Han van Belzen and grandson Justin (Arnemuiden) triumph from Châteaudun against 10364 pigeons.

A magnificent victory for Han van Belzen and his grandson Justin from Arnemuiden: they clocked the fastest pigeon (NL23-9345236) from Châteaudun against a field of 10,364 pigeons (sections 1+2). 

A life with pigeons

Han van Belzen started pigeon racing in 1985. He achieved his first victory in 1986. However, his career did not proceed without obstacles. ‘In the years that followed, it was sometimes difficult to perform consistently, partly because my wife suffered a brain haemorrhage,’ Han explains candidly.

He played with his brothers for a few years, but his first real success after returning as a solo player came in 2016. His ‘05’ then flew twice in a row to first prize in the association against an average of 420 pigeons, in the west combination: 1/1200 pigeons Roye and 3/1529 pigeons Auby.

Grandson Justin started racing pigeons independently in 2018 and raced from his own loft until 2021. Since 2023, Han and Justin have formed a close partnership.

Building up the colony

The basis of their colony consists of pigeons from well-known fanciers such as C. Schroevers, M. de Ridder, P. van de Woestijne and the Meulmeester combination. However, most of the pigeons come from A. Houmes & Zn, purchased by Han's son Anton van Belzen. Every year, intensive co-breeding takes place with Anton.

Recent reinforcements came from the Van Leeuwen & Zn combination, Robin Rigter and Gijs Baan, among others.

Nutrition and by-products

The care of the pigeons is focused on simplicity and quality. They are fed mixtures of Embrechts/Theunis Champignons and NPO mixture until the pigeons themselves indicate that they have had enough.

In addition, various supplements are provided to keep the pigeons in top condition, including:

Octavit and Prestavit, Probiotics, Nutripower, Vitamineral, mineral mix from Theunis

We race from the nest due to lack of space.

We do not allow the pigeons to hatch their young. In that case, we remove the eggs and replace them with stone eggs, so that they can continue to brood on them. Sometimes we forget to replace the eggs with stone eggs at the breeders' and accidentally end up with a youngster. That youngster is then sometimes moved to a pair of racing pigeons, but normally we let both the breeders and racers brood in April, May, June and August.

After the first clutch, we keep the pairs apart for ten days. Then we put them back together, but not all at once. We make sure that they are on different breeding days, for example, one pair breeds on three days, the other on ten. In this way, we spread the whole process until the third clutch.

Medical

Every time we basket them, we check that there are no threads in their beaks. If there are, they are given a Belga Magic tablet.

After they return home, we sometimes give them BS after three days in the basket, but we prefer to avoid this.

They are vaccinated against paramyxovirus and rotavirus. Last year, we also administered a vaccination against paratyphoid, but we will stop doing this in future due to less than satisfactory results.

Performance 2025

Club results

• Oudenaarde (74 km): 7, 10, 31, 90, etc. against 902 pigeons
• Quievrain (121 km): 27, 90, etc. – 13 of the 17 pigeons in the prizes against 960 pigeons
• Niergnies (155 km): 20, etc. – 12 of 16 pigeons in the prizes against 996 pigeons
• Melun (327 km): 1, 14, 21, etc. – 7 of 18 pigeons in the prizes against 927 pigeons
• Melun (327 km): 21, 22, 91 etc. – 7 of the 13 pigeons in the prizes against 845 pigeons
• Morlincourt (220 km): 20, 57, 74 – 3 of the 7 pigeons in the prizes against 380 pigeons
• Châteaudun (416 km): 1, 61 – 2 of the 7 pigeons in the prizes against 432 pigeons

West / Division / Sector

• Melun (327 km) (Division): 2, 54, 75 etc. – 10 of the 18 pigeons in the prizes against 9113 pigeons
• Melun (327 km) (Combined SSW): 1, 23, 35, 101, etc. – 7 of the 18 pigeons in the prizes against 3133 pigeons
• Châteaudun (416 km) (Sector 1 A): 1st – 7 out of 7 in the prizes against 10364 pigeons

Han & Justin, congratulations on this magnificent victory from the Herbots team!

Christophe Mathues