Philip De Maeseneer 1st National ace bird KBDB Long Distance youngsters 2020

Denderwindeke: The season of 2020 has ended and we can start our round to visit the national champions KBDB. For our first visit we head towards Denderwindeke for our appointment with the 30-year old Philip De Maeseneer…owner of the best young bird in Belgium on the national races for youngsters 2020. 
Despite his busy job as owner of a diner Philip finds his ideal relaxation in pigeon sport. And be honest…for pigeon sport a winner as Philip is the ideal promotion! A young guy who is out working on a daily base and yet can measure with the professional lofts in Belgium. This has to motivate other fanciers. 

“De Finman”: 1st National ace bird KBDB

For those who didn’t know…the title of national ace bird youngsters is by the youngsters that has the 3 best results on the national racers youngsters. Results on national, national zone and provincial level qualify for the end result. 
“De Finman” (B20-4075225) from Philip was best with underneath results:
1st provincial Argenton 5,225b.
5th provincial Chateauroux 3,525b.
25th provincial Bourges 6,538b.
With a coefficient of 0.5150% “De Finman” beats the youngsters from Wouters Marcel (0.7173%) and Stefaan Lambrechts (1.0068%)

“De Finman” is a cock of the smaller type. But perfectly built and a very smart head on a well-feathered and super muscled body. This all is being stimulated extra by an unknown winners mentality. This is how “De Finman” also won between Bourges and Argenton national the 1st Sermaises against 1,596b. In other words, winning on the important races and winning on the intermediate races…such results speak for themselves!

Asking whether this national ace bird was motivated in a special way is something where Philip can’t give an answer on straight away. Philip: “You might not believe it but my youngsters have never been motivated in a special way. I race according the sliding door system but on the day of basketing the door is being kept closed. Me or my dad just take the youngsters from the loft to go to the club to basket. At arrival the sexes could ‘party’ until the day after but even there I didn’t notice any special behaviours which made that “De Finman” could be motivated better. Only after his last race we saw that he had a ‘sweetheart’. 

Base

Philip: “In 2009 I entered my first loft list. And as every starting fancier I raced short distance (150km) and middle distance (300km). Especially with pigeons from Rene Sterckx. Seen that the amount of pigeons that competed in those races went down I decided to go to the greater middle distance races, read the nationals. It must have been 2011 that we contacted Gaby Vandenabeele and could bring 16 rings to Dentergem. When we went to get these at Gaby they all got a box at the breeding loft and we can state now after a few years that this wasn’t a wrong investment. This is how the father of “De Finman” is born out of 2  Vandenabeele pigeons and in 2018 we won the 2nd provincial Argenton and the father of this winner was also born out of the “Vandenabeeles” . Especially when crossing them in they were more than successful. 
A third strain on our breeding loft are the original Tom Van Gaver pigeons. A few ago we were by coincidence at the same table at a local championships day. We started talking and we hit off immediately. I bought a voucher from Tom on a local championship and this is how I went to visit in no time Tom’s loft. In the meantime we became friends and I can state that half my breeding loft are Tom Van Gaver pigeons. 
The latest investments were done at Andre Roodhooft. Via Jef Schaumans (the former owner of the known pub “De Rare Vos” in Schepdaal) I came in contact with Andre and from one came the other and I could go to Pulderbos to put 7 youngsters of the 4th round out of his breeders in my basket. 

