SILVERE
TOYE
of
Belgium
talking to Les J. Parkinson
A
legend in the sport, a fancier who appears to have been around since
time began, a winner all along the line, who, Silvere Toye the quiet
man from Otegem. I remember the late Brain Beardmore being a big fan
of Silvere and it was not until the back end of 2002 that I was fortunate
to visit these lofts. I must add that then it was because another fancier
who had intended to go on the trip wanted to go to see Silvere. Bill
ended up not going on the trip but we did and Bill did us a favour because
it was a very informative and pleasurable visit. This is the loft where
the world famous “Peter Pau” came from another legend in
the world of racing pigeons.
Silvere
Toye with Les Parkinson
Q.
Please introduce yourself and tell us how you got started in the sport?
A. I got involved in the pigeon sport by my neighbour when I was about
10yrs old, my neighbour was ill and I had to take care of his pigeons,
this was just after the war. For the last 30yrs I have been on the National
and International pigeon scene.
Q.
Give the readers the basic results that you have achieved?
A. In 2002 I won 1st Provincials at Tours, Bourges, La Souterraine,
Argenton, Gueret with 2nd Provincials including Bourges, La Souterraine,
Château roux, Tours. There were also many more positions in the
top ten. At National level results include 3rd Nat Argenton, 3rd La
Souterraine, 6th La Souterraine, 7th Gueret, 9th Souillac plus a further
12 top 100 positions. There were also 1st prizes from 171 to 672km.
I have also won many Championships.
Q. Amongst those results what are the real highlights?
A. I have had many highlights while being involved with the pigeon sport,
some have been with results while others have been at the events that
I have been invited to.
Q. What organisations do you race with?
A. I race my pigeons with the Entente Belge, Cureghem Centre, West-Vlaause,
Interprovincial.
Q. Do you hold any official position and if so do you take an active
part, if no what are your reasons?
A. At the present time I am the President of the pigeon club in Kortijk.
Q. Do you ever think about competing for averages? If not, why?
A. Yes, I race my pigeons in a way to win as much in the Championships
as possible. As you may know Belgium has a lot of Championships, Yearlings,
Old birds, Young birds, short, middle, long and extreme long distance
championships so they are all worth competing for.
Q. How do you race your pigeons and how many?
A. I race a total of 30 old widowhood cocks, 50 yearlings and I also
race 30 hens making a total of 110 racers.
The
Racing Lofts of Silvere Toye
Q. What are your
lofts made of and how big are they?
A. All my lofts are made of wood and consist of 4 lofts at 3mtrs x 11mtrs.
Loft 1is 2.5mtrs x 21mtrs with another being 7mtrs x 5mtrs. Between
the lofts are aviaries where the birds spend quite a bit of time during
the off-season.
Q. Do you attach any importance to having a tiled roof on a loft, if
so are there any benefits?
A. Yes the advantage of a tiled roof is that you get more air into the
loft, which means oxygen.
Q. How many stock birds do you keep and do you breed off your race team
also how many pigeons do you think that you need to breed off any individual
stock pair each year to see if they are quality producers?
A. I like to keep about 30prs of producers that are paired on the 1st
of December and I breed three pairs of young from each breeding pair.
I also pair the racing cocks but they don’t breed until the end
of the season.
Q. When do you pair your pigeons and why then?
A. I pair in early December so that they can go on the darkness but
I don’t darken the second and third rounds.
Q. Do you move the hens with the young birds?
A. No it is always best to leave some hens to feed the youngest young
birds, because all young birds don't have the same age.
Q. Young bird sickness is a problem; have you had this in your loft
and if so what have you treated them with?
A. I'm always alert for young bird sickness, are the drops Ok, if this
isn't so and the pigeon’s vomit I treat them with Nifuramycine
and Rodanisole for 5 days.
Q. Do you race your young birds, if so how many races, if not why, do
you think they are better off in the longer events if they are only
raced lightly?
