VAN DEN ABBEEL-VAN PAESSCHEN (LEBBEKE) Best young bird of Belgium over 4 national flights 2018

Patrick Van den Abbeel and Ilse Van Paesschen, residing in the East-Flemish town of Lebbeke, have the best young bird on the 4 national middle distance flights for the 2nd year in a row. Last year, the cock "Sagan" was responsable for this achievement, this year the honor fell to a blue hen named "Nafi" (4002189/2018).
Not only did Nafi fly 4 times top on the 4 national races, she also won the 1st prov. Bourges (East Flanders) against 4900 youngsters and on the last national race she snatched up the provincial palm again. On Châteauroux, she won first against 2574 pigeons. As national ACE pigeon (calculated over 3 national races) she was beaten, which is remarkable given an extremely low coefficient of 0.3785. She obtained 2nd place behind Gaston van De Wouwer's youngster.

The little hen is a descendant of Patrick and Ilse's old speed pigeons. Patrick used to be the fancier to beat on the speed races in his region. He gave away most speed pigeons to friends when he started racing great middle distance. He did this because he thought these pigeons would fall short on the nationals, which was not the case. Nafi proves this convincingly by performing a fantastic series on a very tough, hot young pigeon season. The fact that Patrick has another little hen with top results from the same parents, called 'Tia', 4002147/2018, proves once again that Patrick has a golden breeding couple.

It is crystal clear that the tandem Van den Abbeel-Van Paesschen is unique amongst the small-scale fanciers. Last year, this tandem obtained 1st and 3rd place over 4 national races with Sagan and Greg. This year they are repeating this stunt again, but this time even better since they now have 3 pigeons in this top ten ranking.

Patrick and Ilse are both self-employed. Patrick is the owner of a consultancy firm for human resources in the public sector. Together, they have 3 children. Their busy lives made them decide only to play with youngsters, complemented with some female yearlings that stay with the young cohort. So the focus is entirely on the youngsters and even explicitly on the 4 national races for youngsters on the race calendar.
Patrick and Ilse have some 32 breeding couples. Of those 32 couples there are about 8 fixed couples that have yielded a number of good prize racers over the years. In addition, they have 24 'test pairs' that are given a chance. However, if they have not yielded anything after 2 years, they are taken out of the breeding loft. Furthermore, they have some 8 pigeons in reserve, mainly children of the best breeding couples. They can always be integrated if 1 of those 24 'testers' fails. Usually 1 or 2 pigeons are purchased as well, which are then inserted in the breeding loft.
The youngsters are played on total widowhood. Each sex has its own loft. They also have a 2 x 2 m aviary each. This way, both sexes can choose between the indoor loft and the aviary, both during the day and at night. Normally, they obscure from early April to early July, but since they noticed last year that some pigeons were already sitting on 5 pens at the moment of the last national flight, they started obscuring mid March. This was clearly a lucky move, partly because the KBDB postponed the national races by a week this year due to the harsh conditions that the youngsters had endured during the preparatory flights. Extra light is geven from about mid July.
The youngsters are trained intensively in small steps: they start on 1 km and then go further step by step. The pigeons must beat them home. Otherwise they will not go any further and repeat the previous distance. They do not apply any special motivation during the flights. The youngsters are separated and are allowed to be together three hours before the flights. They do not think it matters if the pigeons have been mated or not. This is simply because the best pigeons were not mated last year and this year. So they have stopped working with trays, cardboard boxes or black-out corners since this is not necessary according to Patrick and Ilse.
Patrick and Ilse follow the system of veterinarian Raf Herbots. Outside the racing season they try to visit Raf twice and during the flight season every 3 weeks. As far as supplements are concerned, this means natural and acidifying products such as elderberry sirop, Aqua control and herb test. In the sports season, Patrick starts his regular Raf Herbots schedule.

This schedule is as follows:
Homecoming (Saturday): Herbo Recover Plus in drinking water
Sunday and Monday: Elderberry syrup + Tarsin
Tuesday: Omega Oils or Herbo Elite Pigeon + Optimix
Wednesday: Herbo Elite Pigeon M.M.K. and Herbosol
Basketing (Thursday) Herbosol + yellow drop against tricho.

