This time we visit Etienne Meirlaen from Sint-Martens-Latem. He only races his yearlings and old pigeons in long distance and marathon races, and plays classic widowhood with the cocks. He also keeps a team of hens on nest for the international races.
Etienne is widely known for his exceptional performances in long-distance and marathon races in particular, especially in international races. The main successes he already has on his record are: 1st international Narbonne, 1st international San Sebastian, 1st international Narbonne hens, 1st national Pau, 1st national Cahors, and so on.
In the national championships and ace pigeons KBDB, we also always see the Meirlaen colony heading the races: three times 1st national ace pigeon, a couple of times 2nd national ace pigeon, twice 3rd national ace pigeon and now in the 2023 season back at the top with the 1st national ace pigeon Rhone valley KBDB.
We asked Etienne how he takes care of his pigeons during the moulting period.
After the last race at Perpignan, the pigeons are exclusively fed Plus Mutine throughout the moulting period.
We feed the pigeons plenty once a day so that they have everything they need to get through a good moult. We switched to Plus Mutine because it contains an extruded pellet that provides all the additional nutrients.
We all know that there are nutrients that pigeons need in the moult that are not present in traditional grain mixtures. Those nutrients, I believe, are specially incorporated into those pellets to have the most complete feed possible. They include amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
Since we have been giving this feed, we have noticed that our pigeons moult very well and that they have an exceptionally good and healthy plumage.
As I mentioned, my pigeons get plenty of Plus Mutine once every day, until the last pin has been moulted.
When the moulting is done, we carefully watch the weight of the pigeons and add a depurative mixture to the Plus Mutine. We then give a mixture of both and pay close attention not to feed too much, because we can do without fat pigeons.
We used to let the pigeons breed a young after the season, but in recent years we've stopped doing this. We now just let them breed twice for about 14 days and then they go into full moult.
If we want to breed young from certain good racers, we can place the eggs under feeding couples and still have about four young from our best pigeons this way.
When the pigeons are fully moulting, they do not come outside for a few weeks. After that, we try to let them out once a week to let them take a bath. In recent years, however, we have to watch out for the lurking birds of prey. It sometimes happens that the pigeons do not go outside for a few weeks in winter.
Normally we move the yearlings and youngsters to the widower lofts at the end of December when they have gone through the moult. We also did this in September, but we noticed that this did not make any difference, especially as the pigeons are paired again in spring.
We focus on the international races. The pigeons are therefore in the transport carrier for four days at a time, which means there is a real risk of infections, especially of paratyphoid and salmonella. We therefore give a ten-day course of a suitable antibiotic immediately after the season in consultation with our supervising vet.
In this respect, we are still fairly traditional. We only feed brewer's yeast and garlic oil over the feed (B-Pure and Garlic Oil) about two days a week in the moulting season. For the rest, we trust that all necessary nutrients are included in the moulting mixture, and that the extruded pellets supplement everything the pigeons need at that time.
The pigeons are also bathed twice a week with Ideal Bathsalt to keep their plumage clean and supple.
Normally the racers are paired in early February. They then breed a young and are on widowhood at the end of March. In 2023, we only let them breed in February, and it also went very well. I don't think there's much difference between the different methods in terms of performance.
After the racing season, breed some young from your best pigeons, which are raised by feeding hens. These young from pigeons in top condition are usually of good quality and can further advance your colony. It is not an exact science, but pairing good pigeons together is generally the best formula for success.
Make sure the racers themselves are separated after breeding twice, so that they can rest up, with the next racing season in mind.
Good luck!
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