Smits Kevin & Wim from Berlaar win 1st National Ace Pigeon heavy middle distance young KBDB 2024

In the Antwerp local authority of Berlaar, pigeon racing is still very much alive and tangible. The Diamond Association in the speed is a well-known collaboration here in the region and far beyond, in the national flights it is mainly thanks to Gaston Van de Wouwer that this municipality has been put on the map. Let this name now also have had a strong influence on the successes of the Smits family colony. A family that breathes pigeon racing and wants to go for it. Kevin and Wim play in the parental home under their name, next door lives Filip and a little further on also brother Wim who has also made his entry into the sport. The neighbours then play under the name Filip & Kris Smits and together they run the breeding loft.

In the period of 2011-2013 they were among the very best here in the region on the middle distance. The favorite domain with one night basket of this colony. After that it went less well for a few years but even the best among us experience that. Thanks to the input of some important pigeons we are now back on the right track and we focus on the national flights of the heavy middle distance. There is one important reason for that, the middle distance game went to 2 nights basket and our pigeons were simply exhausted when they came home. The care left much to be desired and thanks to a wonderful initiative here in our province we now have this more under control. For which a big thank you to everyone. But still we will no longer focus on the middle distance but a step further. The pigeons we have must be able to do this and have proven it again in 2024. With the icing on the cake of course our young top hen that brought home the title of 1st National Ace Pigeon heavy middle distance young KBDB 2024. 

Stock building

In the beginning we had gone to get some pigeons from Jozef Goovaerts (Kaasboer). These together with a red cock from Marcel Truyers were our first real top breeders. With these we won 1st Provincial Orléans in 2004 against 17,000 pigeons with a daughter of that famous red cock and a hen from Jozef Goovaerts. A son of that winner is 636 of 2013. He has now grown into our progenitor of the colony over the last 12 years. 

In addition, we have had a total of 12 pigeons over a long period from Gaston Van de Wouwer. If we have to thank one man now, it is Gaston. We have bred useful pigeons from all these pigeons, something you rarely come across. In addition, we also bought some pigeons online that we buy based on pedigree and especially assessment. Further on in this article you will come across the names of Stefaan Lambrechts, Lars Henriksen and Arie Dijkstra, who we have done well with.

Young pigeon system

The young pigeons are raced in several systems here. We keep a group of 40 hens at Kevin's that are raced here with old cocks on widowhood. We have copied this from Gaston, our teacher. The 2nd round of young pigeons is also at Kevin's and is raced here on the nest while the other young pigeons are at brother Kris's, just like a small group of yearling hens. 

The young hens have an aviary in front of the loft with a large opening in the window. In the past, we mainly made sure that the pigeons were not in a draught and we regularly closed the aviary. But now we simply choose to keep everything open and the hard ones will survive. A pigeon must also be able to withstand something and we must not make weak pigeons of them.

Last year's group flew very quickly due to attacks by the bird of prey in the spring. They sometimes flew for an hour and a half a day, which made us put the brakes on. They then came outside twice a week because otherwise they would have been trained to crazy levels by the time the season really got going. During the season itself, they flew for 45 minutes a day, which is certainly enough for us. 

The youngsters were darkened longer than usual here, the national flights were later, which meant we hoped to get them in shape later. So we put them in the dark until 10 July. From then on, we immediately switched to lighting until the end of the season. 

Because the young pigeons trained early, we were able to get the training baskets out of the stable at the end of April. We started at 2 km and built up to 25 km in 10 to 12 times. From there, they went to Quievrain, we released them in groups of 15 pigeons each time. This was to reduce the risk of ending up in a wild release and to stimulate the young pigeons' orientation immediately. They are also on their own during the weekend. There is no more driving between flights.

How do you approach this with the old partners of the young hens? 

The young hens fly freely until Noyon, they sit on the pegs in front of the living boxes and get no motivation. Afterwards we pair them with an old cock. In the beginning this certainly does not work with all of them, but the ace pigeon was madly in love with her cock and defended this box completely. When we asked this question to our mentor Gaston he immediately said, those are the best ones who do that. After the season you can only say that he was right. 

So we pair the cocks with the hens that want to and lock them up together, the pegs then leave the loft and we let them pair well. Week after week there are more and more of these and in between some of them fall off and stay behind, but maybe that is just the chance for another hen to take a partner that she may have wanted earlier.

We show the cocks to the hens for 10 minutes on the middle distance and of course this is a bit longer on the national flight. When they return home they can certainly stay with them for a few hours. Between the national flights we usually chose Quievrain but of course the showing of the cocks was shortened. 