A. My young birds have to participate 7 to 9 races. The more you race
them, the more experience they have, experience is one the most important
factors of pigeon at every age of their career. They fly Arras (71 Km),
2 x Clermont (171 km), Chartres (297 km), Blois (389 km) and then they
race the big nationals, such as Bourges (419 km), Argenton, (489 km),
La Souterraine (526 km).
Q. What criteria do you set down for the pigeons you winter with your
thoughts on the following seasons racing and breeding?
A. In wintertime I think a lot about the breeding. I try to to make
my pigeons better, to make them faster, to make the feather better.
With those thoughts I pair my pigeons.
Q. Do you have any grills fitted in the floor or in the boxes, are there
any advantages to using them?
A. I have some lofts with grills in the nest boxes (with automatic cleaning
system). I prefer the wooden nest boxes as you can better observe the
droppings of the pigeons. Also I think the pigeons enjoy more a wooden
box than a grill.
Q. What do you think about the vaccination programme for the pigeons
and do you think it affects the pigeon’s long term?
A. All the pigeons have to be vaccinated, it's better to prevent than
to cure!
Q. Do you attach any importance to grits and minerals or can the pigeons
get what they want they are out of the loft?
A. To prevent that pigeons will search for minerals on the fields, grass
I give daily fresh grits and minerals, so the chance to be infected
with a disease is smaller.
Q. Do you use any floor dressing or do you clean the pigeons out daily?
A. I don't use floor dressing; all lofts are cleaned twice a day.
Q. Do you like to have plenty of room for the pigeons?
A. Yes, I like a lot of space for my pigeons, here are some lofts houses
only 5 to 8 widowhood cocks on a lofts, which has 24 nest boxes. The
more space, the more oxygen!
Q. How do you feed the cocks and what do you feed them on, a branded
mix or do you buy separate corns and mix your own?
A. A feed light mixture’s with the composition being made up of
25% equal parts of dari, maize, purification mixture and paddy rice.
Q. Do you measure the amount that you give to each pigeon, or are they
fed according to the individual pigeon?
A. I feed more maize the last two days before basketing the pigeons,
the longer he race the longer they get maize.
Q. Do you consider there to be any advantage having a racing partnership?
A. I don’t have a racing partnership but I think that it can be
interesting bringing each other’s ideas together, this can only
benefit any winning loft.
Q. To term a phrase are you a professional team of pigeon fanciers and
do your circumstances make a big difference?
A. I think every serious fancier is professional on his own; everybody
tries to do his of her best to win. Today all details are important,
such as health, weather conditions etc. if you miss out on these details
you are not going to win many races.
Q. Whenever I have visited a loft fanciers always look at the pigeon’s
eye. Do you consider that the eye has any importance in (a) the breeding,
(b) distance races (c) sprint races. (d) The pigeon’s health.
Or do you steer clear of the subject and if so why?
A. The pigeon’s eye is a reflection of the health also the vitality
of the pigeon the older they get.
Q. Do you use any preventative medication? If a pigeon goes ill do you
try to put it right or does the bird have to go?
A. I don’t use preventative medication, when a pigeon is ill he
will be kept alone in a small loft and I treat the pigeons sickness
after I have consulted the vet who is Pascal Lanneau a young un and
coming vet who specialises in pigeons, he comes every Monday to check
the pigeons health.
Q. How many weeks do you think a pigeon can maintain its form on the
widowhood system for both cocks and hens?
A. A hen can maintain form between six and eight weeks although a cock
can only maintain the same condition for six weeks.
Q. Do you treat pigeons differently with their preparation if they are
to go to the bigger races whether National, Classic, Specialist club
or open?
A. I prepare pigeons for overnight races with different feeding, this
means adding maize to their mixture as mentioned in a previous question.
Q. Do you think a pigeon has the capabilities of racing both short and
long distance races? Also what distance can a pigeon actually still
“RACE” as opposed to homing from any race point?
