Water-Dekkers-Linden combination (Heeze) wins Châteauroux in Section 3

The second one-day long distance victory at Châteauroux in Section 3 goes to the Water-Dekkers-Linden combination from Heeze. This trio consists of Johan van de Water, his wife Karin Dekkers and their friend Piet van de Linden.

The winning pigeon is a two-year-old hen, NL23-9427881, and this race was her first test in the one-day long distance. She immediately proved herself with a fine victory.

Her father is a direct pigeon from Roger Bruninx from Genoelselderen, with a strong influence from the Willem de Bruijn strain. The mother was bred from Vale Jan (Jan Hermans), with ancestry from Guus (Comb. Van Wanrooij), Red Athena (Rik Hermans), and the 8th middle distance pigeon of Section 3 from the Water-Dekkers-Linden colony.

Karin grew up with pigeons from an early age. Her father, Gerard (Gradje) Dekkers, had pigeons and she enjoyed them from a young age. Around the age of eight, she and her sister Mariël started racing independently as ‘Gezusters Dekkers’ (Sisters Dekkers). When Mariël stopped, Karin continued on her own and with success! In 1987, she won the Golden Pigeon Netherlands in the youth category.

Johan also started racing pigeons independently around the age of eight. Together with his brother Frank, he formed the duo ‘Gebroeders van de Water’ for a while. In 1994, Karin and Johan married and started racing under the name ‘Familie van de Water’ in Heeze. In 1999, they moved to their current address, mainly because of the deep garden, which is ideal for pigeon racing.

Piet van de Linden: Friend and pillar of support

Our good friend Piet van de Linden (64) also became fascinated by pigeon racing at a young age. He grew up in the countryside, on the ‘Oude Kerkhof’ in Heeze, next to the well-known Gebr. Van de Laar. In 1975, he started keeping pigeons himself and was immediately successful: at Laon, he played 20 minutes loose in the Someren competition. He held his own in the strong club of Heeze until disaster struck. In 1981, his entire loft, including the pigeons, was struck by lightning and burned down. But his passion was stronger: a new loft was built and he started all over again.

In 1994, Piet moved to his current home and achieved top results there. The crowning glory came in 2007, when he won first prize in both the strong Eindhoven team and the middle distance club of the entire division. In 2008, he also achieved impressive results in the one-day long distance, but then lung problems began to plague him. In 2009, he unfortunately had to give up active sport.

Stronger together

From our early years in Heeze, we already had a strong bond with Piet. Every Monday evening, we discussed the results with my parents and father-in-law, and Piet soon joined us regularly. When he had to stop racing, it was a logical step for his best pigeons to come to us. Since then, he has not only become a loyal spectator, but above all a true friend and indispensable helping hand.

Piet helped build the lofts: first sections 3, 4 and 5 (now the young bird loft), later an extra 2 metres as a breeding loft for the “overduiven” (overduiven = pigeons that are too old to race), and around 2005 the current widower loft was built. Because Piet had a good feel for racing with hens, a small racing loft was even added. The most recent improvement was the aluminium sputniks, which are open day and night (except when darkened), a success factor for both the young birds and the widowers.

Piet remains a constant: he helps where necessary and takes care of the pigeons when we are away. Because he had been involved for so long, with basketing, care and everything else, we decided at the end of 2021 to officially continue as a combination (from 2022 on paper). Since then, we have achieved a nice performance gain!

Our current colony: the foundations and reinforcement

Looking at the structure of our current colony, we see a number of clear lines recurring.

De Rik

This top performer became 3rd National Ace Pigeon Middle Distance of the Netherlands and, together with his brother Jannus, formed the basis of the National Middle Distance Championship (loft championship) at Jan and Thea van de Water. De Rik is a son of two pigeons from Jan and Rik Hermans – his pedigree has been added. We also see a half-sister of De Rik among the winners of the NPO race. It is clear that many of our father's/husband's pigeons have moved here and still have a major impact on our loft.

De Jari

Another absolute progenitor is De Jari, a widower we got from Jan Hermans. Although Jan and I were friends, I never asked him for pigeons myself – even though I knew he had some real top pigeons. We tried to get something good through vouchers at the CC Eindhoven auction. In 2008, three pigeons moved to Heeze. Two of them were intended as a pair, but turned out to be both hens. When Jan inquired about this pair in early 2010 and heard this, he explicitly asked me to call him the following week, just before a meeting where we would see each other. Although I was a bit reluctant, I also knew that Jan would be disappointed if I didn't. So I called him.

He brought the 584/09 with him – a cock that he had personally taken from his widower cage, a pigeon he was going to race himself. And that is how De Jari ended up in our loft. A special gesture, especially considering that Jan was only racing eight widowers at the time. De Jari became a huge success and grew to become the progenitor of our colony. Due to lack of time, his pedigree is no longer fully updated, but there are plenty of examples of recent successes. For example, a grandson (24/335) won 3rd prize young and old together at Stappershoef-Marijnissen against 11,413 pigeons (Division 3) in Moeskroen. Another grandson, Janthe (21/151), won no less than four 1st prizes and two 2nd prizes in 2023 – all in just nine weeks.

Vale Jan

Vale Jan, obtained from Jan Hermans via a voucher, also proved to be a great success. Jan knew that we wanted to switch to middle distance and one-day long distance racing and gave us this pigeon to bring more endurance into our lines – via his line with Red Athena. With success: the winner of our recent NPO victory is a granddaughter of Vale Jan!

Over the years, we have acquired several pigeons from Jan and Rik Hermans, and they have really taken us to a higher level.

New crosses

Because some of our stock pigeons – including De Rik – are no longer fertile or have passed away, we have been searching for suitable additions to our basic lines in recent years.

