Herbots | Reijnen-Bolton-De Hoogh (Baarle-Hertog): 1st National Issoudun 18,176 yearbirds

Distance:542km
Velocity: 1383.05m/m

Baarle-Hertog…the village where Belgium and Holland are woven into one…the village where the flag next to the house number says whether you’re in Belgium or Holland. There…at the furthest distance…on the very last loft of Belgium you find two fanatic Dutch guys and one super motivated English man who are working themselves into the Belgium pigeon sport. Erik Reijnen, Brian Bolton and since 2 seasons also Gert-Jan De Hoogh know their place on the pigeon loft and found the perfect formula to experience pigeon sport at the highest level.
Let’s go back to the very last season of 2019. 19,529 young pigeons were released in Chateauroux and our threesome won the price of honour. And now…the season of 2020 is still very young and the Belgian Tricolour can wave again on top of the lofts.

Brian starts of his story “to be honest we didn’t count on a national head price anymore. We saw that the first pigeons where being clocked in the province of Limburg and seen this is all but the racing line of our pigeons, our ambition for a national head prize was being tempered immediately but this was without keeping account to the explosion of force from our blue hen “Fast Issoudun” . With an average speed of 1380,74 m/m she won the millimetre sprint of the pigeons from Buvens-Sleven (Loksbergen – 1379,09 m/m) and Van Massenhoven Kris (Retie – 1378,30 m/m).

“New” start

Past season the racing team of old and yearling birds inclusive the national Chateauroux winner were sold and this season we started off with 50 yearling pigeons (cocks and hens). Seen that there was a lot of space on the lofts due to the sale we didn’t select out the youngsters of 2019. Everything that had a head, feathers and two legs could stay. They all did 3 national races in the meantime and now a selection has been made and the first chip rings were being removed.
In a matter of preparation they were being coupled in February and could raise a couple of youngsters until these were 12 days old. The team was on the right track and then Corona came, so we had to keep our pigeons as calm as possible. To avoid the pairing up amongst each other of the hens they could see each other 3 to 4 times weekly. During this period I feed my own light mixture. It is so that I have my own mixtures on the menu (Brian I, Brian II en Brian III) , which are being commercialized by Ronny Van Tilburg.

The season didn’t start as wished for. Despite that the pigeons were being examined by the lab in Ghent and nothing was found, a few pigeons came home from Bourges with dirty noses. A sign that something was going on and against our habit we cured against ornithes during 5 days. Antibiotics in the drinking pot and supporting supplements from GEM-Thepax (UK) over the food. For that reason we decided not to basket for Argenton but they could do a Quièvrain. After this Quièvrain they were being tossed twice at a distance of 35km, another thing I never do. Apparently our approach was the correct one as next to the national palm on Issoudun we could also note down the 13th – 43rd – 155th -… and so on. In total 19 prizes out of the 45 basketed pigeons.

The future of “Fast Issoudun” will situate on the breeding loft of Erik Reijnen and all other loft mates can continue the rest of the season…although…we are involved with a yearling team and have to be careful with them especially it we want to win some prizes with the old pigeons next season.’

Gentlemen…a big congratulation from the entire Herbots team

BE19-6065683: 1st National Issoudun 18,176 yearbirds