A. Of course some pigeons can win from short to long and even extreme
distance races. That is what I have been working on for the last 20yrs,
creating the all round racing pigeon, very few pigeons can win everything.
Q. What proportion of you pigeons get better on subsequent trips to
the long distance races and what do you call distance?
A. Most of my pigeons get better the further they are raced; they are
at their best around the 500/600km distance. Also my pigeons perform
best in headwinds. The distances that I race are 600km and long distance
races are 1000km
Q. Which is the more difficult, establishing a team of sprinter’s
or distance pigeons and why?
A. I think that it is easy to establish a team of sprinters because
the pigeons are faster as yearlings comparing to a long distance team
where the pigeons have to be at least 2yr’s old, certainly you
need 3yo to create a solid long distance team.
Q. What happens when you are racing either widowhood or the roundabout
when you have a bad race and lose a few from one sex, how do you continue
with those pigeons who have lost their mate?
A. I still keep a reserve pigeons to handle such situations i.e. one
of the sexes is lost.
Q. Sprinter or distance, there is no difference; it is all
in the feeding?
A. The feeding is important but sprint and long distance are in most
cases not the same. The difference is the endurance, sprinters don’t
have (not always!) the endurance of a long distance racer, that is why
I cross sprinters into my long distance racers.
Q. Taking into account distance, which is more difficult racing to your
area, is it; a case of a 600ml race is a 600ml race regardless of competition
or route?
A. In my region the middle distance races are the hardest to win because
there is a lot of competition in this area, a lot of fast and middle
distance racers.
Q. What families of pigeons do you keep?
A. The basic families are Catrysse, Montabaun family (1st Nat Montabaun),
Vandenabeele pigeons, Alibaba & Grote Barcelona 1 & 2 Nat Ace
Pigeons ld KBDB 2002. I have two brothers and a son off this National
Ace Pigeon. All these pigeons are crossed and tested very hard to my
old “Tarzan” & “Dikkop” strain
Q. How do you go about bringing in a new family and what do you look
for?
A., A big important factor is that you always have to keep your own
strain. It's better to buy new pigeons to cross in when you are at your
top! Also important is to still inbreed some pigeons
to keep the strain.
Q. When you bring in that new family do you think that they need time
to acclimatise, if so how long?
A. Of course they need time to acclimatise, you don’t expect something
from new into one year, if it’s a young bird you have introduced,
if its an older bird you have introduced they don’t need as much
time.
Q. Do you think that fanciers change for the sake of changing or do
you think a loft can breed a winning team out and lose track of the
winners?
A. I think a lot of fanciers can breed winners but after some years
they want to change pigeons and loose track of winners because they
didn’t keep to their basic pigeons that have raced very well.
Some fanciers are interested in your pigeons and its hard to sell a
pigeon. The best way is to sell birds and keep the good birds when you
have found the balance in those two you can go on for many years.
Q. When looking for new pigeons do you look for a particular family,
one for specialist races or club races or just be name?
A. When I am looking for a new family I follow a particular loft for
a few years, I am not interested in one day lofts. Pigeon families that
will fit in my own strain, you are not always sure that they will match.
Q. Early in the article we discussed the wind direction, do you consider
that good pigeons will win in any position?
A. Good pigeons must win in all kinds of weather, all different aspects
such as wind and sun are important, but I think a real champion wins
in all kinds of weather.
Q. Some fanciers go out and purchase good quality winning pigeons but
never appear to make the grade, why do you consider that this happens?
A. Some fanciers don’t have the patience and feeling for breeding
to the cross, breed and race with pigeons. They want results the next
day already but everybody knows that is impossible.
Q. Do you give any special treatments when the pigeons return from the
race as a precaution against anything that they may have picked up in
the basket?
A. I always disinfect them the second day after their return from a
race, you always have to be alert for infection all the year round.
Q. Do you race your pigeons every week or do you prefer to condition
them for a specific race?
