by Les J. Parkinson

1st National, 3rd International Dax 2004

The Malfait name is one that I have come across on several occasion's when visiting Belgium but this is the first time that I have seen enough of them to put pen to paper. I am aware that this family won the Dax International in 1996 with "De International" but I have never really written about the family and their system. Anyone who has visited them will say "What system" exactly, these lofts are as simple as they come and for the hard-bitten enthusiast who likes everything spot on the only thing that I can say is stay away from these lofts. One thing that I am sure about after this visit is that no matter what you do with the pigeons or for the pigeons all you need are good pigeons.

The family run a car sales and repair business, which is where one of the lofts is situated, from the outside the loft looks fine above the garage showroom, and everything is normal. I have seen some laid back pigeon fanciers in my time but these lads beat the lot. We were invited into the lofts and I looked round thinking to myself "How often does anyone come up here" time had stood still in this loft and for anyone who has a chest problem around pigeons this was not the place to be. But hang on a minute these fanciers have a loft that has achieved greatness and have a top-winning National and International loft. Multiple National performance pigeons have and still are going through these lofts with the latest being "Bettini" a top racer who has still got a lot to offer as he is still only a 3y blue cock who was hatched in September 2001. Who is "Bettini" you may ask, well this is the pigeon that was 1 st Belgium National 3 rd International Dax 2004 to the two UK pigeons. "Betini" is not a one off performer because these are his results to date. 2002 as a yearling he was 238 th prov 4943b. 530 th National 24479b Limoges. Then in 2003 he started to show how good he could be with 5 th Region 20 th prov, 87 th National 4101b Castres. 9 th Reg, 38 th Prov 83 rd Nat 195 th International Dax 19,420b. 1 st reg 4 th prov 13 th Nat 29 th International Perpignan 16,800b. 2004 saw him come home with 102 nd reg 153 rd prov 180 th National Pau 2118b. 1 st reg 1 st prov 1 st Nat 3 rd International 17416b. 5 th Asduif Entente Belg 2003. 12 th Natioanl Asduif Grote Fond 2003. 1 st Euro Diamond Pigeon Dax 2004. One thing that I did not hear was how he had fared in the club races; only the top races were mentioned. The breeding of "Bettinni" is out of the top drawer being bred from a son of "Olympiade Gran Canaria" top National performer and sire of 1 st International Dax. The dam of "Bettinni" is a daughter of "De Limoges" top winner and nest mate to the 1 st International Dax winner. "Olympiade Gran Canaria" is the dominant breeder and racer in this years winner and a pigeon who won 42 nd Nat La Souteraine. 64 th Nat Dax. 70 th Nat Perpignan. 78 th National Cahors. 91 st National La Souteraine. "Canaria" is also the sire of "De Narbonne" 61 prizes. De Montauban" 89 prizes. "De Cahors" 91 prizes. "Pandoer" 43 prizes "Joris" 70 prizes and "Worldchamp" 29 prizes so has a good line of winners and not a one off like so many National performance pigeons are. What I must add is that the family race to the loft above the garage and also at their home where they race under son Dieter but all pigeons are raced by Fernand and Serge.

One thing that stood out in both lofts and that was there were few birds to be seen, no overcrowding, no fighting for perches and no stress on the inmates. In the loft above the garage I looked into the sections that are covered from the corridor by curtains. In those sections there were hardly any pigeons at all, in fact I noticed only one to the second section and three in another, they were all the same. Between the lofts there were only 7 old birds and 5 yearlings with a team of 25 young birds. they do race in tough competition competing against such fanciers as Marc Pollin, Roger Florizoone, FVW, Phillip Norman, Noel Perrin etc. There training like all that they do is nothing special because when they start racing the pigeons there is no further training participated in at all, there is also nothing special with the racing as they race the traditional w/h and no hens are raced at all. Feeding is always everyone's own idea's and here they purchase four brands and mix them all together and simply chuck it on the floor amongst the deep litter that is there for the season. the lofts are all dry so the system of cleaning out only once each year is not too bad, problems only arise when damp gets into deep litter and that does not happen at these lofts. Drinkers are also not what most expect either but the pigeons look healthy and win which is all that matters.

My conclusion after this visit was that most of us are too fussy about how we look after the pigeons and there is probably a lot more time spent with them than necessary after all good pigeons will win no matter what.