The further medical follow-up is easy. The method is not to use medication, unless it is absolutely necessary. Only the breeders are treated blind and vaccinated against paratyphoid. The youngsters are immediately vaccinated against paramyxo upon weaning and then get a Spartix before they are moved to the youngsters loft.
Furthermore, the tandem has full confidence in Beyers feed. They use the Galaxy mixes especially, for the sake of convenience. This starts at the moment of breeding with breeding Galaxy. This is fed until the chicks have been weaned for approximately 2 weeks. Next they switch to moulting Galaxy with which they also perform the speed flights at the beginning of the season. In the morning, the pigeons are fed some 10 grams and in the evening until they are satisfied. "There should always be some leftovers," says Patrick. In case of a more extreme Noyon flight, they sometimes use Galaxy Light instead of Galaxy moulting, but they actually intend to switch to Galaxy Light as from the middle distance and to give the pigeons Galaxy Sport Energy on the last day. At the nationals the pigeons are fed Galaxy light the first 3 days and then boosted with Galaxy sport energy. At the nationals, they also use Beyers super Energy.

When Patrick and Ilse switched to the middle distance as described earlier, they decided to sell off most speed pigeons. Friendly fanciers who obtained these pigeons are still playing magnificently on the short distance. Take, for example, Guy van Holder, Nechelput-Cornet, Gilbert Vermeir and David Jans.
Luckily Patrick and Ilse also kept some speed pigeons, because both Sagan and Nafi are partial descendants from these pigeons. Their loft is primarily made up of pigeons from Gevaert-Lannoo (Deinze), Guy Van Holder (Zegelsem), Bart Van Impe (Schellebelle) and Willy François (Serskamp).
Patrick also wanted to say, and I quote: "Pigeon sport has the added value that you are not experiencing it alone. You will or can enjoy it together with your friends".
His circle of friends includes: Kristof Nechelput, who has always been a sounding board for Patrick, Gilbert Vermeir, Patrick and Ilse can always rely on; David Jans and Guy van Holder. Raf Herbots certainly deserves a word of thanks as well, for the well functioning system the tandem developed together with Raf.

Championships achievements:
2018:
19 first prizes including 3 provincial victories.
Achieved championships:
2nd NATIONAL ace pigeon KBDB youngsters extreme middle distance
1st PROVINCIAL ACE pigeon long distance KBDB East Flanders youngsters
2nd Long distance Championship KBDB East Flanders youngsters
Best pigeon over the 4 NATIONAL races with youngsters
Best pigeon over 2 of the 4 NATIONAL races with youngsters
Winner Ghent's Five Days ACE pigeon youngsters
Winner Ghent's Five Days Long Distance youngsters
Winner Long Distance youngsters AJD Beide Vlaanderen
1st champion Long Distance youngsters FVOV (paying)
General champion grand middle distance Fondclub Denderstreek
2nd General champion long distance Youngsters Land van Aalst
2nd champion 1+2+3 long distance Youngsters Land van Aalst
2nd General champion long distance Youngsters Land van Aalst
1st ace pigeon Ace of Aces national youngsters LCB
1st ace pigeon middle distance LCB
1st Ace pigeon Ace of Aces LCB
2nd champion middle distance LCB

2017:
16 first prizes including 1 provincial victory
6th and 15th NATIONAL ace pigeon KBDB youngsters extreme middle distance
1st PROVINCIAL ACE pigeon long distance KBDB East Flanders youngsters
6th PROVINCIAL ACE pigeon long distance KBDB East Flanders youngsters
9th PROVINCIAAL champion 1+2 KBDB East Flanders middle distance younsters
1st and 3rd best pigeon on the 4 NATIONALE races with youngsters
Winner Ghent's Five Days ACE pigeon youngsters
2nd champion five-day Ghent long distance youngsters
1st champion Long Distance youngsters FVOV (paying)
4th champion Long Distance youngsters AJD-Beide Vlaanderen
2nd General champion Long Distance Youngsters Land van Aalst
2nd champion 1+2+3+4 Long Distance Youngsters Land van Aalst
2nd champion 1+2+3 Long Distance Youngsters Land van Aalst
2nd general champion Long Distance Youngsters Land van Aalst
1st champion most prizes Middle Distance Youngsters Land van Aalst

