Peter & Morgan Vervoort win 2nd National Narbonne Old Birds with "Zendaya"

Stabroek - Peter and his daughter Morgan Vervoort achieved a remarkable performance on the international flight Narbonne. With their hen, "Zendaya" (BE22-6093929), they not only took the provincial victory for Antwerp, but also the 2nd national place against 4,983 old birds.

Zendaya

Their checkered white feathered hen fell on the board around 09h03 with a speed of 936.45 m/m, making her the fastest of 498 old birds in the province of Antwerp. As mentioned earlier, this performance made her the 2nd fastest of 4,983 old birds nationally, and the 5th fastest pigeon of 10,536 old and yearlings combined. Earlier this year, "Zendaya" already confirmed her good form by winning the 6th Prov. Agen against 742 old birds (47th Nat. against 6,435 old birds).We can't say this is very surprising considering the pedigree of this hen. Zendaya's sire is "Manchu", sired by Thibault Seiffert, who is a grandson of Kristof Mortelmans' 1st Nat. ace pigeon Great Long Distance 2016, and also winner of 2nd Nat. Narbonne against 4,118b and 22nd Nat. Barcelona against 7,693b. Also, Manchu's mother "Carla" is the winner of, among others, the 10th Nat. Agen against 6,938d and the 27th Nat. Cahors against 6,903 pigeons.
There is clearly no shortage of good genes!

System

"We used to play mainly small and large middle-distance," Peter Vervoort explains. "Since 2019, we have also started playing partly long distance. This success is partly due to the contribution of pigeons from Jos & Simonne Francken from Wuustwezel. Then we also added pigeons from Thibault Seiffert from Kapellen to our stock. Our current team is a mix of these pigeons together with our own old middle distance variety."

This year, the duo started with a squad of 64 pigeons: 24 cocks and 40 hens. Of these pigeons, 24 pairs were played on total widowhood and 16 hens on classic widowhood. "Zendaya is one of those 16 hens on classic widowhood," Morgan explained. "The 24 pairs on total widowhood are put together with the breeders around Christmas because the first lay from the breeders is transferred to these pairs. The 16 other flocks are put together a little later so the second lay from the breeders can be transferred to them."

The youngsters are raised and then the couples are separated. The cocks go on widowhood and the hens are placed in the aviary. In mid-April, the hens move to the racing lofts and are trained together with the cocks on widowhood. "So they no longer breed eggs before the season starts," says Peter.

In May and June, we mainly race on small and large middle distance. This year, the focus was not so much on long-distance flights yet, but from Tulle on 23 June they raced more long-distance races. After Limoges in early July, the 16 couples are first brought together, and a week later the other couples, to play the remaining weeks on nest. "Then we only play large middle distance and long distance," Morgan explained.

This year was the first time four hens tried long distance at Agen and Narbonne. "Zendaya is one of those four," Peter tells proudly. "She flew Agen still on widowhood and flew Narbonne after 12 days of incubation."

"Who definitely deserves another special mention is my wife Martine. As Morgan and I both have full-time jobs, it is not always easy to take on the care and training of the pigeons. Thanks to Martine's a lot of help, it is still possible for us to race the pigeons the way it is supposed to be!" concludes Peter.

Previous Successes

Peter & Morgan, meanwhile, have already amassed an impressive palmares:
2nd place Great Middle Distance Yearlings over 7 flights Pipa Ranking in 2013
2nd Prov. & 10th Nat. Ace Pigeon KBDB Small Middle Distance Old Birds in 2014
11th Nat. Ace Pigeon Great Middle Distance Old Pigeons KBDB in 2019
15th Nat. Champion Long Distance Yearlings KBDB in 2019
2nd Prov. Ace Pigeon Long Distance Old & Yearlings KBDB in 2020
2nd Prov. Champion Long Distance Old & Yearlings KBDB in 2020
9th Nat. Champion Long Distance Old Birds KBDB in 2020

With their victory at Narbonne, they made a mark on their season and they (and we too) are looking forward to their future successes.
Peter & Morgan, congratulations from the whole Herbots team!

Maarten Herbots