"A whole life between birds and women"

In one of our previous editions, we said that people talk a lot about sex but they don’t do it enough…
Well, coincidence or not.  A professor at the University of Leuven had a research about sex in general. By an appeal by a television program, he reached about 100.000 people, who wanted to participate to this research. By all their answers, he got to a very interesting conclusion, which you could read in several newspapers, on television or may be on some radio stations. The result of this research showed, that we weekly have only one time sex, not 3 times as they usually say. Of course, this is a conclusion based on statistics and as we all know, this isn’t always the exact reality. But still, it shows that the sex life of the average Belgian, is going down. What could be the reason? Is there an explanation? We think there is. If you know that one Belgian on 10 is taking antidepressives, which is very disappointing. Luckily that we men are always prepared when we get the opportunity. Women on the other hand, are always looking for excuses and they’re prepared to do everything to keep their men at a distance when he comes too close. What can we do about it? As a captain at a ship, you have to leave it as last one when it’s sinking. Stepping over to another boat is not always available for everybody. Not all of us have the courage, even i fit shows a possible solution. That’s what life is about : people are searching, chasing, get married, have children which grow up, leave the house and start their own family.  Then husband and wife are left alone to grow old together. Women still have to pass their menopause while men want to stay sexually active, which is very important for them to stay healthy. But he will slowly agree with the vision of his wife. The passion slowly takes off and the result is that men start to get problems with their prostate which mostly get paired with high blood pressure and the medication has an effect on the impotence of the man, which will take care of a definite decline. That’s our vision to life and surely not everybody will agree. We have to admit that he who’s happy with what he gets and has, is worth to be alive… So far, a portion of sexual experiences. I can’t ignore to write about it. From the beginning I mentioned that my life is obsessed with pigeons and women and that’s what I take care of every day. I admire both of them. I regularly noticed and experienced that there’s not a lot of difference between a beautiful pigeon and a beautiful woman. You have to take them both in your hands, to feel their qualities… That’s how it is…

With these two products, you can keep your youngsters healthy until the training flights.

Let’s go back to the pigeons.  It’s winter and very cold, minus 12° Celsius with an ice cold wind, direction East, North-East blowing around BLUE HEAVEN LOFT and it’s not a good feeling. Inside the loft, the temperature is between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius. Our ATX plates are on maximum and it’s good when the humidity meter stays around 50°. These take care of the ideal climate on the loft, without using oxygen. Really ideal with this kind of weather conditions.
Against our principals, our breeders and racers weren’t treated against cancer before the pairing in December and we didn’t do it during the breeding period. Nevertheless, all little birds seem to be healthy. We will do a preventive cure with our racers. Once the little ones are weaned, the cocks and the hens will be separated and they will get Ronidazole in their drinking water for about 5 days. In the mean time, we already made an appointment with our vet Raf Herbots, to vaccinate our youngsters against Paramixo /Pox. These are the first and second round of our breeders and the youngsters of the racers will be at that moment 4 till 6 weeks old. When you let them vaccinate that early (good for their immunity) it’s good to do this a second time when they are about 10-12 weeks. We do this for precaution because it’s a fact that when you vaccinate them on a very young age; it doesn’t always work well.  In between the two vaccinations, we’ll still have enough time to free them from cancer and 10 days after the second vaccination with PMV/POX, we can slowly start to learn them. At that moment they will be about 3 months old.

Seen from heaven :
Recently I got a mail of a French fancier who send me some photos, taken out of a balloon above the French region and the route, which our pigeons have to take when they return back home. After seeing these pictures (click on the image below)...

..., you will probably envy your pigeons about what they get to see every week. When you take a look to these pictures, we should ask ourselves what they look at and if they use what they see?
To me it’s a fact that our pigeons find their way home based on some things they remember. These can be certain points; high towers, castles, factories, high ways and water streams. At the River, the Leie, in the region of Gent, lives a fancier who plays super results. Of course the man has good pigeons but they have the advantage of what the Leie offers. They always can follow the stream on their way back home and as long as the weather conditions allow it, our pigeons will follow West-North-West direction from the start.  When it’s a real early releasement, they will always choose the direction of the rising sun and afterwards they certainly follow certain points they remember. We sa wit some years ago when we had some problems with the birds flew and we had to race from Germany (East). I already mentioned this before and I have to mention it again. Those 2 or 3 flights from the East, proved that those pigeons with a lot of experience, which already yearly raced about 10.000 km. These old and yearling birds all arrived back home in little groups of 3-4 pigeons, all out of the South. Our youngsters, played on the same race, all returned directly out of the East. This assured us even more that pigeons, with great endurance to return home, will look out for certain points, which they remembered. They are already trying to find about the orientation of our birds and how they find their way back home. But nature doesn’t show its secrets. This is the same with women who cheat on their husband, they always want it to stay a secret and ignore it all as long as the real lover will be pointed at the true facts.
Playing with pigeons and loving women is an addiction, which fills my whole life. Still it’s better than 1 out of 10 of the population, which are sensitive for stress and have to take antidepressives…
That’s it for now, keep your hope up, stay optimistic and carpe diem…

