Herbots Brothers, the strength of a breeding loft is very important!

In addition to the international trade in pigeons, the Herbots family is mainly known for the strong performances of their pigeon colony. Together with caretaker Geoffrey Janssens and thanks to the perfectly thought-out strategy of the entire Herbots family (in addition to Jo, we should not forget his sister Miet, his son Maarten and brother Raf), it is really enjoyable to enjoy that beautiful hobby called pigeon racing. The laws of pigeon racing are unfathomable because even a top colony like Gebroeders Herbots learns every day. This will become clear from the report below.

The sublime 2023 season

A season that can undoubtedly be classified as “superior”.

In total, 29 x Top-50 national was played and several nominations were achieved in the important provincial and national KBDB championships such as: 1st best old pigeon of Belgium long distance (4 flights), 1st Provincial ace pigeon long distance KBDB old, 3rd National ace pigeon Long distance KBDB old etc… The leader was without a doubt “De Flup”. “De Flup” (B21-2130124), a dream in the hand and results that catapult him to one of the best long distance pigeons that have ever flown through the Belgian airspace. In 4 weeks, you read that right, in 1 month he won

7e Nat. Limoges 4.827d. – 652km
9e Nat. Aurillac 7.211d. – 685km
9e Nat. Libourne 5.342d. – 784km
9e Nat. Souillac 3.880d.  – 711km

It will come as no surprise that “De Flup” was assigned a breeding box and can now fully pass on his qualities to his offspring. The first results are already promising and guaranteed that within a few years we will speak with great praise about the performances of the children and grandchildren of “De Flup”.

Fine tuning

Just like in previous seasons, the old/yearling racing team consisted of more hens than cocks. In 2024, the ratio was 70 hens and 50 cocks. The system that is followed can be described as “total widowhood”.

“We have been using this system for several years now with great satisfaction”, says Jo “of course we sometimes think about changing something, but we do not want to completely change a system that has proven its reliability from one year to the next. Let us say that we are always open to “fine tuning” our system. Changing something in the hope that it will make our pigeons a few percent better.

Do you want a concrete example? Well, it concerns our young pigeon system. In total, we breed about 200 young pigeons for our own use. These are raced according to the sliding door system. Our new approach came in the training of the young pigeons. Not the way in which, but the “direction of the training”. The young pigeon game is very important in Belgium, and all foreign fanciers are jealous of our national flights. Those who analyse the results of these flights know that the wind and the place of residence of the fancier largely determine the winner, but also know that the majority of the participating fanciers live centrally in Belgium. Halle-Booienhoven, compared to all Flemish provinces, must be situated at the shortest distance in the northeast and we had already noticed several times that these youngsters were tempted to follow the flight line of central Belgium for too long. For that reason, this year we did not train the young pigeons from a southern direction, but a good 15 km more to the west (so more central). Teach them to leave the “central path” in time and sprint towards Halle-Booienhoven. Conclusion…we have the impression that it helps and in the meantime we know that there are still fanciers from our region who follow this method.”

The honesty of the conversation

Jo quickly takes a sip of water and continues: “Pigeon racing is not an exact science. For us too, there is no fixed formula that guarantees a successful season. Honesty obliges us to say that after the top season of 2023, the season of 2024 was a little less. Many of us were dribbled by the very bad weather in France during the first months of the season. Especially the extra days in the basket were not always beneficial for the condition of the pigeons. For example, we had our entire racing team with us on Melun, (296 km) one of the first small middle distance flights of the season. Due to the bad weather, the pigeons were returned, but the supervisor also had pigeons from the province of Antwerp with us and it was decided to release them first in Pont-St.-Maxence. Afterwards, the pigeons from our region were driven to Soissons (196 km) and were not released there until 3:30 p.m. It was a very difficult flight, not in terms of losses, but the pigeons did not recover from it. At first glance, it was still going well, but both keeper Geoffrey and we had the impression that the pigeons were not at the right weight. Then we made the mistake of giving them back the following weekend and not giving them enough time to recover properly. Result… they were pushed even deeper “into the pit” and thanks to the interventions of brother and specialized pigeon vet Raf and son Kobe we got them back on track. Afterwards they won, among other things:

2          Nat      La Souterraine    7.368 jaarse   574 km

7          Nat      La Souterraine    5.243 oude     574 km

12        Nat      La Souterraine    7.368 jaarse   574 km

22        Nat       Vierzon                5.780 oude     454 km

33        Nat       Vierzon                5.780 oude     454 km

34        Nat       Argenton              8.867 oude      534 km

40        Nat       Bourges               7.617 jaarse   482 km

43        Nat      La Souterraine    7.368 jaarse   574 km

45        Nat      La Souterraine    7.368 jaarse   574 km

47        Nat       Vierzon                  5.780 oude     454 km

But we have had “pigeon lessons” again and the sentence “recovery is more important than you think” we are going to write in large letters on the door of the pigeon loft. “

The strength of a breeding loft is so important

The search for the very best that international pigeon racing has to offer is and remains one of the primordial activities of the Herbots family. If they know of a top pigeon somewhere, it tickles to transfer it to their breeding loft because the strength of your breeding loft translates into performances in the racing loft.

