1. Please tell us something about you: location, age, your work, etc.
I am located in Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada, approximately 70 miles or so to the north of North Dakota USA. I am a professional commercial real estate appraisal and am now a working senior citizen.

2. Do you have other hobbies besides pigeons?
I have no other hobbies.

3. A little history. How old were you when you discovered pigeons and how did it happen?
I became interested with will pigeons along with rabbits etc. as a young boy, taking youngsters off a bridge in the small community where I grew up.

4. Back to present. How is your loft organized? How many compartments do you have?
I fly my birds celibate , that is , cocks and hens separated both in the loft where they each have their own compartment and are excercised and trained separately.

5. How many pigeons do you usually have in your loft(s) each year? (breeding couples, racers, young birds)
I have approximately 150 birds in total, 20 pairs of breeders, the balance old and young bird racers and am in the difficult process of reducing my numbers dramatically in view of a current back problem.

6. How much time do you spend with the pigeons daily during the season and off-season?
During the racing and breeding season I spend 3 hours a day with all the chores involved. During the winter when temperatures get to -35 C I spend just enough time to feed and water them after breaking the ice from the water dishes and carrying water from the house , approximately 15 or 20 minutes.

7. Tell us about your feeding method: frequency, types of grains, vitamins and other supplements.
I feed once a day, after each of the hens and cocks have flown an hour or more around the loft each late afternoon and have trapped into the loft and also feed once a day year round. I feed a variety of grains , being in an area where considerable grain farms are located nearby and include wheat, barley , corn, safflour, millet along with other special grains in the mix for breeding and for racing when I consider them necessary. Vitamins and electrolites are given during the racing and breeding season once a week. Seldom are other supplements given but meds are given for a variety of diseases if necessarily but that is seldom.

8. What kind of races do you like: short, middle, long distance or all of them? Why?
All of them but the long distance best since I enjoy the extra challenge for both birds and owner.

9. Do you think that there are pigeons for short distance and pigeons for long distance, or pigeons can do well in all types of races?
Any bird can win a short distance race . Good birds can be bred to win both middle and long distance races but long distance races weed out the men from the boys.

10. What kind of motivation techniques do you use? Do you race natural or widowhood? Why?
As I said, I race a separated celibate system where hens and cocks learn to fly to their own respective lofts, trapping from a communal landing board but going left for the hens an right for the cocks and seldom going into the wrong loft even coming home together from the same race and released at the same time. The motivation to come home is their instinct to get back to their perches and food and water and the love and safety they feel in their loft.

11. What is your method of training the birds? What distance do you start the training from and how often do you train? Do you train the birds by launching them individually or as a flock?
The birds are confined to the lofts from late October until warm weather in March or April and released to fly around the loft until they will stay in the air for up to an hour then are road tossed at 8 miles, 20 miles, 30 miles then 50 and sometimes up to 60 miles as long as they are coming good otherwise they will get a couple tosses till they home in good time. Most of the time after the old bird races start they are not road tossed again but excercise around the loft for an hour or more each late afternoon. They are usually released at 20 or so at a time but sometime all together depending on how much time I have.

12. Is training at home around the loft important for you and if it is, what does it consist of?
Training around the loft is critical since they don’t necessarily go back on the road if they fly well around the loft. Sometimes a flag is used in case they want to come down early which seems sometimes like about after 15- 20 minutes but they get a second wind, just like people, and they usually take off for awhile out of sight , then fly back over the loft and are gone again.

13. Are males or females better in competitions?
They both fly top prizes equally, and in the same race where they come home together. They go in the same races after 130 miles where they are less likely to mess around on the roof as the distance gets further out

14. What strains do you have and how do you introduce new birds?
I have a few strains including Smeulders, Peter Van Osch direct from his loft in Holland, Van Hees imported from Roger Mortvedt in California , most crossed on mine, breeding best to best.

15. How do you create the couples? How many youngsters do you breed from a breeding couple per year? Do you also breed from the racing team?
I breed best to best after racing them and mate the imports to each other mostly as that is why I bought them. I now pretty well have a family of my own.

