The penultimate national race of the season, 2,049 old and yearlings started at Argenton, racing together in one category. The winner here is a hen from the lofts of Jan & Tom Iwens from Sint-Katelijne-Waver. Their yearling hen had already achieved a good record this year in the middle distance, and now she's also excelling in the extreme middle distance. Coincidence or not, but just a year ago, they nearly won the same national race. Back then, they had to settle for silver, but now they've taken home gold.

A system with hens on classic widowhood.

The hens spend the entire winter in the aviary without being allowed outside. The key is to ensure a good molt and recovery from the season. Winter breeding from the racing pigeons is not practiced. They also don't see a partner between mid-September and April 1st. We give them their cock for three days in the first week of April, and then they can start on widowhood. This might not be long, but because we choose to race them from the nest at the end of the season, this system is very profitable for us. The cocks are never shown before a race; we always take the hens away as quietly as possible, and that's how they should perform. Once they understand this system, there's no problem, and the results follow automatically. All the energy they waste in the basket is energy they lose on the road.

We darken our hens from March 1st until early August. This doesn't affect their condition or results. So we race them on darkening for the entire widowhood period. We pair them on August 6th and then race them from the nest. For Argenton, they were basketed while brooding for 14 to 16 days, and then they go to Bourges with a youngster to finish off the race. From the moment they're paired, we let them recover from training, but once they've laid eggs, we take them for a ride three times a week. This is up to a maximum of 15 to 20 km, just to fly freely and maintain their condition. On the other days, they always fly in the afternoon when the cocks are on the nest. During widowhood, we never take them for an extra ride, and the pigeons fly easily from home.

For the first two days after returning from their races, we feed them a diet with excess protein. After that, we use Versele-Laga mixtures. Mondays and Tuesdays: Gerry Plus Black Label. Wednesdays: Master Black Label, and Thursdays: 50% Master Black Label and 50% R Exklusiv. Products we use during the week are Schroeder Tollisan Immunol, which is added to the feed on the day of their arrival, and Tollyamine Forte on the day of their arrival and the day of basketing. We treated our pigeons for tricho just before the racing season, and during the season itself, we use the yellow drops, administered to each pigeon, one drop in each nostril. Since we have a small number of pigeons, this is feasible. The hens were not treated for respiratory problems this year. If the results are good, we will leave them alone.

Regarding vaccinations, we vaccinated the old and yearling racing pigeons against paratyphoid in mid-February and against paramyxo-herpes-adeno in early March. We only vaccinate pigeons against smallpox in their year of birth.

BE 24-6011123 "Iron Lady" Hen
1st National Argenton 2.049 old birds

Won also 2 Melun 150p - 3 Ecouen 587p - 3 Melun 262p

Distance : 538,956km
Velocity : 1677,77m/min