Hornu: It was a cold Wednesday morning when I went to Hornu (province Hainaut - in the French speaking part of Belgium) to visit Jean-Claude Debieve. Jean-Claude is a well-known name in the pigeon sport, not only through his very nice results in his own loft but also through his pigeons which are very successful in other lofts. And that makes Jean-Claude very happy, or as they say in French "ça fait chaud dans le Coeur."

In 2002, Jean-Claude, together with his son, again had a very good season. Not only did they win 17 first prizes, but they also had the second provincial ace-pigeon middle distance (races around 500km) with "Sir Georges" and second provincial ace-pigeons middle distance (races around 300km) with "Rocket 148." And they became second national champion K.B.D.B. on the middle distance. "It's a pity that we made a little mistake, but afterwards we saw it as a big mistake," says Jean-Claude. "It is that we chose to use a local result from la Souterraine, and if we had used the provincial result, we would have made a better coëfficient and then we would have won national champion."



GRONDELAERS

When we ask our champion what his base pigeons are, we get a very interesting story. Jean-Claude recalls, "I started racing pigeons in 1973. Before that I played soccer, but due to some injuries I quit. On a certain day there was a pigeon sitting on my doorstep, and I caught it. I wrote to the KBDB and I got the address of the owner. That man didn't want the pigeons anymore, so I was sitting there with a pigeon. I didn't know what to do with it. So I decided to keep it and to keep pigeons for eating. I went to a fancier and asked for three other birds. So I had two pairs of pigeons and I started breeding. Everything went great till the day that the youngsters were big enough to slaughter, I couldn't do it. So from four birds I got eight pigeons and that went on. A few months later, I celebrated my birthday and without my knowing it my father-in-law and a friend bought a loft and built it in my garden. From that day on, the national federation was one fancier richer.

"The first year that I raced pigeons, I couldn't win a single prize. It's unbelievable, but when everybody else had his pigeons home, I hadn't clocked one. That had to change, so I took some money and I went to Monnier Albert (Cuelle des Sarts). Monnier was a very big champion who won several nationals. Now I'm talking about the year 1974. Again a year later, I went to a public auction of Mencke-Haelterman (Voorde). I bought some birds and so I came in contact with Paul Haelterman who gave me a lot of advice. Through a friend, I got a bird from De Smet Gebroeders (Semmerzake) and the crossing of that bird together with a Monnierbird produced my first base-couple. I think with a lot of pleasure back to birds like 'Le Paul', 'La Cherie', and 'Le Doux.'

"Another bird that played a very important role in my base is 'Le Plézant'," Jean-Claude continues. "That cock was a pure Marcel Borghmans (strain Van Loon -Poppel) and won seven times 1st prize. A granddaughter from him coupled to 'Last Hope' gave my 'Last-Hope-line' with which I'm now, seen over the last 10 years, very successful. 'Last Hope' was a pure Grondelaers Jan pigeon. I bought in 1983 a whole round of eggs, and I must say that this was the best buy I ever made. It's unbelievable how strong those birds were. So, my base now is for a big part Grondelaers."


THE SEASON 2002

After an auction in 2001 Jean-Claude had only 20 old birds and eight yearbirds for the 2002 season. Like every year, the widowers were coupled between Christmas and New Year's. They could breed a couple of youngsters and before the hen laid again, youngsters and hens were separated. Between this period and the second coupling, there is a kind of winter regime. This means almost no training around the loft, a three-days cure against trichomoniasis, depurative as food and a lot of home-made-soup (three times a week). This soup is a mixture of several herbs and vegetables.
At the end of March the widowers are coupled again and after a five-days of sitting on eggs they 're put on widowhood. During that nesting the widowers receive a five-days cure against ornithosis. Once the widowers are on the system, they're most of the time basketted weekly and the following feeding schedule is used.

Saturday (day of arrival): 1 coffee spoon sneaky mixture + peanuts + glucose in the water
In the evening, Dieet 200 (Versele-Laga)

Sunday: no training
In the morning, a little bit of Dieet 200, and in the evening Debieve-Mixture (Versele-Laga)


Monday till basketting day, every day Debieve-Mixture. The pigeons are always fed with a soup spoon. In the beginning of the week it is a level spoon, and at the end of the week it is a heaping spoon.

"010 Last Hope"
9080010-98





"Last Hope"
257316-89








"Rocket from Bourges"
9000079-97







"Super Blue"
257312-89








9000088-97