16. How do you prepare the youngsters for the career to come?
Training of the youngsters is most important to me and I don’t always race young bird races. They should have some road work but they don’t need to be beaten to death. This year 1/3 of my old bird race team consisted of yearlings trained twice to 8 miles, 1/3 of my old bird race team trained twice to 50 miles and the rest of the team were 2 year olds or older. I won 5 races including both 400 mile races, often minutes ahead and 4 or 5 on the drop.

17. Do you like the races with young birds? Do you think that a winning young bird will also be good as a mature bird?
As I said, young birds should be trained if possible but the best young bird is not always or even seldom your best old bird and often not a good one at all.

18. How far do you send the young birds in their first year of life? What about the yearlings?
The young bird races go to 300 miles and if I am racing that year they will go. The yearlings are treated as old birds and go the distance and do very well.

19. What do you think about late breds? From your experience, can they be successful racers later in life, good breeders or both? Do you use to have late breds?
I have late breds but they are seldom worth all the effort of settling after the training has started and usually cause more trouble than they are worth. Here they have to endure cold weather while they are still very young and don’t always develope as they should.
I will breed late breds to sell the odd one or for my stock loft if I need one.

20. Do you have problems with the birds of prey? Do you lock the pigeons during winter?
They are 2 or 3 different types of hawks who take the odd bird. The pigeons are locked up during the winter but because of severe cold weather and snow.

21. What kind of pigeons do you like (colour, size, personality). Ok, color isn’t important for winning, but you do have a favorite colour, don’t you? ;)
I actually don’t have a favorite colour. I like medium sized birds but have had good long distance bigger birds but they are not heavy but more bouyant.

22. Do you believe in “eyesign theories”?
Not at all.

23. Please describe your schedule for medication and vaccination. What health problems do you use to treat during the racing season and how often?
Mentioned this earlier.

24. Please show us your best male of all times (its little story, name, picture, best results).
I don’t have a best male or female but have many long distance Ace birds and winners who have bred Ace and long distance winners.

25. Please show us your best female of all times (its little story, name, picture, best results).
See above

26. Is this sport of racing pigeons becoming too technical and complicated or you can keep everything simple and still win with the pigeons?
Modern technology has improved the sport with the electronic timers and ease of calculating results and made it much more enjoyable by permitting us to see the birds enter the loft and be timed without chasing them all over the place and making them eventually trap shy. Things are not simple if you want to win. It takes time , knowledge and good birds to be at the top, day in and day out.

27. Is there anything that you do not like about the sport, something that needs to be changed for the sake of the sport?
The cost of racing has become very expensive for some, especially for the young flyers and some of the better flyers in our club will donate a couple of their best that are auctioned on the net and the proceeds go to the club to help keep the shipping costs down.

28. What do you think that can be done to make this sport prosper and make more people take a fancy to it?
Advertising in magazines and papers and on the bulletin boards in the malls but many don’t wish to have their phone number posted.

29. Please tell us some pieces of advice for beginners in the racing pigeons sport.
Meet some of the good flyers who have the time and the birds to help them as without good advice and birds to start it is not likely their interests will develop.

I am sending photos of my loft where I fly celibate cocks and hens, separated from each other by a dowelled door with the lower half being plywood so they can’t mate to each other through the dowelling. They both trap through a roof access and drop approximately 18 inches to a common inside landing board where one sex turns left and goes through a set of bobs to their loft and the other sex go straight ahead and go into their loft through an opening in the dowelling.

I fly both in the same race and of course they will come home together but seldom do they play around on the roof and seldom do they go into the wrong loft. In the early part of the year before the races they are trained separately, usually 50 – 70 miles, released about 3/4 of an hour apart so I can beat the second bunch home ( usually the hens are released second ) , close the bob entrance to the cocks side and open the door for the hens arrival . Once they are used to the system I have little to no trouble and the local flyers don’t believe it till they see the loft and my race results . It’s a relatively simple system which permits the racing of both cocks and hens and it suits them just fine . The hens are not used to going through bobs which entices them even more to go in their own side.

