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Luc and Maurice DeLaere
















The roofline of the breeding loft
 

A breeding box

The widowhood and youngbird racing loft












"Loft within a loft" construction

"Tieke"



The wing of "Tieke"

Father of "Tieke"

The wing of the
father of "Tieke"

The mother of "Tieke"

The wing of the
mother of "Tieke"

Luc examines the
birds for canker
after every race

SYSTEM

"Before basketting, the hen is always shown for five or ten minutes," Luc explains. "We never do an extra motivation. We 're a little bit afraid of this because it is easier to 'de-motivate' a pigeon than to motivate. Variation in the widowhood system is, for us, not necessary."
"After the race," he says, "the hen stays in the loft only a short time. This becomes longer and longer the farther the racing season goes. At the end of the season, they even stay a whole night with the widowers."

"When the clocks are in the club, we don't stay away from the loft for very long," Luc emphasizes. "No, after the race we give all the widowers a mandatory lukewarm bath. The widowers become quiet and they rest on one wing in their box. A quick recuperation is very important, because one night later the widowers again need to fight to be first in and out of the loft. If there is one widower who doesn't like to train or fight, then you have to be careful. Most of the time, a week of rest is then the cure."


YOUNGBIRDS

"As I've already mentioned," Luc says, "we're no youngbird specialist. Our youngbirds stay together the whole year and a darkness-system is never followed. We race our youngsters on nest position, and when they're well motivated we are not afraid of all those 'darkened' youngsters. We try to bring them as late as possible in nest. When they start their first nest around the end of July, then we're well on schedule. Pigeons on the nest don't train, and therefore I make a lot of tosses with those youngbirds (25km) during the week. It is reasonable that we cannot make those 'chain-results' like those youngbird specialists."

SELECTION

Luc confides, "Everybody has his own 'selection rules,' but here we handle as follows. A youngbird must make some top results, say in the first 100%. A young cock with a big youngster in the nest who doesn't make any prize is directly selected out. From a yearbird we expect three or four prizes per 20 (1/20). An old bird must fly a lot of top prizes. I like a bird with a good eye and a lot of character. I don't like big birds. I prefer the smaller type. A top racer must learn to leave the group and fly home alone. I know that it is hard to find such birds, but once you have them in the loft you must treat them like diamonds."


SOME OTHER TOPBIRDS in 2002

"De 66" 3010266/00

2nd Arras 125p.
5th Clermont 172p.
32nd Dourdan 398p.
2nd Tours 177p. - 3rd provincial 1557p.
24th Tours 491p.
1st Blois 45p. - 12th prov. 334p.

"De Kleinen 31" 3010231/00

4th Dourdan 621p.
8th Blois 1003p.
2nd Bourges 205p. - 49th national against 11,689p.
5th Poitiers 573p. - 16th provincial against 3390p.
75th Ruffec 1600
16th Tours 276p.
19th Tours 373p.

"Dhaeni 05" 3010205/00

1st provinciaal Blois 1003p.
1st Dourdan 621p.
15th Tours 4025p.
4th Bourges 205p. - 122nd national 11689p.
6th Blois 344p.
14th Dourdan 398p.