De Maeseneer Philip (Denderwindeke) 1st provincial Argenton East-Flanders Fastest of 5,400 old and yearling birds

To admire the fastest East-Flanders pigeon of the national Argenton race we had to go to Denderwindeke. It is Philip De Maeseneer who takes the honors together with his father Ludo. That the condition of their racing team is on point was already confirmed by earlier results with among others: 1st Noyon 6,592 old and yearling and 1st Orleans 1,707 yearling. 

“Manon” wins

The provincial victory was won by “Manon”. “Manon” B24-4004135 not only won in her category against 3,135 yearling pigeons, but with an average speed of 1,384.38 m/m she was also the fastest of all 5,400 East Flanders Argenton racers. Before her Argenton exploit, she already won prizes by the dozen from Noyon, Melun and Bourges.

When asked if she was specially motivated, Philip replied "this hen is played according to the total widowhood system and 3 weeks ago her cock didn't come home. A new love in the game can do wonders and we think this is why she was so motivated.

For the 2025 season we have 40 hens and 30 cocks sitting. With the exception of 10 hens, all others are played on total widowhood. Mid January they were paired and the eggs of the 4/5 best racers were put with the breeders who then started their 2nd round.
In preparation they flew 4 x Noyon, Melun, Orleans,Bourges national, Noyon and now Argenton. We keep a close eye on the weather forecasts, but if the weather cooperates, they will fly Bourges next weekend and then La Souterraine.  
In terms of food, we work with the mixtures of Beyers and Aidi. The hens are fed twice a day using the soup spoon as a measure. One level tablespoon at the beginning of the week and a full one the last days before basketing. 
The hens train about 30 minutes a day, without any obligation. When they land on the roof of the loft, they are called in immediately. 
Once a week, we release them at 35km. This is usually on Wednesday. The cocks and hens come home together and when we come home shortly afterwards, everything is separated. On the day of basketing, no more partners are shown. 
The hens live during the day - when the weather is good - in an adjacent small aviary and when the weather is bad, in their resting pen. A “roller system” is mounted on the floor so they have no place to mate among themselves.
Medically, before the start of the season, we go for a check-up with veterinarian Van der Cruyssen (Oosterzele) and his advice is followed. This season, we only treated against tricho. Nothing has been given against ornithosis yet. As long as they perform well, the medicine cabinet remains locked. We do give the well-known yellow drops. One week in the beak, the other week in the nose. 

As for by-products, we give Zell Oxygen (Herbots), APF and Probac 1000 (Brockamp), Tollyamin (Schroeder) and some more by-products from the Beyers range. With the exception of the last 2 days before basketing, a by-product goes daily over the feed. I don't have a fixed schedule, a lot is given by feeling.

Basic pigeons

Philip: "In 2009 I completed my first loft list. Like every starting fancier, I played speed (150km) and middle distance (300km). I did it mainly with pigeons from Rene Sterckx. Because after a few years the number of pigeons participating in these flights decreased, we decided to focus more on the large middle distance flights, read national flights. It must have been 2011 that we contacted Gaby Vandenabeele and we could bring 16 rings to Dentergem. When these were collected from Gaby, they all got a box on the breeding loft and we can say after a few years that this was not a bad investment after all. In 2019 we won with “De Finman” the 1st National ace KBDB youngsters on the national flights and he is a product from the Vandenabeele pigeons. The “De Finman” was sold to the far east, but on the breeding loft we still have some children. Coincidence or not but Tom Van den Berghe wins on the same flight 1st provincial Argenton old birds with a direct pigeon of our loft...a granddaughter of “De Finman”.
A third line in our breeding loft are the original Tom Van Gaver pigeons. A few years ago, by chance, I was sitting at the same table as Tom during the celebration of the national KBDB champions. We got talking and it clicked immediately. I bought a coupon from Tom on a local champions day and in no time I was in the yard of this great champion. Meanwhile we became friends and I can say that half of my breeding loft consists of Tom Van Gaver pigeons. 
Other investments were made with Andre Roodhooft. Via Jef Schaumans I came in contact with Andre and one thing led to another and in Pulderbos I could put 7 youngsters of the 4th round out of his breeders in my basket. 

We wish Ludo and Philip a lot of success the coming weeks.

Stefan Mertens