Interview with Jo Herbots

WINKIE: Where does your interest for pigeon racing start? JO HERBOTS: Our whole story started with my grandfather. The father of my father was fond of racing pigeons. At that time, many people had pigeon racing as a mere hobby. My father and my uncle, Jos and Filip, inherited their passion for pigeons from my grandfather. It was in the early 80's, when my father started with a small pigeon business. The good results with some pigeons did not take long to arrive and some visitors who came began to ask if they knew of a fancier who wanted to sell good pigeons for competition. This is how my father got a light bulb on his head and thought that this sport could be an incredible business. We are five brothers and we all had to help with the pigeons the weekend, giving them food, cleaning the loft, etc. That's how it was, thanks to my father, that I became interested in pigeon racing. WINKIE: How do you remember your beginnings in pigeon racing? JO HERBOTS: It was a very beautiful time. I was a boy, I was 10-12 years old and we were in charge of cleaning the loft, feeding the pigeons, studying one and the other, their behavior, their attitude, etc. And, of course, I remember it as a period of very good times with my brothers and my father. WINKIE: Through what fancier did you start in pigeon racing? JO HERBOTS: My father is to blame for everything we know about pigeons and this sport. He was, without a doubt, my mentor. He showed us the finesse of this activity, the details, how to judge whether a pigeon is good to compete or not, how to feed it, how to care for it, all in a professional manner, not as a pet. Also, he instilled in me everything I know about the pigeon fancy business, therefore, I have to thank him from the bottom of my heart for everything I have learned at his side. WINKIE: In your breeding picture there are only champion or big offspring pigeons. What has been your criterion to acquire these pigeons? JO HERBOTS: It all starts with a good family. We have always looked for a good family of pigeons. One that achieves good results and that works well in the races. And also, that they can become good breeders. We prefer to breed starting from the base of pigeons with very good results in competition. We have found that the chances of having good offspring to compete later increase, enormously, if a good family is used and reproducers with good results in races. The family and the genetics of the reproducers are very important. Of course you can increase the possibilities using inbreeding, but this should only be done with very good breeders, with the best of your loft. The possibility of having offspring that later work well in races, is much higher if the best breeding birds are used, than if any other bird is used. WINKIE: Tell us something about your facilities/loft. JO HERBOTS: We started with a very small team. When we started competing we were a small team, my father led us. If I can give a harvest to the fans, when you start pigeon racing and you're alone, it's better to do it with a small number of pigeons; 30 or 40 young birds, 10 breeding pairs, 25 adults or competition yeralings. The reason is that to be successful in this business, as a fancier, you must know everything about your pigeons; and with this I mean, when they are hungry, how to stimulate them, what is the psychological state of the pigeons, etc. And, when you have many in your charge, you can not dedicate the time each of them needs. At the beginning of the 90s, we were 4 or 5 people in charge of the loft and we could take care of more birds because each one had a function; one trained them, another fed them, another took care of the health of the same ... and that is how we could go forming a bigger and bigger loft. I have been doing this work only, cleaning the pigeon loft, feeding, training the pigeons by myself until 2005. Afterwards, the business started to grow which meant, that I had to dedicate more time to the administrative part and hire a responsible for the loft that would take care of the birds directly. Now, we have a team of 200 young pigeons, 50 breeding pairs and we compete with 120 adults and yearlings (males and females). WINKIE: What training system do you usually use for the competition? JO HERBOTS: For our loft, training is the most important, especially at the beginning of the season. In Belgium, it starts in April and lasts until the first week of September. This means that in March we started to train our competition team, as much as possible, because we depend on weather conditions and in Belgium the weather can be very cold even in March. When time permits, we start with 5 km, doubling it to 10, 15, 30, 40 and 50 km which is the maximum. We keep training until we see that the pigeons, once you open the basket, fly back, directly to the loft, and do not stay at the point where you have opened the basket for them to fly. We train with a car and when we reach the distance we