But the top hen was something special, wasn't she? 

That's right, she was completely crazy about her cock and she flew early on Fay Aux Loges, Vierzon and Bourges. Afterwards she went with us to Argenton where we had to deal with high speeds and disappointed our entire loft. That same evening I made the decision to take half of the hens out and put the others on the nest for the last chance of the season. So we had to hope for the last flight from Chateauroux and did not participate in Argenton the week before.

The ace pigeon laid her first egg after 9 days, which is very fast for a young hen and they flew Noyon on Sunday and the day before basketing for Chateauroux I entered them for Quievrain. So she brooded for 8 days on the last national flight. Gambling, hoping and knowing that a young hen on her first nest could be a good motivation. 

We also play the Tour of Belgium in the autumn and brought strange cocks extra to the loft, which will be raced there. That caused chaos and the ace pigeon defended her box even harder than before. She did not disappoint and won 44th National. So you see that a decision in the heat of the moment can give you something beautiful at the end of the ride. 

Toppers of the 2024 season

BE 24-6096152 “Nationaaltje” Blue Hen
1st National Ace heavy middle distance young birds KBDB 2024

24 Prov Fay Aux Loges        4.208p
44 Nat Chateauroux          15.060p
54 Nat Vierzon                   16.892p
60 Nat Bourges                  26.549p

Father BE 23-6203510 Blue Lars – Lars Henriksen ( 100% Gaston Van de Wouwer )
Son of “823/19” Blue x “286/14” Blue

Mother BE 19-6107438 Blue - Stefaan Lambrechts
Daughter of “542/17” Henkie J won herself 10 Nat Ace Pigeon M.D. KBDB 2018 x “963/17” Sister Lincia who won 1 Nat Ace Pigeon M.D. KBDB 2015

BE 23-6017832 “Miss Argenton” Blue Hen

45 Nat Argenton     11.777p
55 Nat (z) Poitiers     1.677p
88 Nat Argenton     17.666p
390 Nat Bourges    18.785p
585 Nat Argenton  11.177p

Father BE 18-6252695 Kleine Vuile
½ brother of 3 Nat Bourges 19,889p – 6 Nat Chateauroux 12,855p – 27 Nat Argenton 11,223p – 40 Nat Limoges 17,735p – 49 Nat Argenton 11,223p
Son of “636/13” Son Orléans 1 Prov Orléans 17,057p x “356/09” Vuil Blauw Gunther Gysen 

Mother NL 21-1451357 Powder Gaston – Arie Dijkstra
Sister of “Booms Gaston” 
Daughter of “NL 589/13” Powderfinger x “534/14” Inbred Kaasboer Gaston Van de Wouwer

BE 24-6096125 Checkered white feather Cock

    8 Nat Argenton     9.401p
943 Nat Argenton  14.745p

Father BE 22-6032020 Blue white feather 
Son of “663/21” Grandson of the founding father 636 x “265/20” Checkered

Mother BE 21-6031607 Blue Stonne 607
Daughter of “242/20” Blue Gaston Van de Wouwer x “635/14” Blue won herself 32 Prov Gueret 2,706p.

Guidance 

After weaning, we give our young pigeons another 3 weeks of breeding and then switch to 50% Rui and 50% Superdieet from Vanrobaeys. We then race with this until Noyon, after which we mainly use Aidi Vliegmix 3 the last 2 days before the further flights. On Sunday and Monday they get Superdieet, on Tuesday it is 50% Sport and 50% Superdieet and then 2 days Aidi Vliegmix 3. 

We vaccinate our young pigeons twice against Paramyxo Rota with a period of 3 weeks in between. This way we do not experience any problems with adeno in the last 3 years. Afterwards they also get a vaccination against smallpox. In the autumn, all pigeons here also get a cure for paratyphoid and tricho before breeding starts. We give Bio Boost and Probiatica from Bony every day and we regularly add Stopmite from Comed to the food.

The young pigeons have now been given a cure for tricho and will only be treated during the season after a check-up. We also do very little for the airways, last year we treated them once when they had One Eye Cold and we dripped them with Lysocur from Comed. When they return home from each flight we give them B.S. and Belgasol from Belgica – De Weerd.

The racing pigeons sit on grids everywhere and we throw floor covering granules underneath, so they do not suffer from coccidiosis.

Family Smits, congratulations on this great title and your great season from the entire HERBOTS TEAM.

Buelens Kim