute to the national champions for 2006, as a part of the Olympiad 2007 in Ostend. Then it was exactly one year ago that he lost his colleagues Valentin Mandica and Zolt Kajtar at the disaster in Katowice. Life can be really hard... very hard...
Although father forbade him!
Stefan Mertens (36) was born in Aalst but moved in 1977 to Onkerzele, a sub-municipality of Geraardsbergen. His parents built a garage next to the new house and an incoming bird sought shelter in it. Stefan took care of the poor thing and so got also to know his neighbour Gustaaf Michiels... in those days a gifted racer. Soon he became Gustaaf's aid in the holidays and at weekends and was allowed to clean the lofts and record the pigeons. Pigeons and good marks at school were incompatible according to mum and dad Mertens... and there would be no pigeon loft "on their property"!
But small children grow and Stefan managed to get his first pigeon loft from a holiday job in Brussels. The loft from the company Baka cost 16,500 hard-earned old Belgian francs. Mother and father had thought better of their decision and space was made in the back of the garden for the miniature loft, on condition that the pigeons would only be played with during the holidays. But people who know nothing about pigeons can easily be led up the garden path...
One day, Stefan had to sit an exam for Mr Coppens, himself an avid pigeon fancier, and instead of the exam questions he was shown the results of the previous weekend. Stefan won first prize, Mr Coppens second. He also thought that success in life was only possible without pigeons... shame on you...
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National champion Stefan Mertens.
His sons Jonas and Jens are already bursting to succeed!
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But in the meantime Stefan had taken off. The contact with Gustaaf Michiels remained and he got to know butcher Paul Schepens who took his chances in the middle distance race. So on Saturday the middle distance at Paul's and Sunday the vitesse at Gustaaf's... and a life full of pigeons and pigeon racing! In the eighties the Bosstraat in Onkerzele had no fewer than 10 pigeon fanciers... all for speed. Now there are only two... and that's a pity. In 1988 Stefan met Eric Brootcoorens, a very good fancier who taught him a lot.
In 1993 Stefan became an employee of the sports paper De Duif (The Pigeon) and in that same year he applied for a job at Versele-Laga because he wanted to make his hobby his career. He ended up at the department of pigeon feeds and products and became an assistant to Herman Van Damme, alias reporter Gerry. He has now been working at Versele-Laga in the commercial section for 13 years, half the time responsible for relations with the large pigeon breeders and distributors, the other half administrative work in the office. We can also always find Stefan at all major national and international pigeon trade fairs and since Utrecht in 1995 he has also never missed a single Olympiad.
A foreign legion?
In 1994 our brand new national champion made a new start at his current address in the Astridlaan in the first instance only with young pigeons. The very first basis was made by pigeons from Paul Schepens who mainly had pigeons from Jozef Wellemans, Zandbergen caged. Via reports for De Duif and the relations built up through Versele-Laga he gleaned a "little pigeon" here and there in gratitude for service rendered.
An so wittingly or unwittingly a foreign legion arose... We can list the names: Marcel Aelbrecht - Lebbeke; Eddy en Valère Vandepoele - Werken; Jean Meulemans – Teralfene, Alain en Dirk Van Den Driessche - St. Lievens-Esse, Van Damme-Boddaert – Oostkamp, Walter Meirhaeghe – Lembeke, Eric Brootcoorens – Idegem, Jean Van De Broeck – Relegem, De Vadder-Valckenborgh – Haaltert, Schoors-De Waele - Adegem... etc. But Stefan has no fear of his foreign legion...
"In my career I have met very few real top-breeding couples! Usually one true champion will be bred from them... and then no more. An old and wise pigeon breeder was impressed upon me "If you are lucky enough to breed a super, then you must sell it with its parents, with its brothers and sisters... because a second champion will never be born form that couple again." I am certain that that breeder is right... The labyrinth of genetics is still difficult to comprehend. I have 20 couples of breeding pigeons, but I can't give you a percentage of this or that breeder... always only a couple of pigeons. But I do think that those breeders give the best they have in their cages. They do it freely and I have the time to wait for quality. But I am more than happy with an egg or a chick in the loft. So I'll stick to my foreign legion!"
No second round
Quietude in the breeding loft.
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"I have 20 breeding couples and 20 sitting couples and they take care of one early round of chicks. Both teams were coupled on 25 December. When the breeding couples have laid their second egg the eggs are immediately put under the sitting couples and the breeding couples immediately start a new nest. That means that I have 4 chicks from the same breeding couple 14 days apart. Each pigeon can do that for two years... and after 8 chicks the verdict is made on the breeding couple... stay or go! I prefer a pigeon that flies at the head a couple of times rather than a pigeon that stands out through regularity. Of the 70 chicks that are bred early 35 to 50 will be at the start of the first Noyon flight at the end of the season I usually have around 10 stickers!
