DENO-HERBOTS

of Leefdaal

1st National Limoges, 17,469 yearlings, 2005

Information supplied by Nikolaas Gyselbrecht of www.pipa.be in conjunction with Elimar Pigeon Services

Jean D'Haeseleer, Jos Deno and Edward Van Herck

National racing is keenly fought in Belgium no matter what the level of competition, they all count and are high priority. They too like the UK fanciers have hard races and that was the case in the Limoges yearlings 2005 that will always be remembered as one of the hardest Limoges races in recent years. The winning pigeon was racing to the lofts of Deno-Herbots in this 600KM race recording a velocity of 1242.62m/m, they don't work on yards in Belgium. The second pigeon was racing to the lofts of Luc, Bart and Jurgen Geerinckx, who were only a few seconds away from taking the much converted top spot their pigeon recording a velocity of 1242.26 m/m. In theory third position was won by Demey Remi from Booischoot, but everything was not right so the pigeon of Remi wasn't clocked on time and that's why this pigeon will only finish with 30 th National instead of 3 rd National. Now the famous loft of André Roodhooft wins 3 rd place, his pigeon recorded a velocity of 1225.17 m/m.

58 large breedingboxes

Their team is not only the combination Deno-Herbots but also incorporates a few people who help a lot to take care of these extensive racing and breeding lofts. They handle everything in a very professional way and try to leave no room for mistakes or in fact missing anything within the lofts. For example the famous Philip Herbots puts a considerable amount of work and time into these lofts, as does Jos, also Jean D'haeseleer is someone who is always ready to help out when and where necessary. He knows how to work with the computer, which is a great help in the modern days of pigeon racing, and he is also a pigeon-know-it-all. Someone else who helps a lot is Edward Van Herck. So you might ask what is left for Jos Deno, that's what you all think now? Jos is the 'racer' of the team. He knows everything about it and he has successfully raced pigeons for many, many years. To give you some idea of how much work there is and why so many are needed there is a total 1,000 pigeons in these lofts. They also send pigeons around the world so they do quarantine pigeons before they leave to some other countries so that is an area that takes time. Jos Deno raced for many years under his own name but then his results started to be noticed in Belgium by Philip Herbots who later held discussions with Jos that resulted in forming their partnership. This was when the present team of Deno-Herbots was born.

Their methods are the traditional widowhood system that so many fanciers now race and a system that much has been written about. The hens are also raced with the widowhood system and are always paired to the same partner who does not race. They generally start the season with about 80 widow cocks and about 30 widow hens. There are presently about 120 young birds in the race team that are trained twice each week with the point of liberation being Fleurs, which is about 50KM. The young pigeons do not have any exercise prior to being basketed for these training races but on all the other days they do go out around the lofts.

For the Limoges Yearling race there was a total of Yearlings basketed at the club of Local Unique in Waver. They participate in this club because like many UK clubs they can also double bank in the middle distance races of "Petit Club de Fleurus", which is a club that is well supported and has large numbers participating in each race, the main races are Toury and Orleans. The sire of the Limoges winner "Broer Stier" who was lost and later reported in Germany and returned to the lofts so he was a further 600KM from where he should have been. Because of the breeding they went to pick up the pigeon but later decided to sell it, that's why the parents aren't in the lofts anymore. Deno-Herbots do appreciate it when such good pigeons are and because the German fancier was so honest to report the pigeon Jos sent him a couple of youngsters. This loft doesn't only compete in the middle distance they like to compete in the entire programme so take an interest in the Barcelona race. In the 2005 Barcelona race the partnership finished 16 th National and 39 th International on the preliminary result with their "Dikke Witpen" strain Verbruggen/Florizoone/Hausoul.

The loft of the widowers, where the 1st Nat. Limoges arrived

Some of their results from 2005 are as follows. Toury 1191 Yearlings. 14 th 16 th 55 th 88 th 97 th . Etc. Old birds in the Toury race saw 1877 pigeons where they finished 11 th 40 th 89 th etc. It was then on to Orléans 2310 Old Pigeons. 2 nd 10 th 12 th 46 th etc. Bourges 5877 Yearlings. 211 th 280 th etc. followed by another race from Bourges for the yearlings, 8 th 23 rd 30 th 40 th 61 st 67 th 98 th etc. Brive 3163 pigeons. 306th 490th etc. Montélimar 1207 pigeons. 19th 26th 33rd etc. Groupement : 623 pigeons. 11 th 15 th 17 th 72 nd 73 rd etc. Toury 235 Yearlings 1 st 3 rd 13 th 14 th 16 th 19 th 22 nd 29 th etc. Petit Club: 1492 pigeons 22 nd 37 th etc. Toury 1966 Yearlings 14 th 61 st 62 nd 74 th 96 th etc. Toury 1332 Old pigeons. 15 th 32 nd 44 th 72 nd 81 st 83 rd 99 th 100 th etc. Barcelona 1881 pigeons 3 rd 25 th etc. Orléans 158 young pigeons 2 nd 4 th 5 th 6 th 7 th 8 th 9 th 10 th etc. This is only a limited list of their results.

Jean & Edward before the loft of the 16 pairs of fosterparents