Till next time.

THE LOST SON

Most of our youngsters 2012, the first round of the breeder, are born with full moon. We didn’t plan this but it just happened. We couldn’t pair them earlier because we were very busy in that period with all kinds of pigeon-happenings, as well in our own country as abroad, among which three times in China. In fact too much to be good. But what do you want…it’s not easy to respond negative when you get the proposal. Of course, I must admit that I still like to belong to the pigeon world, so I can’t complain. It is and it was our own decision to be away from home regularly, always for at least a few days. My wife got used to it to spend some times alone in our bed, she likes to get some rest now and then and it’s good for her to build up some new energy. Of course it’s not good to do this too often because as you know: “When the cat’s away, the mice dance.” And sex is just like faith, they talk a lot about it but they don’t practise enough. It’s also a fact that people lie a lot about sex, most of them even lie during sex. Women can fake an orgasm and men a whole relation… But…we weren’t talking about that, so lets just get on…

THE LOST SON

The pairing of our breeders during the second week of December 2011 didn’t go as well as in 2010. The reason was easy to understand. If you take away all breeders, which were born in 2003 and 2004, you know they have to be replaced by younger and more dynamic forces. This isn’t an easy job to do. Luckily my wife, who is very patient, knew how to put everything in the right direction. Aren’t I a lucky man? I learned a lot of a life of 20 years in Taiwan. I also learned that when you’re looking for a beautiful, nice and clever woman, you don’t look for one but for three. A good advice: look out for a economical woman for yourself even i fit takes you a pair of shoes. Don’t forget that a woman is only beautiful when she’s more beautiful naked than half-naked.  I know now by experience, that one woman isn’t enough but three is too much.

THE LOST SON

Cobbler stay with your job...

Just one more time, I will give some information about the vaccination against Paratyphus, at request. We personally prefer the vaccination COLOMBOVAC PT of the Firm PFIZER. The shortage of the product and later on also the price were the reason why some scientists looked for an alternative, which they found. Remarquable that we received some more questions about this product, with some comment. That’s the reason why we would like to explain by this way.

THE LOST SON

Necessity is the mother of ingenuity

Those that didn’t pair already, may need some advice. Especially old hens sometimes have some problems to lay their first round of eggs. Some time ago, before pairing, we used to give a cure with Ampicilline but now this isn’t no longer available. So we had to find an alternative. Not easy to do because the use of antibiotics becomes very difficult the last few years and then it’s up to the vet to search a solution. We can’t that much any more, without his interference.

THE LOST SON

Finally, the vaccination product against the Paramixo Virus, Colombovac PMV ( 10ml/50 doses) and Colombovac, Paramixo/Pox will be in the running again by the firm Pfizer. It’s necessary to get in contact with your vet and make an appointment, so he can vaccinate your pigeons as soon as possible. You can imagine, after such a long time of waiting, that everybody want to be helped as soon as possible. It’s an obligation, this vaccination against Paramixo. But when there’s not enough vaccination product, there’s nothing you can do as a fancier. Isn’t this a task for our leaders of the KBDB? They should be able to do something about it. They know the proper authorities and they can explain the need of the Paramixo Virus vaccination. Hopefully this will all soon be solved and they will be no more shortage of the product in the near future. All they have to do is make sure that there will be a balance between the demand and the offer.  When is the best time to vaccinate?

THE LOST SON

Last time we talked about searching and selecting pigeons for our winter breed. I feel the need to add something very important. I forgot (with us it happens automatic) to point to the evaluation of the wing.  We must be sure that the pigeon doesn’t have split feathers in their wing. I will try to explain this process as good as possible.

