Van Hove-Uytterhoeven, Putte, looks out full of expectation to the season of 2021!

We really don’t need to introduce the Van Hove – Uytterhoeven family from Putte. The icons father Gust and his unfortunately passed away wife Mit, flanked by his son Geert and wife Peggy are known by name and fame worldwide in pigeon sport. Since last year Geert also gets the help from Jens Goovaerts to take care of the pigeons. 

Showing so many top pigeons throughout the years, putting down so many top results, a story that started so many years ago and which is hardly coming to an end. 

At the Van Hove family pigeon sport equals family sport. To sketch their history we have to go back before the war, namely to the brothers Jos and Marcel Uytterhoeven or the uncles from Gust Van Hove. The care taker of the pigeons at the Havenith loft, Gust De Feyter, was an acquaintance to the know brother Uytterhoeven and that’s why that during World War II a full round of young pigeons from Havenith were begin brought to Putte, this before the championship pigeons from Havenith were taken to the ‘big’ aviary in Brussels. After the war the youngsters would be devided, but Havenith and so also the brothers Uytterhoeven did have luck by their side as Havenith got after the war all his championship pigeons back out of the aviary. That’s why Havenith only asked back for a few of the youngsters and the rest could stay in Putte. Havenith was known for his amazing results on the longer distance races but in Putte they raced pure short distance with them. Gust Van Hove lived a few houses further and went a lot the uncles to watch the pigeons and he had a car. So it didn’t take long that Gust went to basket their pigeons in Mechelen. In 1959 Gust married his Mit and they went to live together with the uncles. Gust was a teacher and Mit took care of the house hold, but also helped on the farm, they bred vegetables and chrysanthemums. Mit didn’t like the pigeons but uncle Jos was a fervent fancier. Very soon Mit was at the auction in St.Katelijne-Waver with the vegetables while uncle Jos rather stayed home to take care of the pigeons and this was something that Mit didn’t make happy. But uncle Jos played so hard with the pigeons that he soon earned more racing pigeons then what Mit made with the vegetables. This draw the attention of Mit and said in 1973 that she also wanted to race pigeons. She got the second round and immediately did well. It was by now 30 years later and still the Havenith pigeons made good weather in Putte, it is in fact still the base of the colony of Van Hove – Uytterhoeven. It went well, so why buy pigeons? This was how it went those days. Sporadically a pigeon was swopped with another fancier like f.e. villager Flor Engels at the end of the seventies, where off 2 pigeons had an important influance on the colony. In 1980 Geert stopped playing football, went along watching the pigeons and got fascinated by the game. At first instant Geert looked for the heritage of the pigeons and placed everything on paper. Another important reinforcement was the “Kleine Charles” from Van Leest-Peeters from Nijlen. And in 1989 Geert started to effectively take care of the pigeons as well, the year that they became King in the Union Antwerp. In 2004 two nestbrothers to “Bliksem” from Gaby Vandenabeele were bought. One didn’t make it and had only a short live, but the other one was an amazing good breeder! In 2011 they swopped pigeons with Gaston Van De Wouwer and two grandson to the ‘Kaasboer’ moved to Putte and again one out of the two became a good breeder. That same year they also bought 20 pigeons from Patrick Vervloesem out of Rijmenam, a few years later two cocks remained, two good breeders namely “Pattaya” and “Bangkok”, who gave already in three generations good pigeons. 

Now we went to see how they are doing right before the start of the new pigeon season of 2021: 

How many pigeons do you have anno 2021? 

The 50 breeding couples that reside on the breeding loft take care of 200 youngsters in 2 rounds, so about 100 youngsters per round. The racing team exists out of 150 old and year birds divided over 75 widowcocks and 75 hens whereof about ¼ old and ¾ year birds. 

Has the selection after the racing season last year been different due to the special corona year last year? 

‘No’, answers Geert, ‘we really could select on results just as the former years. The racing season was shorter then normal and very heavy but thanks to this intensity of races we could select really good.

What about training? Did you already start yet? 
The racing team is training fully now. The hens for about 1,5h and the cocks for about 1h, in fact, they are already really good, but maybe a bit too soon…
Both the 1st as the 2nd round youngsters come out. The 1st round starts to turn nicely around the loft but the 2nd round is just coming out for the 1st days so they are still exploring the surroundings from the loft.

