A visit to
LOUIS ADRIAENSSEN
OF GROBBENDONK
Vanrobaeys Star Speed champion with old birds and yearlings
by Sue & Ken Skelton
Bill with Louis Adriaenssen
Our good friend Harry Eade, who reads the Belgium newspapers, showed me a piece in it about the above fancier being a Champion in young birds and yearlings so we decided to see if we could get the whole address for him. Our first visit was to Paul Rozier who rang him and arranged an appointment. So off we went on a hot Sunday morning. When we pulled up, his wife came out to greet us but didn’t speak any English and nether did Louis but he had brought his wife’s cousins husband to help out, and what a surprise to find he was an Englishman called Bill Green of Ipswich who was over there in the 50s in the forces, met his Belgian wife and came back to England with her and having now retired back over in Belgium. As you can guess, it was a big help and the start of a lovely day.
Louis started off when he was 27 being a racing cyclist and after four years he was Champion of Belgium having had 146 victories in 6 yrs as a cyclist, but his career ended after he had a crash with a car. His pigeon career started by watching his friend Rene Cambre racing then in 1969 he decided to go into pigeons with the Mayor of Grobbendonk after building a loft and putting Rene Cambre pigeons in it along with some from his brother-in-law John Smets who was the Mayor. These two taught him lots of things to do with the pigeons and he knew all along that he wanted to be a champion and he said since then he has never really had a bad season.
His pigeons are based on the following: he got them off his Friend Dirk Van Dyck, also off Van Laer of Polle and Alfons Slaets of Lint and Luc Van Mechelen of Rournout and just recently Habraken-Ducheyne, but the majority are Van Dyck pigeons and it is with the ones he calles the Klampers that he has the most success. The Klamper was a remarkable racer having several times won the ‘Ace Pigeon’ and a multi 1st prize winner, and Louis said it is also a notorious famous breeder as the decendents of Klamper are capable of miraculous things as well. Louis has been offered a lot of money for two brothers who are multi winners in club and provincial.
Now we start with Louis performances. In the last 12 years he has had 249 firsts and when we arrived he was having his last race. He now thinks the birds had done enough even though there was one more race to go. We sat in the sun and watched him have his last race but unfortunately he had a bad trap and, as we all know, you cannot afford them to go round and round and fly off again as did his first pigeon. His season starts from the 17th of March and ends on the 15th of October, which is a long season. In the last 10 years he has been Champion 10 times in the local club and also 3 times provincial champion in his area. He started to race to 650 km in 2000 so as you can see he is not only sprint but also middle distance. Louis has 24 breeders, 30 widowers and 100 young birds keeping around 150 birds. He races from Quivrain in ‘Society 10’ and from Noyan in ‘Society 8’, both clubs are in Grobbendonk, and to Bouwel to race in the Antwerp Union.
Louis Adriaenssen outside of his new lofts
FEEDING: I asked is there any difference between Sprint and Half Distance. Louis said at first he fed the same for all distances. On return from a race until Tuesday they got depurative, then from Tuesday they got racing mixture a level soup spoon in the morning and one at night then later in the week it was more rounded but his middle distance birds were still not good enough so his good friend Dirk Van Dijck told him to feed the half distance pigeons a stronger mixture and his results improved making him more successful. At the start of the season Louis picks out 15 young cocks from their breeding and gives them only four races as these are for his yearling team next year. He keeps all his youngsters on the darkness system (including his widowers as it keeps them quite) his young cocks and hens separated except for basketing night when the sliding door is opened and they come together. He has had a bit of bad luck with his old birds coming back injured and also loosing 7 old birds that are multi prize winners through the racing that was not good in Belgium this year.
MATING: Louis pairs up on the 24th of November and after breeding the widowers are separated until 1st of March. On that day the hens are put back with the cocks locked in their half of the box. He trains the widowers 3 times a day for three days starting at 5km at Viersel then Lier and onto Duffel, the second and third days he goes further still as far as Halle and on their return from Halle he puts the hens in for the night then they are ready for their first race. Louis never puts the hens in on basketing night he just puts the nest bowl in then when they return from the race he leaves them for 15 minutes with the cock getting a little longer until he is ready to go to the club.
MEDICINE: Louis visits a vet called Bernard Catteries of Ranst during the breeding and racing season as he does not like treating blind even against Canker; one year they received no treatment. He gives his birds honey on a Sunday and on a Monday they get Aviol which is a vitamin and on Tuesday they get tea and on Wednesday they get Vitamins. All other days it is pure water. In his opinion Aviol and Tea are best for keeping the pigeons healthy. He also puts garlic oil and brewer's yeast on the corn.
This was the end of an excellent visit. We left Louis finishing off his new loft with his new electric nest boxes and getting everything ready for pairing in November as he already had 40 youngsters to breed for Germany and 40 for Holland and 30 for Japan and 20 for Rumania. Thank you Louis and Bill for your hospitality and an excellent day.
Sue and Ken Skelton,
01723 377044
25/11/07
