"Choosing Stock Birds" by Gerhard Schlepphorst
It's not the name, it's the successful ancestors that count. I read the following title in a Belgian pigeon magazine sometime ago, Racing is Silver - Breeding is Gold! You can ask the famous question which came first, the chicken or the egg? So, what do we want to breed? Pigeons that we don't lose and preferably win 1st place every Saturday. However, let us keep our feet on the ground and look at the facts!
1) In Germany approximately 5 million rings are fitted yearly.
2) We have approximately 640 racing associations.
3) We asked 10% of all racing associations in all parts of Germany: how many pigeons in your club have won 10 and more prizes this year?
4) In 62 racing associations there were 440 pigeons that were able to fulfil these stipulations and, out of 8 age groups, the 2y to 4y olds were in the majority.
That is an average of 7 pigeons per association; 640 associations, that is 4,480 pigeons. This number must now be divided by 8, because these birds originate from 8 different age groups, so we now have a total of 560 birds. That is 0.011% of those carrying rings, an unbelievable number. Let us assume that all 4,480 pigeons were out of one breeding year, then we have a calculation that is also only about 0.089%. The fact is therefore, that after this calculation more than 99% don't meet our breeding target! Now you can count all the possible objections to correct this result but don't forget they must be several thousand just to remove the decimal point one place.
I think that is enough food for thought and with regard to these figures special attention is necessary when choosing breeding stock. Now, I am sure that many pigeons don't stand a chance of winning because of improper housing. These facts are quite clear, when you consider that very often only two or three fanciers within a racing association have entered all the pigeons winning more than 10 prizes. I have also established that only certain families within these fanciers' stock are capable of maintaining such a performance.
At this juncture I wish to discuss the choice of breeding stock. I don't mean the selection of birds with high breeding qualities or those which would be excluded from breeding. Up to now I have not met anyone who was able to predict breeding quality with certainty. I bought several of my best breeding birds simply by chance, as they were declared as not being suitable for breeding by well-known experts. My activities as a photographer have enabled me, during the last 20 years, to handle the majority of well-known stock pigeons in Germany, Holland and Belgium and the greater the number of birds one has handled, the more difficult it is to say, 'That's how they should look!' There were large and small, very noticeable and totally inconspicuous birds amongst them. You would never have thought the majority could have such hidden qualities.
This experience is verified by the judgement of an old friend, one of the most successful breeders in Belgium during the past 40 years. 'If a young pigeon is worth keeping over the winter period, then you must breed off this bird, otherwise you will find it very difficult to find a good breeding pair', was his comment to me several years ago, and he showed me a book in which all the young birds were noted which he intended to use for stock as yearlings. His list dated back over 30 years. The stock consisted, in general, of not more than 12 breeding pairs and 24 racing birds. His notes related to two factors: * Which young bird would breed the best following generations?
* Which young bird would be the most successful racer?
The result of his notations were astonishing. In many instances he had predicted the best racing bird, but in all of those 30 years he hadn't been able to predict the most successful breeding pigeon. These were the ones about which he said, 'It was always those in which I had no faith'. I must say he was extremely observant and he impressed many top Belgian and German lofts with his pigeons. It is worth noting, his successes were due to the fact that he had bred from every pigeon in his stock. I can give you a personal example of breeding with young birds. One year I gave the complete first round from my widowers to 5 different fanciers and approximately 15 eggs from the second round to another fancier. All six fanciers raced these birds in the same year and they were either completely or to a larger extent responsible for winning 1st and 2nd young bird averages in clubs and federations. From the reports, I was able to establish that the young birds from the 1st round out of the '271' were mainly responsible for winning 1st federation averages and that both young birds out of the eggs were 1st and 2nd best young birds in a different federation. Now, I didn't consider the young birds' successes to be of great value and kept '271' in the racing loft. The following year I ascertained that all 4 yearlings had won prizes in every race up to the 6th race. The sire, however, was retired immediately. He himself scored 4 times out of 8 races as a yearling, and in this particular year, he only scored twice from 6 races - not a noteworthy performance. Under normal conditions this bird would not be used for breeding purposes! Today, there are other descendants (sons) with 10 or more prizes, in different lofts! Of course, I could refer to other examples out of my stock but the fact is that the majority of top class pigeons descend from pairs where one of the partners was a yearling!
