What a weekend for the Van den Abbeel – Van Paesschen tandem from Lebbeke. We know what these pigeons can do and it’s not for nothing that they are being described as the best youngsters loft of the past years. The results they have set…This season everything was on schedule again, the preparation was amazing aside one bad race but afterwards you saw that the condition was top  and that everybody would have to take them into account on the national races. When you go to the La Souterraine with a 1st Provincial Bourges, 2nd Provincial Argenton and a 3rd Provincial Argenton old you get the stamp of favourite. But to finish with 2x 1st National and an amazing result all together is something nobody expected. In total they win 7x Top 100 National and 29 prizes out of the 33 pigeons basketed. 

The 1st youngster is a youngster from the colony of Kobe & Kato Herbots, they switch youngsters each year to race with. Last year they won with a pigeon from this colony the 6th National Ace bird GMD KBDB 2020 and out of this pigeon the 1st National is born. 

At the old pigeons it are 2 wonder hens that race to the head of the race both on Argenton as La Souterraine without mentioning their other results. The first hen is ‘Juliana’ who was also part of the super team of 2019, she stayed to shine last year as yearling and this year she is doing even better. Now after this victory, she earned her spot on the breeding loft. The second old pigeon is ‘Nikki’ who is a direct daughter to ‘Jolien’. Both daughter as mother are top pigeons with super results and are out of the best to be found in this colony. 

Bourges Prov 4,742 youngsters : 1,14,16,27,32,33,36,46,49,57,68,103,117,126,127,130,137,194,197,… 43/75
Bourges Prov 2,373 yearlings : 6,12,… 3/4
Argenton Prov 6,397 youngsters : 2,36,81,97,168,174,240,258,284,294,296,… 26/63
Argenton Prov 1,752 old: 1,3,40,… 4/5
La Souterraine Nat 3,118 old : 1,5,162,… 4/4
La Souterraine Nat 14,315 youngsters : 1,12,33,71,79,154,285,297,314,354,373,375,388,405,455,462,…. 25/35

Other results of this year 

Sermaises 419 youngsters : 1,2,3,8,9,11,12,13,16,18,20,… 
Sermaises 2.014 youngsters : 2,5,6,7,8,9,20,21,… 
Noyon 509 youngsters: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,20,21,22,23,… 
Noyon 980 youngsters : 1,6,7,8,9,19,20,33,34,35,36,37,42,44,… 

System youngsters

The youngsters are being weened and darkened from end of march until the beginning of July. I darken a bit longer to keep the focus on the national races. We do keep us to the regime of letting the pigeons wake up with the morning sun. And at 16h00 the pigeons are being darkened and when it is dark we open the curtains. 

When we stop darkening the pigeons, they get during 2 weeks natural light just as it is, from mid of July we start to give them extra light from 05h30 in the morning until 22h30 in the evening. 

How do they train and for how long? 

The pigeons are being released from 11h until 15h when they aren’t separated. We do it like this for years now and at 15h they get food and at 16h our job is done. They don’t fly around a lot at the beginning but more than once a day and this is how they built up condition. After that they are separated they get more discipline and train twice a day. When they have a national race they only train on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The other days are rest days. 

Motivation at basketing

In the beginning of the 3rd week of July the sexes are being separated. But at basketing no extra motivation is being done. We even noticed the last few years that the pigeons that aren’t paired up search for their own motivation that we can’t manipulate. The best pigeons here aren’t paired up. That’s why we don’t put any effort any more in placing carton boxes, nest dishes and so on. Saving on work…The pigeons always come together for about 3 hours before basketing and are taken away from the loft like that to be basketed. 

After the race they can stay together until Sunday afternoon 13h00 so the late comers also have the opportunity to do their thing. 

Guidance

The medical story is in hands of Raf Herbots from Velm. We go every three weeks for a check-up during the season and also in March and just before the winter breeding. To gain some time during the busy season we sometimes pass by at Johan Van der Cruyssen for a quick check-up. 

The products out of the Herbovet gamma is the base with amongst other Herbochol, Pigeon Elite, MMK, Herbosol and Optimix from Herbots. We especially use Herbo Mineral Mix as minerals. In a matter of food we can keep it short and follow fully the Galaxy Mixtures from Beyers. We already do this for years now and feel good about it. 

BE-21-2061050 New National Geof – Cock
( bred by Kobe & Kato Herbots )
1st National La Souterraine 14,315 youngsters

Clocked time : 16:07:21
Distance : 563,349km
Velocity : 1155,94 m/min

Father BE 20-2100210 Super Geof – Herbots Kobe & Kato
( raced at Van den Abbeel – Van Paesschen )
Was himself 6th National Ace bird GMD youngsters KBDB ‘20
Won a.o. 13 Nat Chateauroux 20,789b – 24 Prov Chateauroux 3,525b and 31 Prov Bourges 6,538b
Son to super couple “Geof” x “Queen Victoria” 

Mother BE 18-2135721 National I Best – Herbots Jo & Raf
Daughter “New Nationaal 1” Super breeder and father to 1 Nat Limoges 10,554b
x “Daughter Papillon” Anthony Maes

Patrick and Ilse, a big congratulation on this marvellous result from the entire HERBOTS TEAM. 

Buelens Kim

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