Roger Bruninx & Jean Luc Vriends

About six years ago, my partner Piet became friends with Jean Luc Vriends, Roger Bruninx's partner. Through them, several pigeons came to Heeze, often of the Willem de Bruijn type. We decided to breed with them instead of racing them, and that proved to be a fruitful decision. Last weekend, we received the ultimate reward: the winner of the NPO race from Châteauroux (Division 3) is a son of one of Roger's cocks. We had previously bred a hen from another of Roger's cocks that flew five first prizes. Unfortunately, this hen (21/190) was left behind at Melun, where she quickly ended up in a thunderstorm zone. We are still waiting for her...

Collaboration with Stappershoef-Marijnissen

In 2023, Hans van Stappershoef asked me if I had the time and energy to help him and Frans Marijnissen (then 89 years old!). We had worked together before, and I knew that their breeding loft contained direct Willem de Bruijn pigeons. Although I had my doubts about whether I could handle it in terms of energy, I decided to go for it. The results are now starting to show, and this year young birds have been born from both direct De Bruijn and Jan Hooymans pigeons. However, the best news came shortly after the start of our collaboration: Frans made a miraculous recovery and is now taking care of the pigeons again every day. Unbelievable, but true.

Other reinforcements

Wim and Willem Faassen – Mainly through “Den Engel”. We got two sons from him, each of which won five times in the strong CC Eindhoven (including the fastest from Vervins against 11,351 pigeons). These sons immediately delivered top prizes and an ace pigeon youngster. Stappershoef-Marijnissen has the best hen from this line, with, among other things, a 26th place in Nanteuil against 14,000 pigeons.

Martijn and Buck de Kruijf – Our cock ‘Bucky’ (21/464), father of “Swalmen”, comes from their ‘Special 720’ line. The latter won first prize twice last year and has already won five times out of ten this year, including twice out of 100. And that's before his one-day long distance flights! His daughter (24/750) finished 13th at Morlincourt against 5,383 pigeons that same weekend.

Among the racing pigeons, we also see pigeons from:

Joop Koch (Eindhoven) – grandchild of “Brooklyn” (Syndicate Lofts)

Barry van Kessel (Geldrop) – with ‘De 65’, 3rd ace pigeon One Day Long Distance CC Eindhoven

Pierre Thomassen – Ben van Es (Elsloo) – grandfather of our ‘Janthe’

Feeding schedule for the racing team 

This year, we started using the Matador feeding system for the first time. For the racing pigeons, we use the Premium Start, Athletic and Turbo Extreme system. We try to stick to their feeding schedule as closely as possible, although we sometimes adjust it based on our intuition — for example, adding a little more or less fat, or adjusting the amount of Premium Start.

At the beginning of the week, we feed them a measured amount, about 30 grams per pigeon. Towards the end of the week, they get more than enough so that they can eat their fill before the race.

In addition, we have been following Gert Jan Beute's guidance schedule for about six years now, and we are very pleased with it. We use Electroboost (occasionally), Lecithin oil, Olympic MG Mix, LTW and Pigeon Balance, among other things.

When they return home, we give them Electroboost and Pigeon Balance.

At the beginning of the week, we give them lecithin oil for one to two days, together with Olympic MG Mix.

We use LTW for two to three days at the beginning of the week.

Other than that, we do not give them any extra seeds or by-products.

Flying system

We fly a combined widowhood system. In total, we have two sections with 18 boxes for the widowers. One of those boxes is reserved this year for a 10-year-old cock. Of course, he no longer flies, but we still enjoy seeing him strut around enthusiastically among the other cocks.

We started the season with 36 racing pigeons, including 19 widow hens. Currently, there are 17 hens and 15 cocks left, including the old veteran. In short, we have suffered hardly any losses, while most pigeons have been racing almost every weekend.

Medical supervision

We used to follow a fixed medical schedule, but nowadays we work more on instinct and in consultation with the vet. After a visit, we decide whether something needs to be done or not.

Our regular vet is Stijn Rans, although we sometimes go to Vincent Schroeder. A big advantage of Stijn is that we can go to him in our own club for check-ups. Thanks to the efforts of Peter van Breugel, we can have a check done at important moments in the season. Stijn was also there on the Monday before Châteauroux and was already very impressed with the condition of our pigeons. There was nothing wrong with them at all.

Setbacks

Unfortunately, last year we had to deal with a marten in the loft of the widowers. It managed to catch five of them: naturally, the best ones. In addition, two top hens suffered wing damage. Losing pigeons like that in the prime of their careers is something you can't make up for. We decided to put one of them, The Promise, in the breeding loft. The other, High Hopes, recovered well and was already flying again when she was caught by a bird of prey.

Remarkable performances and results

The Golden Pigeon trophy is proudly displayed at the top of the cabinet – the highlight so far!

Yet 2008 was also a special year. My parents became national middle distance champions and were therefore allowed to send two pigeons to the European championship in Mira. Because they raced with a limited loft stock, participation was difficult to fit in. In the end, two pigeons from our loft in Heeze took part. One of them, the 08/815, finished as 2nd European champion in the final race and also became 4th ace pigeon. Thanks to that performance, the Netherlands even won the country classification.

Nevertheless, it must be said that this weekend's victory may surpass that. The tension remained until 10:15 p.m., when we finally knew for sure that we had the fastest pigeon in East Brabant – a magical moment.

Since the 2021 season, 33 pure first prizes have been won, 6 of which in the combination. In addition, we recorded 131 top 5 rankings, with 30 in the combination.

Johan, Karin and Piet, congratulations on this victory from the entire Herbots team!

Christophe Mathues