From The Chairs - Bush Telegraph
By Chris Williams
For some time now it has been my privilege to write for the Australian pigeon journal, ever since I became a scribe I have always wanted to write articles about our sports finest fanciers from the four corners of the racing world and to that end I asked the editor of the Australian Pigeon Journal Mr Jeff Howell if he could recommend an Australian fancier who would make an excellent subject for an article, after all pigeon racing in the 21st century is a truly international affair and as we are all on a quest for knowledge then surely it’s about time we looked at how pigeon racing is done “down under”
Len Vanderlinde has been captivated by his love of racing pigeons since boyhood, however it was in 1964 at the age of 15 that his passion really began to take flight, for it was at this tender age that he made his first tentative steps in the world of competitive pigeon sport. In the year 1964 Len joined the Queensland Homing Society in partnership with his father. However as is often the case the pigeons soon gave way to the distractions of youth, but as the saying goes once a pigeon man always a pigeon man and now that he had settled down with his wife and family, Len’s attention was firmly focused upon our feathered friends once more. He says “the sport was never far from my thoughts”, so in 1984 he re-joined the Queensland Homing society, winning his first race that very same year, racing a team of 32 birds out to a distance of 700miles. Len says “ I don’t think I could do that today! The next big step in Len’s pigeon racing journey came in the year 1987 when he topped the Queensland Racing pigeon Federation in a 510 mile race from Cobar, with a yearling cock that arrived victorious at 8pm on a cold dark night in July (winter time in Australia) this event lives vividly in the mind of this master fancier who told me; It remains today as one of the many highlights I can vividly recall of birds arriving home over the years. Over a staggeringly successful seventeen year period our subject continued to win more than his share of races while competing with the Queensland Homing society, at this time by, winning numerous races and club championships.
After taking retirement in 2004 Len and his Wife Val relocated to the eastern suburbs of Brisbane and here Len joined the strong Cannon Hill club, unfortunately it would seem that the universal problem of our sport is jealousy and one un-scrupulous told Len “he was racing with the big boys now and they would show him how it was done”. Len told me: I have never been worried about competition. The better it is the harder you try! As I digested this information it struck me that this “Will to win “ and determination is what sets the true racing champion distinctly apart from the “also rans” because they are content to let their basket and birds do the talking!
Len has won the clubs championship six times, and in 2014 he won the Queensland Pigeon Federation Open Averages. Of this momentous achievement this true champion says:
I had been close in previous years, sometimes leading the averages coming into the final long two day races, but these races have never been my strong point, not nearly as consistent in these races compared to the on the day races. In 2014 I had a great year, one of those years when everything went right, although it certainly did not look that way earlier in year. The birds were very healthy but the peregrine falcon took a liking to my loft and attacked the birds repeatedly during the late summer months, day after day she would turn up when the birds were out and not yet fully packed up and working. I lost several and a number were injured but when she finally gave up, the pigeons really took off and raced very well that year. As in pigeon sport, life does not always go according to plan and in late 2014 Len was diagnosed with a serious illness and had to undergo surgery. Thankfully, Len is now fully recovered and can give the sport he loves his undivided attention! Wanting to know more about Len , I asked who had been his biggest influences were within the fancy? The biggest influence was a friend named Les McCormick, who had been a Changi prisoner during the war, Changi was one of the more notorious Japanese POW camps. His attitude to racing and life in general was beyond reproach and he was a tremendous role model for me and an exceptionally good pigeon fancier.
Now that we have looked at the psyche of the fancier let us turn our attention to the “tools of his trade” the pigeons and their loft.
At the time of his novitiate within the fancy the vast majority of Lens birds stemmed from the old Brisbane families, this type of pigeon particularly excelled at the distance races as a matter of fact the pedigree of the cock bird which won the 510 mile race from Cobar as a yearling back in the 80s contained this blood and it is interesting to note that a small number of Len’s modern day pigeons still contain these lines.
Len told me that “Back in those early days we all thought that the short races were just a lottery. That is until 1990 when the imports arrived on our shores. Up until this time all pigeon imports into Australia were banned, had been since the early 1940’s. What a difference these new imports made, sure there were many poor birds among them, no different to any other line of pigeons, but when you got hold of the good ones they made a mockery of the lottery theory”.