THE LOST SON

It’s not always easy to make a choice. I always used to say : when you chose between two things, you have one thing but you’ll miss the other. When you want to do winter breed, you’ll have to deal with this. When we select pigeons to breed with, we follow this system: first we catch all pigeons and put them in the baskets. We move them from the open aviary to a space underneath the loft, where they have to stay for about at least two hours. We make sure the pigeons are in the dark so they don’t start to fight and they are much calmer. My wife always helps out every year again.  She’s very handy in catching pigeons: she takes them out of the basket one by one and passes them on to me. Normally they always say : “Where the trousers talk, skirts have to be quiet”.

THE LOST SON

Vaccination Paratyphus again on the market.

It took a while and when you wait for something, it always takes longer as expected. Our patience is rewarded and we’re glad to announce that the vaccination product COLOMBOVAC  PARATYPHUS is back on the market. We already called our vet Raf HERBOTS several times to ask about the availability of the vaccination product.  We prefer to vaccinate as quickly as possible, 6 till 8 weeks before the start of the winter breed. By experience we learned that this period is necessary to prevent clear eggs. Our vet became a bit irritated by our phone calls and he told me: “If I can’t get the product, no one can in Belgium.” 

THE LOST SON

September 29 th  2011 : today, day to day one year ago, my friend Willem from Holland called me and said: ”Congratulations with your birthday but don’t forget that today is the start of the last term of your life.”  At this moment, one year later, he called again, asking how I was doing and how I felt. 

THE LOST SON

We’re very impressed and yes, also disappointed about what happened the last time. The last national race of 2011 from Gueret (571 km), the finish of the season 2011, didn’t bring BLUE HEAVEN LOFT what we expected. All our devotion and hard work concerning the care-taking and the guidance, didn’t make us win.  When you aim for perfection, you have to know that not all roads are smooth. The stunt we expected to finish 2011, didn’t come.

THE LOST SON

In my previous article, I made a promise. Hereby I made many fanciers very curious. In fact, curiousity is a quality of women and you find that out, much too late. It was like that with me and I’m sure with many among you all. That’s the way women are and my ex wasn’t different. Be careful because when you go out with them, they love you a little, once you get married, they love you a lot and when you divorce, they keep everything from you. That’s the same with love, it’s like a flashing pole, you don’t expect it and it costs a lot of money. But now back to my promise, I can’t get out of it anymore. Although my wife wasn’t very pleased when she heard that I was going to explain how we play with the pigeons on “BLUE HEAVEN LOFT”.

THE LOST SON

“Blue Heaven loft” : the pigeons are doing well. Didn’t I say before that they were ready to go to the national race from Argenton (540 km) And when you succeed to score with 7 pigeons in the national top 100 against more than 30.000 pigeons, old-yearlings and youngsters together, you can’t complain. In the meantime, we brought all old and yearling birds on nest, which is spectacular every year again. After Bourges National (31/7), all racers were left together to end up in the basket after 4 nights (on drift and hunting), for a race from Blois (454 km), in preparation for Argenton (550 km). On Monday, the week before Argenton, we gave them eggs.

THE LOST SON

The national race from Bourges at the end of July had its course. Still it was a bad race. Everybody knew that on Saturday, the day of release, the weather wouldn’t be good in Belgium, all weather reports agreed about the bad weather conditions.  Still they released the pigeons, nothing against it but much too late. How many times didn’t I already tell that if they want to set the pigeons free with bad weather, they should do it as soon as possible. No, they waited till 9.30 to set the birds free. Conclusion…a bad race and many pigeons, which spend the night outside with all its consequences. Nevertheless, the weather was good and also the visibility was good, which we could see on television. Why didn’t they release the pigeons at 7.00 a.m.?

THE LOST SON

Last time I talked about my good friend Peter Trost from Essingen (Germany). Peter is going to be a fancier again, after an interruption of several years because of his journey around the world. I talked to you about how he saw everything, think over and how he put his decisions and brought them to a good end. I just want to add something, to be complete.

THE LOST SON

Recently, BLUE HEAVEN LOFT was visited by Peter Trost from Essingen (Germany). Before he lived in Aalen, not so far away from Stuttgart. He’s the man who travelled all over the world in his ADVENTURE 3, over sees and oceans. But above all, he’s also an obsessed fancier. Peter is a friend of us for many years now, from the time of Union Antwerp, the university of the pigeon sport in those days, when they celebrated their champions in the Arena in Deurne. Those were the days of the “DOKUS” of René Somers from Oelegem. By coincidence René, Peter and me are all born in the blessed year 1935.

