Benny Steveninck, Hamme, is exploring possibilities

In the corona year 2020 Benny turned, at the side of his wife Karin and their 4 children, 60 years. After a career at the Belgian National Railway he retired and is focusing totally on pigeon sport which he has been carrying out since 1998. 

Pigeon happening came into his life, just as with many others, thanks to his father who was a real short distance racer as there were many back then. 

Short history         

‘I started off by buying 10 youngsters in 1997 at Willy Vanhautte (Wevelgem). These are the first ones I bred out of’, explains Benny, ‘And in the year 2000 I got to know Michel Hautekiet out of Ruddervoorde and bought from him 3 hens born in 2002 and youngsters out of his racers in 2001.’ 
In 2003 the story of the name and fame from Benny Steveninck and his worldfamous top pigeon ‘Chipo’ started. ‘Chipo’ is a product from on fathers’ side Sylvain VerhestraetenxEddy&Maarten Leutenez and on mothers’ side a direct hen from Jozef Van Damme. ‘Chipo’ didn’t only become 1st Provincial ace bird Middle Distance youngsters KBDB but the first youngster bred out of him became immediately 4th National Ace bird Middle Distance KBDB! ‘Chipo’ was still on the racing team himself. One year later, two cocks out of ‘Chipo’ became both 3rd National Ace bird Middle Distance KBDB and still he was on the racing team himself. Eventually Benny decided to stop racing him when his own son had beaten him on a race and this is where the breeding carreer from ‘Chipo’ started.           

Back to the pigeons from Michel Hautekiet for a minute. Benny made a couple out of one of the three hens from 2002 crossed to one of the young racing cocks. This became his ‘Hautekiet couple’. All hens out of that couple were being coupled against ‘Chipo’ and his brothers who were wisely placed on the breeding loft as well. 
Result: national winners like f.e. ‘De Gueret’, national ace birds, provincial winners….
Now he prefers inbred to the ‘Chipo’ strain with as result: 

• 1st National Ace bird ‘Sun’
• 1st National Tours ‘Fantasia’
• …

At the moment 70% of the breeding loft is based on this inbred strain and these inbred products are being coupled successful to new reinforcements. 

Pigeons

In 2021 he will start off with 84 racers, divided over 52 widow cocks and 32 hens, all with home staying partners. And 160 youngsters will be bred in two rounds. These come all out of 30 breeding couples that reside on the breeding loft and these exist out of: 10 fixed couples with mostly old cocks, 10 ‘trying’ couples with young cocks and 10 couples where the cock has more than one hen. 

When questioning whether the selection was made differently after the special corona season is the answer :’All pigeons are being selected based on the results of the national races, last year was no difference for me as I could race all the races I wanted to.’

Training, feeding, medicines

The racing team already started training but don’t come out on a daily base yet. At the moment he keeps it on every two days if the weather allows it. The youngsters can come out on a daily base now. The first round is already training really well but the second round just started to come out. 

All pigeons get Beyers Enzymix modern system Recup, Opbouw and Energy. Next to this they also get supplements from Beyers namely Condition, Recovery, garlic oil, energy oil Herba Zyma and tovo. Also Wonder Pigeon (WP)is one of the products that I use a lot. 

In a matter of medication the pigeons only got this winter a 7 day cure against Trichomoniases. Before the season starts off a visit to the vet is being planned in and they will be treated if necessary. During the season I pay every three weeks a visit to the vet for a check-up. And I only treat them or give them something on advice of the vet. 
All pigeons do get the obliged vaccinations against Paramyxo, small pocks and paratyphoid and this after manure check.  

‘Limo’ topper of the year 2020

To go over all the toppers to be found on the loft of Benny would take us too long but I do like to take out one that raced superb in the season of 2020 and that is ‘Limo’ BE18-4149964. This grandson to ‘Chihaut 98’ succeeds to win in the same season the 2nd and 13th National Limoges, underneath his results: 

Limoges II        2nd National 10,319b
                         1st National z 2,777b
                        1st Provincial 3,085b
Limoges I         13rd National 15,981b

                        7th National z 5,115b
                        3rd Provincial 4,335b
Issoudun         135th National 11,465b
                        12th Provincial 2,223b
Blois                38th Provincial 3,441b
Vierzon            160th Provincial 7,838b

Next to this also 3x 1st and 1x 2nd on a club level. 

Expectations season 2021

‘Trying to win top national results on the long distance races just as in 2020.’ That’s why he is going to do it a bit differently this year. ‘The national greater middle distance game is very hard to compete in in this region. That’s why I’m going to put the cocks on the long distance races. The week before basketing the weather expectations are going to watched really closely and in function of this I will decide with races are going to be basketed. The hens will do the greater middle distance program.’ 

I also started up a tandem loft 2 years agao in Kersbeek-Miskom together with Christophe Mathues and you can find us with the name ‘Team Mathues-Steveninck’. Christophe is a young, driven fancier with a lot of ambition who I trust a lot. I did this as it is almost impossible to rank yourself in the top of the national races on the national greater middle distance. I do look forward enormously to see what this will deliver and hopefully we can already spot us on the lists in the season 2021.’ 

Won championships 2020

12th National Ace-Pigeon All Round Old & Yearlings KBDB 2020
1st National Zone B1 Limoges II 2.777 Old Birds KBDB 2020 
2nd General Provincial Champion KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2020
2nd Provincial Champion Short Middle Distance Youngsters KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2020
1st Provincial Champion Heavy Middle Distance Youngsters KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2020
1st Provincial Ace-Pigeon Heavy Middle Distance Old Birds KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2020 met ‘Magic Girl’
4th Provincial Ace-Pigeon Heavy Middle Distance Yearlings KDBD O-Vlaanderen 2020
2nd Provincial Ace-Pigeon Heavy Middle Distance Youngsters KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2020
10th Provincial Ace-Pigeon Long Distance KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2020
10th Provincial Ace-Pigeon Long Distance Yearlings KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2020

Won championships and best results 2019-2018-2017-2016

14th National Champion Small Middle Distance Youngsters KBDB 2019
5th National Ace Pigeon Heavy Middle Distance Old Pigeons KBDB 2019
2nd Provincial Champion  Middle Distance Youngsters KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2019
1st Provincial Ace Pigeon Middle Distance Old Pigeons KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2019
1st & 2nd Provincial Chateauroux 5.165 Youngsters KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2019
1st Provincial Argenton 3.079 Old Pigeons KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2019
1st & 5th National Zone B1 Gueret Old Pigeons KBDB 2018
3rd Provincial Ace Pigeon Long Distance Youngsters KBDB O-Vlaanderen 2018
1st National Chateauroux III 2.790 Old Pigeons KBDB 2017
1st Provincial Argenton II 1.350 Old Pigeons KBDB Oost-Vlaanderen 2017
1st Provincial Argenton 4.707 Yearlings KBDB Oost-Vlaanderen 2016
1st Provincial La Souterraine 1.381 Old Pigeons KBDB Oost-Vlaanderen 2016
4th National Champion Heavy Middle Distance Old Pigeons KBDB 2016
7th National Ace Pigeon Heavy Middle Distance Old Pigeons KBDB 2016

Benny, a big congratulations on all the set results and we like to wish you a lot of succes on both lofts in 2021!