Because of my job commitments I can't couple my pigeons at the end of November because then it is too busy in the loft... and at my work. Putting everything back one month suits me much better. From 1994 we only played with young pigeons. A limited switchover to the game with yearlings and older pigeons started in 2002... and in the future the intention is to race the older and yearling pigeons a few months, because the season for young pigeons seems just a little short to me."
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The game with the young pigeons
The 70 chicks or so from the first round are weaned at around 25 days... and the cocks and the hens stay together until the 1st or 2nd Noyon (147 km). In the first month full trays of Start Plus IC are given. Three times a week B-Pure (brewer's yeast) + oil is poured over the feed. Oil over the feed from the beginning to repair any hollow feathers and to make the pipits familiar with oil on the feed early on. I feed grain with oil + brewer's yeast in a plastic saucer that you stand flowerpots on and not in the traditional wooden feed trays. Plastic is easy to wash. On wood a layer always stays behind which makes it easy for fungus to grow.
After the first month I switch to Junior Plus IC... with a lot of paddy rice, the ideal mixture to make the young pigeons fly (light mixture). After the first month I also remove the traditional drinking pots from the loft, because the young pigeons have to learn to drink out of the blue drinking troughs that are hung on the shipping baskets. Moreover... if a strange pigeon pops in when I'm not at home then it won't drink in my loft because it won't find the traditional drinking pot.
Then I also add pea straw in the cages... light brown pea straw that cracks from dryness... the best quality available. Then I also con-centrate on making the young pigeons trained to the hand. The young pigeons do not have any platforms hung on their loft, only the traditional young pigeons trays. At twilight I then go to the loft... the drink pots are then turned over and put to dry... and then with a torch in my mouth each pigeon separately has a tussle of fisticuffs. When I then stand in front of the housing boxes all the pipits stay sitting nicely... I take them in my hand... I also know each of their places... and I can locate directly a producer of wet faeces or a pigeon that has vomited.
When we switch from winter to summertime the chicks are let out at 7 A.M. to train. I throw some food in their food trough, 40 g Junior Plus IC per pigeon. In the meantime I will have left for work... the chicks will be hungry then and I have no problem teaching the chicks some discipline to come inside easily after the training. Form Oil (10 different oils) + brewer's yeast + Digestal is regularly poured over the feed. Soup is served every day from weaning to the first training flight! The recipe is as follows: 3 liters of water, 6 onions, 6 bulbs of garlic, 40 g pine tea, 200 g white alum powder, 1 kg black sugar candy, 1.5 soupspoons of tincture of iodine, 3 carrots, a 1/2 celeriac and 4 bunches of thyme. First the onion, garlic, pine tea, carrots, thyme are boiled for 20 minutes, pour into a sieve, add the sugar candy and boil for 3 minutes... allow to cool and then add the alum and tincture of iodine. Keep in a bottle in a cool place and add two soupspoons per liter of drinking water. Fresh grit every two days and
preferably also given in a plastic saucer.
From March the pipits are put in the baskets about five times for a whole day on a Sunday. They aren't let out, but after that are returned to the loft. The intention is to make the chicks used to the basket because the first time in the basket is a stressful event for a young pigeon. It is darkened from early March to the end of May because you have to be early to win this championship of the KBDB that was played for the first time in 2006. Darkening happens automatically: roller blinds are operated precisely using a timer. The windows close at 4 P.M. and go up again at 11 P.M. and the chicks wake with the sun because they have to train early.
Teaching the young pigeons... as much as possible of course... but due to time constraints it has to be limited somewhat. I train them at the weekends... but I do have to watch out a bit because Geraardsbergen is on the flight path and barely 36 km from Quiévrain. Antwerp, Brabant, and Dutch pigeons fly over in their masses.
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Punctual darkening with roller blinds on a timer.
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My pigeons go to Noyon in about ten stages... and then they are loosed once or twice a week at about 20 km... until they start the middle distance race. Sometimes I take them by car when I go to work and then they are let loose from all directions at around 40 km. After twice from Noyon the group of pipits are trained on the sliding door... the sexes are separated then... and then there is no more training. In 2006 I weaned 58 chicks... a goshawk took a pretty bad toll on them and I lost 11... I loosed once in a strong wind under their tails and lost some more... I started the Noyon with 25 chicks and the first Noyons weren't very pleasant either... so that I ended the season with 11 cocks and 4 hens. Then I concentrated fully on the cocks and the hens weren't raced anymore. Then I decided to train the cocks twice a day and to feed them also twice a day.