Regards,
Cal Murray

2. Do you have other hobbies besides pigeons?
Besides pigeons I also practice Hapkido. It is a Korean martial art. I started doing it at the age of 6 and now I have occupied my 4th Dan degree black belt (witch means a black belt with 4 bars on it). Besides all that I also do some bike racing and mountain biking. Pretty sportive as you see.

3. Your favorite music band, movie and food :).
My favorite music band is the English group Queen, even though they do not exist anymore, they remain my favorite. I like mostly comedy movies and martial art movies like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, etc. Therefore my favorite movie of all times still remains ‘Enter the Dragon’ of Bruce Lee. Also historical movies like ‘Les misérables, The man in the Iron Mask’ etc. are my kind of interest. Food: I’m not so difficult when it comes the food, I eat almost everything. But, with a preference for traditional Belgian (bourgondic) food. My favorite dish still remains a traditional regional plate that looks like pancakes, but heavier.

4. A little history. How old were you when you started growing pigeons and how did it happen? Tell us about you as a child pigeon keeper (if you did start the hobby early in life, like most of us did).
The beginning of my pigeon-career started actually when I was 3 years of age. When we came home from vacation we found an exhausted pigeon near our garden and we took care of it for about one week. Just until the bird was able to return to his home. This pigeon did always stay on my mind because I liked very much caring for it. Then, at the age of 13 or 14 years, we went out for a bike-trip, and when we returned home, I saw a pigeon lying on the middle of the road. I stopped immediately, took up the pigeon and put it in the grass next to the road. Then I went home to get a box and I returned to the pigeon to pick it up so I could take care of it at our home. That summer I was all days long busy taking care of the pigeon. Every time my father called home from his work and asked what I was doing, my mother told him: ‘oh, he’s busy with that bird, like always’. But then, one day, the bird returned home, like logically. Of course I knew that would happen but still, it made me a bit sad. When a colleague of my father, Frans Rondags, heard this he said to my father that he would help me and a few days later he brought along some very young pigeons for me. I was of course very happy with them, and therefore I called them Hapki and Kido, after the sport I practice. It was only later, when we started to learn more and more about the pigeon world, that we understood that Frans Rondags was one of the best players in Belgium. So all summer long, I was occupied with those pigeons. After a while, we made a little cage under the ceiling of our summerhouse. But, as logically, two pigeons start breeding, and there come more and more little pigeons, and very soon, the little cage was way too small. Then, my father gave away half of the summer house, and we built a small cabin in it. Just big enough for about 10 pigeons I guess. But then, as there came small pigeons, my father told me it was necessary to put bags on to the pigeons. So I went to the chairman of the local pigeon-union to get some bags. It was there that for the first time in my life, I heard about playing with pigeons. Of course I was interested in the pigeon-competition. I have always been a competitive person. So I started giving some pigeons along to my first competitions. And as a miracle, they also made some prizes. Why this was a little miracle? Those pigeons flew in and out of there loft from the morning until the evening. They only got water and some food, mostly corn. I never heard of something like minerals or anything, so they did not have all of that either. But still, I made some prizes, and I was started. After have proofed I could take care of the pigeons, my father decided that we should then also make a real pigeon loft, so in the fall of that year we started constructing it. But very soon that cabin too was too small and therefore there came one more and again one more.

5. Back to present. How is your loft organized? How many compartments do you have?
Lofts: I now have three lofts, divided into 7 compartments. The first loft we built was orientated South-west, not so very excellent as you know. Therefore, it was not really a good loft for youngsters, because they need a lot of sun. Therefore, I use one compartment of this loft for my Long-distance (Fond) pigeons, and the other compartment for some 2nd and 3rd round youngsters. Then, right in front of this loft, we built a new one, orientated South-East. In this loft, I have two compartments for first round youngsters, which is accommodated so I can play them on the ‘sliding door’, this means males and females separated. Next to those compartments, with a corridor in between, there is one compartment for the Short-distance (Vitesse) pigeons. And, on top of the garage, there’s also another loft divided into two compartments, which I use for breeding. This is easy because it is warmer then an outside loft, which facilitates winter-breeding.

