A VISIT TO THE LOFTS OF

SITTNER – PREMIER UK AT MERKPLAS

by Sue Skelton

Michelle & Brian outside of the old bird lofts

It’s a sunny day in February and we set off to visit the Sittner – Premier UK lofts where a friend of ours from England is there to manage the pigeons of Ed Sittner, who runs the one loft race from his house in “Las Vagas”, and Graham Sparkes from Premier Lofts UK. I am sure a lot of you have heard of Brian Bolton of Bolton & Williamson who also managed and raced the Premier Stud at Patrington pigeons. When Brian left England 8 months ago he wondered what was ahead for him and Michelle as it was a whole new challenge for him, but as you can see he has settled in well, made new friends and is looking forward to the racing season, but the only drawback is he his flying one hour further than such as Engels, Houbens, Roziers etc.

When we arrived we sat down to coffee and cakes and Brian explained that in the National racing you have to ring in every pigeon along with numbers etc until all the prizes have gone, which will be a task in itself. We then went out to see the lofts as Brian has turned the young bird loft round to face the West and the old birds face the East and are situated back to back. The lofts are all fitted with conveyer belts and an automatic darkness system where at a set time the blinds come down. Unfortunately building on the young bird loft was still going on while we were there as they have had to alter the roof and sections which will have a few birds in each.

Brian went on to tell us that Merkplas was made famous by the famous Hofkens family who flew from there. He also told us that he will concentrate on the National Day races and prep races. Brian arrived in Belgium on the 30th of May to race 40 old birds which had very few races so he had to start and condition them. When they started to fly well round the lofts he then started to train and went on to send them to one prep race from Bourges (506km), then went on to send them to 5 old bird Nationals with the following results:

Argenton National 583km 27th of June.
Kemische Fond Club Region out of 165 Old Birds 1-6-11-16-17-35-48
Yearlings out of 419 Birds 3-4-11-12-20-26-27-42-47-59-78-84-85
Antwerpen Union out of  974 Old birds: 6-72-152-181-182
Yearlings out of 2,347 birds 24-29-141-167-242-311-318-426-456-526-665-713-714
National: Old birds 9,912 birds 36th and Yearlings 21,065 birds 69-92 Overall 30,977 birds 84th

Lemoges National 641Yearlings only race 668km 11th July.
Kempische Fond Club Region 2-19-49-70-74-86-117-171-196-210
Antwerpen Union 2,909 birds 9-141-273-370-395-440-623-878. National 16,893 birds 17-473-1171-1814-1928

Bourges National 506km 25th July.
Kemische Fond Club Region 170 Old Birds 4-10-17-24-35
Yearlings 10-15-21-22-27-31-52-54-63-64-73-78-88
Antwerpen Union 1,203 Old Birds. 24-87-161-208-256
Yearlings 2,011 birds 122-156-256-258-285-326-465-484-564-573-620-663
National 11,756 Old birds 70-420-839-1146
Yearlings 15,508 birds 303-386-856-889-965

Tulle National 684km 1st August.

Kemische Fond Club Region 76 Old Birds 15th
Yearlings 228 birds 8-48-75

Antwerpen Union 927 Old birds 50-180-258
National 5,676 Old birds 1,066th
Yearlings 7,467 birds 477- 1456

Argenton National 583km 8th August
Kemische Fond Club Region 101 Old Birds. 6-8-10-30
Yearlings 139 Birds 6-7-9-19-20-23-24-26-31-43
Antwerpen Union 566 Old Birds 35-55-81
Yearlings 1,026 Birds 25-28-31
National 5,043 Old Birds 191-289-480

Yearlings 6,444 Birds 68-72-78-350-351-656-716-797-
They only sent to one Young bird National and sent only 14 birds which was.

Gueret National 617km on the 5th of September.

Kemische Fond Club Region 240 young birds 7-21-37-64
Antwerpen Union 1,933 Young birds 61-243-356-602
National 14,245 birds 264-1047.

They also have 3 birds in the first 200 for the Best National Averages from Argenton 21,092 birds and Limoges 16,893 birds. They were 105th 148th and 189th in the National Yearling Averages from Limoges 16,839 birds and Tulle 2,657 birds they were 58th.
Well it was soon 5pm and we had an hours drive back to were we were staying, so we said goodbye to Brian and Michelle thanking them for an excellent day and their hospitality we look forward to seeing them next time we are in Belgium and wish them good luck in 2010.

What will be the young bird lofts when finished

Old Bird Lofts with steps and lift

Michelle with the young birds

 

 

Sue and Ken Skelton

01723 377044

sue@skeltonpigeons.co.uk