Jo Herbots

HISTORY

For more than 25 years pigeon fanciers from all over the world have been contacting the Herbots family to inquire about their pigeons, making them one of the most prominent names in the international pigeon sport. Today the name Herbots guarantees reliability and quality. The Belgian Filip Herbots is the founder of the Herbots pigeon dynasty. He has been the world's most renowned pigeon fancier for 60 years. Filip and his brother Jos started keeping pigeons in 1955, at the age of 14 and 12 respectively. From a very young age, they showed their enthusiasm and wanted to make a name for themselves in the sport.

The Herbots siblings are Jo, Miet, Raf, Filip, Jacqueline, Cois, Kristof and Geoffrey. The sporting record of the Herbots brothers' pigeons is one of the most outstanding with national victories, European victories, Olympiad titles, as well as several placings in the KBDB national championships. They won the national competition "Gouden Duif" (golden pigeon of Belgium). Moreover, they have developed their own pigeon products and medicines for pigeons. They are a family with a lot of experience and a lot of pigeon breeding know-how thanks to their contacts and experience all over the world.

They have a career full of national victories, Olympiad titles, finals at the KBDB national championships... But the racing season 2013 is so far the best ever: their pigeon "Belgian Star" was 1st national as KBDB pigeon in the middle distance, "Magda" was 5th national KBDB pigeon in the middle distance in the first year of age and "George" was 9th national as KBDB pigeon.

One of the first memorable moments was the introduction of the Stočes bloodline, from which they obtained a total of 124 pigeons. They have also acquired pigeons from the Cerinx brothers (Nieuwerkerken, BE) and in 1991 the whole pigeon family of the grand champion Karel Schellens (Kessel) was transferred to the Herbots lofts in Halle-Booienhoven, situated in the Belgian province of Vlaams-Brabant. Halle Booienhoven belongs to the city of Zoutleeuw, together with three adjacent provinces: Vlaams-Brabant, Limburg and Liège. This whole area is known for the highest level of racing pigeon competitions.

Once located, the pigeons of Soontjens, Roman Loozen, Ludo Helsen and Van Avondt & Son were added later on; the last of which led to the sale of a whole round of young birds. One of these young birds, Queen 2000, won the title of 1st KBDB National Ace Medium Distance Pigeon in the year 2000. They acquired a few rounds of young birds from Camiel Nulens (Koersel, BE) and pigeons that Leo Heremans had bought in 2011 and 2012.

The Herbots family has always had the goal of trying to find better pigeons without being afraid to invest what is necessary to achieve that end. Fancier Kristof Daniels plays an important role in the success of the last two seasons. He became part of the team in Halle-Booienhoven after the death of Filip's brother Jos Herbots. Kristof used to be Jos' assistant. Filip describes Kristof as a man who knows his job. He has the natural ability to take care of pigeons and motivate them.

The most important breeding lines of Herbots are:

• "Nationaal I" (Schellens): 30% of his breeding is based on this line.
• "Yvan" (Deno/Vandenabeele/Vandersmissen): 15% of his pigeons are from this line. The dam of "Yvan" comes from the "Nationaal I" line.
• Line "155" (Grondelaers): 20% of his birds are based on this line. An example is the successful breeding form of "Kenzo" (B04-2116092), 1 national medium distance pigeon KBDB 2007.