Ivo Croymans (Halen) achieves double provincial victory at Chateauroux

Ivo Croymans' colony may be less well-known among you all, but here in the region, he is known as the fancier with a rigorous selection process and one who has completely mastered the widowhood system. In addition, he is a handy guy who enjoys tinkering with his lofts to make everything easier for the fancier himself. Now at Chateauroux, he has achieved his 4th provincial victory on this race in his career; he immediately makes it a double win here with an old and a yearling widower. This is Ivo's favorite style of racing; hens are not for him. He races with two lofts of widowers, and the pigeons have to prove themselves or they won't make it to the end of the year. The first cock is a top-class bird; he already won 2nd provincial against more than 2,000 pigeons at the tough Bourges race in late May, and now at Chateauroux, he has brought home gold. He is a 100% Sabrina Brugmans pigeon, with whom Ivo is very good friends, and these pigeons, together with those of Ludo Forier, are more than enough for him. The yearling widower is a late youngster from last year who has now completed his 3rd national race; he flew Sancoins and La Chatre in the top 10, so he is now showing his talent. He did not have an easy time in the spring, as he was missing for 2 days from a short race and had to recover from that for a while. Late youngsters are something Ivo likes to keep; those that remain at the end of the season and show their potential are the ones you can take to war.

It is striking that Ivo takes his pigeons at 3:00 PM for a national race, then takes them to Theo Martens, who baskets the pigeons in Eigenbilzen in the evening. They therefore spend at least a few hours in the baskets before being entered. In the past, when he was still working, he sometimes had to do this in the afternoon; he would go to work and then drive on to the club from there. The pigeons just have to adapt to what is possible for me.

Widower system

As far as I am concerned, they are allowed to moult quietly in their new loft, and the yearlings get the chance to choose a nesting box first; afterwards, the old pigeons come into the loft one by one. This way, the yearlings remain in charge of their nesting boxes, and they were all paired up by the end of January. The old cocks raise one youngster, and the yearlings two.

Afterwards, they are let out again to resume training, and initially they fly once a day, and later twice a day. Training is only suspended in the evening during hot weather.

The motivation here is such that nothing or only the dish is shown in light winds. In case of a headwind, I do show the hen or do something else. Now, at Chateauroux, I released one hen in the hallway and let her do her thing for a while. They need to keep remembering why they have to come home. After the first races in April, they only stay together for fifteen minutes; starting from the national races, this is a few hours, and now, after Chateauroux, I let them stay with them for the first time until morning.

Furthermore, the pigeons receive fresh grit daily, along with food and drink separately in their loft boxes; this is their domain, and here they get everything that belongs to them. The pigeons also always get enough food and can eat whenever they want. I feed the widower Super Recup from Anthoons, to which I add treat seeds and hemp seeds. Peanuts are always ready when calling them in. The young pigeons always receive Beyers Young Pigeons.

I try to keep the pigeons free from trichomoniasis by giving them something for trichomoniasis for 1.5 days every 3 weeks, and for the respiratory tract, I use Lysocur from Comed. Additionally, upon returning home, they always receive dextrose along with propolis. When I take the pigeons for a check-up, I always visit Vincent Schroeder. Every week, the pigeons also receive garlic along with some vitamins.

Chateauroux Winners

BE 24-5040553 Blue Cock

1 Prov Chateauroux 440p ( fastest 1.030p ) – 1 Nat (z) 611p
2 Prov Bourges 2.462p
10 Gien 1.483p
21 Soissons 1.847p
50 Gien 4.406p
182 Nat Argenton 15.386p
313 Nat Sancoins 9.582p

Father BE 21-5030377 Brother Hanne - Sabrina Brugmans
Brother “Hanne” 1st Nat Argenton 23,124p (fastest of 32,971p)
Brother of “Luca” 4th Nat Ace Pigeon All Round Young Birds KBDB 2023 with, among others, 4th Nat Argenton 18,837p – 11th Nat Bourges 19,369p
Brother of “Lentel” 1st Prov Sancoins 1,676p
Brother of “108” is father of “Lynn” who became 5th + 7th Nat Ace Pigeon Heavy Middle Distance KBDB with 9th Nat Bourges 5,529p – 16th Nat Argenton 8,867p -…

Mother BE 17-5024670 Daughter Nest sister Charlotte - Sabrina Brugmans
½ sister “Christa” 1st Prov Issoudun 984p – 2 Prov Bourges 3,576p – 17 Nat Argenton 26,08p
½ sister “827/18” 15 Nat Ace Pigeon Speed ​​KBDB ‘18
½ sister “Chayenne” 5 Nat Olympiad Pigeon Cat.B Olympic Hope ‘20
Daughter of “681/12” Brother Blue Ace and Sandy x “922/13” Nestmate Charlotte, Charlotte won 1 Nat Ace Pigeon heavy middle distance yearlings KBDB

BE 25-4046637 Checkered Cock

1 Prov Chateauroux 590p – 2 Nat (z) 730p

Father BE 21-5030016 Son June – Sabrina Brugmans 
Son of “733/19” Son Brother Blue Ace x “154/16” June won 1st Prov Argenton 1,541p – 2nd Prov Argenton 360p – 9th S.Nat Bourges 3,455p – 9th Nat Chateauroux 1,790p

Mother BE 18-5072472 Ludo Forier 
Daughter of “346/12” Bart & Nance Van Oeckel x “NL 406/13” Peter Van de Merwe

Ivo, congratulations on these great victories from the entire HERBOTS TEAM.

Buelens Kim