System young pigeons

Philip: “Every year I breed about 80 to 90 pigeons. Once the youngsters are weened they get during a longer period breeding mixture. I buy bags from several different brands and mix them amongst each other. Without having a fixed schedule I strengthen them as much as possible in a natural way with natural products such as sours, oils, brewers’ yeast, intestinal conditioners and so on…I act pure on my own feeling. All youngsters are being vaccinated against small pocks and the vet has vaccinated them twice with the vaccine paramyxo + herpes. 
But despite the fact having done everything to get a healthy base it went wrong beginning of April. I won’t forget this quickly…it was my birthday the 9th of April that I saw the first signs of diseases. A few youngsters didn’t digest their food and had to throw up. The day afterwards they didn’t get anything to eat and when I fed them the day later they were really hungry. So I thought…it won’t be that bad…and could go to bed at ease but the day afterwards it was the same and the disease continued on. My vet told me to cure during 7 days with Baytrill but this antibiotic didn’t seem to be the proper medicine and I needed to select out no less than 15 youngsters. The big lesson I learnt is that I will vaccinate my youngsters in 2021 also against the Rota virus. 
When the youngsters finally cured their lust to fly was totally gone. During about 14 days they sat on the roof of my loft. But suddenly they got their lust back and trained as crazy…when I started to toss them I got 50 youngsters left on my loft. 
In about 5 days it went direction 25km and then there was Noyon (150km) at the program. They did this race 4 times and then they went direction middle distance and national races. 
The youngsters were being darkened from half of March until the longest day of the year. Seen that I wanted to have the youngsters on a few national races to get some experiences, they weren’t being enlightened anymore afterwards. 
During the racing season I have the Galaxy mixtures from Beyers on the menu. In fact it was the same mix each day. When I feed I never look on a grain more or less. In a medical way only the known yellow drops were given against trichomoniases but no curing against head diseases. The pigeons did very well…so why cure? 
Whether I tossed the youngsters during the week? No…they day after a national race I left them inside and on day 2 they could train again and it wasn’t an exception that I didn’t see them for more than one hour out of sight. When you see that you don’t have to put in extra training sessions. In a matter of side products they get at arrival Belgasol in the drinking water and a lot of Tollyamin (Schroeder) or Blitz (Röhnfried) was given. 

Old and yearling birds

Philip: “Also with the old and yearling birds I try to hit some prizes. I have 24 widow cocks and 20 racing hens. These are being raced on pure widowhood, so they have a home staying partner. All racers are being coupled, together with the 12 couple breeders, half of December and the eggs of the breeders are being put under the yearling pigeons so the breeders can start a second round rather quickly. 
Once the youngsters are weened there is a winter regime for the races. This means that they are being fed very light and don’t come out. Half of March the ‘fire’ is being lightened and can come out again. This system is the same for cocks as hens. 
The hens are being basketed on a weekly base for a 500km race while the cocks do the 600-700km races.. As mentioned before, I have many pigeons from Tom Van Gaver and these pigeons are at their best on these distances. “ 

Results season 2020

Old + yearling:

Sermaises 474b: 2-29-74-75-175-206-210     (7 / 10)
Sermaises 686b: 3-5-10-35-62-244-273-283-306
Chateauroux 397b: 10-14-31-66-69-112-125   (7 / 9)
Sermaises  155b: 4    (1 / 2)
Argenton 362b: 1-10-19-42   (4 / 6)
Argenton 661b: 16-28-34-50-86-110-136-150-152-192-218  (12 / 17)
Issoudun 471b: 3-4-12-14-19-27-65-86-88-115-128-134  (13 / 15)
Limoges 220b: 7-16-55-60   (4 / 4)
Orleans 119b: 3 (1/1)
La Souterraine 152b: 5-25  (2 / 3)
La Souterraine 315b: 3-18-19-29-30-45-95  (7 / 10)
Gueret 161b: 14-20-32-41-49  (5 / 5)
Souillac 148b: 2-21  (2 / 3)
Bourges 122b: 2-12-32 (3 / 4)

Youngsters:

Sermaises 276 youngsters : 2-3-4-7-8-13-23-24-28-29-56-57-81-84-90-102-108-120-128-136 (20 /30)
Sermaises 344 youngsters : 1-2-4-11-13-15-20-36-47-53-55-56-57-59-61-68-69-81-83-90-107-113-117-126 (24 / 36)
Bourges 527 youngsters : 2-47-55-72-81-83-88-91-142-147-148-151-160-163-164-165-172  (17 / 36)
Argenton 410 youngsters: 1-18-33-38-50-63-64-82-96
Chateauroux 308 youngsters: 1-6-19-22-31-57-85-98

Philip…once again a big congratulation with this unique ace bird title and seen your enthusiasm other results will follow. It is wholeheartedly granted!

Stefan Mertens