My first loft:

Inside the first loft:

My second loft:

Every loft-compartment has about the size of 1m80 x 1m50 with a corridor in front of it. All pigeons are installed on grills, which facilitates the work and makes sure I will never have problems with intestine-diseases. Also all pigeons are seated on drawers, which gives me the opportunity to check on their excrements every day. Every loft is also foreseen of eclipse panels, light-expanders and extractors. Eclipse panels are necessary if you want to play on the national flights four youngster in the mid-summer, but I also use them to make sure all the pigeons get their night-sleep and do not get disturbed. The light-expanders are mostly used to encourage the pigeons to breed in winter-time, and the extractors were one of my ideas, because I think Fresh-air is a very important necessity for pigeons.

Two of the compartments of the first loft also have an aviary attached to it. And, on the back of the loft, we also have a pretty large (10 x 2 m) aviary, in which I can place unused pigeons, like females needed for the widowers and breeders outside the breeding-season. A very helpful solution for me to gain time.

6. How many pigeons do you usually have (breeding couples, racers, young birds per year)?
Usually, in full season, I house about 120 pigeons maximum a year, all included. I always have around 12 breeding-couples (some fixed couples and some experimental that I try to fit in). For competition, I house maximum 12 widowers for the short-distance, and also maximum 12 widowers for the long-distance. First young pigeons are always about 50, but they do not remain until the first competition day usually. For the 2nd and 3rd round there is no fixed number because these are mostly pigeons from experimental couplets of which I want to see if it would work out to breed with those combinations, etc. But let’s say that it are around 20 pigeons for the 2nd and 3rd round together.

Youngsters compartment:

7. How much time do you spend with the pigeons daily during the season and off-season?
While I’m studying at the university now, I don’t have a great lot of time to spend on my pigeons. Therefore, I have the luck that my father helps me a little bit, mostly by taking care of cleaning and feeding the breeding loft and by organizing the administration side of the pigeon-world. Like putting info about the breed and about competitions into the computer program and making lists for me about everything I ask. Also the fact that every loft is equipped with grills makes it possible that I’m not obliged to clean every compartment every day and do it when I have time. Those things make it possible that I can concentrate myself fully on the competition pigeons. Let’s say I spend about maximum 2 hours a day taking care of them. As you know, this may seem rather few, but until now it works out pretty fine I guess.

Off-season or in-season does not make really a great difference to me. From my opinion, the off-season is as important as the competition-season itself because I think it is at that time that you should take good care of your pigeons so they recover well from the season, that they go into the next season in absolute health, and that you make sure you will have a good breed during the coming-up winter. Also the breeding-season takes pretty much of my time, because my opinion is that a good season starts with a (almost) perfect breed.

8. Tell us about your feeding method: frequency, types of grains, vitamins and other supplements, for each pigeon category, racers, breeders and young birds.
My feeding methods are rather simple. Because of my lack of time, I can’t afford to put in lots of time in preparing difficult feeding-schemes. Therefore, I have developed a rather simple way of feeding. Youngsters always get a good youngster-mixture. I am not very mark-bounded in this. I always go to the store and see which mark has the best mixture (of my view) and that will then be the mark I will work with that year. This may then also change every year again. The youngsters get this mixture every day, morning and evening, sometimes with some extra corn, sometimes with some extra grease-holding seeds.

For the widowers, I combine two mixtures: Sports and Diet mixture. In the beginning of the week the diet mixture has the overhand (60/40%), while coming up to the end of the week they get more Sport mixture (40/60%).

All the other pigeons (breeders, widow-females, …) get a mixture of 40% moulting-mixture and 60% barley, as well as the competition-pigeons out of season. Of course, in times of breeding, the breeders get a 100% breeding-mixture from 2 days before the youngsters are born.
I do not use a lot of supplements. The basic supplement I use is the P40 granule, which I dispense every day. Another daily given are minerals. Before every period of the pigeon season (breeding season, moulting season, competition season …) I compose a mixture of minerals of which I can give some every day. This composition changes every other part of the season because I saw pigeons have different needs of minerals at all times of the season.

