Danny Dockx (Oud-Turnhout) wins 2nd National Bourges 26,549 young pigeons

On the first national race of the young pigeons, national Bourges was flown according to annual tradition, both gold and silver went to the municipality of Oud-Turnhout. The gold went to Niels Broeckx but the silver went to Danny Dockx who has had another super season. We can describe Danny's colony as an all-round colony that always participates in both the speed and the extreme long distance. This year he had a total of 37 old and yearling hens, of which 34 are still in the loft despite almost all to have played races.

Young pigeon system 

His young pigeons were darkened until the longest day of the year, after which nothing was done for a week and additional lighting was started (6:15 am in the morning and until 10:15 pm in the evening). This will then be maintained until the last race of the season. 

The young pigeons from the 1st and 2nd rounds are not spared, Danny selects for this and the good ones remain at the end of the journey. They have flown the middle distance several times and they also flew the provincial flight from Fay Aux Loges. After that everything went towards Bourges and they will now have to fly several national races.

The youngsters are raced here on the sliding door, usually from mid-July. They should not be too crazy for the first flights, but afterwards they work on motivation. The sliding door always opens one hour before basketing and then everything is taken away. So far I have few permanent couples, but that is certainly good for the nationals. When they return home, they can stay together until the evening in the sprint and from the middle distance this is until the next day in the morning. Even for a tough flight in preparation, I leave them together until the morning. 

The 2nd National from Bourges was special in terms of motivation, they once ended up in the loft of Quievrain from a training flight and since then she has always wanted to be there. So she must have found a cock here and be motivated by it. So you have to play something like that out and it can lead to such achievements. 

The pigeons train once a day and are not given the opportunity to stroll on the roof, it is either in the air or indoors. They are still taken away once a week up to 40 to 45 km and then usually fly for about 35 to 40 minutes. That is more than enough and when I get home I immediately take them apart again. 

In terms of nutrition, the pigeons here always get the mixtures from Brian Bolton, which is a mixture no. 1-2-3 and when I return home I usually give the no. 2. From the 3rd day I then give back no. 2 together with 3 other sport mixtures . On the last evening before basketing and the day of basketing I give number 3 to which I also add candy seed and hempseed. Additional things I give during the week are garlic oil and brewer's yeast over the food and electrolytes when they come home. Every other month they get conditioning syrup from Mariën and every 14 days I give them conditioning powder and vitaminral from Mariën. I do the latter every 2 days during the breeding period so that they are not deprived of anything. I use the yellow drops every 2 weeks to keep tricho under control.

BE 24-6181172 
2nd National Bourges 26.549 young birds

Danny, congratulations on this top pigeon and your top season from the entire HERBOTS TEAM.

Buelens Kim