Serious and less serious (06-01-24)
'Ridiculous' is you can apply to many things in life.
Just think of the state of the world. To those millions of starving people on the one hand and those ridiculously expensive weapons on the other.
Weapons so expensive that it's hard to imagine. Take all those bombed-out cities, too. I can't stand it. That word also comes up a lot in pigeon sport. At least for me.
PIGEON SPORT
For example, mating at full moon would provide more quality, according to even good fanciers. I think it's ridiculous, although they'll find it ridiculous that I think it's ridiculous.
For me it is comparable to a fisherman who saw the umpteenth one-metre-long eel slip off the hook.
And there's a lot like that. Like many pictures of pigeon fanciers. There's nothing wrong with them, it's the people behind the camera. They want the fancier with a pigeon in their hands and, if possible, with their wing open.
Even more ridiculous are photos with 4 or even 5 fanciers, all holding a pigeon with their wings open. Such a silly view gives a horse the hiccups.
It's just as bad as all those pigeon photos with the photo of the eye next to them, almost as big as the pigeon itself. And the best fanciers on this planet claim that it is impossible to read from the eye of a pigeon whether it has quality.
STRIKING
Gust Janssen said it aptly when I was there once and also a Chinese who was peeking into the eye of a pigeon with a microscope for minutes.
Gust, who apparently got tired of it: 'Now he can stand in there for a full hour staring, he will never find what he is looking for.'
It's a pity that the 'eye man' didn't understand him, because that remark was a good one. Again, no problem at all if others think it's ridiculous not to take the eye theory seriously.
What is he looking for??? No idea !
BROKER
Also take that ever recurring reaction of that broker, middleman, intermediary, trader, dealer or whatever you want to call him/her. It would make you laugh if it wasn't so sad. Every time a good pigeon is mentioned, it doesn't even have to be a good one, he emails 'pedigree please'.
One time I tried to make that person a little wiser. That was when I pointed out a couple of absolutely worthless brothers and sisters of a fine pigeon.
Of course I am also curious about the pedigree of a good pigeon, but with the difference that I draw little or no conclusions from it.
I also pointed out that very good racer of that Belgian vet.
Hardly beatable in the races, but after 5 years of breeding with different hens, not even one usable pigeon it had given yet.
When he was six years old, he suddenly gave a good one. And then another, and another.
When buying pigeons, I think trust is the most important thing. Much more important than the eye in particular.
That's why I sometimes say to novice fanciers: 'You shouldn't look the pigeons in the eye, but the fancier.'
A good example is Mr Lai from Taiwan. While the fellow fanciers there sometimes know the pedigree of European pigeons even better than the breeder/owner, he simply says 'I would like to buy a good hen'.
And that Mr. Lai is a great champion I can tell you.
SO SIMPLE
From Belgium I was pointed to the fabulous results of the barely 24-year-old Sil van Vliet from Ter Aar. He stands out on the great long distance in races such as
Agen, Sint Vincent and even Barcelona, so the real marathon races. When he is looking for reinforcements, he does not look at pedigrees or name, what counts for him is quality and trust in the fancier. This coming star does not believe in supplements nor medicine. Good birds is what matters and luck and trust are very important facets to succeed when buying pigeons.
MURPHY
It was just after the turn of the century that W de Bruijn asked me: 'Don't you know a good address in Belgium to visit? Of course I've been there many times, but that was in my younger years as a cyclist.'
I think it would be great to sniff a totally different pigeon atmosphere there.'
"Plenty," I said, "and now I think of someone far away and unfortunately unknown.
Willem: 'I don't care about driving far and 'unknown'. I'm interested in good pigeons. He did not ask about strain or race.
GILBERT MEIRE
It was about 10 years earlier that Eddy Leutenez pointed me to Gilbert Meire.
I went there with an American, but he mainly had an eye for beautiful pigeons and the birds you see there are very different from the 'Antwerp type'. Even the color.
Not that beautiful light chequered or light blue like the Janssens of the past.
Well, I think it was in 2001 Willem and I went to Meire.
Both the fancier and the pigeons looked ok, buying one or two pigeons was not Willem's style, so it was a half-full basket. Gilbert didn't have a computer, nor did he have pictures of pigeons, but we did not care.
TRUST
Also on the way home there was no talk about strain or race, nor about medicines. We never did. Among those Meire pigeons was a superbird, as breeder and racer, the 'Gilbert'. I wrote about that before.
What I never wrote about was Murphy's Law, the star of today in the De Bruijn loft. It stems from the Gilbert and from my 97-130, brother Home Alone and son Ace Four. Home Alone also bred Fleur, the fabulous breeding hen with which Jespers v d Wegen even dominated the Nationals against 30,000 plus pigeons. That '130', brother Home Alone, was loaned to Willem after he was almost stripped by a disaster flight from Munich.
In 2011 I got 6 from Willem. I looked at the pedigrees. They looked good, apart from one. But what a miracle flyer that one bird with poor pedigree became. I don't believe there were better ones in the whole of the Netherlands. Strain or bloodline was never an issue. We knew from each other that we tried to give the other from our best. 'That's all there is to it', say Belgians.