want, we stop and open the baskets to see if the pigeons return to the loft. Sometimes it happens that, you open the basket and the pigeon keeps circling the car in which we have transported it to the point of release and it is not clear how to return home. That means that that pigeon is not ready yet and it has to keep training. We continue this training system during the competition season, until we are about 200 kms away. What is the official competition program of the Club. During the season we do not train every day, because we would end up wearing the pigeons, we only do it once or twice a week, depending on the time and the physical and psychic condition of the pigeon. Our pigeons train twice a day, one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. When we see that the pigeons are not training well in the morning, they suspend the afternoon and let them rest. If we see that, directly, in the pigeon house they are active, we open the cage, they go out and fly ... that means they are ready to train. It is, then, when we take the car and travel the relevant distance to release them and return to the loft. Normally, first we release the hens and 5 minutes later the cocks, so the hen is already at home and the cock has a more important reason to return to the loft. WINKIE: In what discipline or distance do you compete at a higher level? JOS HERBOTS: We focus on the 100-700 kilometers, the average distance. It is our favorite and the reason is simple; After our experience, we know, exactly, when and how long it will take the pigeons to return home, whether they will or will not, and it takes no more than half an hour to discover it. In long distances, greater than 700 kilometers such as Barcelona, €‹€‹1,100 kilometers, you need half a day to see if the pigeon will return home or not and, personally, I do not have the time to dedicate myself to it. If we want to compete in long distance, Barcelona or Perpignan, we use a partner in Germany specialized only in long distance. In our loft, in Belgium, we focus on 100-700 kilometers, which means a two-day-a-week training, Thursday and Friday, and our pigeons have the rest of the week to rest and not be disturbed by another type of routine. WINKIE: Do you consider yourself a specialist at some distance? JO HERBOTS: Personally, I prefer the 500-kilometer races because it is the highest competition in Belgium, it is competed nationally, all the Belgian teams participate, and winning this type of release is a satisfaction. We have won the Belgian league four times in first position, in each Olympiad we represent Belgium with one or two pigeons. Even, we have several ACE, pigeons that have won the prize for the best competition bird of the year, it would be something like the Golden Ball if we translate it into football terms, which this past year was Cristiano Ronaldo. Well, our Ronaldo is called Yvan, and is the best competition and breeding pigeon that we have right now in our loft. You can not be the best at all distances. You have to focus on a concrete and try to be the best in it. Our specialty is the short and medium distance. We can be very proud to say that in the last 10-15 years, we are always within the top ten as far as the Belgian league is concerned. This position is achieved and maintained with hard work, a lot of passion for what is done, with love and dedication. WINKIE: How do you proceed selecting the breeders? JO HERBOTS: We select them, firstly, for the good results they get in the races and, also, we take into account the pedigree. Both qualities are fundamental to decide which pigeon will be a breeder and which will not. WINKIE: Do you use consanguinity or are you more in favor of open crosses? JO HERBOTS: When we talk about breeding animals, consanguinity is more common. In my opinion, if the purpose is competitive, consanguinity should not be used. If you want a good competitor, a good pigeon that is efficient, can fly and act correctly in any of the disciplines that you want to compete, you must have a consanguinity part but another part that is not. That other half, should come from a good breeder but not from the same family, which is what that consanguinity means. If you mix it like that, you will have a very good result. WINKIE: In what cases do you use consanguinity? JO HERBOTS: Only for the breeders. WINKIE: Do you have a preference for some line of pigeons? JO HERBOTS: Our pigeons come from three families. The first to appear on the scene was, Jan Grondelaers, an incredible person, with fantastic results in the races at the end of the 70s at the beginning of the 80s. Jan always looked for the best pigeons for our team. Later, in 1991, we decided to buy the entire Karel Schellens loft. This man was, at that time, one of the richest people in Belgium, with a company dedicated to the diamond with more than 400 employees and pigeons were his hobby. When I went to bird auctions I always bought the best quality ones. In the early 90s, Karel