Herbots | Tulle: Old Pigeons

When we parked our car in the driveway of Dobbelaere Philippe on Saturday evening around 9 p.m. in Olsene, the water was pouring. Fortunately, the Tulle pigeons were home before this rain zone entered the country. Philippe looks at it with a sad look, "last night there was a water bomb here" he begins his story "up to 40 liters of water in 45 minutes. Several streets in Deinze and surrounding areas were flooded."

"But let's talk about the national Tulle winner," was my reply and Philippe's face immediately brightened. "Surely I think there must be a link to Belgium winning a gold medal the Olympic road race. When Greg Van Avermaet won gold in Rio, I won 1st national Jarnac (the winner was appropriately named "Greg") and now Remo Evenepoel wins gold in Paris and lap, I get to note 1st national Tulle on my record. My "682-22" was promptly renamed "Golden Remco."

Only with widowers

Philippe continues: "I used to play both hens and cocks. Both with a partner staying at home, but because of some problems with the back and a lot of work, I decided to play only with cocks. Why cocks and not hens? Well...last year, I had much better cocks than hens and the choice is easily made. I did play 4 hens - in nest position - between the youngsters. Who knows, maybe in a few years I will have good young hens and I will only play with hens and no cocks. The future will tell.
The 35 widowers were paired on 10/12 and could raise a youngster. Some raised their own young, others the young of a loftmate or a young of the breeders. With some puzzle work, it all works out fine. Once the youngsters were big enough, the hens were separated in time.
A 2nd pairing happened at the end of March. During this period, the training basket was also taken from the attic and when the first pigeons were on eggs for 3 days, all nests were demolished and widowhood was a fact.
The widowers were darkened from 21/03 through 24/04 with satisfaction as most of the widowers are now still on 8 wingfeathers.
The widowers are housed in 2 departments. One department flies the large middle distance races, the other the long distance races. The long distance pigeons performed well with several national top pigeons and as highlight the national Tulle victory, but also the other team did not let themselves go with 1st Nat (z) Bourges 2,433 yearlings and 1st Nat (z) Argenton 2,744 yearlings.
In the provisional national KBDB ace pigeons 2 full brothers are classified as 11th and 34th National ace pigeons.
In terms of food, there is full confidence in the "Revolution" range of Van Robaeys and in terms of by-products the products from the Comed range.
Medically, Philippe regularly goes to the vet for a check-up and apart from a treatment against coxi and a cure - end of May - against ornithose, the medicine cabinet remained closed.
Besides playing with the widowers, he also breeds about 120 youngsters for his own use.
They flew Orleans last provincial and won 1st, 2nd, 5th and 11th prize against 7,775 youngsters. Despite this cracking performance, a few too many losses were recorded. Philippe's experience will fix this, we think to ourselves.

Philippe, congratulations with your 4th national victory and good luck!

NATIONALE UITSLAGEN FOND 2024

04-06 LIMOGES (622km) 10653 d. 76-114-159-170-454 (5/6)

23-06 TULLE (612km) 7883 d. 12-99-226 (3/5)

28-06 AGEN (805km) 7396 Jl 42 (1/1)

05-07 LIMOGES (622km) 6889 d. 46-70-649-1712 (4/5)

14-07 SOUILLAC (687km) 4673 d. 10-42-175 (3/3)

4073 Jl 74-270 (2/2)

03-08 TULLE (612km) 4964 d. 1-234 (2/2)

NATIONALE ZONEA2 OVERWINNINGEN ZWARE HALVE FOND

25-05 BOURGES 2433 YL 1

08-06 ARGENTON 2744 YL 1