To blame or not to blame (09-10-24)
To blame or not to blame
Very rarely will I visit somewhere without announcing myself in advance. And visitors are expected to do the same. Zeeland's Koen Minderhoud was so fond of his privacy that you couldn't even ring his doorbell, because he had none.
In July, however, something went wrong. Well, 'wrong'.
FROM AFAR
A pretty young couple ringing the bell. And a little later, to my surprise, they were in the yard. My wife had 'let them through' because, she said, 'they come from far away'. Seemed to make sense. Especially the dialect of the woman was barely intelligible, but her wide open blouse made up for a lot.
Both were obsessed with pigeon sport, but now they were in the pit and not a little too. This year, they had lost two-thirds of their youngsters before the races even had started. What made them especially desperate was that this was for the umpteenth year in a row. As a result, they could not select after the season and were forced over and over again to keep all the babies they got.
MAYBE
Losses don't always have to be the fault of the fancier.
- If youngsters are attacked by a hawk, you can be happy if the damage is limited to one dead pigeon. Often, possessed by a panicked fear, they dash in all directions and you will never see many of them again.
- Also what happened to a friend may happen. His squeakers had been tossed at least eight times at the same place, not very far, and yet: The ninth time they lost half of them.
- I once experienced something strange myself. I was always as careful with letting go of youngsters as someone who jumps from one slippery boulder to another to cross a stream. Yet that detested day came. When the youngsters were released as usual, they did not move away as they normally did, but continued to make circles, higher and higher. Until they were still dots and then they were gone. Had I gone from such a slippery boulder to the water?
But what is so bizarre? Later I heard from fellow fanciers that on the same day the same thing happened to them.
PORTUGUESE
In other words, I can't help but admit that I don't understand much about a lot of things. For example, there is the Portuguese. He came here this year to race pigeons. I had prepared him to breed a lot of youngsters because losing half of them is 'the new normal' here. So, just to be on the safe side, he did indeed breed quite a few, no less than 185. Then there wasn't even a man overboard if he lost a few. But that didn't happen and he had a problem with that on those hot summer days. "Never again so many young," he lamented.
Close to him lives R, a good and skilled and experienced fancier.
Of the 100 youngsters he bred he lost 82.
Mistakes are not likely for such a good fancier and it can't be a matter of quality either. "Sometimes I don't know," I said to the couple who were visiting me.
Although, as for losing youngsters you can ask for trouble.
TOO FAST
For example, many pigeons are lost due to impatience. The birds suffered from Adeno/Coli (can happen to the best of them), they are being cured, recovered but the latter only apparently.
They SEEM to have recovered, so they are on board, but they are not yet. At least not entirely. The resistance still leaves much to be desired. So losses is the result! The same thing you often see with pigeons that were lost, came back distraught and then basketed too early. It can happen that real good pigeons get home from a disastrous race, but not from the race afterwards. It came too soon. Again, the pigeon seemed to have recovered but was not. The color of the flesh around the sternum is an indicator. Because nothing is more painful than losing a proven good pigeon, I also pay attention to training. If such a 'doubter' is the last to fly out of the loft for the daily training and the first to land again, you don't really have to hesitate.
Keep the bird home.
'LAST TIME'
Countless good pigeons have also been lost in the last race of the year. Or rather, on the last race that counts for a championship. Such a pigeon is highly ranked, only needs to win just a prize to become Ace Pigeon.
Poor fancier who subordinates the preservation of a favourite pigeon to winning a silly cup. And poor pigeon, of course. Do you remember who had the second ace pigeon in your club three years ago?
'A bridge too far' was the title of that famous film. 'One race too many' is the tragic story of many good pigeons.
Also be careful at the start of the new season with a proven good bird that is always too late. Continuing to play is often fatal. It is not for nothing that such a pigeon always arrives too late.
I said all this to the young couple that visited me. Did they get my point? Hopefully.
Mr Rui, a friend and A S in Portugal.
ANOTHER THING:
Take the Dutchman. There is a lot of quality in his lofts, but performing? Whoa. A quarter of a century ago, I told him not to knock down the doors of all those vets. I just spoke to him again. He's playing just as badly as he did then. And again hardly a vet in the Netherlands or Belgium that he had not visited.
One said that his pigeons were fine, the other gave him something for sometimes a lot of money. But he didn't get any further. Again poor fancier, poor pigeons and maybe also poor vet. After all, there is little credit to be gained from customers like this, no matter how good-willed. And vets who say the truth? Vets who say ‘birds are in good shape, but they are rubbish’ may lose a client. Because that is not what the fancier wants to hear. H wants to go home with a magic bottle filled with dreams.
A S in Hungry with Mr Caroly Horvath. Schaerlaeckens pigeons made the Hungarian
a champion and a rich man.