Boscheind Flyers racing pigeons

Boscheind Flyers

By Les J. Parkinson

Les J Parkinson with Jan Schreuder and Andre.v.d.Wiel

When we were in Blackpool I called in to see the Boscheind Flyers Andre Van Der Wiel & Jan Schreuder. André was telling me that when he was 7yrs old he took his first step in the loft of his father, Steph van de Wiel. Those first steps were mainly because he had a special interest in the pied pigeons and a dark pied cock known as the "Clown" soon became his favourite. At first, his father was not so pleased with the help of little André but soon it was evident that there was more than just attention for the "Clown". André assisted more and more with taking care of the pigeons and he made use of every free moment to clean the loft and feed the pigeons. Even during his school-time he stayed interested in the pigeon sport and he made himself competitive at all the activities in the local clubs: basketing, opening clocks, results were keenly looked at because he wanted to become familiar with literally anything to do with pigeon racing. Even in the period that he discovered female beauty and many stray Andre stayed loyal to his feathered friends! When his father Steph died in 1966 the then 17yr old young man was faced with the care for the pigeons all by himself. Happily his brother in law Albert Rademaker had pigeons too and from that moment on they formed a partnership. Albert was the moneylender while André was the loft manager. When André met his present wife at secondary school she discovered that he was a fanatical pigeon fancier. It happened on more than one occasion that he phoned to tell her that he was belated, because the pigeons were not home yet!

A new start came in 1971 when André planned to get married and his ultimate wish was to get a job in the Mecca of pigeon sport: the Kempen. Celebrities like Jos van Limpt-De Klak, Jan van Limpt-De Prut, Toon Jansen-De Smed, Gebr.Borgmans, Jan Huybregts, etc lived there!! Finally he became a teacher in Steensel so he was close to achieving his ambition. He started with a new strain of pigeons because he aimed at belonging to the best fanciers club. His pigeons' performances increased more and more, especially when one of the best pigeons turned out to be a fantastic stock bird. This pigeon with ring number NL76-411037 "De Generaal" was obtained because in those days he was the best pigeon of the whole area. This bird died when he was 22 years and 307 days old! The last twenty years André compete at the top with the best fanciers of Afd Oost-Brabant with over 4000 members in 1990 till 3000 members in 2004. From 1991 on he has been a regular in the prize lists as A.v.d.Wiel & daughter this came about because his daughter Manon developed a keen interest in the pigeon racing and she even had a small loft with young pigeons under her own management. In the meantime a new face came on the scene when Jan Schreuder joined the partnership. That is why the new race name now is: Comb.v.d.Wiel-Schreuder with daughter Manon being left off the partnership in 2004. I am going to find out a bit more on this winning team over the next few weeks with the methods next week. In the meantime here are a few of their top results. 1st National Ace Pigeon NPO 2005 Wonder Woman. 1st NPO Bourges 516km Rayon(3) 10448b. 1st NPO Montluçon 584km Rayon (3) 9546b. 1st NPO Chateauroux 562km Rayon (3) 9483b. 1st NPO Limoges 676km Rayon (3) 6983b. 1st NPO Chateauroux 562km Rayon (3) 5357b. 1st NPO Montluçon 584km Rayon (3) 5178b. 1st Interregional Creil 303km 4638b. 1st MC Chantilly 308km 1462b. (fastest of 4936b.) 1st MC Chantilly 308km 2538b. 1st MC Chantilly 308km 1611b. 1st MC Morlincourt 250km 1623b. 1st Golden Crack Fondclub Zuid-Nederland (3x) 1st Golden Champ Fondclub Zuid-Nederland. 1st International Ace Pigeon "De Duivenkrant". 2nd NPO Orleans 447km Rayon (3) 11747b. 3rd NPO Orleans 447km Rayon (3) 11833b. 3rd NPO Chateauroux 562km Rayon (3) 11693b. 3rd NPO Argenton 591km Rayon (3) 8916b. 3rd NPO Argenton 591km Rayon (3) 8001b. 3rd NPO Chateauroux 562km Rayon (3) 7563 p. 4th NPO Chateauroux 562km Rayon (3) 14096b. 4th NPO Montluçon 584 km Rayon (3) 9546b. 5th NPO Limoges 676km Rayon (3) 5927b. 6th NPO Bourges 516km Rayon (3) 8742b. 6th NPO Bourges 516km Rayon (3) 6042b. 6th NPO Etampes 388km Rayon (3) 6444b. 8th NPO Chateauroux 562km Rayon 93) 11693b. 8th NPO Blois 502km Rayon (3) 5127b. 9th NPO Bourges 516km Rayon (3) 6062b. 9th NPO Orleans 447km Rayon (3) 5742b. 9th NPO Orleans 447km Rayon (3) 5706b. 10th NPO Toury 421km Rayon (3) 4927b. 10th NPO Dax 968km Rayon (3) 4223b.