Some results:
Châteauroux 15/09/2018 (497km)
Provincial: 311 old (4/4) 1 – 6 – 16 – 21
Provincial: 2574 youngsters (37/54) 1 -4 – 5 – 6 – 14 – 15 – 26 – 29 – 34 – 38 – 62 – 83 – 84 – 103 – 104 – 108 – 113 – 118 – 128 – 141 – 144 – 156 – 178 – 192 – 193 – 285 – 314 – 343 – 348 – 351 – 377 – 400 – 442 – 455 – 487 – 545 – 604

Blois 08/09/2018 (430km) FVOV: 358 old (4/4) 2 – 4 – 5 – 26
FVOV: 3441 youngsters (24/31) 19 – 24 – 26 – 34 – 37 – 58 – 68 – 89 – 92 – 93 – 94 – 107 – 150 – 169 – 232 – 353 – 356 – 367 – 500 – 555 – 588 – 693 – 788 – 842

Argenton 01/09/2018 (526km) Provincial: 507 old (4/4) 8 – 16 – 21 – 24
Provincial: 3446 youngsters (29/45) 2 – 3 – 11 – 14 – 19 – 20 – 27 – 43 – 60 – 95 – 98 – 113 – 150 – 151 – 164 – 166 – 167 – 226 – 269 – 279 – 288 – 327 – 329 – 406 – 449 – 495 – 539 – 666 – 837

Toury 01/09/2018 (350km) Land Van Aalst: 241 youngsters (19/20) 1 – 2 – 2 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 11 – 12 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 17 – 24 – 25 – 27 – 37
Toury 25/08/2018 (350788)
Denderbond Ninove (OPNIWO): 1017 jongen (24/33) 10 – 11 – 17 – 19 – 21 – 25 – 27 – 38 – 49 – 50 – 51 – 52 – 55 – 59 – 62 – 102- 103 – 127 – 131 – 143 – 146 – 161 – 176 – 204
Land Van Aalst: 317 youngsters (25/26) 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 14 – 16 – 18 – 19 – 21 – 22 – 31 – 32 – 35 – 47 – 49 – 52 – 80 – 82 – 91

Châteauroux 18/08/2018 (497km)
Provincial: 694 yearlings (3/3) 26 – 100 – 126
Provincial: 3206 youngsters (28/54) 6 – 7 – 24 – 33 – 34 – 36 – 49 – 55 – 63 – 95 – 99 – 114 – 156 – 164 – 187 – 304 – 319 – 342 – 343 – 352 – 378 – 501 – 519 – 550 – 645 – 662 – 785 – 791

Orleans 18/08/2018 (377km)
Interprovincial: 370 yearlings (1/1) 5
Land Van Aalst: 461 youngsters (14/19) 2 – 3 – 9 – 10 – 18 – 21 – 32 – 45 – 46 – 56 – 60 – 87 – 157- 164

Bourges 11/08/2018 (452km)
Provincial: 1527 jaarlingen (2/4) 9 – 155
Provincial: 4922 youngsters (30/70) 1 – 6 – 8 – 17 – 25 – 26 – 38 – 101 – 115 – 124 – 133 – 161 – 176 – 203 – 242 – 313 – 369 – 487 – 518 – 558 – 559 – 575 – 676 – 821 – 908 – 922 – 963 – 1037 – 1171 – 1204

Orleans 04/08/2018 (377km)
Land van Aalst: 122 yearlings (3/4) 2 – 22 – 51
Land Van Aalst: 390 youngsters (60/79) 1 – 2 – 3 – 8 – 9 – 11 – 13 – 14 – 18 – 20 – 22 – 23 – 26 – 29 – 32 – 33 – 34 – 35 – 38 – 40 – 42 – 43 – 44 – 45 – 51 – 55 – 56 – 58 – 63 – 71 – 82 – 85 – 88 – 90 – 94 – 95 – 96 – 99 – 100 – 101 – 102 – 106 – 111 – 121 – 130 – 134 – 135 – 144 – 147 – 148 – 149 – 155 – 160 – 167 – 174 – 178 – 183 – 193 – 194 – 195

Noyon 29/07/2018 (177km)
De Hoppestreek: 3004 youngsters (37/56) 5 – 6 – 8 – 9 – 14 – 15 – 34 – 43 – 47 – 81 – 84 – 87 – 93 – 159 – 168 – 173 – 173 – 175 – 175 – 177 – 263 – 278 – 280 – 319 – 390 – 405 – 425 – 612 – 688 – 691 – 737 – 803 – 873 – 878 – 881 – 894 – 945

