Team Baetens: 1st Best loft National Herbots Championships 2023

St. Niklaas: For this report we drive to St. Niklaas where we are lucky that, despite the full bustle in the Bricon buildings, owner Ivan Baetens can make time for us. The aim of our conversation is to find out the ins and outs behind this successful team. How does one go about putting this unique list of top performances on paper there in the Europa Park-East industrial park. Where do they double fold to push their flight team to the limit. 

The 2023 season was one to frame. This is more than confirmed by the various championship titles won. We are happy to list them for you:

1st Best loft national Herbots Championship
3rd Ace pigeon middle distance Herbots Championship
1st Provincial Champion ½ Fond yearling KBDB 
1st Provincial Champion GMD yearling KBDB 
1st Provincial Ace pigeon GMD yearlings KBDB 
2nd Overall Provincial Champion KBDB 
2nd Provincial yearling KBDB 
2nd Provincial All-round Ace pigeon yearling KBDB 
2nd Provincial Ace pigeon GMD old KBDB 
3rd Provincial All-round ace young KBDB 
4th Provincial Champion GMD old KBDB 
6th Provincial Champion GMD young KBDB 
6th Provincial Ace Pigeon GHF young KBDB 
8th Provincial Ace pigeon KBDB 
10th Provincial Ace pigeon yearling KBDB 

Provincial and zonal victories 
1st Nat. Zone B1 Chateauroux old birds 
1st Provincial Chateuroux old birds 
1st Nat. Zone B1 Argenton yearlings 
1st, 2nd, 3rd Provincial Bourges old birds 
1st Nat. Zone B1 Bourges old birds

Widowers

Ivan continues enthusiastically "At the beginning of December they were paired, simultaneously with the breeders, and you probably feel it coming, indeed the eggs of the breeders were underlaid with the cocks. For that reason, the widowers and their hens were exposed just like the breeders so that there was simultaneous laying in both groups. Only the best widowers are allowed to raise their own young. Once the youngsters were about 20 days old, both the youngsters and the hens were removed from the widower loft and the cocks moved to the adjacent aviary. Thanks to the wind netting, the cocks are protected day and night. During this period, they receive clean water and as feed 50% Gerry Plus I.C. and 50% purification. In mid-February, the widowers returned to their loft and were allowed to start their first training sessions around the loft. The menu was changed to 100% Gerry Plus I.C..
They were paired back on 11/03 and once the first pair had been breeding for 10 days, all hens were taken from the loft. On 18/03, they received a 6-day tricho treatment via water. 
At the end of March, there was a parathyphoid treatment. This year they were vaccinated by vet Ruben Lanckriet with a combination vaccine. The other years they were vaccinated via drinking water. We changed methods because we want to create a boost in (basic) condition. Against ornithosis, vaccination is never done before the start of the season, unless the vet judges otherwise. It so happens that vet Lanckriet will come for a check-up every 2-3 weeks during the season and if he does find something wrong then treatment will be done in consultation. 
The 12 old and the 34 year-old widowers are on 1 long loft with 4 sections. The widowers are not darkened before the season. I think it is breed-related, but with us it is no exception that our cocks are still on 8 pens in August. In good weather, the first learning flights take place. Via Quievrain (90km) it goes via 3 x Noyon (195km) towards middle distance. The 2nd weekend of May a provincial Orleans flight is scheduled and on this flight they will go anyway. Afterwards, the troops will be divided and each will fly its own programme. For the old widowers that is day long distance and for the yearling widowers large middle distance combined with long distance." 

Widowers during the season

"Upon returning home, we immediately work on recovery. We work a lot with veterinarian Ruben Lanckriet's by-products. On returning home (Saturday) they are given a "recovery pill" and proteins go over the feed. Various sugars and BS (Belgica-de Weerd) go into the drinking water. The first feed after returning home is full of Champion Plus IC. 
On Sunday, the first feed again consists of Champion Plus IC + proteins and the second feed is ½ Champion Plus IC and ½ Gerry Plus IC. 
From Monday it is 100% Gerry Plus I.C. . Only the last 5 feeds are fed 100% Champion Plus IC. This mixture is enriched with Peanuts, hulled sunflower seeds, candy, etc....
The widowers train twice a day and are fed twice a day. Both feeding and drinking are communal. 
Before basketing, the partner is always shown briefly."

