Roodhooft Andre (Pulderbos) 1st National Champion middle distance young KBDB 2024

In the 2023 season we visited Andre Roodhooft in Pulderbos, this because of his national victory on Argenton with the old pigeons, which was also the fastest pigeon of 22,871 pigeons. Now one season later we are back at the door. Andre has had a top season in 2024 with 2 beautiful ace pigeon titles and a title of 1st National Champion middle distance young KBDB 2024. Competing in the middle distance and heavy middle distance is his terrain.

Beautiful titles last season

1 Prov Champion middle distance young KBDB 2024
1 Nat Champion middle distance young KBDB 2024
King Union Antwerp 2024 (for the 19th time in his career)
1 Prov Ace Pigeon middle distance young KBDB 2024
2 Nat Ace Pigeon middle distance young KBDB 2024
3 Prov Ace Pigeon heavy Ace Pigeon middle distance young KBDB 2024
4 Nat Ace Pigeon heavy Ace Pigeon middle distance young KBDB 2024

Racing team on total widowhood

In the 2022 season Andre decided to do pigeon racing with a smaller group. A bit more relaxed at my age would have been welcome. That is why we no longer raced on classic widowhood but on total widowhood. This means that we have to keep a lot fewer pigeons and if you have to leave the pigeons together you should not drag them but just open the door in between.

That is why there were always about 40 pigeons ready for the racing season, these are paired at the end of December in the racing loft with the living boxes with the cocks and they do not go outside during that period. After the youngsters are 14 days old, the hens are removed and the cocks raise the youngsters.

After that, there is no more pairing and they go towards the season like that, after they have flown Noyon a second time in April, I leave them together for one more night and from then on they always go apart in the evening.

They are all darkened from 1 March until 14 days before Bourges, at the end of June I start adding light and then I can play perfectly until the end of the season.

The hens are allowed to eat and drink outside the resting loft twice a day for fifteen minutes, but they do not train super hard at home, I do not need that as long as they perform well in the weekend. Now in the season they usually train 2 x 10 minutes.

From the moment the young pigeons are on the sliding door, the young hens train with the old hens and the cocks all go outside together. I think this is better to bring the pace back a bit.

How do you approach basketing?

I open all the cocks' boxes so that they can lie down in the dish and then I go to the hens' loft, there I open all the doors so that they can go to the cocks and from then on I start packing the first pigeons. They know all too well what is going on, the last pigeons then sit together for 10 to 15 minutes.

The pigeons come home and they are allowed to stay together for a few hours, then I give them a bath and let the pigeons rest, I then calmly chase the hens to their sleeping loft and the cocks usually lie down in their living box.

The hens are basketed every week anyway, usually a speed flight between 2 national flights and the cocks usually stay home for a week. Certainly good for hens if they come home on that speed flight and their cocks are ready for them.

If the pigeons continue to come on widowhood I leave it like that, but if it goes less well I couple the pigeons in July in the hope of playing 2 more national flights at the end of the season. That's how he won his national flight from Argenton in the 2023 season.

Ace Pigeons of the 2024 season

BE 24-6178336 Blue Hen
4 Nat Ace Pigeon Heavy Middle Distance Young KBDB 2024

    2 Prov Vierzon                2.755p
  30 Nat                              16.892p
  20 Prov Chateauroux       2.567p
115 Nat                               15.060p
  42 Nat (z) Bourges          4.647p

Father BE 20-6100672 Son Kannibaal 044
Son of “044/14” Kannibaal 044 Hofkens x Van Dijck Dirk x “503/15” Smarty Simonsz – Wierstra

Mother BE 16-6235958 Inbred Tom
Super breeding hen and also mother of “110” 2 Nat Chateauroux 12,855p
Daughter of “108/14” Son of base breeder Tom x “521/06” Sister Tom

BE 24-6178325 Blue Cock 
1 Prov Ace Pigeon middle distance young KBDB 2024
2 Nat Ace Pigeon middle distance young KBDB 2024

  4 Sermaises                      2.111p
  7 Melun                            1.844p
12 Ecouen                         3.442p
17 Melun                            1.909p

