Pigeons from Marc Bogaert (Eernegem) are top from Belgium to Malta

Breeding the best pigeon is for many a daily goal and ultimate dream. This is also the case for the sympathetic guy Marc Bogaert from Eernegem. Marc was a successful business man as piglet seller and was supported fully by his wife Carine. When he stopped his business he got a lot of spare time for his passion namely pigeons. Marc likes animals very much and could make it his profession, but the pigeon germ has got to him even harder.

In 2017 Carine and Marc moved to another house within the same village. The former house was to spacious and they move to a more quiet area.

And yes, the pigeons moved along. They made use of the opportunity to select hard and only the best of the best moved to the new loft.

The one million dollar question, breeding or racing ?
Well, Marc doesn’t have to think about that too long, ‘breeding’ is what the enthusiastic answer is. Marc loves to breed beautiful and good pigeons. He can tell for hours about new couplings, the beautiful breeding results, the results they make on the lofts they are raced at and his eyes twinkle when he thinks about a new coupling.
Marc doesn’t feel the urge to race the pigeons himself, what doesn’t take away that he goes to the places where his pigeons are to participate actively, wait for the pigeons to get home after a race and help out wherever he can. Also for advice is Marc the place to be. 
The pigeons from the breeding loft from Marc perform well, really well and this on distances from 100km to 700km. The references are to be found from Belgium to Malta, the second home from Marc and Carine.
To get strong breeding results Marc made some well thought purchases. He went to see Norbert and Stefan Ally (Aarsele) and got out from the Shumy-strain the best what there is out of this strain (this strain performs really well both at Marc’s as with Norbert and Stefan themselves). He also got pigeons in Holland from Gerard Koopman (Koen Van Roy), Marcel Sangers, Cor Leijtens, Jos Van Roon, De Reynaert-pigeons, Scheele Gebroeders, and so on…The best investment was the hen ‘Het Blokje’. ‘Het Blokje’ (NL-09-1258534) was bought at Martin De Poorter in Sluis. She is a daughter of the famous ‘Uno’ from Herman Calon who was a top racer and breeder and was being coupled to ‘ ‘t Superscheel’ from the best of the best of the brothers Scheele out of Terneuzen. She turned out to be a top breeding hen who gave, coupled to several different cocks, pigeons who could race head from 100km to the extreme long distance.

Strong results from Belgium to Malta
By a coincidence Marc got in touch a few years ago with pigeon fanciers out of Malta. Malta, an island, was a country that only was starting as a pigeon country. The Maltese fanciers looked for pigeons that could deal with high temperatures and could cope with racing for a long time across the water. What is asked from the pigeons in Malta isn’t a small thing. To clearify a bit the pigeon sport in Malta underneath a short introduction about pigeon sport in Malta.

Pigeon sport on the island Malta
Malta is with his surface of a bit more then 300km² a relatively small island in the Mediterranean Sea, between the toe of the boot of Italy and Africa. Malta is almost entirely rocky from structure and the country is very rough. The pigeons are obliged to cross over the rough country and are subjected to the backlash of the wind over and around this island.

In Malta there are 24 clubs and on the neighbour island Gozo 2. The racing season exists out of about 27 races. The season starts about at mid of November ends mid of May. During full summertime there aren’t any race as the temperatures are way too high on the island and over the sea. The area has been divided recently in 11 zones who also get a zonal ranking.
The shortest distance is 100km and the toughest and longest race is Brindisi/Bari with 620 km. Exceptionally there is a race organized out of Manfredoria (660 km) that is to be found near Naples at the East coast of Italy.

The pigeons have to race first over land in Italy and have to cross for the biggest part the Mediterranean Sea for more than 300km, a not to underestimate mission.
Every competitor can participate with maximum 10 pigeons per race. Until shortly no average speed was being calculated as we know it but it was the time of arrival which made the ranking. On a national level there is now a calculation with an average speed calculation.
Every club makes its own ranking per race and call out a winner who is being rewarded with a trophee.
On federal level there is a distinction between short distance, middle distance and long distance. Yearly there is a championship on these 3 disciplines and a general champion.

The system of points is based on the amount of kilometre per race and the place within the result. For example with a race of 155km the winner gets 155 points, the second one 154 points and so on…declining until the amount of pigeons. But when no pigeon comes above 300 points, the points are being diminished with 4 points per place. According this system the championships and ace birds are being calculated and classified.
As an example we take the race Bari from April 2019. There were 2,409 pigeons competing to this race, basketed by 224 fanciers over a distance of 620km. The pigeons were released at 07h45 in the morning and the first pigeon arrived at 15h42min18sec in the afternoon. The day itself 224 pigeons made it home (or about 10%) which indicates the intensity of such a race with very high temperatures. The winning pigeons got an average speed of 1,299m.
And as an illustration you can find the palmaris of a pigeon and a result from a loft on a certain race..

