Visit Gaston Vandewouwer

Gaston is holding the 2 Best Old Pigeon of Belgium over 4 National races until 05/07/2019, namely 'BE17-6053446'. She won to be able to set this result until now in 2019:
3     Provincial Vierzon        2,288b
11   Provincial Issoudun      1,400b 
100 National Bourges I      24,055b
341 National Chateauroux 20,520b 

She already won before :
10  Provincial Le Mans 359b  2018
20  National Chateauroux III 18,499b 2017 
36  Provincial Chateauroux II 2,394b 2018
50  Provincial Gueret 1,044b 2018
165 Provincial Blois 2,744b 2018
216 National Chateauroux I 27,081b 2018
219 National z Argenton I6 ,640b 2018
257 National Argenton III 3,322b 2018
794 National Bourges II 38,456b 2017

The movies underneath are all in Dutch without translation to English, but we wanted to share the video so you could see the loft, the pigeons and Gaston at his best.

The system at Gaston is very simple, hardly any work and has only few pigeons to race with namely 20 young hens, 10 young cocks and 12 old hens. The old hens only see him once a day between 5 and 6 in the evening to eat and train, so they only eat once a day and train once a day in the evening. They get to eat as much as they want before training but doesn't have a problem of getting them in after one hour training as they know they will get 'dessert' (peanuts and small candy seeds).

All young hens are coupled against old cocks and all young cocks are coupled against old hens, all with free choice, so it is possible that some will be 'married' very soon and for some it will take some weeks! So they can choose their partner on their own and will stay 'married' until half September. The hens can't come onto eggs as if they do they will continue on trying to lay eggs which isn't good for their motivation according to Gaston. The old hens that are coupled against the young cocks could breed for about 8 days.

He doesn't give any vitamins to his pigeons. Only 4-Oils from Herbots, Herbo Aqua Control from Herbovet and 2 side products from Dr. Mariën and that's it. 

As you can see, a small loft, not a lot of pigeons but amazing results. He has been using the same system for 30 years now and doesn't want to change it as it isn't a lot of work and gives good results. 

Congratulations Gaston and thank you for sharing all your 'secrets'!