A week in the racing season
"In 2006 I raced the middle distance every week and in addition only put them in the basket at Bourges national. When the young pigeons come home from a competition they find pure fresh water in their drinking pot. I once did it differently... electrolytes or other things in the water... and the young pigeons would go and drink first on the flat roofs around. I changed tactics then and immediately solved all the problems.
Half an hour later they are given a mixture of Superstar Plus IC + Form-Oil + B-Pure served with Recup-Lyt (electrolytes) in the drinking water. Three hours after their arrival they are given a warm bath and while they are taken into hand they are given a scoop of Colombine Mucus powder in their beaks a spot of Terramycine eye-cream in each eye and the heating plates are switched on.
On Sunday Superstar Plus IC and electrolytes are put in the drinking water. On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday they are fed 50 % Super Diet + 50 % Gerry Plus IC possibly with some medicines in the drinking water. On Thursday and Friday they are given a full tray of Superstar Plus IC + Energy Plus IC + Dextrotonic in the drinking water.
I also have to work on Friday... and basketting day... On Friday morning the cocks and the hens are given a full tray of food. After half an hour the cardboard boxes are put on the lofts. Still a quarter of an hour later the hens enter and the young team can play for the entire day. I come home at 4.30 P.M... the youngsters are put in the basket and I leave for the three places where I basket every week. So I don't put all my eggs into one basket and try to gain the best quotient for 1st and 2nd drawing."
Keep on the lookout medically
"Naturally the medical supervision is in the hands of my friend Wim Boddaert. After weaning pigeons are treated for 8 days with Tricho Plus: one sachet in one liter of water with a scoop of Glucose (for the taste) and a vitamin. So soup every day... do nothing as long as nothing wrong is noticed. But the Theraprim post is ready in the event that Adeno should raise its head. In the case of an epidemic and depending on the severity of the problem, 10 days treatment is given.
After the homecoming of the first two speed competitions Recup-Lyt and Theraprim are put in the drinking water for the first two days to counter first basket contamination. Before training the youngsters, they are treated with Theraprim for 10 days but nobody is vaccinated against paratyphoid.
During the racing season the fortnightly system is used. In the first week alternately a Tricho-cure pill of 1/6 Flagyl to prevent possible resistance. In the second week a treatment against ornithose is given and 4 products can be used for this: Ornicure, Amoxicure, Lincospectin powder and Tylan. I once injected with Lincospectin... but with mixed success. The assistant then said "Gosh this one will make it" but it only came home the day after! Also did a drop of Terramycine just before basketting and also a Forma drop in their eyes."
Preparation for breeding... very important!
"Sometimes I hear that the breeding season failed but usually the reason for this is badly prepared or sick pigeons. The preparation here usually starts about a month and a half before coupling the pigeons. First and foremost manure samples are collected over 5 consecutive days because traces of paratyphoid are not necessarily excreted every day. If a paratyphoid outbreak is established then it might still be treated (20 days). If nothing is found then the treatment will still carry on for 10 days. Then vitamins are given for 2 to 3 days and after that 5 days treatment is given against trichomonas. The problem of coccidiosis and worms is investigated at the first manure inspection.
Additional light is provided one month beforehand... from 6 A.M. until 22 P.M. I ensure that the hens are certainly not to plump and slight feeding is given over the last fortnight before the coupling. Once the coupling has been done the couples are shut up in their house box for at least 2 to 3 hours a day where they receive individual food and drink. That allows them to couple well and also to eat and drink in peace. Then Form-Mix (vitamins and amino acids) is also regularly put in the drinking water then.
The pigeon fancier must also stay on the lookout in tropical temperatures! In boiling weather the roller blinds go down again but when shielding the cages you must ensure that the ventilation is not shut off. The pigeons are then given a bath every day of which they keenly take advantage... and the level of humidity and oxygen supply increases in the loft due to the wet pigeons. My loft is facing northwest, and consequently wrong, but in 2006 that was perhaps my good fortune... because it only got the full heat of the sun in the later afternoon. All in all my pigeons had hardly any problems with the tropical weather in July."
TOP
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National Champion of small middle distance young pigeons
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| 15.07.2006 |
Toury |
405 pigeons |
7e (1e comp.) |
1e (2e comp.) |
| 22.07.2006 |
Pithiviers |
375 pigeons |
2e (1e comp.) |
3e (2e comp.) |
| 05.08.2006 |
Pithiviers |
498 pigeons |
9e (1e comp.) |
10e (2e comp.) |
| 12.08.2006 |
Orléans |
173 pigeons |
15e (1e comp.) |
14e (2e comp.) |
| 19.08.2006 |
Toury |
310 pigeons |
8e (1e comp.) |
9e (2e comp.) |
Stefan Mertens' young champions, Dolce (left) & Gabanna (right).
Translation from a Dutch article, published in De Duif (The Pigeon), on November 8th, 2006
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