Hens

Ivan continues unperturbed: "The 40 old and 43 yearling hens are prepared for the season in various ways. The 16 best hens are paired against our best breeders (bull method) at the beginning of December and lay twice. These eggs are always shifted among other couples. 
A 2nd group is paired on different dates and their eggs are replaced with the breeders' eggs. By acting this way, we quickly have several rounds of our breeders.
On 11/03, all hens are then paired back with their partners and allowed to breed again for a few days. So our best hens have already laid 3 times before the start of the season. Experience has taught us that this has no influence on the condition during the season. 
Unlike the cocks, the hens are darkened and this during the first 2 weeks of April. Two weeks of darkening, whether this really makes such a difference? Well yes... you should know that we play our hens on widowhood until mid-August and then those 2 weeks of darkening really prove their worth. 
The hens fly the heavy middle-distance and long-distance flights. Like the widowers, the ladies train twice a day and are fed twice a day. During the day, they live in special small living boxes (see photos). 

After their training, they are first allowed to eat and pick up some fresh grit and then they are confined to their living boxes where they can drink. The hens are divided over 4 lofts. Those are 2 lofts to the left of the 4 widowers' departments and 2 to the right of them. 
In terms of feed, by-products and medical supervision, this is the same working pattern as for the widowers. When the hens are fed, we always watch the eagerness with which they eat. When this decreases, the table is usually cleared. 
When basketing, the hens get their cock for 30 minutes. Only for speed races the cock is half-baked. For the other races, they can do as they please. After the race, they stay together for about 2 hours. 
Both our widowers and our hens train on the day of basketing and if they don't feel like training, we even dare to rake them at 80 km. Good training stimulates the appetite and that is important."

Young pigeons

"Due to many under-laying of the eggs of the breeders and working with 16 "bulls", we quickly have 260 youngsters. These are divided into 2 groups. The aim of young pigeon racing is to gain experience and then I personally like the fact that 5 nationals for youngsters are programmed for this season. Now we will be able to choose whether to basket them or not. We can easily skip a national young pigeon race if the weather does not allow it. On the first national young pigeon race from Bourges, usually only hens participate. I could be wrong, but I have the impression that young hens don't let themselves drift with the crowd as much. Especially when there is west in the wind direction we are careful. With the other nationals, this exactly has less importance. 

Of course we darken the youngsters from 15/03 until the longest day of the year. Afterwards, they are exposed until the end of the season. 

The first 2 to 3 weeks after weaning they receive 100% breeding mix, after that Junior Plus IC is on the menu. This mixture is given until the first flights. If the youngsters do not fly to our liking, we dare to lighten the menu with 15% Gerry Plus IC. The youngsters are fed twice a day just like the old and yearling birds. 
In order not to put all eggs in the same basket, the youngsters are trained in 2 groups. Weather permitting, we are on the road with them. Personally, I think you can never train a youngster too much and if they have a tough learning flight where the youngsters come home in bits and pieces, I see that as a plus. The losses must of course remain acceptable because otherwise something is wrong with their health. 
Once the 2nd group has completed a 200km flight, the sexes are separated and the youngsters are played on the sliding door for the rest of the season.
During the season, we often ride to the in cycling world famous "Muur" of Geraardsbergen. This is 47km for us. When the youngsters come home from this training flight, the sexes can party for 1 hour and then they are inevitably separated again. 
On the day of basketing they come together for 2 hours. We do this fairly early in the afternoon because to let the youngsters eat well, we separate them again and they are well fed again. So they go into the basket with a well-filled crop. 
During the season, the care system of the old and yearling pigeons is copied."

The base

If we analyse the base of the Baetens colony we see that there are 3 breeding lines. 

