It’s still very cold outside but it seems that the hardest part has passed. There’s hope again in the hart of many fanciers with all the youngsters on the roof, this hope is real. New horizons appear again when spring begins; nature will come alive and will recover of the cold weather of the past weeks. During these cold temperatures, I visited my second home , Taiwan for 10 days. Although this time, it took me a while before I really felt at home in the country where I lived for 20 days in passion. The change of -16° Celsius to +- 28° didn’t leave me indifferent. It already has been a year that I visited Taiwan. Meeting friends and beloved is always special and in the mean time, everybody is a year older and again I found out that good relations remain good. Seeing them again is beautiful but saying goodbye isn’t. I always get the feeling that something has been tear off, the moment I leave and that hurts. There still is a kind of homesickness towards my second home and it has even become stronger than before. On the way to the airport, I noticed one more time that the trees remain green in Taiwan. They loose their leaves but new life is already there, long before the old one died.                            
It’s remarquable that pigeon sport didn’t stop in the beautiful Formosa (the name of Taiwan long before it was tear off from China). The prizes to win have become higher while the chances of winning them became smaller. The system makes sure that the large pot of money doesn’t have to be divided among many participators but those that win, become rich. Their mentality didn’t change. The different winners have to give “the child” a name and because the pigeons of Derauw-Sablon are “in” nowadays, the winning birds get their name. Nevertheless, we noticed, during our short visit, that they slowly have changed.  They look for pigeons, which are good on the heavy middle distance and the little long distance. These are the pigeons that get released in the morning and get home the same day. According to the late Jan Grondelaers, these are the most perfect and the most capable pigeons. I think so too.  This champion also said that you could go to a war with these pigeons. Pigeons that raced the real heavy long distance, they don’t like them any more. The races over the see, got shorter. The last five races, which are the most important, are 150-250-300-350 and 375 kilometres. On each race, many pigeons get lost and those that come home after closure time (800m/m.) are lost too. This also keeps up the tension. It’s not rare that the final winner wins 2 million Euro…

3 cc. per liter water, refresh daily

What happens in BLUE HEAVEN LOFT?
After I returned back home from Taiwan, the hard work started. As always my wife did a very good job, even in these very cold temperatures of - 10°Celsius.  You have to do it, when your husband visits Taiwan…. The second round of youngsters of our breeder and the children of our racers had to be weaned. Luckily our vet Raf Herbots was prepared to come and vaccinate our youngsters with COLOMBOVAC  PMX/POX, of the firm Pfizer. All together, we have about 100 youngsters, which are our hope for 2012. We won’t return to our old habit (eat well to grow well) but a very strict system like they use in Taiwan.  Before the youngsters are 90 days old, they are trained well while they already have some races of 100 km in their wings.

What about our racers? They are separated with boxes closed. The cocks stay on little shelves, which can be moved very quickly. The racing hens are already staying in their compartment from where they will be played. They still have the time to get used to their new stay. Of course, after some time, when they start to pair, we will lock them inside. In the mean time they all conquered their own place and so they slowly get used to their life as a widow.
It’s also important that our widow hens regularly visit the loft on which they stayed and breed.  Especially the yearling hens quickly forget where they lived before and with which cock they had a nest. In the mean time, we feed them light food and we started a cure of EMDOTRIM.  The meaning is to let them vaccinate 10 days later against PARATYPHUS with COLOMBOVAC PT, also of the firm Pfizer. Shortly it will all start again… The time of darkening starts but more of this in our next edition…
The new team of the K.B.D.B. is settled for 6 years and we wish them a lot of luck and success. New brooms wipe well and may be this is an advantage, certainly at the beginning. Let’s hope that they will bring new life into our sport. Changes must be done. We even send some propositions by mail. Just wait and see what they will make of it or will it just be as always?  “They drank a glass, did a pee and left it all like before!” 

See you!

THE LOST SON