For the rest, I use some garlic-oil and brewer’s yeast from time to time, mostly in the beginning of the week. But this is not a fixed given.
The medical side: Before the breeding season starts, and also before the competition season, I cure the pigeons to have them free of any disease. This means I take 5 or 6 pigeons to the vet for control, and I give whatever he recommends me.
And during the season, I cure every 4 weeks against trichomoniasis and Ornithose Disease.

9. What kind of races do you like: short, middle, long distance or all of them? Why?
Actually, I am now trying to play all kind of distances. Short distance (Vitesse) as well as long distance (Fond), but also everything in between (Demi-fond). I have a small preference for real Short-distance flights (around 130-150 km) and real fond flights (750-950km) but also everything in between can be nice if you get pretty nice results. Because I saw that the Fond-pigeons can also make some good prizes at the mid-fond flights when they are in good shape, I am capable to play those flights as well. But to play everything is impossible for me. I have to make a selection of flights because of the lack of time.

10. Do you think that there are pigeons for short distance and pigeons for long distance, or pigeons can do well in all types of races?
I do not think there exist pigeons that can make first prices in Short distance as well as Long distance. As I noticed, most Long-distance pigeons I posses can make some good prices in Short distance and middle distance flights as well, but therefore all circumstances must be perfect. When everything is perfect they might also be capable of making first prices, but this is a seldom seen thing. Once they go to the long-distance, they can much more easily fly ahead of the race, I think. And for real short-distance pigeons this seems very clear to me: once I give them along to a flight above 300 km, there is a huge probability that they will not return. They are really made for Short-distance.

11. What kind of motivation techniques do you use? Do you race natural or widowhood? Why?
The yearling and old pigeons, for the long- as well as the short-distance are played on widowhood. This because I think it is a less time-taking solution. I found out that pigeons train more and are easier to prepare to fly weekly on widowhood then when you play them on a nest-position. At the end of the season, all pigeons become coupled and get played for some weeks on nest-position, but this is only to be able to stretch the season still a little more.

Youngsters (1st and 2nd round) are always played on a system called ‘the sliding door’. This means that the youngsters are separated (males and females) on two different compartments after they flew there first flight. Every week then, on the day they shall be put into competition, the sliding door is opened and males and females can motivate themselves. This system is used for about 10-12 weeks and afterwards all youngsters that may remain will be coupled and the females will yet for some weeks still be played on a nest-position.

12. What is your method of training the birds? What distance do you start the training from and how often do you train? Do you train the birds by launching them individually or with the flock?
Training is not a fixed given for my pigeons. Depending on the weather, the condition of the pigeons, there recuperation-ability, …, I decide if they shall train 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or even twice a day. Normally, the widowers train for about one hour a day, 4 times in the week in the beginning of the season. And, if possible, the fifth day, they will be launched in group at about 20km. In the middle of the season, when morning-temperatures are above 10°C., they might train twice a day, depending on there willingness, about 0.5h till three quarters of an hour.

Youngsters always train maximum once a day, maximum 1 hour a day, maximum 4 days a week, and will be launched at around 20km also maximum once a week. This is because I do not wish to create youngster who fly everything out of themselves in their first year and nothing for the rest of there life’s. When I launch the youngsters, it might be one week in group, next week one by one, depending on the time I have.
When I start training the youngsters, I have the opinion that they must at least be 3 months of age (especially when I think of 1st round youngsters). I start learning them for the first time at about 2 km. Then at about 5km, twice at 10km and 3 times at around 20km. When they have been 3 times at 20km they get there first time with the group at about 50km. Then one time 70km and from then on they are brought into competition at about 136 km.

