Dear friends, Pigeon Fanciers,

After careful consideration and quite some doubt, I have finally decided to follow the example of my good friend Willem de Bruijn:
I will not use antibiotics anymore.
In the beginning , I was a bit afraid to stop my classical antibiotics interventions, which were supposed to get my pigeons through the season on the highest level. I thought it was not possible to continue these performances without these interventions.
Don’t forget that I had to put in question almost 50 years of experience and the system that resulted from this experience.
But now I can feel that the end of this period has arrived because of several reasons, especially the ethical reason. At the moment, the MRSA and ESBL producing germs are posing a real threat to the Dutch public health.

Furthermore, I’ve grown a bit tired of it all.
"He’s giving this or that antibiotic "."They get a kíck out of it ".
Actually, I’ve already proven everything.
Do I really have to keep proving myself or can it be a little bit less?
Like my spiritual oriental wife smilingly says when she sees me ploughing through my rigid schemes: "Europeans make everything needlessly complicated, Orientals like to keep it simple."
While I am telling you this, dear friends, I can feel the load falling off my shoulders. I want to be honest with you.

When I was a banker, honesty was a basic principle. In pigeon racing however, tactics are very important. Don’t show your cards.
Be vague. Outsmart the others. Mislead the others.
In the end, it was all about money...

Now, in peace and quiet, I would like to make a definite switch to a natural system.
Just like Willem, I am only administering Comed products and I am waiting for the further development.
The top-birds from my colony will keep on achieving their results anyhow.
I want to enjoy other things. The selection, the pure "breeding".
Comed and nature will do the rest.
It might very well be that my results will drop a little bit but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it....

According to Willem and Jean-Louis there will be no upheaval.
Willem was not afraid to do it three years ago. The results were unequalled. Actually, that is pure class.
They have been honest with me, they are being progressive.
I used to be conservative.
According to Jean-Louis, a progressive attitude is "the never decreasing reduction of bad things and the never decreasing advancement of good things ". I like this as a challenge.
One day, I would like to finish my career in such a beautiful way.

That is why I will not be reading the pigeon magazines and the comments for now.

Those who will come knocking, they will be kindly welcome !!!

Michel Vanlint
The Lost Son
Blue Heaven Loft