Chevrainvilliers 15/07/2018 (325km)
Pajot: 596 yearlings (2/4) 55 – 97
The Liedekerke Association: 54 yearlings (2/4) 10 - 17
Pajot: 1732 youngsters (52/100) 10 – 12 – 17 – 19 – 23 – 24 – 25 – 28 – 29 – 54 – 55 – 61 – 69 – 76 – 91 – 99 – 148 – 153 – 154 – 157 – 162 – 168 – 169 – 178 – 179 – 180 -181 – 205 – 220 – 231 – 233 – 237 – 239 – 251 – 259 – 262 – 272 – 289 – 314 – 337 – 436 – 437 – 443 – 461 – 487 – 497 – 514 – 516 – 542 – 544 – 558 – 571
The Association Liedekerke: 232 youngsters (61/100) 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 18 – 19 – 22 – 24 – 26 – 28 – 29 – 30 – 32 – 33 – 34 – 35 – 36 – 37 – 38 – 41 – 43 – 45 – 46 – 47 – 48 – 49 – 50 – 51 – 54 – 57 – 61 – 64 – 71 – 72 – 73 – 74 – 78 – 79 -80 – 81 – 86 – 87 – 90 – 93 – 94 – 95 – 102 – 105 – 107 – 110 – 112 – 114 - 116

Toury 07/07/2018 (350km) Dender & Scheldeverbond: 217 youngsters (45/102) 2 – 4 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 19 – 20 – 21 – 22 – 23 – 26 – 30 – 31 – 32 – 33 – 33 – 35 – 36 – 37 – 41 – 43 – 45 – 47 – 49 – 50 – 51 – 55 – 56 – 57 – 60 – 61 – 62 – 63 – 72 – 73 – 79 – 80 – 81 – 84 – 85

Noyon 01/07/2018 (177km) De Hoppestreek: 456 yearlings (4/5) 4 – 22 – 39 – 121
De Hoppestreek: 1896 youngsters (60/105) 2 – 3 – 4 – 6 – 11 – 16 – 22 – 24 – 28 – 30 – 31 – 37 – 39 – 40 – 41 – 46 – 48 – 51 – 61 – 79 – 80 – 108 – 109 – 112 – 114 – 130 – 132 – 137 – 141 – 155 – 160 – 178 – 180 – 210 – 211 – 212 – 230 – 235 – 238 – 248 – 278 – 279 – 280 – 285 – 296 – 318 – 360 – 379 – 412 – 415 – 434 – 446 – 461 – 478 – 489 – 493 – 496 – 533 – 557 – 594

Noyon 24/06/2018 (177km)
Land Van Aalst: 124 jaarlingen (5/5) 4 – 9 – 27 – 28 – 53
Land Van Aalst: 493 youngsters (65/107) 5 – 6 – 11 – 12 – 17 – 18 – 19 – 20 – 21 – 22 – 25 – 26 – 28 – 29 – 30 – 44 – 45 – 46 – 48 – 53 – 55 – 59 – 60 – 62 – 66 – 67 – 69 – 69 – 73 – 75 – 75 – 89 – 93 – 94 – 95 – 96 – 97 – 98 – 104 – 105 – 121 – 123 – 126 – 129 – 130 – 131 – 139 – 146 – 162 – 163 – 167 – 169 – 179 – 181 – 189 – 190 – 193 – 197 – 203 – 211 – 213 – 225 – 228 – 229 - 233

Noyon 17/06/2018 (177km)
Land Van Aalst: 110 yearlings (5/5) 1 – 8 – 10 – 27 - 28
Land of Aalst: 376 youngsters (67/110) 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 5 – 13 – 14 – 15 – 15 – 17 – 22 – 24 – 25 – 27 – 28 – 30 – 32 – 35 – 50 – 53 – 57 – 59 – 61 – 64 – 67 – 68 – 69 – 70 – 73 – 74 – 75 – 77 – 81 – 82 – 84 – 84 – 91 – 92 – 93 – 96 – 98 – 99 – 109 – 110 – 111 – 112 – 114 – 117 – 121 – 122 – 126 – 127 – 129 – 141 – 144 – 147 – 162 – 164 – 166 – 167 – 168 – 174 – 181 – 183 – 184 – 185 – 187