Herbots | Vermander Eric - Oekene: 1st National Brive 6,117 old birds

Eric Vermander is a very well-known figure in the international pigeon world. He is already a fancier from young age. When his father fell ill at a young age, Eric took over the care out of respect for his father and it immediately appeared that he had talent. On middle-distance races he played his heart out and immediately he was competing for the marbles in the regional and provincial races.

After the death of Eric's father, it was clear that he would choose his own way of pigeon racing and that he would not play for nothing. What already stood out was his permanent search for the ideal strong pigeon with a lot of stamina and which is able to fly at the top from Arras to Barcelona. Does such a type of pigeon exist? Don't we usually speak of vitessers, middle-distance pigeons, day long-distance pigeons, the "hangers" for the very long distance? With Eric this is not the case, Eric only knows two kinds of pigeons, good and bad. His search was focused on the complete pigeon, the all-rounder with which he can perform on every race.

As it should be among friends

Another top player with a fine nose for top pigeons is and was Noël Lippens. And he happens to be a good friend of Eric. As it should be among friends, the fruits of their breeding together and friendship would lead to strong successes for both parties. Noël got a daughter from the "Oude Wittepenne" of Eric and she became the mother of "Vital", the 1st national ace long distance of KBDB 1993. "Vital" became on his turn the grandfather of the world famous "Bliksem" of Gaby Vandenabeele. And so we make the link with the pigeons of Gaby who (from the line of the "Bijter") also raced like butter on the pigeons of Eric. Later on, "Falco" (100 % Eric Vermander) became a top pigeon with Gaby and Gaby bought the "Napoleon" from Eric after he raced the 1st national Montauban.

The friendship with Noël Lippens led to top pigeons such as "Noël", "Broer Noël", "Bolero", "Clijsters" and "Mathilde". "Mathilde" was an inbreeding result to the "Oude Wittepenne". The dream couple became "Noël" and "Mathilde" with descendants like "Falco" (top fancier with Gaby Vandenabeele), "Broer Falco" who is father of "Napoleon" (1st national Montauban). "Mathilde" is mother of 23rd national Barcelona 2007, 6th international San Sebastian 2004. She is also the mother of Junior Barabas who is a crack with top results from Tours to Perpignan.

With another adept of the Lippens strain namely Frederik Everaert they regularly breed together and exchange pigeons.

Tight plan

"Keep busy with good pigeons and provide a transparent tight organisation and care and then the fat on the soup will surface" is Eric's strategy. Eric is fully responsible for the care and Eric likes to be with and among people. So it all has to be rather tight and the care is simple. No 10 kinds of food, no complicated feeding schedules, nothing like that, but straightforward and above all a manageable colony of pigeons. Erik feeds the well-known "Platteeuw mix" (Van Robaeys) + 20% corn, this from home to basketing and sometimes up to 3 times a week "Elixir De Reiger" is put in the drinking bowl.

They breed from everything, breeders and racers. The breeding loft consists of about 10 breeding couples with the already mentioned "Brother Falco", "Junior Barabas" and "Cesar" as basic breeders.

With 15 old and 32 yearlings (cocks and hens), Eric is going into the arena for a season that starts mid-March until the last middle distance race. One round of youngsters is bred (about 50) and later in the summer another small team is kept in reserve.

The racers are coupled again around April 1 and are allowed to brood dirty and are thus trained and started in the season.

"Wout

And then we arrive at the national winner Brive. The victory of "Wout" is no coincidence because earlier this season he already won the 15th National Limoges 17,356b. and 246th Nat. Tulle 9,763b. Last season he won a/o 204th Nat. Limoges 15,547b.

Eric has many lofts at his disposal but these are always populated by few pigeons. Wout" is sitting on a large loft with only 3 other widowers. I probably don't have to draw you a picture of the mutual fight and envy between those 4 widowers.

Eric, again congratulations from the whole Herbots team.

B19-3087602
1st National Brive 6,117 old birds - fastest 12,002 birds

Distance: 653km

Velocity: 1,107.88 m/m