Benny Steveninck (Hamme) the success of deliberate inbreeding with "Chipo breeding line"

Building a strain, it often requires angelic patience. Searching for the right combinations, discovering one or more stock pigeons, some luck is involved. Once the train is on the right track, things can go fast, but as a fancier, you have to do everything to get your colony on this right track or read to keep it and Benny has succeeded with "cum laude".
Benny, when he puts together his breeding couples, certainly does not go about it thoughtlessly. There is clearly a tight and well thought-out "tactic" behind his breeding strategy. Everything starts with stock bird "Chipo", a cock that saw the light of day in 2003. This fantastic ace cock won as a youngster 1st Dourdan 571b.,1st Dourdan 375b., 2nd Dourdan 1,316b., 9th Dourdan 1,268b., 9th Dourdan 339b., 10th Dourdan 964b. etc... and made it to 1st Provincial Ace pigeon East-Flanders. This topper descends on the father's side from a pigeon by Sylvain Verstraete x a daughter from 1st Nat. La Souterraine (Eddy Leutenez)... on the mother's side out of a pigeon from Jozef Vandamme- Dendermonde. He also showed his class as a yearling! He won e.g. 1st Dourdan 614d., 1st Dourdan 213d., 1st Dourdan 101d., 41st Bourges 2306d., 17th Dourdan 848d., 14th Dourdan 425d., 24th Dourdan 555d., etc. Any normal fancier would immediately send this topper to the breeding loft after two successful years, but that is beyond Benny's reasoning. We are writing the year 2005 and the "Chipo" showed up again: 3rd Dourdan 217d., 7th Toury 427d., 5th Dourdan 194d., 9th Noyon 199d., etc. Meanwhile, it appeared that his sons were also starting to fly prizes of honour. More than once they were home before their father and therefore Benny decided to allocate the "Chipo" a permanent box on the breeding loft. Paired against B03-4328989 (a pure Michel Hautekiet hen), they bred pigeons in several generations that are so eager to fly in the top of the result. 
But that was only a first move in Benny's breeding strategy because as it turned out, crossing totally foreign blood on that so successful "Chipo line" turned out to be like the best butter on a thick slice of bread. It turned out to be a unique formula for success ! Especially the crossing with children of "Sagan" (1st Nat. ace pigeon speed P. Boeckx), the original English pigeons (line "Limoges" and "178") and the Wolfgang Roeper pigeons (line "Big Bos" and "241") proved to be a hit.

So concretely, close family breeding is first done with the "Chipo line" and then we talk about "half-brother x half-sister", "father x best daughter" and "mother x best son". Importantly, the youngsters from these pairings are strictly selected and these inbred pigeons are then crossed with totally foreign blood. 

 

Good racers go to the breeding loft after 3 years of flying. A breeder gets 3 years of credit for giving birth to good offspring otherwise he can leave. 

We would like to introduce... 

"Pepperal" and his son "Pepchi" 

Let's start with "Pepperal". "Pepperal" (NL12-1077051) is an original Gerard Koopman cock. "I wanted to acquire something from this great Dutch champion and asked him to select a youngster. We met at the fair in Kortrijk and there I was allowed to put cock "Pepperal" in my basket. "Pepperal" was a son of "Mister Allennig" (won a/o 1st NPO Blois 7,541d.) x "Half-sister Jerson" ("Jerson" was Olympiad pigeon). As already explained, my breeding strategy is to pair "foreign blood" against "inbred Chipo" and "Pepperal" was paired against "Daughter Chipo". It was instant bingo and one of their top sons was "Pepchi". 

"Pepchi" B14-4059809 won, among others:
1st Ace Pigeon Ranking over 6 national flights KBDB 
7th National ace pigeon KBDB 2016.
1st Nat. Chateauroux 2,762b.
7th Nat. Montluçon 16,982b.
16th Nat. Tours 24,097b.
25th Argenton 9,228b.

 

But "Pepchi" is also of golden value in the breeding loft. For example, he is the father of "Nuo". "Nuo" won 1st Prov. Chateauroux 2,809d this season, among others. - 1st Nat (z) Chateauroux 1,512d. - 54th Nat. Chateauroux 13,096d. - 3rd Toury 1,015d. - 5th Noyon 145d. - 10th Chateauroux 1,512d. 
Other children of "Pepchi" won a.o: 102nd Nat. Argenton 13,393d. - 1st Toury 490d. - 1st Argenton 168d. - 2nd Chateauroux 291d. - 6th Toury 2,384d. - 10th Chateauroux 1,512d. - 11th Toury 4,146d.

"Chihaut 98" and his son "Crash 99"

What a wealth! Put your mind at ease for a moment and just study the results and breeding references of "Chihaut 98". "Chihaut 98" (B05-4323998), a direct son of pedigree "Chipo" shone with 62 prizes including 9 x 1st, 31 x Top-10 and 47 prizes 1/10!

He became 2nd provincial and 3rd national ace KBDB middle distance '08 - 4th prov. ace KBDB ½ Distance '09 and 7th prov. ace KBDB ½ Distance '07!

A half-sister to the famous "Pepchi" is "Yun 820". "Yun 820" (B21-4074820) was born into a winning family and this is abundantly clear from her performance. Her record stands out with top results such as: 
1st KBDB Ranking Great middle distance yearling 6 flights 2022
9th Nat. ace pigeon Great middle distance yearling KBDB 2022 
6th Provincial Ace Pigeon Long Distance Young Pigeons KBDB 2021. 
25th nat. Chateauroux 5,720 d.
36th nat. La Souterraine 14,315 b.
62nd nat. La Souterraine 6,761b.
118th nat. Guéret 12,208b.
131st nat. Bourges 10,366b.
272nd nat. Argenton 12,938b.
2nd Chateauroux 230b.
4th Ecouen 722b.
5th Orleans 1204b.
19th Sermaises 746b.
36th Chateauroux 4164b,
126th Vierzon 7422b. etc.

National KBDB ace pigeon "Sun" 

 

In 2013, the flight programme for the young pigeons included not 4 but 7 national races and to qualify as a national ace KBDB young pigeon, one had to win not 3 but 4 top prizes. "Sun" won the following KBDB titles that season:
1st National ace pigeon KBDB national flights young pigeons (with 4 prizes)
1st Provincial ace KBDB young pigeons
2nd Ace pigeon Europacup Dortmund '13
1st Provincial La Souterraine 3,343d. - 22nd Nat. 13,089b.
3rd Provincial Argenton 3,942b.
7th Provincial Chateauroux 2,759b. - 118th Nat. 12,071d.
44th National Bourges 18,478d. 
Despite many requests from foreign fanciers, "Sun" was not sold and is still in the breeding boxes with Carine and Benny. "Especially in 2nd generation "Sun" brings out toppers". A yes... "Sun" was bred from "Grandson Chipo" x "Daughter Chipo". So the "inbred products Chipo" also perform very strongly. "Sun" is the ideal hen to cross with "foreign blood". The ideal hen to follow Benny's favourite breeding strategy. 

Many fanciers wonder how it is possible that the Steveninck colony comes out so strong year after year. Well... with the report above, we wanted to give you a clear picture of the strength of the breeding loft. Consciously and purposefully following a certain strategy and not working "just like that" is investing in the future and we can already tell you that this breeding strategy will put many toppers on the earth. 

We sincerely wish it to Carine and Benny

Stefan Mertens

Now on internet auction Pigeon Bids, Benny offers a small but strictly selected group of topbirds! All pigeons bred from proven breeding lines!

This auction ends wednesday 14/02/2024 at 2 p.m. (c.e.t.)