Andre Allemeersch (Pottes): a history of pigeon racing!

There are (luckily still) people in pigeon sport you can listen to for hours..... and moreover, what they have to say is based on a lot of experience and a lot of pigeon and other wisdom. Such a person is Andre Allemeersch from Pottes.  Pottes is a very quiet village in the province of Hainaut, close to the river De Schelde and leaning on West-Flanders.  For many pigeon fanciers in the De Schelde area, there is still a strong belief that once the pigeons get closer to home, they use the De Schelde as a guide to reach their loft.  Andre, 77 years old, lives there with his lovely wife Monique. 

From West-Flanders to province Henegouwen

Andre comes from the West-Flanders Aartrijke where he was surrounded by pigeon fanciers in his childhood. From childhood he had a love for animals and more specific the pigeons and the pigeon sport attracted him. He learned the first tricks in that environment, especially from his father, with emphasis on the speed and the middle distance. From all the words and descriptions Andre gives in his enthusiastic explanation, it appears that he is driven, has a fine eye and a good power of observation. Also the mordant or the urge to win is still there in thick droplets.  Among the 3 sons born in Aartrijke, there is also a son who has the pigeon microbe in his blood with more than verve namely Alex of the well known tandem Allemeersch - Van Parijs from Ruddervoorde.  Also with this tandem it is easy to eat cherries ! At the age of 22, Andre started playing "on his own account" and with great success from the very beginning. There grew his love for the middle-distance and the somewhat heavier work on the heavy middle-distance.Due to changes in his private life, Andre bought building land in Pottes in the province of Hainaut. Pottes is the border with West-Flanders and the building plots there were less expensive than in West-Flanders. A very nice house was built and in 1988 the definitive start in Wallonia was made. Shortly afterwards, Andre met his Monique (from Dadizele) and they have been married for 28 years, with joy and sorrow, in good times and in bad times..... They both have 3 sons...but life can be very hard, unfortunately, and they both lost a son at a very young age.

If you want a sturdy house, there must be enough cement in the mortar 

Andre is the man of the solid approach. When you want to play top prizes, the quality of your pigeons has to be solid and you do not have to deal with pancakes. A solid house is built with solid materials and enough cement in the mortar!  So from the beginning they analysed and observed very well who had the best pigeons. The basic pigeons were the pigeons of the then super champion Maurice Verheye from Waregem via Andre Dedeyne from Halluin (Fr).  Andre was a salesman by profession and also France was his working area. In this way he also got to know the better players in the North of France and came into contact with them. Via his good friend Andre Verhaeghe he obtained the strain of Marcel Aelbrecht (via Marc De Cock). Marcel Aelbrecht's species he could also get hold of through his son Alex, and it has to be said that this gave a strong boost to the breeding team.We can say that this is the broad foundation of the pigeons of Andre. In the past, often with success, some blood was added to the foundation, "but it has to catch" says Andre. Also not everything that was taught became a success. But the expert Andre knows very well when it will be a success or not and he selects accordingly. Pigeons from Yves Samain from Hyon, (late) Maurice and Gregory Casaert from Néchiin, Andre Laurent from Vaison (especially the line of the famous Montauban who won 3 times in the 70 first national races) were crossed in, Gérard Baekelandt, Rudi Desaer via Bart Blomme, Adrien Mirabelle, Rino Verheye, Gino Clicque, Jan Pappens, David Vermassen, Taildeman-Jolie, Bruno Degand, Lequenne-Houfflain (Pottes). It is striking that Andre always crossed or brought in pigeons from top middle-distance pigeons but with the idea that they also had to be able to cope with a 600 km race in hard weather.  Andre is convinced that if they have these talents, they will be able to fly in the top of the middle-distance without any problem, which is the favourite territory of Andre's pigeons. What is also striking is that regularly the pigeons or the influence of Marcel Aelbrecht's pigeons can be found in what was raced. But always with top pigeons that are in the front rankings with verve (....).

Feeding and medical guidance

Does Andre still play according to the old school ?  Not at all, but he does not exaggerate in all kinds of frivolities. The pigeon food is bought at Destoop in Waregem where he buys the traditional mixes and where the sports mix is the mix to be fed during the season.The pigeons are fed tightly, but they will never or should never go hungry. A pigeon that gets too little food cannot perform at its best or train sufficiently.On arrival at home, electrolytes in the drinking bowl and a lot of tea (hundreds of litres I already cooked, Monique says with a smile), garlic, beer yeast.  This is a weekly ritual to keep the pigeons as close to nature as possible and to keep them in a natural basic health. Pascal Lanneau is their advisor as a specialised pigeon vet. He is visited three times a year, just before the breeding season, two weeks before the start of the racing season and just before the start of the youngsters' racing season. All pigeons are vaccinated against paratyphoid since 3 years. The obligatory vaccinations paramyxo (and in extension rota) and vaccination with smallpox vaccine in the good old way (with the brush). Other cures are only administered on Pascal's advice and never blindly, because Andre is also very aware of the fact that this can have a formative effect. When the pigeons are basketed, they get a disinfecting eye-drop in each eye. And that is the end of it!

Always to go for the best  !

And why then the sale of the pigeons, you may ask? Health is the most important thing...and that is where the problem lies in Pottes. The last couple of years have been full of worries about the health of Monique and Andre. Both of them had to take the necessary hurdles and in the coming weeks and months they will have to take some more with probably heavy rehabilitation.  Taking care of the pigeon colony is not possible anymore. Andre is not the person to do just pigeon racing. Once a winner, always a winner and it would be difficult not to play for the top.That is why they decided to reduce the number of pigeons and they will keep some pigeons just to see them fly.
Monique and André cannot emphasize enough the role of their neighbour Olivier Lequenne (tandem Lequenne - Houfflain). Already for a long time Olivier takes care of almost the complete care of Andre's colony.  This 'golden couple' as they call their neighbours, is always ready to help and they don't hide the fact that without them keeping pigeons would not be possible anymore. Improving the world does not always have to be complicated and taking care of it in your own environment is a wonderful initiative and help. 

In a second report we will talk about the current top birds of Andre