Father BE 21-6235504 Grandson Tom
Son of “324/18” Son Tom x Lady Shyne 1 Nat Bourges 8,348p x “014/17” Hofkens

Mother BE 19-1087413 Van Renterghem 
Won herself 1 Pont 995p – 2 Ecouen 963p – 6 Pont 334p – 10 Toury 596p – 15 Issoudun 465p
Daughter of “231/11” Inbred Tom Andre Roodhooft x “821/17” Van Renterghem x Andre Roodhooft

Young pigeons

The young pigeons are also darkened from 1 March to 10 June. From the beginning of July they are then lightened until the end of the season. The goal with the young pigeons is mainly middle distance and national flights, the fixed rule here is that no pigeon goes into the basket from 30°C, both old and young.

The young pigeons will therefore mainly fly national flights, in the most favourable circumstances they are all of them. You can never determine that in advance, if there is a top pigeon among them like this year with the "325", then it is kept on the middle distance to win an ace pigeon title.

A lot of driving is done with the young pigeons, we drive 15 times until we are in Vilvoorde, for me that is about 50 km and then they are ready for Quievrain. I start this at the end of March so that I have time towards the start of the season. This year I drove to Vilvoorde even more because there was a headwind and young pigeons have to get used to that before you can make the jump to the first real flights.

At home the pigeons train once a day in the beginning but during the season this can certainly be twice a day, together with the old pigeons and usually this is half an hour each time.

The pigeons are separated and separated just before the start of the middle distance, so from then on I play them on the sliding door until the end of the season. During the season we also try to drive to Vilvoorde and certainly during the school holidays that is better for us with the traffic. Then I take both the old and the young pigeons with me and the job is done in one go.

The young pigeons will no longer stay home after a national flight, especially with young pigeons I have not had good experiences with that and so they will always fly a short flight even if they have to sit over for the national flight.

On the day of basketing they come together briefly, 20 to 25 minutes is enough. They first get food for it as a last feeding and then they go together. There are 5 lofts for the young pigeons, 2 lofts for cocks and 2 lofts for hens, the middle loft is empty during the week and serves as a motivation loft when the pigeons go together.

After the flight these young pigeons also get a bath and in comparison to the old pigeons they are allowed to stay together until the next morning. So on Sunday morning the young pigeons are separated.

Feeding and guidance

I have been using the Natural mixtures here for years and am very satisfied with them. The pigeons never get a light mixture during the season, they usually get 2 parts Sport and 5 parts Superdieet in the beginning, to which I then add 1 part Performance and another portion of cat food. They get this on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. On Sunday evening I switch back to sport for the widowers. I also apply the same rule to the young pigeons once they have started the season. I always feed them twice a day and never play when they are hungry. I always try to basket my pigeons with a good crop, the last meal they get peanuts, hemp seed and candy seed to give them as much energy as possible but still.

When they come home, either Herbosol from Herbovet or Belgasol from Belgica – De Weerd is added to the drinking water together with Catosal. I do this every week and probiotics are added to the food together with brewer's yeast.

Before the season I always go for a check-up at Raf Herbots and usually I cure the pigeons for 5 days against tricho before the season and during the season I repeat that blindly every 4 to 5 weeks for 1.5 days. The other days I always put Naturaline, Apple vinegar and garlic in the drinking water, which I think is a very good combination. I think acidification is important for the pigeons and I continue to do that after the racing season, a pigeon must be in just as good condition in the winter as in the summer and needs at least as much during the moult as in the season.

After the racing season is over the pigeons get a 10-day cure against paratyphoid with Baytril without vaccination, I vaccinate the pigeons in the spring together with the young pigeons and that way I am ready for the racing season. The other vaccinations for the old pigeons are only Paramxyo and for the youngsters 2x Paramyxo Rota, 1 x Paramyxo Herpes, 1x Smallpox and then paratyphoid.

In the field of airways I usually use the SLT mix from Raf Herbots, I do this for 2 days and max 2x per year. If I see that the condition is a bit less I intervene and then the pigeons recover quickly.

Andre and Annette, congratulations on this beautiful title and your great pigeon career from the entire HERBOTS TEAM.

Buelens Kim