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”. ”You’ve already done it before when you published your  DVD “Michel Vanlint Live”? she said and she went on: “What did you win with it? It expanded the competition and you woke up the fanciers who were sleeping and you opened their eyes.” That’s how my wife sees it… And like no other, she knows it’s dangerous to tell the truth and it’s annoying to listen to. But the way I see it; I’m sure you can always improve bridges and women. Because they can cry and laugh when they want to.  My promise: a reader wanted to know how we can race the same pigeons, a whole season every week again (19 times), on races between 450 and 625 km and this with success. We are going to answer this question because many fanciers are waiting for this and I don’t want to disappoint any of them. First of all, you need to get the ideal pigeons on your loft. It’s curious that you can’t get them for a cheap price. It’s up to the fancier, to examine his pigeons very carefully. He has to test them on the distances her prefers and than see what’s left of them. It takes a lot of efforts as well of the fancier as of the birds, when you want to race the same pigeons every week again on distances between 450 and 625 km. You must know, that with this system, it’s not the fancier who selects the pigeons but finally the pigeons will select themselves. They can or they can’t!  Finally, you will only get hold of those that showed themselves on regular times throughout the season. “BLUE HEAVEN LOFT” uses this system for already 8 years and I must admit that the percentage of the pigeons which can do it, raises every year. Of course, the system demands many feathers. Of course, you can get pigeons which can’t fly straight any more (the wing-muscle brakes down). That’s all part of the system and the selection. It’s also normal that you have to help out on regular times. We do this by giving them a lot of oil, sugar and proteins over the food, which are easy to digest.  We do this from the moment they get home till and with Tuesday evening. I told you before that the oils they take, need a processing process and it needs 4 or 5 days to put this into energy. Light (artificial) and sunshine are very important aspects here and this fastens the process. There’s always something in the drinking water; only the day of basketing, the water is pure.  The first days after their arrival, we give electrolytes and sugars in the drinking water. A few days before basketing, we raise the percentage of the corn to 50% of their daily amount. You can’t feed these pigeons by spoon when they have to race every week between 450 and 625 km. They have to choose and one hour later, you have to take away the rest. Hereby you create a new appetite towards the next meal. When you feed them fully, you can’t leave every week with the same pigeons on the heavy long distances. From the beginning of May till half September, every weekend, which are 19 races, so more than 40 nights in the basket during the season. Isn’t that something? Don’t forget : we feed them at least 3 x a day. Our widow hens get food 4 times a day. These are always locked inside but after 22.00 hours, they can get out to eat some candy seeds and peanuts, then drink one last time so they can get locked inside again till the next day.

The most important in our system is the training. The birds have to train regularly, even in between the rain. Our loft is adjusted for this and so they dry up in no time. You have to practice and this is necessary for those that want to follow our system the next season. Only well-trained athletes are able to follow this system and bring it to a good end. Now in short about La Souterraine (576 km) National. This race was successful for the “BLUE HEAVEN LOFT”; 8 pigeons in the national top 100 against 20.124 pigeons (old and youngsters together).  That’s well done, isn’t it? Now we go straight to GUERET (537 km.). We did everything possible to make the pigeons score one last time in 2011. When you read this article, the pigeons will have returned already.  Don’t worry, we are also going to tell you how we keep our birds healthy and which by-products we use. You have to give me time because this is rather sensitive.  After GUERET, we will put everything in a row…Now, not only our pigeons but we also need some rest and we earned it well. Am I ready for my winter sleep?  Well we’ll start after Saturday or Sunday, which depends of the day they set the birds free.  In the mean time, I’ll try to find something interesting to tell. This will only happen once and those that read me, will find the advantage. I hope you can learn something from it.  And those that say that I tell a lot without showing the back of my tongue, will have to change their point of view. Revelation, text and explanation will follow in my next contribution. That’s how we see it…It can be done like this and so it will be done. Of course there are other possibilities but that’s something each and everyone of us has to decide all by himself. We think our system is the way to success. But what is success? Don’t forget that a man is only successful when he earns more than his wife can spend. And a woman is successful when she found a man like that… End of season 2011…long live 2012…

THE LOST SON