What do you feed your pigeons? Do you give supplements? Medicines? Did you already gave something this year? 
In a matter of food, we always make use of the Beyers Super Galaxy and Beyers Energy and this for all pigeons; widow cocks, hens and youngsters. The hens have to perform each week in Putte and that’s why Geert thinks it isn’t good to give his hens a Diet mixture, the need to have enough energy to be able to perform the entire season. 
As extra’s to the food they also get Beyers Energy Oil, Beyers Amin-Vita (amino acids) and Beyers Recovery (Protein mixture) and this on the day of arrival but can change from week to week. As long as no races are up, nothing extra is given. 
This is also how Geert keeps another opinion in a matter of curing. In Putte, all the pigeons are being cured against trichomoniases, coccidiosis and head diseases directly after the season and this in opposite of what most fancier do and give these treatments before the start of the racing season. After this they don’t give anything during 6 months. Geert says that if you fully clear them after the season this is in favour of their base health. After the racing season it might be possible that they caught something on the last races and this is being suppressed immediately. And seems that it works as they just went for a check up to the vet and they were all really healthy. 
So, he already went once to the vet for a check-up and a second check-up will follow end of April. They like to go for a check-up after the first short distance races to see if they’re still ok before to go to the national races in May. They never cure blindly, only when somethings wrong.

What are the expectation for the season 2021?
‘Trying to win a national race again’, is the first thing Geert says, ‘but that is going to be difficult. I will be very satisfied if we could repeat the past two season but also for that we will need that portion of luck and the conditional health can’t be ordered just like that, it hides often in the smallest details.’
‘Our best old racing pigeons moved all to the breeding loft such as our national winner, our national ace bird, our 2nd and 4th provincial ace bird…so at the moment I don’t have a favourite pigeon yet in the racing team, this one will have to show him/her first.’ 

There are so many lists with results, rankings, statistic, but Geert made an overview of the top 3 of his 1st, 2nd  and 3rd prizes over the past 6 seasons. Also very impressive to see: 

TOP 3 Van Hove – Uytterhoeven

Season 2019 :

1st prizes : 29
2nd prizes  : 27
3nd prizes : 18

Season 2018 :

1st prizes: 27
2nd prizes  : 26
3rd prizes 27

Season 2017 :

1st prizes: 31
2nd prizes  : 25
3rd prizes:30

Season 2016 :

1st prizes: 29
2nd prizes  : 29
3rd prizes :20

Season 2015 :

1st prizes: 8
2nd prizes : 8
3rd prizes : 14

Season 2014:

1st prizes: 27
2nd prizes  : 27
3rd prizes : 22

Total top 3 results past 6 racing seasons :

151 x 1st prizes 
142x 2nd prizes  
131 x 3rd prizes

Most important victories 2020 :

1st National Limoges (663 km) 15,981b (with 1 minute lead)
1st National Z Chateauroux (518 km) 10,995b (fastest against 16,502b)
1st & 2nd National Z Argenton (547km) 1,307 Old (with 3 minutes lead)
1st Provincial Vierzon (466 km) 2,691b (with 1 minute lead)

25x 1st  Prize (74x Top 3)

2020

Championships

KBDB

8th National Champion Greater Middle Distance KBDB old 
11th National Ace bird Greater Middle Distance old KBDB

PROVINCIAL ANTWERP

1st Provincial Champion Greater Middle Distance old and year birds KBDB PE Antwerp
2nd Provincial Ace bird Greater Middle Distance old and year birds KBDB PE Antwerp
4th  Provincial Ace bird Greater Middle Distance old and year birds KBDB PE Antwerp

PIPA - RANKING
6th Best pigeon of Belgium over 6 national races 500km
13th Best pigeon of Belgium over 6 national races 500km 
14th Best pigeon of Belgium over 5 national races 500km

CHAMPIONSSHIPS CLUB LEVEL

1st General Champion Greater Middle Distance
1st Champion Greater Middle Distance old 
1st Champion Greater Middle distance year birds 
7th Champion Greater Middle Distance youngsters 

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 14th and 15th  Ace bird Greater Middle Distance old  
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 15th Ace bird Greater Middle distance year birds 
1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th,  7th, 8th, 10th, 13th and 14th Ace bird Greater Middle Distance youngsters  

Victories

25x 1st Prize (74x  top 3)

1st National Limoges 15,981 Old (with 1 minute lead) 663 km
1st National Z Chateauroux  10,995 year birds (fastest against 16,502 old and yearbirds) 518 km
1st & 2nd National Z Argenton 1,307 Old (with 3 minutes lead) 547 km
1st Provincial Vierzon 2,691b (with 1 minute lead) 464 km

Race results 

VIERZON (466 km)

2691 Birds : 1-10-14-26-101-117-160-179-….(12/12)
4019 Birds : 10-25-35-40-55-56-65-69-70-91-140-185-291-294-298-320-370-371…(23/28)

SERMAISES (355 km)

