Jan was born in Oosterhout in 1893 and as a kid he was fascinated by animals and racing pigeons in particular. Since Jan Aarden started to love the racing pigeons, he asked his father and mother dailly to build a pigeon loft at home. When they finally agreed, he was very happy even if the loft was small.

His first pair of pigeons has a nice story. Father Paulus raised the children with a system of green and red cards. For getting a red card, the children had to get six green cards. A green card was given for the hard work. Jan Aarden was a very good student, he earned six red cards very fast. Six red cards meant that he could get a book from father Paulus but he wanted a couple of pigeons instead.

Jan learned the basics of the racing pigeon sport with the brothers Oomens. Jan Aarden was more passionate about breeding super racers than racing them. Breeding very good racing pigeons was his passion and inbreeding was a good part of his recipe.

Few fanciers know that Jan’s son Anton influenced him to go from shorter to the longer races and although the results were not outstanding Jan Aarden, through his skills and patience, began to build the future marathon famous strain. Again, few fanciers know that reds were at the basis of the strain.

“Zilvervosje”, a light check hen with a reflection of silver in her wings was a wonderful breeder AND a racer and she had a major influence in the development of the Aarden strain. Her contribution to the development of the marathon pigeon in Europe is very important. Her bloodline can be found in the pedigrees of the great Aarden fanciers like Muller, van den Burgh, van der Wegen, van Roy, and Kuypers.

It is good to know that Delbar’s birds played an important role in the Aarden’s strain beginning.

Some of the most famous early birds of the strain:
- “Number 10″ of Ligtenberg – the father of the famous Dolle of Marijn van Geel – the origin of the van Geels
- “Oud Doffertje” of van der Wegen, the foundation of the van der Wegen strain

So, there are pigeons that can and DO fly during the night. Not many of them do that, however, and I don’t know if this quality can be passed from parents to youngsters. I guess it also depends on weather, but still, any kind of night is still very dark for a bird that is not a cat after all. :)

• It’s about Ron Sampford’s loft, considered the smallest loft in Europe (8 foot by 5 foot). That is the only loft! All the stock birds, racing birds and youngsters live there.
• Total birds: 7 couples of old birds and 6 young birds
• He rarely loses a bird and has incredible results
• He has really tough inbred birds. One year he only bred ONE young bird! That bird completed the whole racing program.
• He only feeds beans – WELL, please use the comment feature below this article, I really don’t understand how can those pigeons race(and race well) just on beans.
• What does he put in the water? …. just water. :))
• No medicines or vitamins are used. He just vaccinates for paramyxovirus.

Enjoy the full article. It is really relaxing to read such stuff. I really think that when I’ll start racing again, I will use this method.

One of the easiest and quickest methods of motivating the males before a race is to bring a new mobile V perch in the loft, and place it somewhere where all the males can claim it (not very close to any of their nest boxes). They will always keep an eye on the V perch and one of them will always be on it. In a loft with no V perches, this is a real candy :). Have fun!

Oh, don’t forget to remove the V-perch after the race, because in the long run, one male will get to own it and… no more fun!

A very important aspect, if you ask me, and often forgotten, is the health of the birds and the management of the loft. If you aren’t the man with the pharmacy in the loft and you get birds from a fancier that “feeds them antibiotics” on a regular basis, the bird will not adapt to your loft and the youngsters it produces might not perform as you expect (that is if they manage to stay alive!).

Which are the best sources of quality birds?
- The best thing you can get is a young bird (be it late bred) from a loft with great results. The fancier didn’t have the chance to see what the young bird can and can’t do, so you might put your hands on a really good pigeon, with a good price.
- The second best thing you can get is the parent of a super racing pigeon, because its value in the breeding loft is proven.
- As a beginner, if you want something really cheap but with the chance of getting super quality, go for some eggs and put them under your pigeons. There are many widowhood lofts that throw away lots of eggs which you can use.
- Another good source of quality pigeons are whole team sales, from somebody leaving the hobby.
- Some pigeon auctions can also work, but I can’t touch this topic because I always liked to get birds from local fanciers that race better than me.