13. Is training at home around the loft important for you and if it is, what does it consist of?
I think training at home is important because I can see on the way the pigeons act during the training if they will fly good prizes or not. They must play when they are flying and enjoy training. I never use a flag or anything to keep them training, because I think good pigeons always train themselves. When I look their results, it is always obvious that the ones who do not train do not make good prices. Nothing special about my training methods as you can see.

14. Are males or females better in competitions?
I still am not very sure of this. I think, especially in the beginning of the season, and especially on the short-distance flights, males are still better for competition because of their natural strength that is more developed then that of females. But, as the season continues and also for the long-distance, females are much more easy to motivate, and therefore sometimes better. I think you can compare it with cycling or other power-dependent sports. Initially men can bike faster then woman because of their natural given strength that is bigger then for woman. But, there are also a lot of woman that know how to bike faster then 95% of men. And when you look at men, you see they have often problems of biking hard a whole season long, because of a lack of motivation or something. A nice example is lance Armstrong who only concentrated on one competition in a whole year. And I think it is probably that woman, and female pigeons as well, have fewer problems by being motivated throughout the whole year.

15. What strains do you have in your stock loft and how do you introduce new birds?
For the moment I posses 4 different lines of pigeons. Short-distance pigeons from Frans Rondags and Jean Conaert. And Long-distance pigeons from again Jean Conaert and Marcel Aelbrecht. I always try a lot of things in breeding: combinations of the same races and crossbreeds of two different lines.

In this I am very lucky I guess. Frans Rondags, Jean Conaert, as well as Marcel Aelbrecht are some of the best pigeon-fanciers in Belgium, as many know. All three of them are very helpful to me. I call them very often and visit them regularly to. When I have problems or need some advice, they are always ready to help me. And the pigeons: I have the luck that they always want to help en therefore often I get something of their lofts. Youngsters or older ones to lend for a while, they help me occasionally this way. Every year, I also try to get some new pigeons of other races. Sometimes I use them directly for competition, and then without prices, they end up disappearing after a while. Sometimes I try to breed with them, and if I do not have something flying well out of them after one year, they too will disappear. I find it very hard to get some pigeons of other races to add to my loft, because I am a rather severe selector in that. The reason why I try to get some new pigeons every year is that I believe that in competition ‘standing still = going back’.

16. How many years does a racing pigeon have to race successfully before you move it into the breeding loft?
There is not an aged fixed on when pigeons can move to the breeding loft. This may depend. I try to breed with my widowers to, and therefore, it might be that a widower that has only flew for 2 years, but whom gave already a youngster too that made some prizes may move to the breeding loft, while another might remain on the competition-loft for 5 or 6 years.

17. Do you change the pairs every year? How do you create the couples?
18. How many youngsters do you breed from a breeding couple per year? Do you also breed from the racing team?
I have some fixed breeding couples, and out of them I breed minimum 4 youngsters a year. After 2 rounds of breeding, I normally start to experiment and change couples, also my fixed couples, to see if I can create new combinations. And as I said already, I also breed some youngsters out of the racing team.

19. Do you think that there are some excellent racers that simply might not be good in the reproduction loft or is it all about luck and knowledge in creating the couples? How long will a stock bird stay in your reproduction loft if it doesn’t produce good racers?
I think a good racer will always breed youngsters who make their prices, but a good racer will NOT necessarily create youngsters that are good racers too. A stock bird that does not produce good youngsters disappears very fast of the loft, this means after about one year. This is of course for new breeding-pigeons. Pigeons who gave already some good racers and now do not produce good-ones anymore get some time, possibly 2 or 3 years.

20. When do you make the couples for the new year in the stock loft and in the racing loft?
When I start breeding, at the end of November, I re-couple the fixed couples, and the others will be coupled together on the advice of Jean Conaert or Frans Rondags who often help me in this. The racers are not really coupled this way. I normally let them choose their own female because they also get that female during the season and I have the opinion that a racer will be better motivated if he comes home and there he finds his ‘own’ lady then some female I picked out for him. As you see, I share the opinion that pigeons are much more intelligent and complicated then 95% of the pigeon-fanciers believe.