2803 Birds : 17-19-23-33-72-74-78-79-80-82-96-142-164-165-171-199-210-211-214…(44/59)
641 Birds : 1-2-3-6-16-17-18-19-20-21-23-31-39-40-41-42-43-44-47-48-52….(49/78)
1977 Birds : 1-2-3-7-8-10-12-13-17-22-43-54-63-78-79-94-97-101-103-109-128-130-133-137-138-…(61/99)
2284 Birds : 3-4-5-6-12-13-15-22-45-46-53-56-57-60-67-68-71-84-87-95-102-114-115-117-118-129-130-133-147-148-150-151-152-178-181-183-185-188…(69/109)
2893 Birds : 13-16-25-36-38-42-66-82-88-94-95-117-122-129-133-135-146-151-155-170-180-182-183-214-221…(58/109)

ISSOUDUN (496 km)

3129 Birds : 6-56-113-185

NOYON (202 km)

447 Birds : 3-4-10-12-13-17-30-33-35-36-37-42-45-48…(44/68)
259 Birds : 3-4-5-6-7-9-10-11-12-14-19-25-26-27-29…(26/62)
465 Birds : 1-3-4-5-9-10-15-16-17-18-25-28-30-31-32-33-35-46…(53/105)

ARGENTON (547 KM) 

4957 Birds : 10-44-151-287 (4/5)
8121 Birds : 7-15-38-50-67-81-86-87-95-100-105-129-150-154-205-213-278-324-332…(36/56)
1307 Birds : 1-2-5-12-28-53-66-70-75-96…(21/47)

LIMOGES (663 km)

5115 Birds : 1-52-81-163-320-505…(8/10)

CHATEAUROUX (518 km)

5507 Birds : 39-62-91-97-173 (5/8)
10995 Birds : 1-19-22-30-31-52-55-73-92-93-95-99-162-211-212-272-281…(38/54)

LA SOUTERRAINE (584 km)

15939 Birds : 45-47-57-198-289-341-435-504-507-581-630-710-860-919-961-971…(29/48)

BOURGES (471 km)

9844 Birds : 24-27-41-78-111-119-126-210-296-336-357-406-458-461-463-466-470…(42/101)

2019

PIPA - RANKING

1st Best pigeon of Belgium Bourges National (2 races) 2018-2019
9th Best pigeon of Belgium Bourges National (2 races)2018-2019
2nd Best pigeon of Belgium Bourges National (3 races) 2018-2019
6th  Best pigeon of Belgium Bourges National (3 races)2018-2019
9th Best pigeon of Belgium over 7 national races  500 km

CHAMPIONSSHIP CLUB LEVEL

Greater Middle Distance
2nd Champion Old
1st Champion year birds  
5th Champion youngsters 
3rd  General Champion 
5th Ace bird old
1st, 2nd  and 3rd  Ace bird year birds 
3rd and 4th  Ace bird youngsters  

Victories

29x 1st  Prize (74x top 3 )

1st National Valence  7,974 old (682 km)
1st National Z Argenton 7,111 year birds (with 54 minutes lead) (fastest against 11,465b) 547 km
1st Provincial Argenton 2,579b (547 km)

Racing results

ARGENTON (547 KM) 

7111 B : 1-18-73-85-97-191-196-231-267-295-304-314-343-411…(18/22)
1339 B : 2-11-4071-73-113-114…(10/10)
2579 B : 1-9-10-63-67-70-79-88-94-95-107…(20/23)

MELUN (302 km)

3249 Birds : 2-3-14-24-29-37-40-47-48-98-105-124-128-138…(64/84)-
1813 Birds : 1-2-11-16-21-26-28-33-63-78-79-139-140-142-163-165-167-171…(43/62)

SOISSONS (202 km)

594 Birds : 1-6-8-11-12-13-14-18-21-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30-39-41-43-45-47….(47/59)

MOMIGNIES (118 km)

859 Birds :1-3-10-11-13-20-26-28-31-33-35-36-47-49-58-60-61….(48/60)

VALENCE (682 km)

7974 Birds : 1-15-45-194-301-314-405…(9/9)

TOURY (374 km)

4580 Birds : 2-3-4-16-17-18-19-24-40-41-51-56-77-89-113-117-118144-174-177….(47/55)
2693 Birds : 2-3-4-11-14-36-41-54-70-86-105-129-155-171-191-193-199…(30/37)

CHEVRAINVILLIERS (346 km)

2185 Birds : 23-25-38-42-44-64-68-89-91-131-135-143-188….(32/56)

NANTEUIL (252 km)

215 Birds : 1-5-6-7-9-15-16-18-19-20-21-24-25-28-30-33-34…(27/54)

ETAMPES (340 km)

2251 Birds : 2-29-42-51-134-152-181-192…(13/13)

FAY-AU-LOGES (394 km)

2842 Birds : 5-13-21-33-42-49-51-52-63-149-178-182-183-187-194…(45/72)