Gerard Rens from Herselt wins 1st and 2nd Provincial Sermaises 13,368 pigeons

Last week the 1st provincial flight was on the calendar in the province of Antwerp, this was Sermaises with a nice headwind and fair flight. There were no fewer than 13,368 pigeons at the start, which means that such a release is attractive. We find the first 2 winners in the lofts of Gerard Rens from Herselt in Antwerp. Gerard has been among the better pigeon fanciers in the region for a long time and both last season and this season they are back on track. Until now, they always started with a 1st or 2nd place in the preparation, so there was hope for Sermaises, he had not expected that he would clock the 2 fastest pigeons of all pigeons, of course, but they arrived wing to wing. Coincidence or not, but they were 2 pigeons from the same nest, cock and hen, which were bred from a couple that already had some good pigeons in the loft. The cock entered first and can therefore declare himself the winner.

Results so far of the 2023 season

13/05 Sermaises 1.585 old + yls : 1,2,3,4,9,11,13,16,50,64,82,149,…17/21
            Sermaises 812 yls : 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,26,33,72,79,… 14/18
30/04 Soissons 507 old + yls: 2,3,5,9,22,23,26,… 17/29
23/04 Soissons 405 old + yls: 1,2,5,6,7,8,15,16,19,… 15/18
15/04 Soissons 307 old + yls : 2,3,11,13,18,24,… 12/16

Both with cocks and hens

Gerard's racing team is not that big, 18 cocks and 8 hens. A few have already been lost this season and that is why it is necessary to rearrange the system, because a part is raced on total widowhood and another part on classic widowhood.

The pigeons just did an early winter breeding and were then put together for another 3 days for the 1st race of the season. Then he took the training baskets from the stable and drove them for 3 days and they went to Momignies. They flew 1x Momignies, then had to endure a bad Soissons, so they flew 2x Soissons before moving on to the middle distance. The following week they then flew Melun and now Sermaises.

Until the basketing of Sermaises they did not come together yet, last week Thursday he left them together for a short time and they were taken away. Of course I don't know whether this has resulted in the super result, but next weekend I will only decide on the day itself what I will do for basketing because you cannot use the same motivation every week. When they return home they always stay together until the evening, now after Sermaises I once left them together until the morning after because the cocks get a week's rest anyway.Some of the hens go to Vierzon and some to the middle distance, the cocks get a rest in preparation for Bourges. The hens train once a day and the cocks twice a day, but it is not the case that my pigeons make the airspace unsafe. I don't have any pigeons that train for an hour at home, even the hens flew for a maximum of 10 minutes last week, but were there when they had to be there. The cocks are usually out of sight for fifteen minutes and then fly around the house for another fifteen minutes, then I let them in because hanging out on the roof is only good for learning bad manners. I let the hens out with them in the spring when the youngsters started flying well and then they flew a bit longer, but now in the season I don't do that anymore. The pigeons make enough kilometers in the weekend and with last year a tough season and again this year a lot of headwind so far, training at home is not necessary for my pigeons.

The yearlings that are now doing well in the middle distance are not pigeons that flew national races as a youngster, I do not squeeze my pigeons in their year of birth. The cocks race here several times Soissons and I get the best ones here while the hens have flown 1 or 2 middle distance races.

As food I use 2 mixtures of Versele Laga, that is Gerry Plus and Champion Plus. I always give them 50/50 up to 2 days before basketing. Afterwards I switch to 100% Champion Plus, just like when they get home, where they also get this together with Belgasol from Belgica De Weerd in the drinking water. The following day, proteins are the most important as recuperation and they regularly receive apple cider vinegar as an acidifier in the drinking water. On medical use they received a cure with B.S. from Belgica De Weerd for the 5-day season and nothing against the head yet. As long as they keep coming like this, I'm not going to do anything.

2 Nest mates ensure the big victory

BE 22-6135732 “Andi” Dard Checkered Cock

  1 Prov Sermaises         13.368p
  5 Soissons                          507p
34 Soissons                          723p

BE 22-6135731 “Amy” Dark Checkered Hen

  2 Prov Sermaises        13.368p ( after loftmate )
41 Soissons                        785p

 

Sire BE 18-6094741 Sem
Won himself 2 Quievrain 673p – 2 Laon 300p – 14 Melun 726p – 34 Melun 1.749p – 38 Sermaises 988p

Gr.F. BE 16-6183036 Blue
            Son from “622/12” Fernand Mariën x “218/14” Blue
Gr.M. BE 14-6235220 Runa
            Won herself 2 Souppes 1.090p – 18 Nat Chateauroux 25.710p
            Daughter from “854/05” Henri Menten x Van Leest Peeters x “236/11” Blue Jules Lens

Dam BE 18-6224046 Kriske
Won herself 1 Toury 1.222p – 2 Quievrain 572p - 3 Noyon 153p – 5 Noyon 1.329p – 5 Noyon 184p - 6 Noyon 194p – 19 Quievrain 727p – 21 Sermaises 1.001p

Gr.F. BE 16-6192113 Checkerd – Jos Van der Veken
            2 Ace yearlings 2017 with 16/16 ( a.o. 9/1.099p – 11/616p – 12/1.199p )
            Son from “066/08” Blue August Van Gestel x “020/10” Blue Jos Van der Veken
Gr.M. BE 17-6160896 Jos Van der Veken
            Daughter from “115/13” Son Kleine Propere Rik Hermans x “948/13” Checkered
            Jos Van der Veken

Gerard, congratulations on this great victory and good luck in the coming weeks from the entire HERBOTS TEAM.

Buelens Kim