I can count several Belgian top lofts where you cannot acquire the first round out of the yearling daughters of successful stock pairs - it is the result of years of experience. Of course, to breed successful pigeons does not mean to use just any yearling. In this connection I always remember the words of the Belgian senior champion Robert De Meurichy. 'The size of a tub cannot alter the quality of the contents - from a water-barrel you can only draw water'. He wanted to clarify that it is not possible to breed top quality pigeons with mediocre stock. 'It is difficult enough, even with good ancestors, to breed really special birds'. I can verify his words, because in many instances breeders confuse 'quality' with 'quantity'. There are no guarantees but there are ways of achieving success as stated in the following examples. It is absolutely useless to buy just one pigeon from a successful fancier. The same applies to strain and over-rated names. I have stated several examples of a very successful fancier for whom I photographed 17 pigeons, who had won simply every prize that was possible in Germany, from 1st club champion to 1st German champion and all medals, trophies and many 1st placings in the concourse. Since I have always been interested in the pedigrees of successful pigeons, I asked this fancier if it was possible to look at his. At this point I should state that my client had several breeding aviaries housing different strains that he, of course, retained for pure breeding. In his comments about his most successful pigeons he referred to these different strains and so I had the impression that he had a great stock of good breeding pigeons.
Having studied his pedigrees, I was amazed to find from the 17 photographed pigeons the following connections: One original hen from Belgium with 12 prizes from 12 races. Three daughters and two sons from this hen and furthermore, 10 grandchildren which had all been born in the widowers' loft, the reason being the widowers always raise one youngster before the racing season starts. The bought Belgian hen was considered unsuitable for breeding by her owner because of her poor back and other faults. For this reason she was allowed to fly out with the other pigeons. However, her Belgian ring prevented her ending up in a good pigeon soup! Now I ask a question of all those who refer to the successful fancier in the pigeon magazines: 'What use is a pigeon from this successful loft, when it doesn't descend from that particular hen?' Absolutely no use! From approximately 300 pigeons out of different aviaries only one pigeon was successfully represented. The pigeon previously mentioned was represented by 16 offspring. From at least 90% of all champions that I photographed, five champions were closely related to each other. Very often there were two or three brothers with uncles or aunts, or the father, son and grandchildren. I could fill a book with such examples, but the fact is names and strains don't say anything; the successful ancestry, or family, is everything.
Another example concerns a Belgian racing specialist at distances between 300 and 700km and from these races he outclassed all the Belgian elite. His world-famous breeding bird was Lichte and his offspring had tremendous performances worldwide. The aim of my visit was to gather information about a certain strain, on which this fancier based his success. Of course, a prolonged visit to his loft was inevitable and the first bird he showed me was Lichte. During our conversation I noticed a pigeon that was sitting calmly on her youngsters, but she registered every single movement in the loft. She was almost the prototype of the breed I was interested in. I asked him if I could see this pigeon more closely and he removed her very carefully from her nest. He said: 'She is the best stock hen that I have had in the whole of my life', and then followed the most important sentence. 'This hen together with Lichte has produced a tremendous number of winners', and he pointed in the left hand corner. 'With that cock she produces birds like that one and that one'. And so followed a whole series of cocks with similar outstanding qualities which, when paired with her, produced first-class racers and breeders. From what I could see, in the short time I was there, 70% of his stock originated from this single pigeon.
After this discovery I didn't hesitate to ask him about the whereabouts of the young birds that descended from her. The answer was prompt: 'No, I haven't sold one single bird from this pigeon in the last seven years.' Now it was clear to me why many of my acquaintances weren't having success with descendants out of Lichte. The name Lichte had become a trademark and nobody had bothered to ask about the hen with whom he had been paired. So you see how important it is to ask about both parents when buying pigeons. I know of three fanciers, who have had, in their stock lofts for many years, either a son or daughter of the Lichte, and to this day not one of them has managed satisfactory breeding results.
I hope, that I have made it clear how important the correct choice of your primary bird is for breeding. But it also proves that you don't always get good stock pigeons from the best birds. The determining factor for a successful start in pigeon breeding is and always will be the particular ancestry that provides generation after generation of superb pigeons. The proof lies in the successful following generations. For example, the '459' from Cattrysse. He belongs without doubt to the best stock pigeons that were ever bred in Belgium and is the essential founder of this world-famous breed. Out of one son we have Prins from Hector Desmet, who not only carries the fame of this loft on his shoulders, but also of many other lofts too such as Van Loon or Desmet Mathijs. The world-famous Geeloger from Charles van der Espt was a brother of Prins, also a grandchild of '45' and progenitor of this world-famous breed. So we must always remember that names and strains don't mean a thing, successful ancestors and progeny do.
