Herbots | Bergerac: Yearlings

It all seems fairly simple when we listen to Youri carry out the plan he conceived a few years back to play top on distances from 400 km to 900 km. The pigeon infection dates back to his childhood years with his grandfather.
Youri is in the prime of his life...and also in the prime of building up his family. He himself holds a position as CFO in an international business group, his wife is very involved as a specialist doctor at the hospital, and 4 young daughters fill the space at home. It all seems a bit hocus pocus to keep these plates spinning on the stick.
Youri is rather down-to-earth by nature and straightforward. He discovered the "Julien" as a progenitor (pigeon originating from Eric Vermander from Oekene) and by a good coincidence he met Marc Valepijn from Ronse. Marc is a man with a lot of experience in pigeon racing, knows very well what hard selection is, and could already present a lot of noble letters from the period with his parents at home in Maarkedal (toppers in the long distance) and with himself in Ronse. With Marc it is a small basket loft and the selection was always rock hard. Together with Youri, he built up a top line of pigeons around Julien and could present very strong results from middle-distance to national top-distance.

In the meantime, Youri continued to look for pigeons that fit into the breeding line of "the Julien" and systematically built a superior breeding loft. Marc cut back on pigeon racing in recent years and Youri made a deal with Marc to bring the best pigeons to his own breeding loft.

The 2024 season

25 old and 80 yearlings that is the racing team 2024 and these are played both on pure widowhood (with partner staying at home) and total widowhood. The national Bergerac winner was in the team played on total widowhood.
These were paired in the middle of January and since there were - especially with the yearlings - still a lot of younger pigeons among them, some had - when everything was separated - bred, others brooded and others left the "kapelleke" with difficulty. Youri already told that for 2025, he will pair the racers earlier (in December) and then pair them again in March for a few days so that those that did not have a partner in December will get a second chance in March.
Youngsters need experience. Once Youri did not raise his youngsters for 2 seasons and this backlog will never be made up.
Upon returning home, they stay together until Sunday morning. Partly to maintain motivation but also and mainly because it is easier. Sunday morning Frederik has more time and then he takes them apart.
In terms of feed, we work with 2 mixtures. Galaxy light from Beyers and Aidi Mix 3. The by-products come from Vincent Schroeder and are limited to a maximum of 6 different by-products.
And then the "aviary story." Last year, Youri put up aviaries, which improved the climate in the loft and allowed the pigeons to be in the open air all day. However, in the beginning this was not ideal, an extra green windbreak netting did wonders.