Pigeon 2017-21-00912 Season 2018/2019
Belvedere 155 km 21/281 club 55/853 sector 256/6534 federation
Regio 280 km 10/307 25/812 105/6061
Belvedere 155 km 17/409 53/1094 222/7771
Regio 280 km 5/336 9/964 58/6588
Belvedere 155 km 23/412 63/1185 302/8239
Regio 280 km 15/381 41/1102 187/7528
Belvedere 155 km 20/416 72/1217 319/8240
Belvedere 155 km 2/409 22/1234 63/8309
Regio 280 km 5/327 23/971 140/6682
Belvedere 155 km 7/271 16/804 53/5779

An example of a result of 1 fancier on a race out of Belvedere:
307 participating pigeons (local) : 2-3-7-8-10-13-14-17-26-29 (10/10)

Malta is a pigeon island where hobbyism is the asset, but also where the organization gains more and more on professionality. The clubs, the federation are organizing themselves more and more and the measurements of results are being justified more. Also the contacts with other federations like Belgium are very good and more and more Belgian pigeons from top lofts move onto Malta to increase the level of the quality of the pigeons.
Marc and Carine Bogaert are loyal guests in Malta and go to the islands twice a year where they also have built strong friendships with different fanciers. Also the Marc’s pigeons are very liked and they get very strong results on these Maltese races and already form the base of some breeding lofts over there. Pigeons with an excellent GPS and perseverance. It are also these pigeons that Marc foresees on his breeding loft…and with result.

Iron strong references in Belgium
At his home base Belgium Marc can look back on a few very nice references from his pigeons like for example: 1st national Souillac 2019 at Platteeuw Daniël & Didier Zillebeke. ‘De Bernard ‘(BE17-3042146) was 1st against 3,739 old birds and also the fastest of the entire pack of 7,795b. His father was bred on the loft of Marc being a 100% product out of two pigeons from Norbert & Stefan Ally from Aarsele. A wonderful result and a big satisfaction for Marc and Carine.

At top loft Ameel – Vanlake from Dadizele they are also very happy with the pigeons from Marc. This loft crowned themselves in 2016 as General champion from Belgium and several top pigeons has on their loft scored until Narbonne with off spring from pigeons from Marc.
Their “202” (son of a hen from Marc out of the strain of Amore’s Dirk from Cor Leijtens x strain Ronaldo from Norbert Ally) won 1st regional Agen and 4th national Agen year birds against 3,932b. Next to these results on the extreme long distance this blue cock won several head prizes on the middle distance and long distance.
His brother the “201” won 75th national Agen against 2,932 year birds and 350th National Narbonne against 3,187 year birds and made it to 1st ace pigeon extreme long distance in the long distance club in Kortemark. On top of this he also raced a 9th and 11th on Fontenay against more than 400 pigeons. Two top brothers out of a hen from Marc.
At tandem Roose-Pyra uit Bekegem off spring for Marcs’ pigeons race like hell. Out of a few breeding pigeons from Marc there is an excellent after breed like for example: 3099870/2010 'De Bever' (out of 'Golden Charly' Marcel Sangers x strain 'Kleine Dirk' Cor Leijtens) x 3093945/2011 (black hen Eric Honoré)

‘De Bever’ is a direct Bogaert-pigeon.
The first youngsters that were bred out of this couple were an immediate hit in the rose.. 'De Zorro' (623/13) and his nest brother 'De 624' (624/13) . These two race a marvellous concours over 3 years of time together: 'De Zorro' won 19 x per 10 without doubles, with 5 1st prizes + 1st Provincial Blois against 1,406b; 2nd Provincial Chateaudun against 2,554b…and as youngster he was also crowned as 5th Provincial ace bird short distance young birds.
“De 624” has become in the meantime also grandfather of the 1st Provincial Ace bird All round Old + year birds 2018..
Together these two nest brothers were at the top of the list on Brionne against 417b: : 1st (624/13); 2nd (623/13) and on Chateaudun against 277b.: 1st (624/13); 2nd (623/13)
Out of both there are already children and grandchildren that have beautiful results/

Couple 1 are also grandparents to :
- 'De Grote Bever' 960/15, who became as a youngster 2nd provincial ace bird short distance young birds and as year bird 8th provincial ace bird all-round 'De Grote Bever' also has the unique LDHA AA gene

-1st provincial Pontoise 8,429 pigeons

And other breeding couple at the Roose-Pyra that produces top pigeons is :
“3181750/2007” x “1258534-2009 Nl”
3181750/2007 'Oude Zwarten' black cock who won ao: Roye 1°/335b. - Clermont 1°/166b. - Orleans 1°/152b. - Tours 2°/388b. - Orleans 2°/181b. - Clermont 4°/851b. - Argenton 4°/252b. Both parents are from the loft of Eric Honoré.
The hen of this couple is ‘Het Blokje’ (a hen from Marc Bogaert that he bought at Marrtin De Poorter) and a marvellous breeding hen was : “1258534-2009 Nl”. 'Het Blokje' , daughter 'Uno' Argenton (1°/3,007b.) x ''t Superscheel' (5 x 1st prize).