THE LOST SON

I had a long conversation with Jean-Louis Jorissen Pharmacist of Comed, about his new product RONI. (Regular Oligosaccharides for Normalizing the Intestin)

It became a story about pre-, pro-, and antibiotics all playing a role in the well-known framework of his mission: The Resistance Selection Method, without antibiotics. Together with Willem De Bruijn, I had numerous long conversations about this approach. Willem was an early believer of the method. Himself being a dentist and his wife a doctor, both medical academic educated, where already long time ago, convinced the abuse of antibiotics could not continue like that.

THE LOST SON

Wind, direction and the masse make the result.  This used to be and it’s still the case in 2011. When you don’t agree, you can call me. We had three weeks of middle distance behind us. The first two with an Eastern wind and what did we see? All top-prizes were won by fanciers who live at the West of the line.

THE LOST SON

A few days ago, my wife heard me cursing till inside the house. “What’s wrong now?” she asked when I came inside. “I was angry because two hens show some lesbian movements and they were sitting together in a corner.” I answered. “It’s in their nature and you can’t do anything about it” she replied.

A few days ago, my wife heard me cursing till inside the house. “What’s wrong now?” she asked when I came inside. “I was angry because two hens show some lesbian movements and they were sitting together in a corner.” I answered. “It’s in their nature and you can’t do anything about it” she replied.

White gloves : it’s a habit of mine, always wearing white gloves when I’m taking care of my birds, in and around the loft. I started it when I returned to Belgium at the end of 2002. I’m sure you wonder why? Well, I will only tell at the end of this story.

Here on BLUE HEAVEN LOFT, everything goes very well with the pigeons. The beautiful weather of the last few days also has an impact on us. All racers and some late youngsters of 2010 were brought away by car a couple of times. In between, we also cleared them from Ectoparasites and this with only one drop.

The racers and the youngsters are vaccinated at the beginning of March and I noticed that some of them had some inconvenience. Did you notice it too? Normally we keep our vaccinated pigeons inside for a few days but because of the good weather, my wife prefered to open the loft so they could get outside and inside.

We all know for sure that women like sex and pigeons like peanuts.  That’s what I experienced when I lived in Taiwan as a single man.  There’s a song that says: “A bachelor only goes to sleep when he saw the stars, when he enjoyed his freedom, when he says it was nice, thanks and goodbye.”

What’s going on in” BLUE HEAVEN LOFT” : we’re already half February…time goes fast.  During the 32nd Olympiad of 28-30.01.2011 in Poznan, Poland, we saw that our sport is still living, most certainly in the Eastern countries where the number of members are still rising. Finally a positive thing within our beloved sport and hobby.

Latin proverb written by the Roman poet Horatius.
Who, more than me can talk about this?

Hens that lay an egg… Didn’t you notice that yearling hens and those of two years old, which have to race more than 40 weeks on the Heavy middle distance, are eager to start a family.

The new year only just started and I already had bad points. My wife and I still were in bed, dark as hell but both awake, without saying anything…Till suddenly she broke the silence…And do you know what she said? You wouldn’t think it is possible but it was.  She literaly said: ”Michel, I think there’s not enough fresh air on the racing loft…”.

In BLUE HEAVEN LOFT everything goes by plan. We’re ringing a lot although there are still some couples that were a bit later by laying eggs, which don’t have any youngsters. But I’m sure they will follow. There was only a short period of giving light and that what we feel now. Hereby again the prove that the condition of our pigeons depend on THREE important aspects: the play between LIGHT and DARK, the TEMPERATURE (heath) and the MOISTURE on the loft...

Zoutleeuw: December 22nd, 2010
It's quiet at "BLUE HEAVEN LOFT". All the birds are breeding ... Every day we have given the birds some short-cut hay. It is quite a lot of fun to see how some birds willingly use it. The back and forth flying sharpens their swiftness and they find their way home almost blindly afterwards. But all that busy work and that back and forth flying with straw also teaches us a lot about the character and attachment to the nest that our birds are building. So we’d better watch out ...

Let me summarize and return to what has happened since mid-September 2010 (end of the racing season) at Blue Heaven Loft.

After the microscopic and bacteriological tests for all pigeons, I went off for a while ...