A. The Sprint & Middle distance teams are raced every week, the
Long distance pigeons are sent every 14 days.
Q. Is there any specific condition that your pigeons perform best at,
or any particular time of the year?
A. There are always times of the year when you want you birds to perform
at their best my pigeons perform best in June & July, this may be
because those months are important for the championships that tell you
how good or bad your season has been.
Q. In your view do you think that a loft needs different pigeons for
different distances?
A. As I have already created an all round pigeon you will understand
this by reading my results, don’t forget that those results are
achieved with all the same pigeons.
Q. Which of the two sexes do you consider is the most important when
it comes to breeding?
A. My experience tells me that the qualities from the mothers are given
to their sons.
Q. Some fanciers like big hens for breeding does the size of the hen
make any difference to the quality of youngsters that she breeds in
your past experience?
A. I like the hens to be small good muscle and a nice wing I don’t
like big pigeons.
Q. Is there anything that you have not won in the sport that you would
like to achieve?
A. I think that there is one thing that I have not won and that is Barcelona,
I’ve been 4th National with “Dali” a g.son of “Peter
Pau” I have performed now for 30yrs at National & International
level winning National, International, KBDB and Olympiad so what I really
want to do is to keep up this level of racing.
Q. Who do you consider to be the best fanciers in the Country and for
what reasons?
A. Very difficult question to answer because every fancier should try
to beat the best in the Country.
Q. What do you think can be done to take the sport forward?
A. The fancier should have more tolerance against each other, helping
young fanciers trying to be everybody’s friend.
Q. Do you read many magazines/Articles, if so which type of article
do you find interesting and why?
A. I read magazines from all over the world, particular articles of
their way of racing hens, young birds and widowhood; you can always
learn something from other fanciers.
Q. Are there any special treatments that you give your birds once the
season has finished what do you recommend the readers to do with the
birds?
A. After the season they get the open window all day with their partners,
building a nest, some pigeons may breed a couple of youngsters and relax
and let the nature do the rest, total relax.
Q. When it comes to breeding do you line-breed or use a first cross
or just pair winners to winners?
A. Some fanciers don't have the patience and the feeling to cross breed
and race with pigeons they results the next day, but you know that isn’t
every time possible. When you pair you have to keep several factors
in your mind. The strength of a pigeon breed, some pigeons loose weight,
such pigeons have to go immediately. Another factor is the feather structure
of the pigeon, some pigeons don’t breed good feather quality pigeons.
But the main factor is to be lucky to find a golden breeding pair, golden
breeding cock or hen.
Q . Do you breed off the top widowhood cocks after the racing has finished,
do you breed late bred youngsters and what do you think of those later
bred youngsters?
A. I breed from all my widowhood cocks, including yearlings after the
racing season. I breed also several late-breds from exclusive breeding
pairs and the young birds from these pairs will be kept in an aviary
for one year to let the pigeons develop well and I only keep the best
to go to the breeding section. Late-breds from my top widowhood cocks
are kept for racing the year after but you need a a lot of patience
with those pigeons. Don’t expect something from them as yearlings,
nevertheless sometimes you can find a crack under those late-breds.
Q. If your race team went off form during the season what action would
you take to restore their condition?
A. I would train them as much as I can, tossing them short races again,
again and again, this training resulting that the pigeons will eat more
and the condition will come back.
Q. Is a favourable loft location the single biggest factor in sprint
racing?
A. YES.
Q. Do you use the darkness system for the young birds, if so for how
long and do you think it affects them later in life?
A. Yes I use the darkness system and I am sure it doesn’t affect
their life later on, this system is useful to test them in their year
of birth, the best young birds are the best racers later in life.
Q. Are there any feeding methods for the young birds i.e. do you break
them down, do you keep them hungry for control purposes, do you give
them a trapping seed mix?
A. I feed my young birds with Casaert mixture from Vanrobaeys, they
get food twice each day for 30mins and then I take the food away, I
don’t keep them hungry.
