HILAIRE VERHELLEN

of Gravenwezel

1st International Dax 2005

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

In the middle of a beautiful forest in Schilde the pigeon with ring number 6277199/02 arrived Monday morning at 7-15hrs at the loft of Hilaire Verhellen, covering a distance of 938.9 KM and a speed of 1140 m/m . An excellent performance if you know that only 9 pigeons have a velocity higher than 1000 m/m. In the province of Antwerp this pigeon was 3 hours in front of the second pigeon a very good achievement. Hilaire basketed 6 pigeons for the Dax race, his first nominated pigeon won the 1 st international. The other 5 pigeons all arrived home before 16-00hrs in the same afternoon; he won 5 prizes on 6 birds, not bad at all and one any fancier would be proud of.

After the recent passing away of his loft manager, Hilaire was very fortunate to got help from his son-in-law Herman because even though Hilaire is a retired pharmacist help is always needed around a sucessfull loft. Herman pairs the pigeons and he aslo baskets the pigeons, in this way Hilaire can focus for the full 100 % on the racing of the pigeons. Youngsters are never trained only when they are one year old they go away from home the first time. As yearlings they may prove themselve after a few middle distance races then on the long distance.

Hilaire has raced pigeons for many years and on more than one occasion he has topped the list in the competitive provincial in Antwerp, but he was never able to win a first national or international that is until now so he has to get used to those busy times this victory brings. It is also a fact that the Belgium authorities visit winning lofts to check for dope, a prucedure that follows every national win. During the visit of Nikolaas & Dr Carlo Gyselbrecht the man responsible for dope control from the Belgian national pigeon federation was present, so this gave Nikolaas the opportunity to describe this procedure.

Hilaire has to select 12 pigeons, 5 of them that won a price plus an extra old pigeon. Also 6 young birds are selected at random, in this way 6 young birds and 6 old birds are tested. These 12 birds are put in a basket for about 30 minutes. Below the pigeons is a piece of cloth to catch the droppings. They also collect droppings from all lofts that have sputniks. The lofts where pigeons cannot fly out are not checked. All those droppings are mixed in one small container. After this, the droppings are divided in 2, 1 for the first control, and the other one as possible double check.

The main base of this loft is Robert Venus from the lines of the world famous Supercrack Crusson and Magestic , that won 3 rd 7 th and 166th National Dax. The mother of the 199/02 is a direct Robert Venus pigeon from the Magestic that was coupled to a daughter of the same Magestic coupled to an inbred hen of Supercrack. The father of the winner is Narbonneke 2, that won 5 times in the first 10 provincial in national races like Montauban and Narbonne. This Narbonneke 2 also comes from a direct Venus pigeon, viz. Late Venus X Super BS , fanciers like Kamille de Sutter and Gilbert Van der Weghen are in this pedigree.

A comment from Nikolaas; "When we said goodbye to Hilaire, he was joking and said : See you also after the Marseille race, for another loft report on the national victory. Why not ? As we know the condition of his colony is very good.and his favourite races Narbonne, Marseille and Perpignan still have to come. But on the other hand Hilaire realises that this victory will probably stay a once in a lifetime event".