Lisbet & Kim Hansen (Brøndby) win Herbots Golden Wing in Denmark

Lisbet and Kim Hansen, Dan 0242 Brøndby
Herbots Golden Wing winner 2024 of Denmark in the Marathon race from Munich

For the twelfth time The Herbots Golden Wing of Denmark took place in 2024. Each participating fancier was able to nominate one single pigeon upon the last major National long-distance flight of the season 2024 from Munich. The winners were this year Lisbet and Kim Hansen; a well-known name in the sport in Denmark.

Lisbet and Kim is a married couple sharing the passion for their beloved feathered friends. They live in their own house in Rødovre, a suburb to Copenhagen in the northeastern part of Denmark. Both have an education as a chemical engineer and a full-time job as patent examiner at the Danish Patent and Trademark office. 

One can almost say that “Kim was born in a nest bowl” with a farther having pigeons his entire life. Kim, now 59 years old, had his own loft in 1974 as a 9 year old starting with fifteen youngsters. He had his own loft for three years before he joined forces with his farther. Together they had great fun and success for many seasons with a relatively small loft. 

Lisbet and Kim meet and fell in love in 1994. In 1995 Lisbet, now 55 years old, became a member of the Danish pigeon organisation and started flying with pigeons together with Kim at their current address. Their loft is a garden loft with room for 20 pairs of breeders, 54 pairs of racers and around 60 youngsters. On a Danish scale this is a relatively large loft. However, being interested in making top results in all distances from 90 km to 1030 km some pigeons are needed. 

In the breeding loft thirteen pairs are dedicated for breeding pigeons for the sprint, short and middle-distance races. The remaining seven pairs are carefully selected for breeding pigeons for the long and marathon races. These fourteen breeders have all been bought in the last six years on internet auctions primally from Belgian, Dutch and English lofts. 

The racing pigeons regardless of age and lineage live in a mixed community in departments with six or ten nest boxes. They all race on the total widowhood system without rotation. After a race season which ends in the mid-August in Denmark the hens and cocks are allowed to stay together for the whole autumn and winter. They are first separated in the first part of February three weeks before the start of the new breeding season. From mid-August to around 1 November the racers are enjoining themselves in the nest boxes with nest bowls and fake eggs. From then on, the nest bowls are removed but the nest boxes are left open. The same applies to the youngsters which are moved to the race loft immediately after the end of the race season as soon as they couple up to be helped to conquer a nest box. This method gives according to Lisbet and Kim a lot of love between the sexes, a great attraction especially for the newly arrived youngsters to their nest boxes and a slow naturally moulting being ideal for those who does not deal with winter breeding. 

Around 1 March a new breeding season starts. The breeders and racers are paired up and the first rounds of eggs from the breeders are moved to the racers. Each couple of racers rear up at least one youngster and are allowed to lay eggs again. 

In the last three weeks of April approximately eight road-trainings of 10-30 km are carried out to sharpen the racing mode of the pigeons. All the racers participate on the first official race of 90 km in the first weekend of May. From then on, the sexes are separated to race on the total widowhood. 

The racers are fed different Finesse mixtures from Natural throughout the season. 

In the autumn and winter, they are fed the moulting mixture, in the breeding season they are fed the breeding mixture and in the race season they are given the widower & ladies mixture with a supplement of wizard and marathon mixtures the last three to four days before a long or marathon race. It is easy to feed the cocks individual in the nest boxes but the hens for the sprint, short and middle-distance races suffer a little from this feeding method since all the hens live in a common loft with triangular perches and therefore cannot be fed individually. 

Slowly but safely the offspring from the breeding pigeons for the long and marathon races begins to show their potential. But lineage is not enough. A lot of obstacles must be overcome for a marathon pigeon to reach the right age and experience to make a good debut on a marathon race. For the ones passing through the needle eye the debut at the loft of Lisbet and Kim happens at the age of two or three years old depending on circumstance and finger feel. 

Two weeks before the season finale from Munich, the second marathon race of the year was completed from the town of Rouen in France with a distance to the loft of Lisbet and Kim of 1032 km. A two-year-old debutant hen and a three-year-old hen participating in her third marathon race made a great effort arriving in the morning on the second day. They became first and second in the eastern region with a lead of 1 hour and 53 min., respectively 1 hour and 10 min to the third pigeon in the region. Therefore, Lisbet and Kim had a little hope of a good result from the Munich race, too. 

For the Herbots Golden Wing competition they had to nominate one pigeon and there was no doubt in their minds, it had to be the three-year-old debutant hen named “Lonnie”. Already as a two-year old she had shown her skills being fifth Ace pigeon hens in the section on the long distance. The preparations for the Munich race had been perfect. Four weeks before the race she participated in a long-distance race of 595 km from the town Hof in Germany and two weeks before the race she was on a sprint race of 263 km from Kaltenkirchen, also in Germany. At the arrivals she looked strong and fresh.

The Herbots Golden Wing winner 2024 "Lonnie"

Lisbet and Kim was unsure whether the Munich pigeons could make it to their loft on the day of liberation with a distance of 832 km. At 19.55 the first pigeon arrived in the southern region on a shorter distance with a velocity of 1024 m/min. At 20.30 only one more pigeon arrived in Denmark - again in the southern region on an even shorter distance. To Lisbet and Kim it now seemed almost impossible to have a pigeon to their loft. Therefore, they decided to leave their garden and look at trotting races from the Swedish V75 game on their television in the living room. Trotting horses are their second passion. They own four trotting horses together with a friend. Standing up from the couch there is a nice view to the loft - but each time everything looked quiet. 

At 21.30 the broadcast on television ended and at the same time Kim discovered that the first pigeon in their region was clocked in the twilight at 21.23 with a velocity of 943 m/min. on a shorter distance of 786 km. For the sake of safety Kim checked out their loft before calling the owners to congratulate with the nice result. And there “Lonnie” sat in the nest bowl and had a great time with her cock. She was clocked at 20.47.05 with a velocity of 1043 m/min. 

The pedigree of the Herbots Golden Wing winner 2024 "Lonnie"

Lisbet and Kim was both excited and shocked. “Lonnie” was a winner in the eastern region with a lead of 1 hour and 25 min. On a national level she became fourth and was the best nominated for the Herbots Golden Wing. The very beautiful trophy which will have a nice spot in the living room of Lisbet and Kim.

From the Herbots team in Denmark we wish you all the best in the future.

From left to right: Carsten Petersen (Herbots.dk), Lisbet and Kim Hansen and Niels Johansen (Herbots.dk)