It's not the name, it's the successful ancestors that count. I read the following title in a Belgian pigeon magazine sometime ago, Racing is Silver - Breeding is Gold! You can ask the famous question which came first, the chicken or the egg? So, what do we want to breed? Pigeons that we don't lose and preferably win 1st place every Saturday. However, let us keep our feet on the ground and look at the facts!
1) In Germany approximately 5 million rings are fitted yearly.
2) We have approximately 640 racing associations.
3) We asked 10% of all racing associations in all parts of Germany: how many pigeons in your club have won 10 and more prizes this year?
4) In 62 racing associations there were 440 pigeons that were able to fulfil these stipulations and, out of 8 age groups, the 2y to 4y olds were in the majority.
That is an average of 7 pigeons per association; 640 associations, that is 4,480 pigeons. This number must now be divided by 8, because these birds originate from 8 different age groups, so we now have a total of 560 birds. That is 0.011% of those carrying rings, an unbelievable number. Let us assume that all 4,480 pigeons were out of one breeding year, then we have a calculation that is also only about 0.089%. The fact is therefore, that after this calculation more than 99% don't meet our breeding target! Now you can count all the possible objections to correct this result but don't forget they must be several thousand just to remove the decimal point one place.
I think that is enough food for thought and with regard to these figures special attention is necessary when choosing breeding stock. Now, I am sure that many pigeons don't stand a chance of winning because of improper housing. These facts are quite clear, when you consider that very often only two or three fanciers within a racing association have entered all the pigeons winning more than 10 prizes. I have also established that only certain families within these fanciers' stock are capable of maintaining such a performance.
At this juncture I wish to discuss the choice of breeding stock. I don't mean the selection of birds with high breeding qualities or those which would be excluded from breeding. Up to now I have not met anyone who was able to predict breeding quality with certainty. I bought several of my best breeding birds simply by chance, as they were declared as not being suitable for breeding by well-known experts. My activities as a photographer have enabled me, during the last 20 years, to handle the majority of well-known stock pigeons in Germany, Holland and Belgium and the greater the number of birds one has handled, the more difficult it is to say, 'That's how they should look!' There were large and small, very noticeable and totally inconspicuous birds amongst them. You would never have thought the majority could have such hidden qualities.
This experience is verified by the judgement of an old friend, one of the most successful breeders in Belgium during the past 40 years. 'If a young pigeon is worth keeping over the winter period, then you must breed off this bird, otherwise you will find it very difficult to find a good breeding pair', was his comment to me several years ago, and he showed me a book in which all the young birds were noted which he intended to use for stock as yearlings. His list dated back over 30 years. The stock consisted, in general, of not more than 12 breeding pairs and 24 racing birds. His notes related to two factors: * Which young bird would breed the best following generations?
* Which young bird would be the most successful racer?
The result of his notations were astonishing. In many instances he had predicted the best racing bird, but in all of those 30 years he hadn't been able to predict the most successful breeding pigeon. These were the ones about which he said, 'It was always those in which I had no faith'. I must say he was extremely observant and he impressed many top Belgian and German lofts with his pigeons. It is worth noting, his successes were due to the fact that he had bred from every pigeon in his stock. I can give you a personal example of breeding with young birds. One year I gave the complete first round from my widowers to 5 different fanciers and approximately 15 eggs from the second round to another fancier. All six fanciers raced these birds in the same year and they were either completely or to a larger extent responsible for winning 1st and 2nd young bird averages in clubs and federations. From the reports, I was able to establish that the young birds from the 1st round out of the '271' were mainly responsible for winning 1st federation averages and that both young birds out of the eggs were 1st and 2nd best young birds in a different federation. Now, I didn't consider the young birds' successes to be of great value and kept '271' in the racing loft. The following year I ascertained that all 4 yearlings had won prizes in every race up to the 6th race. The sire, however, was retired immediately. He himself scored 4 times out of 8 races as a yearling, and in this particular year, he only scored twice from 6 races - not a noteworthy performance. Under normal conditions this bird would not be used for breeding purposes! Today, there are other descendants (sons) with 10 or more prizes, in different lofts! Of course, I could refer to other examples out of my stock but the fact is that the majority of top class pigeons descend from pairs where one of the partners was a yearling!