In 1991 in conjunction with a friend Len purchased a pigeon by the name of “Balco 90 1626” via Rangeview Stud, this inbred cock bird was based on the Dutch long distance Janssen lines. The plan was to pair this introduction to Len’s old family of pigeons in order as he says, “to get some speed in them”. The Janssen cock was paired onto a Balfe Harrison hen that had bred a 500-mile Open Fed winner Len explained: I kept two cocks and a hen for stock from this mating. From one of the cocks, when he was mated with a Janssen hen from Rob Wilson, I bred QHS 98 555 BBW/FH, this hen raced over a period of three years and was in the clock ten times taking several firsts, pools and other minor positions. Speaking of this excellent racer Len says “she flew 650 miles as a yearling, she won champion and grand champion at a local pigeon show two years running and still I never put her into stock, Why, because I didn’t want to breed pied back then (neither of her parents were pied). In 2002 I finally relented and put 555 into stock, I mated her with 559, a pigeon I was gifted by Syd and Lesley Gard bred from a Staf van Reet hen paired with a Mueleman cock and as they say the rest is history. In their first season they bred me 5 club winners and today every bird in my loft, that I call my day birds, carry the bloodline of these two great pigeons. They remain today my foundation No.1 pair and I look to maintain this bloodline at all times because I know these pigeons will win for me at any distance and any velocity as long as they can get home on the day.
Like the vast majority of fanciers Len has added crosses to the family but always breeding back to the base line, based on performance. Other Staf van Reets have been used, along with other Janssens and Muelemans with very good results, but by far the best cross so far has been the Gaby Vandenabeele birds.
One of these Vandenabeele introductions came to the loft via Shaun Elliott, this hen descended from the world-renowned Myrtle Loft Vandenabeeles, of M & D Evans from the UK. Len paired this hen to an inbred son from his number one breeding pair. A triple prize winning daughter from the No.1 pair when mated back to her sire 559) produced a very good stock cock QPF 06 641 Blue Pencil (641 ), who when mated with QPF 05 12800, a Staf van Reet hen down from the Rangeview Stud RS1, 2 & 4 lines (12800 bred my Mitchell 510klms Open Fed winner and are the parents, grandparents and great grandparents to numerous top winners and minor prize winners . One exceptional racer from this pairing came in the form of the Dark Pencil cock ring number QPF 08 8106 of which Len told me the following: this cock was clocked late on the day after an all-day fly from 615 klms for 11th Open Fed 1051 mpm and two weeks later from the same race point I clocked him again in the middle of the day for 5th Open Fed 1771 mpm. 8106 has bred many good birds including QPF 11 11085 Pencil W/F (11085 ) Cock who was clocked after dark at 6.26pm from a hard 680 klms Open Fed National (11 hour 41 minutes on the wing) to win the section and 8th Open fed, beaten by lofts flying 30 klms shorter and clocking during daylight. This same cock had earlier landed with the club winner from 150 klms, topping the Fed @ 1214mpm, and again at 220 klms winning the club and topping the Fed @ 1046mpm. 11085 was lost the following year. But beforehand he bred QPF 13 12117 BBH that won 1st Open Fed 450klms in 2014. I could fill this article many times over with examples of Lens exceptional birds, but let us now turn our attention to the racing and the methods that are used.
The racing season in Brisbane takes place in their winter months from May till October commencing at 86 miles to over 600 miles. Len told me: We race mainly young birds or more correctly yearlings, 9 to 12 months old and have no need to “darken” the loft to delay the moult, rather the opposite is true, we need to get the birds completely through the moult before the first race. Like us, in the UK, falcon attacks are an all too common occurrence and it is for this reason that the majority of the racing workload falls to the hens and yearling birds, the thinking behind this code of practice in Lens eyes is “if you keep the birds at it, sooner or later a falcon will take the bird”. I was surprised to learn that the Australian fancy appears to be ahead of the game when it comes to the trend of racing hens about which Len has the following to say: I am often bemused to read where Europe is starting to at last race their hens, realising that they are just as competitive as the cocks. We have been doing that for the last 60 years, particularly for the long races. Also, a lot of our longer races are won during the hours of darkness. The so called “old Brisbane family” of pigeons are renowned for their ability to home during the night and fanciers go to a lot of trouble to enhance this ability. There is no twilight here, in the middle of winter sundown is at 5pm and it is dark by 5.30pm. Feeding them after dark is also a big help in getting them to home during darkness. The Federation has special rules to cover birds clocked during the hours of darkness. The stock birds go together 55 to 60 days prior to the last race of the year. This ensures that Lens first round youngsters are ready to enter the racing loft on the weekend of the final race of that year (1st or 2nd week in October). In the past Len has found that late bred birds interfere with his system and so does not bother with them. He tells me: Two rounds from the stock with all the young in the race loft well before Christmas, and ready for my off-season routine is my aim. I breed approximately 100 to 110 youngsters to add to the 20 or so old birds that I like to carry over each year. Regarding medication Len does not treat the stock birds for anything other than lice and worms before breeding starts as he desires both old and young birds to develop as strong and natural an immune system as possible. A product called Eprinex, which is registered as a cattle wormer is used to treat the birds for external parasites, such as lice and Len says I have not had any adverse reactions to its use in my birds, however, I do find that it is not much good for worms, but neither is the Moxidectin Plus that I also sometimes use. Avitol Plus I have found to be the best for worming the birds, but it is harsh on the stock and I do not use it every year.