We would like to introduce you to:

Best resultats 2024

La Souterraine            641 Yl                PROVINCIAAL       574 km

1, 2, 8, 9, 11, 14, 21, 22, 29, … 

La Souterraine            7.368 Yl            NATIONAAL                      574 km

2, 12, 43, 45, 57, 74, 155, 156, 223, 319, …

La Souterraine            437 Ob              NATIONAAL z        574 km

1, 30, 38, 53, 57, 80, 89, 90, …

La Souterraine            5.243 Ob          NATIONAAL                      574 km

7, 390, 477, 679, …       

Bourges                          2.342 Yb          S.NATIONAL                    482 km

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 16, 19, 20, 22, 25, 32, 34, 42, 47, 51, 56, 60, 73, …

Bourges                          1.456 Yl            S.NATIONAL                    482 km

1, 4, 8, 11, 12, 25, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 49, 87, 88, … 

Argenton                        1.425 Yb          S.NATIONAL                    534 km            

1,7,12,32,39,40,46,53,54,70,71,74,77,81,84,96,… 

Lorris                                  1.065 Yb           Sector 3-4                    376 km

1, 19, 26, 37, 40, 50, 55, 59, 68, 71, 81, 84, ..         

Vierzon                            1.608 Yb          S.NATIONAL                   454 km 

2, 5, 6, 8, 21, 22, 31, 35, 36, 38, 42, 46, 47, 48, 54, 56, 69, 71, 76, 84, 86, 89, 91, ….

Vierzon                            1.348 Ob          S.NATIONAL       454 km

4, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, 25, 28, 36, 45, 47, 51, 54, 61, 65, 74, 76, 85, …     

Lorris                             1.607 Yl             INTERPROV                  376 km

2, 5, 11, 19, 24, 25, 31, …. 

Argenton                      2.150 Yl.            S.NATIONAL                 534 km

2, 7, 10, 22, 25, 36, 43, 44, 53, 71, 77, 100, … 

Argenton                      2.247 Ob           S. NATIONAL                534 km

4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 22, 26, 31, 52, 55, 61, 63, 68, 99, 100, …

Chateauroux                1.597 Yb          S.NATIONAL                   509 km

3, 17, 21, 34, 41, 45, 46, 54, 60, 65, 66, 71, 78, 87, 88, 90, 91, 92  

Bourges                        2.376 YL           S.NATIONAL                 482 km

3, 5, 11, 21, 25, 41, 51, 78, 99, 102, 130, …

Lorris                             3.952 Ob           INTERPROV                  376 km

4, 15, 16, 21, 31, 49, 59, 76, …

Lorris                               1.647 Yl.            INTERPROV                  376 km

6, 12, 48, 54, 76, 86, … 

Bourges                        3.937 Ob           S.NATIONAL                 482 km

8, 34, 58, 74, 112, 112, 187, … 

Sancoins                       2.729 Yl             S.NATIONAL                 469 km

6, 12, 19, 32, 43, 48, 58, 66, 69, 92, 93, …

Argenton                        1.563 Ob          S.NATIONAL                  534 km

5, 31, 114, 127, 162, 183, 185, 210, 211, …. 

Bourges                          1.393 Ob          S.NATIONAL                    482 km

6, 7, 20, 27, 34, 52, 70 78, 80, 82, …

Lorris                                  483 Yb                                                  376 km

1, 2, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 21, 31, 36, 37, 37, 39, 40, 45, 48, 50, 50, 58, 61, …      

Vierzon                            1.470 Yl            S.NATIONAL                   454 km

6, 20, 21, 27, 35, 36, 37, 45, 46, 46, 48, 58, …

Finally

You can feel that the Herbots family has the pigeon game on the right track. Miet, Jo, Maarten, Raf, Kobe and Geoffrey stay within the lines and they also like to admit that mistakes are sometimes made, but a lot is learned from mistakes and that is perhaps the most important thing of all.

We wish you much success.

Stefan Mertens