This couple are the parents of ao: 3018915/15 & 3018916/15 2 super brothers
3018915/2015 : 1st provincial Ace bird West-Flanders small middle distance old + yb 2016 – 5th provincial ace bird small middle distance old + yb 2017
This cock won:
-in 2015, ao: 5 prizes per 20: Fontenay 3/601 ; prov. 500/11,549 - Tours 8/659 - Pontoise 36/844 (prov. 364/18,263) - Pontoise 19/466 (178/8,429) - Pontoise 274/5,784
-in 2016, 9 x per 10: Arras 3/53 - Clermont 12/228 - Fontenay 23/326 - Fontenay 3/266 - Chateaudun 2/251jl. (prov. 25/3,531jl.) - 2/180 oude. (prov. 30/3,071 old) - Chateaudun 1/183jl. (prov. 35/2,342jl.) - 2/164 oude. (prov. 36/2,147old) - Chateaudun 16/93jl. (prov. 192/2,083jl.) - Chateaudun 2/60jl. (prov. 5/1,444jl.) - 2/29 old. (prov. 7/1,273 old.) - Tours 1/77jl. (prov. 6/1,248jl.) - 1/72 old. (prov. 10/1,169 old) .
-in 2017, didn’t just win his first race out of Arras per 10, to race all the following races per 10: - Arras 44/432 - Clermont 27/593 - Clermont 2/659 (prov. 58/12,117b) - Clermont 13/245; (prov. 344/6,384b) - Fontenay 5/554 (prov. 237/9,586b) - Fontenay 1/357 (prov. 8/7,466b) - Fontenay 6/337 - Orleans 3/235 (prov. 9/2,927b) - Chateaudun 12/130 (prov. 108/2,177b) - Chateaudun 5/50 (prov. 113/1,278b) - Chateauroux 6/88 - Blois 4/86 (prov. 60/915b)
-in 2018, again a year where he never missed with 13/13 and 11x per 10:: Arras 28/344 - Clermont 2/266 - Clermont 2/573 - Clermont 42/462 - Fontenay 26/565 - Fontenay 11/457 - Fontenay 5/360 - Blois 10/400; prov. 72/3289 - Orleans 66/178 - Orleans 5/163; prov. 14/1,568 - Chateaudun 3/80; prov. 26/1,255 - Chateaudun 10/78; prov. 56/1,144 - Chateaudun 7/29; prov. 78/358

3018916/2015 Blue'Senne'
This cock won ao: following top prizes : Chateauroux 1/443 - Zone A1 1/2,630 - prov. 2/5,614 - nat. 4/29,580b. Pontoise 2/385 (prov. 10/8,904) - Pontoise 6/844 (prov. 40/18,263b) - Pontoise 6/275 (prov. 57/5,784b) - Fontenay 4/528 (prov. 104/9,248b) - Chateaudun 12/338b - Fontenay 8/326b - Clermont 10/513b.

The impact of hen ‘Het Blokje’ isn’t to underestimate. It was a marvellous hen that scored really well in your hand but even more in her offspring.

Next to the results of her children above we also like to give some results of her other offspring: :

Son out of ‘Het Blokje’ BE14-3025022 won
Arras 79/572
Clermont 44/975
Clermont 5/751
Fontenay 19/495
Compiegne 81/718
Brionne 11/242
Clermont 3/205
Fontenay 8/395 11/616
Tours 14/192 17/291
Chateaudun 8/138 10/116
Pontoise 3/1604
Pontoise 9/544
Pontoise 70/1208
Pontoise 15/543
Pontoise 6/240

BE14-3150233 (late youngster 2014) won in 2015
Arras 5/279
Fontenay 7/193
Chateaudun 40/362
Tours 1/125
Pontoise 44/1604
Pontoise 59/544

And there are about 5 other pigeons with a palmaris which makes clear that they are able to race head of the race on the middle distance races..
Recently at Norbert De Clercq there were two other nice victories won with pigeons from Marc namely 1st Pontoise against 4,103b and 1st Chateaudun against 758b.

Also nice
Looking at pigeons sport from another point of view namely the point of a breeder that takes great value out of building a breeding strategy and gets a lot of satisfaction out of the results that these pigeons get at fanciers where they find their place. Also there is that international friendship added with the pigeon fanciers out of Malta that Marc and Carine like so much as this isn’t only about pigeon sport anymore but also about friendship.
A nice undertaking they’ve set up there in Eernegem !

Lots of success and enjoy it all !

Geert Dhaenens