In preparation for the breeding season the birds have their feed cut to reduce their internal fat. To try and achieve this the barely content of feed is increased during the lead up to mating, Len went on saying “During the actual breeding season they are fed a varied mixture of grains, as many different grains as I can find, plus some pellets to try and ensure they have everything they need for healthy, well reared young. They also get all the usual pink minerals, various grits, and pick stones. I also grow green feed, New Zealand, and Indian Spinach; that I try to give them as often as possible. In addition, there is a pot of dun peas in front of them all day once they have young in the nest. I also believe it is especially important to have some dry droppings in the stock loft that the birds can pick through, which they certainly do. Pigeons are a flock bird, and I believe they pass their natural immunity to each new generation through the dry droppings. I have proved this theory to my satisfaction several times. It is possible to cure a loft of resident canker, by obtaining droppings from a loft that is normally canker free”. Len separates his youngsters into cocks and hens when in the race loft, he says “This is an important requirement for my system. I want the birds to learn to break either to the left or the right, into the hen or cock sections, as they enter the loft through the corridor after exercise. I can also allow them to move from their sections into the rear nest box section via the small openings in the bottom of the doors, which I allow them to do every Saturday and every time that they return from a toss or race. This is part of the reward I use to stimulate and motivate them to race home, I consider it a type of semi-widowhood I am now in my off-season or moulting season. At this loft the youngsters receive no medication except a treatment for lice and pigeon flies for which the birds will be dipped in Coopex (Permethrin) for pigeon flies, if they are a problem, to ensure the new feathers are not damaged by these blood suckers that can be a problem in the warmer months in Brisbane. If it is necessary, he will treat the odd bird for canker if needed, but no mass medication program. Any bird that gets sick, losing weight etc. will be disposed of. It is hard enough to win races with healthy birds, let alone sick ones, as Len was told by a good mentor many years ago. As I read this part of me could not help jumping for joy because it clearly shows that success in pigeon sport is found in strong selection and not in pills and potions so thanks Len for restoring my faith!
The youngsters are fed to appetite with a good variety of grains & seeds, plenty of grits, pink minerals, and pick-stones. On Wednesdays, every bird in the yard, including the wild birds, get iodine in the drinking water, 6 to 8 drops of Sanichick per litre for the day (3ml to 10 litres is the correct dose). In the evening Len gives the race birds vitamins & minerals on their feed, moistened with a special oil that he makes up. This is done 52 weeks of the year, to ensure it is part of their normal weekly routine. When it comes to the young bird team Len only lets them out in the evening hens one day, cocks the next from October to January. By doing this Len keeps tight control over the birds and they respond well when told to enter the loft. Len explained: Between Christmas and New Year’s Day the birds are vaccinated for pigeon pox and lately for PMV1. I also cut, and 10 to 14 days later pull the last flight during this time. I have tried cutting and pulling the last two flights, but I prefer doing just one flight, which allows the birds to stay more mobile. Every effort is made to get the birds through the moult with a good set of feathers, too much work for the birds at this time only slows the moult in my opinion; they also get a bath out on the lawn as often as I can during this time. My aim is to get them through a full moult as quickly as possible. I also use garlic in the drinking water several days a week, and apple cider vinegar during wet weather, all through the off season. Len has fans in his loft that are set are set to run automatically for 15 minutes each hour during the day, all through the hot humid summer days. Len then explained “I attach my training crates to the front of the race loft during the off season, to allow the birds to come out and get more sun, and also to get them used to entering the crates. I can also teach them to eat & drink in these training crates.”