21. How do you prepare the youngsters for the career to come?
Youngsters are prepared for their career on the same way as are the widowers. They pass by the veterinary for a check up, get cured for trichomoniasis and Ornithose, get trained very well and are brought into competition. Only thing I do especially with youngsters is learn them to drink in the basket and make them tame/trained by feeding them out of my hands etc. This is because I think well trained pigeons are smarter, more able to survive competition dangers (like raptors) and more motivated to come home. And because I can’t stand shy/feral pigeons.

22. Do you like the races with young birds? Do you think that a winning young bird will also be good as a mature bird?
I like playing with young birds as much as widowers. Makes no difference to me. I have the opinion that a good youngster, which is not played till the bone in his childhood, will still remain a quite good pigeon in his mature-period. Mind that I do not say a good youngster will be a super racer in his mature-period of racing. And I have the opinion to that a youngster without many prices or without many first prices, but who has shown him selves once or twice during his childhood can become a very good mature-pigeon. A youngster without prices however will never be a good racer in his mature-period, because he will not make it until this stage of his life.

23. How far do you send the young birds in their first year of life? What about the yearlings?
Short-distance pigeons never get above 150km in their first year. Long-distance pigeons: males normally need to fly at least one flight above 400km, females may fly 4 times a flight of more than 400km in their first year. Yearlings in Long-distance might go all they way up to 850km, and for the short distance, there are no boundaries left (except the natural boundary of 300km witch I have put on my short-distance pigeons). I do not have maximum times of competitions either. In this I observe each pigeons separately and decide when he has flown enough.

24. Do you think that it is important for their education to race in their first year of life or they will be able to race successfully as mature birds even if they aren’t trained as young birds?
In my opinion, youngsters that did not race in their childhood (at least once) will never get the maximum out of themselves in their further career. Again compared with a cyclist, you can see that someone who will start at the age of 20 will never reach the top-level. As result of this opinion, I also think pigeons who are not able to fly during the out of season period will never reach their maximum level during the season. Like a cyclist, a pigeon without a basic-condition will never be able to reach real Topforme I guess. Therefore, my pigeons can occasionally fly during the winter period to.

25. What do you think about late breds? From your exeprience, can they be successful racers later in life, good breeders or both? Do you use to have late breds?
My experience with late breeds is that I never get any good results with them when they are youngsters, and I still do not have found a reason therefore. Also when they become yearling, I think you should be a little more patient with them in the beginning of the season, because they still are not always completely developed. Therefore I sometimes play them every 2 weeks instead of every week, because the speed in the competition can be too high for them. But, from the second half of the season, they to must be able to perform, otherwise they disappear. For breeding, I think it makes absolutely no difference. For breeding I think it is also necessary that the breeders are in good shape, because breeders who feel good will also create more well youngsters then breeders who are not 100% top fit.

26. Do you have problems with the birds of prey? Do you lock the pigeons during winter?
There are periods when I have difficulties with birds of prey. Therefore I always try to be outside my selves when the youngsters train, and I make sure our dog is outside, because I noticed the prey-bird is nevertheless a little scared off when a human being or a greater animal is around the pigeons. As said already, I do not keep my pigeons inside during the winter.

27. What kind of pigeons do you like (colour, size, personality). Ok, color isn’t important for winning, but you do have a favorite colour, don’t you? ;)
My favorite color of pigeons still remains the so called ‘blue’ pigeons, but as said already, color is not important. Size is not really important either. I simply do not like huge pigeons, and most of the time very small ones either. To me, a so called ‘water-drop’ model of pigeons is my preference. A ting that does is important to me is the personality of a pigeon. I do not like wild or shy pigeons. They must be tame, but with some character. This means that the pigeons should not fly away when I try to pick them up, but they should be self-sure and defend their seat when I try to touch it. So, tame pigeons with character.

28. Do you believe in “eyesign theories”?
I absolutely do not belief in the eye theory. Simply, because if them who say they know the ‘eye-theory’ would know about it, they would only have super-pigeons. And I believe this is until today still not the case. What I do believe about eyes is that you should see a sparkle in it, a sparkle that means that that pigeon has joy in life. A sparkle of character, nothing more, nothing less.

