Baerts Henry & Guy

HISTORY

Dirk Leenkens is a partner of Baerts H+G. In the 1990s, Dirks proposed to Henri and Guy to participate in long distance racing as his pigeons were perfect for this category. The Baerts H+G duo accepted this proposal, but Guy was convinced that success in long distance racing could only be achieved by very efficient pigeons. To achieve this goal, the pigeon fancier contacted As, a pigeon specialist, and started working with the top ten fanciers, all of whom came from Jos Thoné's pigeons.

From a very young age, Guy has always been a pigeon fancier. At the age of twelve, he decided to create his own loft with the help of his father. From then on, the colony has always been managed by him. Henri intervened in the loft when Guy needed help, but he was also always present when they were racing. 

Baerts Henri and Guy de Grazen have been winners in the long distance championships and in 2007 they took the podium in Oostende, winning with a coefficient margin of 23,43. Therefore, the Baerts duo Henri and Guy had a wonderful year in both Long Distance and Long Distance events. Besides the national title, they were also General Long Distance Champions in the Union Brabant, where they also won the Oscar for Long Distance. Apart from that they had the best pigeon in the club the "King Rhone".

The 2007 season started with 14 old widowers, twenty steers, 5 old pigeons and ten yearlings. The birds race when they are in classical widowhood. However in the broods it has to be made sure that the eggs of the most important widowers are placed under feeding pairs. As soon as they could, they trained the pigeons. The training of the pigeons consisted of starting with a distance of ten kilometres and to make them more relaxed, they are not allowed to see their young, even when they return home, (except when the pigeons are paired), so they start the new season.

The first scheduled race is usually Fleurus, 60 km, after that Momignies 120 km, Soissons 210 km, Toury 380 km and then it's Orleans, Vierzon or Bourges. Baerts' target is the longer races. They only race once a year and the last race was the Jarnac race with 700 km, but due to the avian flu in 2007, it was not possible to realise it. According to Guy the night races introduced during the last years are not the ideal training for yearling cockerels for a long distance race, especially for small lofts. The youngsters of the Baerts family are only trained to run 300 km.