LUC SIOEN

of Moorslede, Belgium

by Les J. Parkinson

On a couple of occasions during the last 18 months when we have been in Belgium we have called in to the lofts of Luc Sioen who races under the above heading, I must also add that Luc's wife Hilde is a great asset to the team. This was the first Belgium Taiwanese partnership to be formed but others have followed, however the partnership has now been dissolved and Luc is racing with Hilde.

The original partnership was Luc and his father Gerard who successfully raced their pigeons until the Taiwanese partnership was formed in 1993 since which time they have achieved many excellent results. Results such as 1 st National Pau, 1 st National La Souterraine (99), 1 st National La Souterraine (01) with two of these National wins being achieved with pigeons bred at Dream Breed Lofts. These lofts have also won many Championships along the way and at the end of any season have an array of awards to collect. The last four years have seen many good results including 1997 1 st Nat Pau Hens. 7 th European Champion Z.L.U. 19 th National Barcelona 35 th International with "Rik" being bred from the Internationally know breeding and racing pair "Brecht" & "Rikky". 1998 8 th Champion Van Belgie KBDB Grote Fond. 8 th International Champion Barcelona. 18 th National Marathon. 1999 1 st National La Souterraine Ylgs. 1 st International Champion Franco-Belge. 2 nd Champion West Vlaamse & Inter Provincial ylgs. 3 rd International Champion I.F.V. 5 th European Champion Z.L.U. 6 th National Primus Inter Pares (Barcelona 5yrs). 2000 2 nd National Les Amis du grand fond. 21 st National Marathon. 2001 1 st National La Souterraine but no more info on this year although we do know that there are awards won.

Let's go back to the beginning when the partnership was formed and they went out to purchase the best birds available. The were several top National winners brought in with the first big name being "Brecht" who was the best Belgium long distance pigeon of 92. This award was gained when "Brecht" was 4 th S/Nat Brive, 25 th Nat Barcelona, 61 st International 27,158 birds, 29 th Nat Perpignan 73 rd International 17,331 birds. 67 th Nat Perpignan. Both sire and dam are top Nat & Int performance pigeons with the dam being a winner of 1 st Nat Pau. The partnership then added the top Ace pigeon "Rikky" 1 st International Barcelona 33,196 birds. Other top pigeons that these lofts have housed include "Cobbe" 1 st International Dax 36,861 birds. "Margriet" 1 st International Pau 5927 birds. "Speeltie" 1 st International Pau 6875 birds. "Bardinos" 1 st Nat Ace Pigeon Long Distance. "Tonsing" 1 st Nat Ace Pigeon Overnight. "Tiger" 2 nd National Ace Pigeon Long Distance. The partnership were always interested in the longer distance races so in 1998 they selected the top breeding loft of Taverine-Rigole of Koolskamp and purchased a complete round of youngsters. These lofts had made the decision to be very selective and for the 1998 season they chose to retain only 10 cocks and 9 hens. The partnership are aware that all young birds are not winners therefore quality selection is the name of the game, if in doubt put them out. There hard selection and choice paid off the following year with that 1 st National win with "Miss La Souterraine". The practice of purchasing a round direct has paid off each year and in 2001 they achieved another 1 st National win with "Indira" who was the fastest of 21,596 birds being bred from the "Witslager Desender" and "Olympiad Gran Canaria" the Golden Breeding lines. These lines have been very successful producing many winners at National Level including "De International" whose wins include 1 st International Dax. The sire of "Indira" is a brother to "Stany" the National Ace Pigeon. Because the partnership have had such good success with the Dream breed Lofts youngsters they have stuck with them and make it a priority to purchase a round each year. These pigeons are kept in a loft on their own and raced on the darkness system to keep their wing feathers for their intended races. Some of these pigeons are raced on a full widowhood system with some being kept for the long distance young bird races. These youngsters are trained and then raced in the club for three races only at 180kms after that they are kept for later in life, by the way it is usually Hilde who looks after this team. Besides the round from Dream Breed Lofts they do have a very good team of stock birds and they are paired in December to hatch in early January. There are some real quality stock birds in these stock lofts, as I pointed out earlier expense has been no object for the pigeons are the right winners.

The pigeons have to be right at these lofts with nothing being missed, the birds are also seen at least twice each year by the vet. However if they consider that things are not right then they might call the vet in again and nothing is given without the vet having prescribed it in the first place. The only addition is the tea which is added to the water twice each week but when the weather gets hat they are given this tea most days of the week.

The old bird race loft looks quite an elaborate affair because as soon as you arrive on this property this loft stands out as the main feature, this is a double deck loft measuring around 120ft in length. With such a loft the impression is that these fanciers have a big team of racers but that is not the case and many fanciers would be surprised at the number of pigeons housed in this one loft. Just take a look at the photo and also consider the length of the loft, you would think maybe in excess of 100 pigeons are housed in a loft like that. Nothing could be further from the truth because each section of about 8ft has at the most 4 widowhood cocks, if fact in one section there was only one cock and his hen. Quality is the name of the game and not quantity and that becomes apparent when you look at the results achieved. These racers are paired up at the beginning of April and left to sit eggs for six days only before they are parted again, this includes both old birds and yearlings. The preference is the longer races and if they are allowed to rear they start to moult too early for those specialist races. Luc did try breeding before racing several years ago but the yearlings started to moult and were not right for the races they were required for. In one of the other lofts there is a reversal of the widowhood system where the hens are raced to cocks stay at home. Racing the hens on this system has proven very successful and the team has gradually been increased with excellent results, the cocks used are not raced but kept in the same way as the normal widowhood hens. These hens are raced every week in races of around 350 to 500mls and the only other difference is that they are paired on the 1 st March and allowed to rear a round of youngsters that are moved just short of three weeks. Luc does make sure that these hens do not go to nest again, otherwise they will not be right for the season ahead of them. By the way these hens are trained every day at about 4pm. What did surprise me was the fact that Luc baskets these hens on a Thursday for a Saturday race of not much more than 110mls. When they return on the Saturday they are left with the cocks until they are separated in the evening and stay on this system until around the second week in July when they are left with the cocks to go to nest for the remaining races of the season.

I must say that the pigeons did look well on both of our visits and this is a loft that I expect to see again at the top of the national results because of their dedication to racing. I was going to add more of the many National results that have already been achieved but for this article I shall leave it with those mentioned at the start of the article. Thanks to Luc, Hilde and Frans for their time and we look forward to another visit in the near future.