fell ill and wanted to sell his entire loft. We had the immense luck of being able to acquire it. We bought the breeders from Schellens and we sold them to competing pigeons. From the team of breeding pigeons of Schellens came the National 1 bird, which is one of the five best breeding birds in the world. This pigeon was born in 1986, with serial number 314, and 30 years later it is still one of the best reproducers. The third family appears on the scene in 1991. It is about Jos Soontjes, who had the best team of short-distance pigeons in Belgium. That year we exchanged some chicks to see if they adapted to our loft and we could train them as well as he did. It was great, they were winning week by week. From Soontjes we got DEN 155, who became one of the founders of our breeding team. These families, crossed with the champions of today, are the success of our loft. WINKIE: What is your working system with the pigeons that are born and prepare for the first races? JO HERBOTS: We separate pigeons from mothers when they are 25 days old. We treat them with some vaccines and start eating on their own. When time permits, we take them out of the cage, so they can walk a little, so they become familiar with the environment. When the bird begins to fly, it leaves about ten fifteen minutes and returns to the loft, it is the moment that we started with the training. We use a car and a basket. At first, we let them get used to the basket here in the loft because otherwise they get stressed if we place them directly in the car with the basket. Then, step by step, starting from the 5 kilometers, 10 kilometers, depending on how they return to the loft, and so on, until we reach the distance in which we want them to compete. WINKIE: What is your level of demand with the yearlings? How far do you usually get with them? JO HERBOTS: We started with 200 yearlings. It is a large team, but there are four people in the loft who are in charge of caring for them. Therefore, it is manageable and all of them can be covered. All our young pigeons reach up to 550 kilometers. In recent years there have been some losses of yearlings, around 50% do not return home and there are several theories, such as telephone antennas, GPS, etc. It is for this reason, that if we see that we lose many pigeons, we train a second team up to 300-400 kilometers. We leave this group in reserve and wait at the end of the season to see if it is necessary to launch them into competition or not. WINKIE: What element should not be missing in a pigeon house? JO HERBOTS: The point of view that you should never lose in the pigeon house is the environment, what I call the feeling that comes from within. When you enter a pigeon house you should feel happiness, first of all, in addition to that you breathe tranquility and cleanliness. Inside the pigeon house you should feel comfortable, without wind, without strong pigeon smell, without cold, etc. From here I can not tell you how you have to build a loft, because there are many circumstances at play, the wind, humidity, if it is not surrounded by walls, if it is more outdoors ... if you are in a country like Spain warmer than here. There are many circumstances that make a loft different from another, but the most important thing is that cozy feeling, of happiness that must be breathed into the environment. WINKIE: Do you think there's a secret in pigeon racing to be a champion? JO HERBOTS: The secret is not to take more pigeons than you can control. You have to know everything about your birds, both physically and mentally. You have to start from the base of a good breeder and a lot of dedication. You must know, through permanent observation, what needs one bird with respect to another, what it eats, what it sees, what it feels, what it needs, how to motivate one or the other to fly. It is summarized, in being very constant and very observant with your pigeons. WINKIE: What requirements must a person have in order to succeed as a fancier? JO HERBOTS: Have a passion for this activity, be constant, practice as a psychologist with your pigeons and see what needs not only physical but also emotional. Being very observant with birds is the most important thing. WINKIE: What method of feeding do you use for your pigeons? JO HERBOTS: Food is a key factor when it comes to success with pigeons. When the birds are training, or go through periods of high performance, you have to adapt your diet also to the moment. In winter we feed them in a totally different way than we do in competition periods. In race time we use several mixtures of food for birds with very good results. At the beginning of pigeon racing, it was said that for a pigeon to surrender, first it had to be left without strength and exhausted and with little weight, almost without fat or energy, to then make it grow during the training period. At the beginning of the week, during the training period, we had to feed at a very low energy and caloric level and then, at