Vandenheede Freddy & Jacques (Kruisem) 1st National ace KBDB Allround old/yearbirds and 1st National ace KBDB Fond old birds

When excellence is the new normal !

At first I had used the word outstanding in the title, but after a brief search, this gets the meaning “excellent” in Dutch...and I found that just not enough to emphasise the achievements of the brothers Jacques and Freddy in Zingem (Kruisem) in recent years. Excellent gets the translation excellent and I find that just a little bit more powerful than excellent.
Yes, from about 100 km to 800 km, they stand head and shoulders above the rest and not occasionally, but weekly.  These achievements have led to a list of honours that makes everyone's eyes water.
Fortunately, you don't decide everything in your life. Well, I was born by fate in the same municipality as Jacques and Freddy, namely Zingem (currently the borough of Kruisem).  As a youngster, I drank nothing but pigeon milk in our family, there were 10 pigeon fanciers in every street and the competition in the Zingem-Gavere-Oudenaarde region was fierce. And even then there was one René Vandenheede (father of Jacques and Freddy) who, also born in a nest of pigeons, achieved impressive results in this tough competition environment.
Everyone already knows the story of the pigeons from Mencke-Haelterman from Zandbergen (giants in the middle-distance), where René went to get pigeons, the history of the Zieken enz.....kortom the foundation stone of what has become one of the best colonies on earth.  In a later phase, son Jacques played on his own lofts, son Freddy happily rolled in the straw on his father's lofts and it already appeared that the best was yet to come. Fredje became Freddy and when both Jacques and Freddy, kindled by the good fairy, decided to join forces, it was all over.

To stir up the enthusiasm a bit, here is an overview of their national victories and rankings in the KBDB rankings:

Trying to continue with the same pigeons

Due to the fact that we ourselves still have some scars here and there from the competition with father René from our youth, we can skip some episodes in the growing and fascinating story in the yearbook and ask Freddy ‘and which pigeons are doing it now’ ? Freddy states that at the time, they had the best middle distance pigeons in the region (and also sought them out from others). The idea matured to play a bit further and some stronger pigeons were brought in (De Rauw-Sablon) but in the end the half distance pigeons were just played on.  As it turned out, a large part of these pigeons could also cope with the further distances...and those that did not make it were simply left behind. The results were very good and with these pigeons a strain was further built up that became pretty much polyvalent from 100 km to 800 km.   I think Freddy once was very alert during his probability lessons at school and further used this principle well in his approach with the pigeons. Play your pigeons, keep the best and breed from these pigeons. Don't sell these best and collect top pigeons with top results and pair them further. It is obviously not pure mathematics and nature has its weird influences too, but mathematically the chances of you breeding good pigeons increases. Add a sufficiently large number of pigeons to increase and test these chances, a peak and alert approach and the chances of top performances increase proportionally. We are not naive when we state that there was a targeted search for other ‘good blood’ and then we mention names such as Verhestraeten, Kurt & Raf Platteeuw, Gino Clicque, Gaston Van de Wouwer, .....maar don't neglect their fine gaze towards smaller lofts with top pigeons either.  Morgane (hen of Luc Van Aelst from Zingem) was a top hen in speed and middle distance.  She later became a super breeding mother on the lofts of Jacques & Freddy....A co-breeding with the New Ace of neighbour Wilson Dekens brought some more kilometre power to their team...and so we can keep a few more names from the pedigrees that were skilfully tested and finely woven in if the results were positive. But everyone within this unit is subjected to the same regime, namely breeding from good pigeons (preferably super pigeons), giving all chances within a good approach and care testing until the best remain....  Simple isn't it? Indeed this seems seemingly quite simple yet there are a number of variables that can be fickle.  First having the supers...and having the courage to keep them, then bringing the breeding results to the best possible start and testing them in the best conditions....and certainly not to be overlooked an unbridled dedication to care and follow-through to perfection and perseverance.  It will always be the last little details and efforts that make the difference between good, top and super...

National victories, ace pigeons, championship titles by the dozen

It is almost impossible to keep track of what has been put together in the Heulestraat in Zingem. And let that be one of the strongest pillars of this loft, namely keeping the national winners and ace pigeons in the breeding loft. All these toppers are paired together and tested....the odds...

Meanwhile, it is also clear that there are a number of breeding lines that hold their own with basic breeding pigeons that also give birth to toppers in further generations. These lines are guarded, occasionally crossed with each other and this results in top-class fireworks.

For Freddy and Jacques it is clear....clean pigeons ? Clean colours? The only thing that matters is the results.  Select based on top performances, breed from them and they will automatically become beautiful pigeons....is also one of their creeds.