I can count several Belgian top lofts where you cannot acquire the first round out of the yearling daughters of successful stock pairs - it is the result of years of experience. Of course, to breed successful pigeons does not mean to use just any yearling. In this connection I always remember the words of the Belgian senior champion Robert De Meurichy. 'The size of a tub cannot alter the quality of the contents - from a water-barrel you can only draw water'. He wanted to clarify that it is not possible to breed top quality pigeons with mediocre stock. 'It is difficult enough, even with good ancestors, to breed really special birds'. I can verify his words, because in many instances breeders confuse 'quality' with 'quantity'. There are no guarantees but there are ways of achieving success as stated in the following examples. It is absolutely useless to buy just one pigeon from a successful fancier. The same applies to strain and over-rated names. I have stated several examples of a very successful fancier for whom I photographed 17 pigeons, who had won simply every prize that was possible in Germany, from 1st club champion to 1st German champion and all medals, trophies and many 1st placings in the concourse. Since I have always been interested in the pedigrees of successful pigeons, I asked this fancier if it was possible to look at his. At this point I should state that my client had several breeding aviaries housing different strains that he, of course, retained for pure breeding. In his comments about his most successful pigeons he referred to these different strains and so I had the impression that he had a great stock of good breeding pigeons.
Having studied his pedigrees, I was amazed to find from the 17 photographed pigeons the following connections: One original hen from Belgium with 12 prizes from 12 races. Three daughters and two sons from this hen and furthermore, 10 grandchildren which had all been born in the widowers' loft, the reason being the widowers always raise one youngster before the racing season starts. The bought Belgian hen was considered unsuitable for breeding by her owner because of her poor back and other faults. For this reason she was allowed to fly out with the other pigeons. However, her Belgian ring prevented her ending up in a good pigeon soup! Now I ask a question of all those who refer to the successful fancier in the pigeon magazines: 'What use is a pigeon from this successful loft, when it doesn't descend from that particular hen?' Absolutely no use! From approximately 300 pigeons out of different aviaries only one pigeon was successfully represented. The pigeon previously mentioned was represented by 16 offspring. From at least 90% of all champions that I photographed, five champions were closely related to each other. Very often there were two or three brothers with uncles or aunts, or the father, son and grandchildren. I could fill a book with such examples, but the fact is names and strains don't say anything; the successful ancestry, or family, is everything.
Another example concerns a Belgian racing specialist at distances between 300 and 700km and from these races he outclassed all the Belgian elite. His world-famous breeding bird was Lichte and his offspring had tremendous performances worldwide. The aim of my visit was to gather information about a certain strain, on which this fancier based his success. Of course, a prolonged visit to his loft was inevitable and the first bird he showed me was Lichte. During our conversation I noticed a pigeon that was sitting calmly on her youngsters, but she registered every single movement in the loft. She was almost the prototype of the breed I was interested in. I asked him if I could see this pigeon more closely and he removed her very carefully from her nest. He said: 'She is the best stock hen that I have had in the whole of my life', and then followed the most important sentence. 'This hen together with Lichte has produced a tremendous number of winners', and he pointed in the left hand corner. 'With that cock she produces birds like that one and that one'. And so followed a whole series of cocks with similar outstanding qualities which, when paired with her, produced first-class racers and breeders. From what I could see, in the short time I was there, 70% of his stock originated from this single pigeon.
After this discovery I didn't hesitate to ask him about the whereabouts of the young birds that descended from her. The answer was prompt: 'No, I haven't sold one single bird from this pigeon in the last seven years.' Now it was clear to me why many of my acquaintances weren't having success with descendants out of Lichte. The name Lichte had become a trademark and nobody had bothered to ask about the hen with whom he had been paired. So you see how important it is to ask about both parents when buying pigeons. I know of three fanciers, who have had, in their stock lofts for many years, either a son or daughter of the Lichte, and to this day not one of them has managed satisfactory breeding results.
I hope, that I have made it clear how important the correct choice of your primary bird is for breeding. But it also proves that you don't always get good stock pigeons from the best birds. The determining factor for a successful start in pigeon breeding is and always will be the particular ancestry that provides generation after generation of superb pigeons. The proof lies in the successful following generations. For example, the '459' from Cattrysse. He belongs without doubt to the best stock pigeons that were ever bred in Belgium and is the essential founder of this world-famous breed. Out of one son we have Prins from Hector Desmet, who not only carries the fame of this loft on his shoulders, but also of many other lofts too such as Van Loon or Desmet Mathijs. The world-famous Geeloger from Charles van der Espt was a brother of Prins, also a grandchild of '45' and progenitor of this world-famous breed. So we must always remember that names and strains don't mean a thing, successful ancestors and progeny do.
No comments:
Post a Comment