A successful young bird system

We are now going to start with their system for the young birds because this is the time of year when they are breeding so the system starts here. When the first baby's are one week old there is vinegar in the water for the breeders that is measured out at 5ml to 1ltre of water. This continues until the baby's are moved to the young bird loft when they are between 4 and 4½ weeks old. The vinegar is added to the water until the third race however there is no vinegar added when there is any medicine in the water. Don't use vinegar during races further on because vinegar is breaking down the fat and pigeons need fat for racing! The first weeks there are drinkers in the loft, after about two weeks they are taken out and they can only drink from the drinkers as used in the trailers by transporting them to the race point. In the aviary are the back fronts of the baskets of the trailer where they put the drinkers. This system learns them to drink outside of the loft from an early age so when they are in the transporters they know where everything is. They think this is very important in the task of educating the young birds to drink in the baskets. They treat the young birds once a month with the pigeon mix for 3 days this is used on the food and the pigeon mix is in the water when they come back from the race. Once a week they will have vitamins of Witte Molen and once a week a soup made of garlic (5 pieces), onion (1), glucose (3 soup spoons or take brown sugar) and salt (½ teaspoon). Take a 1litre and fill it up with boiled water. Next day you mix it with 9 litres water and you have 10-litre pigeon soup, a healthy drink! When they are settled in the young bird loft (after about two weeks when they are sitting in the pens) they start them on the darkness system the time span is 14 hours dark 10 hours daylight. In the morning when the darkness stops they immediately open the windows, so it is from completely dark to immediately daylight and they have to exercise around the loft this happens only once each day. If necessary they are trained by flag when the youngsters are old enough for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. They stop the darkness about 1st of July, from that day the lights are turned on till 11.00 PM and in the morning at 5.00am until the sun rises. When the youngsters are about 12 weeks old they start training them with the first toss being about 3 miles, than 5-8-10-20 miles. The first 3 times they take old racing hens with them and then after 3 times they have to do it on their own. A few times before the first race they release them one for one or basket for basket with about 8 pigeons per basket. During the first four races they are tossed on a regular basis on Tuesday and Thursday independent from the circumstances and the distance being 20 miles. After the second race they split the youngsters (hens and cocks) and start racing them on a widowhood roundabout system. During the races there are some cardboard boxes in the loft where the youngster can pair up if they wish. Later in the season when there are pairs sitting eggs they are left to keep the nest and don't split them so they can race them on eggs or later on baby's. So there are some pigeons split and some paired chasing one another or on a nest of eggs or baby's. Before basketing they let the hens and cocks go together for approximately one hour. Before the season starts they treat the pigeons once against lice on the breast with a drop and each month during the season the youngsters have a smoke bomb in the loft. While this is being done the pigeons stay in the loft but all the food and water is removed. When it is very hot weather electrolyte and glucose are added to the water the day of basketing. When it's a hard race also when they are coming back from the race there are electrolytes and glucose in the drinking water, the pigeon mix is then used one day after the race. The pigeons are conditioned to enter the loft by a flashlight instead of the much-used whistle they are educated to know that when it is feeding time the flashlight on. Also when they take them away for a training toss the light is on so they learn when the light is on they can get food inside the loft. They like to feed the youngsters like old birds during the races so keep them on diet (Super Light Energy of Witte Molen)in the beginning and for basketing they need five full meals (Junior Gold). The art of winning is to have a very good relationship with the young birds and make them tame. You can use peanuts for doing this, in the evening go into your loft with a flashlight, so you can see which pigeon is not happy (bad droppings, vomit up, etc.) and you can fight with the birds in darkness, they don't fly away from the perches. More on this successful Dutch loft next week.

Boscheind Summary

Here are some good tips for the coming season. Make dark corners with carbon boxes, in the week you can close them easy, in the weekend open them. Motivation via a climbing frame is always a good idea. Put drinkers outside the loft so that you learn youngsters to drink as they would in a basket from an early age, basketing them regular the evening before you go to toss. You can give them extra motivation by having perches in several places in the loft that can be hinged and folded up. Have a motivation perch in front of the nest box as an addition to the standard widowhood box. Nest bowls can be wrapped in your paper, cheap, and no broken eggs. Pairing time put a flower bowl in the nest box when a cock is very aggressive, so the hen can escape on it, all ideas that you too can use. We have included a few results but to include them all would take up far to much space because their achievements have been exceptional. However we need to produce some figures, as they cannot be avoided. Of course, the semi-national victory on Chateauroux (5357 p.) and the victory on Creil (4638 Dutch and Belgium pigeons) were pinnacles of the in the early period of their racing. And as with many fanciers the early prizes in bigger the unions announced saw even more improvements with what they set out to do. For the last twenty-five years André competed against the top fanciers of Afd.Oost-Brabant with over 4000 members in the early days but that has now dropped to around the 3000 mark but still top class competition. In those early days the prize lists saw the name as A.v.d.Wiel & daughter because his daughter Manon had developed a keen interest in the pigeons as a hobby from 1990 and Andre did not want to deter her from taking part. She even had a little loft with young pigeons under her own system. In the meantime Jan Schreuder had taken an interest in their pigeons and that is why the new partnership was formed v.d.Wiel-Schreuder after Manon ceased her interest in the partnership. Their speciality is the distances over 250mls but they don't forget the sprint races!! In the last 10 years they have won more than 120 first prizes in the club and federation without any duplication. Their pigeons are winning for many other fanciers and with the combination of their own winnings while other fancier achieve success they shall continue to breed to class pigeons to compete against the best around.