Winter musings

The breeding pigeons are now coupled. I have coupled them a number of times and it all seems to be going well, except for 1 of my favorite couples. The cock can easily be chased out of its box, which also cost a few couples of eggs last year.

Recently a buddy pointed me to an article by a well-known professor from the area, he said "that's about you Pietertje" . Because I had spoken to this professional (by the way, he sees himself as a hobbyist, no matter how he sees himself, it is a winner) 2 times, he could just be right. After all, it said “After the end (of the Golden Ten), of course, catch up with old acquaintances, but also with young guests who want and can put their foot next to the toppers. What always strikes me in those conversations is what the fanciers do to excel, not only in the purchase of good pigeons, but also the more complicated the better”. So much for this quote.

Whether or not it was about me, it made me think. Another enthusiast, who sometimes reads my pieces, recently said that I make it too difficult for myself. Why don't novice fanciers "just" do what is advised. Firstly, because the advice is not clear, ask 10 fanciers how to feed and you will get 10 different answers. A 2^e The reason that certainly applies is that I don't think Elon Musk has become so great by just doing what he was advised to do. That also applied to me on a small scale when I was still an entrepreneur, a lot of advice I received (including from my father) was listened to and put aside. Accepting something “just like that” is apparently not in my character. Apparently doing “complicated” is my way of discovering how the pigeon sport works in this case. An advantage of it is that at least you can only blame yourself

I think we all know that pigeon fanciers are stubborn, I also experience that regularly now. Do you want to help someone with excellent pigeons that you have left over, do you hear a few weeks later that they have purchased pigeons elsewhere? On the one hand you might think why, but to be honest I have to say that I did this myself. And so everyone tries to find their way to the “top” in their own way. Whatever that top is. Incidentally, the solution is often close at hand, but the pain threshold for asking for help is apparently not high for many enthusiasts. Rather buy a pricey pigeon at an auction somewhere instead of 10 natour youngsters from the best racers from a local topper. My best young pigeon this year came from a racing couple “Gouda pigeons” (Epping x Lugthart-Bosgraaf), both bought on a receipt. A tip I received in 1 of the conversations with the aforementioned topper was therefore, “go and get pigeons there that they sit in front of you every week”. Whether I drove all over the Netherlands for nothing will become clear in the coming years.