29. Please describe your schedule for medication and vaccination. What health problems do you use to treat during the racing season and how often?
Like I said already, my medical schedule is pretty easy. Before every competition-category starts I pass by the veterinary and also before the breeding season starts. During the season every three or 4 weeks a cure against trichomoniasis and Ornithose. And normally, when this has happened, I think you will not have to be afraid for a lot of diseases during the season. And when there occurs some things, I visit the veterinary, I think he still knows best what to do.

30. Please show us your best male of all times (origin, its little story, name, picture, best results).
Best male pigeon: BE-05-5004241
Son of the 257/04 (F. Rondags- Speedy) x 275/04 (R. Hendrikx)

31. Please show us your best female of all times (origin, its little story, name, picture, best results).
Best female pigeon.
Daughter of the 815/00(J. Conaert) x 770/03 (J.Conaert)

32. What are your plans for the future? Is there anything you would like to change in your loft, pigeons or racing methods in the future?
Every year, after the season, (October and November), we change some details in the lofts. I always try some things out to make the lofts still some bit better or more comfortable. In November I create my schedules for the coming up season. Both breeding- so as racing schedules are put on paper in November. Every year there are slight changes in this schedule, because of different numbers of birds, other birds on the loft then last year, little changes in system and so on. But there are no real changes planned for next season.

33. Is this sport of racing pigeons becoming too technical and complicated or you can keep everything simple and still win with the pigeons?
I am convinced that you can still keep the sport very easy. It is true it becomes very technical for some people, but it still remain the pigeons who need to make the effort. Therefore I think everybody has to create his own system that fits in his time and willingness-schedule and that they should search for pigeons that fit in that kind of schedule. Keep it simple or complicated, I think is a possibility of which people are free to choose. I keep it pretty simple I guess.

34. Is there anything that you do not like about the sport, something that needs to be changed for the sake of the sport?
One thing that you found in every sport is that there are a lot of people who do not act on fair play. That is a pity, certainly in pigeon-sports, because it is already a sport in which many people do not continue every year and very few new players start. Therefore people should make it an agreeable sport, I think, and also the national and international organizations should be busy by making plans to create a growing pigeon-world instead of just looking at a diminishing public and not reacting. But I still think it is one of the finest and most beautiful sports in the whole range of sports.

35. What do you think that can be done to make this sport prosper and make more people take a fancy to it?
First of all I think the pigeon-world should be more mediatised in a positive way. For example, when thousands and thousands of pigeons are sent to the most known competition of the year, that is Barcelona, I think such a mass organization could get some media attention. Also when the ‘national championship days’ occurs, I think the national organization should lobby to get that into media-attention, because it still is a very huge and nice event that attracts many thousand of people from all over the World.

Second of all I think it would be positive if a famous person would (act) as if he played with pigeons. If for example a famous football player would mention from time to time in an interview that he liked taking care of pigeons (even if this was only publicity, without him actually really holding pigeons), this would attract more young people to start with pigeons, at least more then it does now(which is not very difficult to achieve).

And there is something that every pigeon-fancier can do. If everybody would play a little more with pigeons for fun, and less for the Money (which is often a basis for arguments and envy/jealousy), it would already be a much nicer sport to practice for young people.

36. Please tell us some pieces of advice for beginners in the racing pigeons sport.
For beginners I have the suggestion: start small, start good. What I want to say is that you should not start with hundreds of pigeons, because it then can very soon become an order/job instead of a hobby. Start good means that I advice beginners to try to get in contact with someone who plays pretty good, but also with someone who is willing to help you. Because if there is no trust and no friendship between a beginner and his ‘helper/coach’, it will be very difficult to obtain good pigeons and even more difficult to learn how to play with them properly.

Me, on the loft of Marcel Aelbrecht, Lebbeke:

Thank you Steven!

Steven’s website: http://users.pandora.be/stevendassen