In late January and early February Len starts letting them out in the morning and teaching them to trap. The hens will go out each morning and the cocks in the afternoon for one week, and then the roles are reversed. For the first few weeks the birds are allowed fly as much or as little as they want then they are shown the flag and all the birds are put into the air and then the flag is removed straight away, Len explained this system to me as follows: I am looking to achieve two things, firstly to get them to all go up together, and secondly to get them somewhat use to the flag. During this time the birds continue being given as much food as they want but any birds that are slow to trap may not get anything to eat to teach them to enter the loft when Len calls them. He uses a rattle to call them in. Len told me that at this point in the year birds of prey can be a particular problem he says “this can make it extremely hard for me to get them up and going. I am letting them out at about 5pm at this stage and will work back as the days get shorter and the weather gets cooler, until I have them out and working for 30 minutes and back in the loft before dark. In the morning they are out about 6.15am and called in about 7.15am”. The season starts on the 1st weekend in May, and Len aims to start the road work at least six weeks prior to this. I will let him explain: My aim so far has been to get the race birds through the moult. Get them use to the loft routine, the flag as a signal to work, and particularly the expectation that every Saturday they get to go into the rear nest box section.
Feeding has been all they want and out for exercise once per day up until now.
By late February (late summer) I am looking to have the birds packed up and flying a little, but still separated, one lot out in the morning and the other in the evening for the first week or so. I put them all up with the flag, let them fly and come back down as they please, but with the loft locked-up. 15 to 30 minutes later I put them all back up again using the flag. I continue this until they are packed up and working on their own.
On the 20th March, the day of the equinox, when there are equal amounts of light and dark, I turn the loft lights on to auto. These lights have special daylight tubes and simulate normal daylight.
Sundown in Brisbane on the shortest day of the year is about 5pm, so I set the lights to come on just before 5pm, and to go out in a staged manner from 7.15 to 7.30pm to give the birds time to find their perches. The lights stay on auto from now until the end of the race season, and the birds are fed after exercise in the morning, and in the evening at 6.15pm. It is noticeable that birds fed after dark with the lights make no effort to perch until they are fed.
The lights also help the birds to complete a full moult of the flights as quickly as possible, by keeping the light at least 12 hours each day, and I find they stay more active throughout the race season with the extra light.
By the middle of March, they are on the lights every day and are now let out altogether morning and night. I have roll up blinds fitted to the front of the loft and these are let down each night during the winter months, to keep the moisture out of the loft. The fans that were on auto during the summer months are now turned off. I may use the fans manually if needed during the race season.
The birds are now used to the flag and realise that when it is up, they stay up but come down as soon as the flag is lowered. I work the team for 30 minutes only; morning and evening. My birds work in a tight pack and tend to fly fast in straight runs, going about a 1 kilometre away and racing back.
The 10th flight that I pulled back in January was fully grown in 8 weeks and this gives them a very stable wing, which makes the job of getting them up and working much easier at this time of the year.
The birds mainly self-separate as they enter the loft, because that is what they have been used to during the off season. There are always a few that get it wrong and I use a tennis racket to get them over into their correct side. It is surprising how quickly they learn the routine, and I can have them all in, fed and separated in 10 minutes.
As soon as I have them up and flying freely for at least 30 minutes, and ranging a little, I start tossing them at short distances of 5 to 6klms, I am just looking to get them into the habit of going into the training crates, coming out at the release point, returning home quickly, and finding the nest box section open for them.
I use Google earth on the internet to determine the flight path from the first & second race point to my loft, and I look for toss points on this line of flight for the first 6 or 8 tosses.
As I said before they can mix freely in the nest box section every time they return from these tosses, and every Saturday.
Len guides the birds into the training crates the same ones that were on the front of the loft all through the off season, to take them training. The birds have also been taught to eat in these crates by adding feed troughs to the back of the crates with small seed. The objective now in Lens words is to get my young race team trained up to 100klms prior to the first race. At this stage I am now into my regular weekly race routine. Every bird that is well enough goes to a race or a 100klm toss every Saturday. They are allowed in the nest section when they return and are well fed. I want every bird to spend a minimum of 1 hour on the wing from the toss and prefer an hour & half flight.
I am looking to have them fit and raring to go by Saturday each week, but certainly NOT in the early part of the week, and my efforts are therefore aimed at bringing them down in the early part of the week and lifting them up at the end. He achieves this by firstly racing or tossing them on the Saturday and then reducing the quantity and quality of feed on Monday and Tuesday. After which they are very hungry, and I start to increase both the quantity and quality of feed from Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on whether we are basketing on the Thursday or Friday night.