the end of the week, increase that energy. Well, that was a method that was used in the past but, today, we have been able to observe that pigeons have better performance and results when we feed them equally throughout the competition time. Once the racing season is over, we try to feed and keep our pigeons in the same conditions that they went to compete. In the morning, we give them a soup spoonful of pigeon feed per bird and, in the afternoon, two spoonfuls. After 30 minutes after the second take in the afternoon, we remove the remaining food from the feeder. I recommend that each bird be fed independently since, in this way, you can control the intake of each of them and detect possible problems in the future. Sometimes, we even get to feed three times a day, when it comes to long distance competitions or in special cases where the birds demand it. WINKIE: Depending on the type of release, do you vary the feeding method? JO HERBOTS: Yes, of course. Depending on whether it is short, medium or long distance, the food varies and, above all, the energy supplements that we give, which we make ourselves. For short distances we do not supply much fat as it translates into energy, and the pigeons themselves have enough energy for short distances. For medium distance we supply more fat, for long distance even more and so on. The preparation is achieved in the following manner; for 1 kilo of special feed for pigeons in competition season, we add a tablespoon of our energy supplements. But keep in mind that the pigeons that should train more, for example, the long-distance ones, They also need extra energy supplements, especially in season. WINKIE: Do you follow a sanitary program throughout the year in your loft? How often do you go to the vet? JO HERBOTS: Yes. My brother, Raphael, is a veterinarian and specializes in pigeons. He is in charge of the follow-up and health development of the pigeons. In competition time, my brother examines the pigeons every week, after returning from the races. Also, it is in charge of establishing a medical program, if necessary, to give certain medicines to the pigeons if necessary. I advise people who do not have a veterinarian at home 24 hours a day, to come to the clinic to check their pigeons before the breeding season, before the competition season and during the racing season as such. That is, a minimum of 3 times a year would be ideal. WINKIE: What do you think has changed in this sport in recent years? JO HERBOTS: The truth is that, unfortunately, this sport is not becoming popular. It is not communicating well in what it consists and it is not being transmitted to the new generations all the qualities that the pigeon fancier has. There is not much emphasis or effort in promoting this activity. The fanciers are getting older and there is no evolution towards the new generations. What has changed, over the years, is the professionalization of sport. It is increasingly common for pigeon racing to develop in a more and more professional way. I know, only in Belgium, more than 50 families that can live from the professionalization of this discipline. Thirty years ago there were 100,000 fanciers in Belgium, because it was a very popular activity. And now there are many less fans of this sport, but those that are, are very professional and, in many cases, can live from it. WINKIE: As for pigeon racing, what is your vision about the future of this sport? JO HERBOTS: I think the future is about focusing and motivating new fanciers because they are the key. We must focus on new fanciers, with a profile of between 35-40 years, young people, with stable jobs and time to dedicate to this sport. With some stability, already settled, with their families who want to dedicate the time and money to develop this activity. This is the future of pigeon racing. WINKIE: What role do you think the Derbys play as a type of competition? Do you think they are becoming more and more popular? JO HERBOTS: If you compare it with what happened 10-15 years ago, yes, they are increasingly popular. Each country has about five derbies per year. But it is not what happens in Belgium. Derbys are not very popular in my country because we are the founders of this sport and here every fancier can participate in 5 or 6 competitions every weekend. In other places you can only compete at a distance or only once, here in Belgium, you can do it much more often, which is why derbys are not so popular. WINKIE: How do you see the future of pigeon racing in Spain? JO HERBOTS: Spain is a new market for me. But I have been watching over the past few years how it is becoming, pigeon racing, in a sport more and more in demand. This gives me great satisfaction because it means that our sport is getting more and more followers, which is very good. People are beginning to understand that if you want to win, you need good pigeons, good coaches, good food and good supplements. If you invest a little, the reward is much greater.