1st base line is a pigeon from Casaert-Sénéchal (son of 1st National ace KBDB "Nicolaas" x his mother "Palme d'Or" - also mother of 1st Nat. ace KBDB "Amalia") coupled with a pigeon from Staf Vermeiren which won 7th National ace KBDB ½ Fond.

2nd base line is the "Gladiator line" of Bart Geerinckx (Wommelgem). These were brought to St. Niklaas in 2005 as well as in 2010.

3rd baseline is the co-breeding with pigeons from Bart and Nance Van Oeckel (Oud-Turnhout). Especially the line from his famous "F-16" is very successful. This line was crossed with the previous 2 basic lines and that goes like butter on a thick slice of bread. 

My pigeons perform well up to 750km but as we also want to score further, we are always looking for reinforcement. So we recently invested in pigeons from Tom Van Gaver. 

Some top results of the 2023 season

13.5 Orleans 
Centraal Hafo Verb. 959 old birds: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 1, 8, 19... (68/86) 
Centraal Hafo Verb. 489 yearlings: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 28, 28... (45/55) Prov. 6423 old birds: 4, 6, 12, 13, 22, 25, 29, 58... (69/86)
 Prov. 8078 yearlings: 4, 5, 8, 16, 20, 54, 67... (48/55)
 Dubbeling: 15.308 d.: 4, 6, 13, 14, 28, 32, 37, 81, 101... (72/86) 

20.5 Vierzon
club. 386 old birds: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20... (40/68) 
club. 213 yearlings: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 19... (24/38) 
Prov. 6489 old birds: 48, 76, 156, 181... (38/68) 
Prov. 3239 yearlings: 29, 87, 139, 152... (24/38) 

27.5 Bourges 
club. 236 old birds: 2, 4, 5, 9, 17, 18, 21, 23, 31, 47 (10/11) 
prov. 4486 old birds: 43, 94, 95, 118... (10/11) 
nat. 21.075 old birds: 115, 274, 276... (10/11) 

09.6 Argenton 
club. 158 old birds: 5, 14, 16, 19... (8/12)
club. 167 yearlings: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 20... (22/36) 
prov. 3023 old birds: 163, 370, 376... (8/12) 
prov. 4252 yearlings: 21, 37, 59, 86, 124.... (22/36) 

17.6 Chateauroux 
Prov. 3906 yearlings: 510, 558... (5/5). 

24.6 Argenton 
club. 168 yearlings: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12... (38/70) 
prov. 3925 yearlings: 3, 4, 9, 18, 25, 54, 85, 87... (46/70)
zone 1892 yearlings: 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 17, 25, 26, 30, 36... (45/70) 
nat. 15.210 yearlings: 8, 9, 26, 48, 69, 145... (45/70) 

30.6 Agen 
prov. 1519 yearlings: 2, 206, 322, (3/4) 
zone 3096 yearlings: 6, 459, 636, (3/4) 
nat. 6667 yearlings : 7, 940, 1375 (3/4) 

20.7 Lamotte-Beuvron 
club. 179 old birds: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16... (37/71) 
club. 201 yearlings: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 17... (38/59) 
prov. 2405 old birds: 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 29, 31... (47/71) 
prov. 3414 yearlings: 8, 9, 10, 12, 23, 26, 27... (40/59) 

22.7 Libourne 
nat. 4822 yearlings: 220, 754, (2/2) 

22.7 Orleans 
Centraal Hafo Verb. 681 youngbirds: 1, 9, 14, 19, 28, 42, 44, 45, 47, 49... (70/142) 
Midden-Waas 2145 youngbirds: 1, 10, 20, 30, 50, 86, 88, 89... (67/142) 
prov. 8699 youngbirds: 9, 46, 86, 106... (88/142) 

22.7 Chateauroux 
prov. 1555 old birds: 1, 12, 22, 128... (7/9) 
prov. 2809 yearlings: 4, 11, 15, 33, 33, 36, 38, 42... (27/36) 
zone 963 old birds: 1, 6, 15, 89 ... (7/9) 
zone 1588 yearlings: 4, 9, 15, 27, 27, 29, 30, 33 ... (26/36) 
nat. 8075 old birds: 11, 224, 331... (7/9) 
nat. 13.096 yearlings: 173, 304, 328... (25/36) 

29.7 Orleans 
club. 452 youngbirds: 1, 2, 4, 9, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19... (72/151) 
prov. 5949 youngbirds: 9, 10, 45, 106, 106..., (92/151). 