They get more wheat and barley in the earlier part of the week, and more maize towards the end, plus some small seeds on basketing day just to top them off. Like many in the fancy Len listens and reads a great deal about the feeding and management of racing pigeons he says: “I read somewhere that feeding them maize is carbohydrate loading, but I don’t believe this because maize also contains significant quantities of oil and I also believe that it contains the correct balance between oils or fats and carbohydrates, which is very important”.
Len strives to foster an appetite within his birds early on in the week, while at the same time satisfying their hunger. This is not always an easy task. He tries to make it so that they do not want any more to eat, by the afternoon of the basketing day, even though their crops are pretty much empty. When I get them like that and they handle with nice rounded “blown-up” breast muscles, he knows they are ready to race. They now must use up that condition with a race or toss to bring them back down and get them ready for the next week’s preparation. The birds basic feed mix consists of 4 parts corn, 3 parts wheat, one-part milo, 1-part Barley, 1-part peas and 1 part each of sunflower, safflower & pellets. Len adds barley to lighten the mix and more corn when needed. The corn ration is also increased during the race season, depending on what type of races we are experiencing, usually it gets up to 8 parts corn or double what he started with. All the grains are cleaned, mixed and sun dried by Len before use. He will also make-up a small seed mix of equal parts canary seed & French white millet with rice, linseed, safflower & sunflower kernels added. They get this seed mix every Saturday & Sunday and a small amount as their last feed prior to basketing.
Observation is a key component of successful competitive pigeon racing and this art is not lost on Len he told me “Just before the start of the race season I may start medicating my race birds, depending on how they are going, every year is different, and I try to change to suit what the birds are telling me through observation of their behaviour. I will treat them for coccidoisis, e-coli, canker & respiratory problems if required. However, once the race season is in full swing and the birds are going in the race crates and mixing with other birds, I start a regular medication program against canker & respiratory problems on a 3-week basis. I use the usual medications, Resfite, Triple X, Turbosole, Emtryl, Baycox & Sulpha AVS as needed etc.
Grit and pink minerals are replaced every Saturday. On Sunday they are out together and given a bath and allowed to relax for an hour or two while still mixed, after which they are called in, fed and separated.
It is hard to keep my pigeons at their peak for the entire race season, but by racing or training them every weekend, bringing them down in the early part of the week, before lifting them again as the next weekend approaches, as well as giving them preventive medication, I can get them through the season in very good form for most of the races.
I rarely toss them during the week, except perhaps in the lead up to a major race, but I have found that, if I have my birds in form they do not need the mid-week toss, in fact they perform less well when tossed during the week in many cases. Again, it is something that changes from year to year or race to race depending on the response I get from the birds. A late afternoon toss can be a very good weapon to bring the birds on if that magical form is missing.
I race my pigeons in teams, on a fortnightly basis, but I don’t hesitate to double a bird back if I notice it has come home from the previous race well, and has bloomed during the week; and I have had a lot of success with these double-back birds.
As I said earlier the birds get iodine in their water and the race birds’ get oil and vitamins on their feed every Wednesday evening for 52 weeks of the year. I make up my own oil mixture, using a variety of oils that are available in most supermarkets or health food shops, I look for those that are particularly high in omega 3 & 6.
To this oil mixture I add crushed garlic, multivitamins, vitamin E and Co-enzyme Q10 and shake the lot together and store in the fridge. I add this oil to their grain and cover the lot with powdered minerals/vitamins before giving to the race birds. I have found that Wednesday is the key day of the week for me to give them this during the race season. I have also found that powered minerals/vitamins on their feed are better for my birds then those added to the water
Good quality feed is vitally important to me but is not always easy to find. I try to have enough corn, wheat & milo in store for the entire season.
I use a lot of maize during the race season and I usually buy my feed in bulk from the grain silos, and as stated; I clean the grain very well before mixing and sun drying it and then storing in my feed bins. It is a lot of work, but I think it is worth it.
I will worm the race birds out around about the 350klm stage, just before we get to the Thursday night basketing. I use Avitrol Plus at this stage, which is harsh on the birds and takes them down a bit, but of course they come back up even better, just as the good middle-distance races are starting.
Every race season and race team are different and therefore I will make small changes to the system, mainly with the medication program, tossing and of course feeding. Feeding is without doubt one of the most important components of my system, if I can master the feeding, I know I will have a good season.”
A snapshot of some of the success Len has had over the years with his pigeons.
1st CHPC Club Championship, 1st QRPF South Section Championship, 1st QRPF Open Fed Championship, 1st QRPF 2nd Series Championship, 1st QRPF Short Distance Championship.
There you have it ladies and Gents Len Vanderlinde a true Australian Champion!