Q. What is the farthest distance that you would train your old birds
or young birds?
A. From Arras a distance of 80km.
Q. If random drugs tests were carried out on your pigeons, would it
reveal any substance, illegal or otherwise?
A. NO.
Q. How do you consider that the British sport is going compared to your
own systems in Belgium and do you have any ideas that you think would
benefit the sport in the UK?
A. What I still admire about the UK pigeons is that they have to cross
the channel, sometimes when the weather is still bad. I’m reading
several English papers and I see that the sprint is still popular in
the UK. I can’t give you any advice to benefit the sport in the
UK because I think you should live in the UK to understand the problems
and methods in the English pigeon sport.
Q. Is pigeon racing as a hobby going beyond the average working man?
Is it becoming too technical and complicated or can you keep everything
simple and still win with the pigeons?
A. Every fancier can keep it simple if they want to use the time and
the money as much as they want. Nobody tells you to pool such an amount
or to use such exclusive food and medicine. You are still free to do
what you want. The word technical is now in the year 2003 necessary
as 30yrs ago not a lot of fanciers raced young birds, they didn’t
know about the darkness system.
Q. You are successful fanciers, there are far too many leaving the sport,
to encourage fanciers to either join or stay in the sport what do you
think about limiting prizes to two per race per loft? If not; why? If
yes; Why?
A. The amount of pigeons is not the problem I think, as mentioned in
the above answer everybody keeps as many pigeons as they want, if you
want to race 30 pigeons you pay for 30 pigeons.
Q. Do you think winning fanciers should move on from club racing once
they have reached a certain level of consistency? Are club performances
paramount for personal satisfaction or sales purposes?
A. Club performances are strictly (in my case) a personal satisfaction,
for sale purposes are the National and International races important,
not the club races.
Q. Do you attach any real importance to the pigeon’s wing i.e.
back wing, end four flights and do you look at the wing to see if they
have cast before a race, do you have any other comments on the wing?
A. Yes I look at the four end flights, they should have the same length,
I also like the pigeons to have a long wing and the feathers not to
large.
Q. Do you use any form of heating system in any of your lofts. Do you
think it would be advantages for the birds?
A. I have floor heating in some lofts but I prefer not to use it, let
nature do her work! It’s helpful when the weather is still bad,
rain for a month and the lofts are not dry, then it’s useful.
Q. Do the pigeons need any special treatment on their return from the
race to help them relax? Is any such treatment needed for the short
or long distance races or the hard races compared to the easy races?
A. When they return from the race I don't give them anything on the
1st day but on the 2nd day I treat them against Tricho.
Q. With your pigeon work do you have a silent partner i.e. wife, partner
or friend, if so what part do they play?
A. My wife Rita takes care of the breeding boxes, I have 20 breeding
boxes with only one pair of pigeons to the section. I have a friend
who helps with the widowhood loft and my grandson takes care of the
paperwork, e-mail-website and pedigrees.
Q. Is there anything that you do not like about the sport, something
that you feel needs changing for the good of the sport?
A. Yes, a lot of fanciers are jealous of each other, there should be
more tolerance, that is the main factor of keeping the sport going.
Q.
Do you compete in the National events, if not why not? Or are you happy
to race in the club?
A. I like to compete at all stages of pigeons racing that is what the
sport is all about.
I would like to thank Silvere’s grandson Pierre who has put the
work into getting the questions answered, it makes life much easier
putting the continental articles together when the English is good.
I was looking through the 2002 pairings that Silvere has put together
and there is no doubt that he does pair good pigeons or lines together
to produce such good results. He is also not afraid to go out and purchase
pigeons from the top National winners to bring into his own; this is
how you get to and stay at the top for so long. Silvere was one of the
best when I started over 30yrs ago and he is still up there with the
greats of the sport. Thank you for you time Silvere and we look forward
to meeting you again in the near future.