What is also remarkable in the evolution of this loft is the number of pigeons they can place in the national top.  When we check the results of 10 years ago, they already had pigeons in the national top and national victories. They also managed to place a number of pigeons in the top 100 nationally on the heavy middle distance and one-day long distance.

However, the evolution in recent years has been overwhelming.  It has become almost a breeze to play 5 pigeons in the first 20 nationally, and to almost roll up races at national level as the expression is sometimes used. There are more pigeons being played than in the past but the quality and number of pigeons that can fly all the way to the top nationally has increased exponentially in recent years.

Stunts like the first 5 nationally, or the Chateauroux for youngsters of season 2024 impress.  It is watched with wide eyes how the pigeons on races of more than 600 kilometres fall from the sky like hail balls.

Both cocks and hens are performing strongly. There is dixit Freddy not always a line to be drawn or a trend to be discovered.

A thunderous season 2024

Highlights season 2024

• 11-05-2024

First interprovincial flight from Toury ( 327 km )

Wout 22-4137305 flew 1° prize from 21,248 pigeons

Directly to breeding loft, yearling (23-4131468 )son of Wout flew 2° prize from 1,368 yearlings on the same flight and confirmed afterwards.

• 23-06-2024

Tulle national, with 10 pigeons in the 10 first national!!!

Tulle old : 7,883 pigeons : 2 - 4 - 5 - 9 - 10...

Tulle yearlings : 5,751 pigeons : 3 - 4 - 8 - 9 - 10 ...

• 14-07-2024

After several second prizes ( total of 5 times 2nd national in 2024 ) on national races , René ( 22-4137059 ) flew the first national on Souillac against 4,673 pigeons. He was also the fastest of 8,746 pigeons.

Directly to breeding loft, because of first national flown. Also had a very low coefficient for acebird long distance KBDB 2024. Which he did !

• 3-08-2024

Last national race fond 

René becomes national champion fond KBDB, but the rankings KBDB have also been made public on the long-distance

- Best pigeon on 3 national long-distance races of course with René 22-4137059 

- Best pigeon on 4 national long-distance races with Gulia 22-4137214

- Best pigeon on 5 national long-distance races with Valentina 22-4137404

- Best pigeon on 6 national long-distance races with Valentina 22-4137404

- Best pigeon on 7 national long-distance races with Next Level 21-4007308 / was also the only one with 7 top results

• 10-08-2024

Last national competition for old and yearlings on the heavy middle distance, also last competition that counted for the national championship all round KBDB old and yearlings .
Winner there was Brainpower 22-4137104 despite not having competed since 28-07-2024.

• 01-09-2024

The first provincial flight for the young pigeons ( speed 1,299m/m for the first pigeons )
Of 3815 pigeons started provincially with 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 ...
First time in East Flanders that 1 fancier ranked 9 pigeons in the top 10 provincially !

• 14-09-2024

The first national flight for our youngsters : Chateauroux with 15,060 pigeons.
Nice and calm weather ( speed 1,255m/m for the first pigeons )
National 2 pigeons in the same second were spotted making the first national right away. This was also the first time this happened in Belgian pigeon racing history .
Furthermore a result never to forget , namely national 1 - 1 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 9 - 14 -...and this on the final flight of 2024 

End of the season : 162 times in the HUNDRED FIRST NATIONAL !

Trial and error

We travel to learn also applies here.  Trial and error, we test something and we evaluate and adjust or stop. Thus, total widowhood is no longer played but both cocks and hens are played with a home partner.  The results are better and more consistent.  The workload is therefore gladly added...you just have to do it and bring it on. I refer here to a quote from Dutch great Willem De Bruijn when talking about the approach. Then Willem usually asks ‘have you already tried it’ ?  If not, don't talk about it, but test it out and evaluate.
Since a few seasons, the lofts are not cleaned much or not at all during the summer period.  The pigeons have to be happy (...a personal comment: aren't many lofts cleaned to ease the conscience of the player? Throw straw on the floor of your lofts and the pigeons will much rather live in it than on a hard board or a grid....not entirely illogical...). Don't think in human behaviour but in animal behaviour and instinct. Make the pigeon like her or his and that too can save a few percent in early prizes. We could fill another page here with ‘what’ and ‘if’ and “if” and ‘should’ but the facts and results are the results. Since several season this loft is overwhelmingly successful from 100 km to 800 km and this based on top quality, in an environment where everything is closely monitored and where no effort is left unfulfilled to be top !  You just have to do it ! And to complete the picture, here are some top pigeons from last season for dessert !

Congratulations from the Herbots team !

Geert Dhaenens