30.7 Bourges 
club. 125 yearlings: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... (25/35). 
prov. 1272 old birds: 19, 29, 30... (8/9) 
prov. 2224 yearlings: 7, 8, 10, 11, 16, 16, 23... (30/35). 
zone 1370 yearlings: 5, 6, 9, 10, 14, 15... (39/35) 
nat. 12.094 yearlings: 602, 621, 682... (22/35). 

30.7 Souillac 
prov. 1210 old birds: 13, 49, 245, (3/4) 
prov. 1652 yearlings: 8, 25, 36, 37... (15/17). 
zone 1404 old birds: 37, 81, 298, (3/4) 
zone 1755 yearlings: 17, 37, 38, 45... (13/17) 
nat. 4827 old birds: 154, 315, 1024 (3/4) 
nat. 6085 yearlings: 130, 237, 239, 269... (13/17). 

07.8 Tulle 
prov. 1747 yearlings: 11, 18, 19, 31, 32... (15/17) 
zone 2258 yearlings: 27, 39, 39, 50, 51... (15/17) 
nat. 4982 old birds: 2102, 266, 326... (3/3) 
nat. 7813 yearlings: 102, 159, 161, 196... (15/17) 

13.8 Bourges 
prov. 2088 old birds: 1, 2, 3, 41, 48, 50, 51, 59... (16/23) 
prov. 4988 youngbirds: 10, 17, 31, 42, 43, 62, 85, 94... (54/100) 
zone 1081 old birds: 1, 2, 4, 21, 28, 30, 31, 34, 38... (16/23) 
zone 2942 youngbirds: 8, 14, 28, 36, 57, 72, 78... (42/100) 
nat. 9922 old birds: 12, 30, 72... (16/23) 
20.328 youngbirds: 230, 259, 427, 529... (42/100) 

20.8 Montoire 
club. 235 youngbirds: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11... (52/96) 
prov. 4059 youngbirds: 24, 51, 78, 82, 83, 99... (61/96) 
prov. 906 old birds: 2, 7, 16, 17, 18, 26, 27... (16/16) 

26.8 Argenton 
club. 280 youngbirds: 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15... (36/89) 
prov. 4217 youngbirds: 2, 12, 26, 28, 30, 41, 59... (46/89) 
prov. 831 old birds: 3, 6, 12, 33, 34, 39... (13/17) 
zone 2372 youngbirds: 2, 12, 23, 25, 27, 38, 54, 61, 66..., (41/89) 
nat. 18.837 youngbirds: 17, 150, 373, 380... (37/89). 
nat. 3990 old birds: 80, 92, 124... (12/17). 

02.9 Montoire 
club. 208 youngbirds: 1, 2, 4, 7, 910, 11, 12, 14, 15... (18/24) 
prov. 4262 youngbirds: 35, 78, 201, 300... (18/24). 

03.9 Noyon 
772 youngbirds: 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 16, 19, 22, 23... (52/73) 

09.9 Chateauroux 
club. 242 youngbirds: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 19... (32/68) 
prov. 3117 youngbirds: 16, 35, 52, 80, 81, 83... (33/68) 
zone 1817 youngbirds: 4, 12, 18, 27, 28, 30, 40, 57, 68... (32/68) 
nat. 13.852 youngbirds: 40, 76, 121, 182, 183... (35/68)

Looking for a new loftmanager

It is known in the pigeon world that loftmanager Marijn Laureyns has been retired since 1 April. "So we are in full search for a new loftmanager" Ivan begins his story "Besides the fact that the new loftmanager must be a top fancier, there must also be a real click with the person himself. We are a real team and we want to keep it that way. Candidates can always contact me" 

Ivan, thanks for making time available and best wishes for continued success

Stefan Mertens