| Author: Ryan Harvey | Title: Crossing Families & Old Family Lines - Harveys RPL |
| Date: 2003-12-08 19:41:47 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
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After going though many pieces of ruff draughts on paper I have yet to make my pairings for the 2004 breeding season. I have been lucky enough to have been able to obtain very well bred birds from fanciers a crossed Canada, I have many birds bred off champion birds and amazing breeders. Some examples are the birds I received from Terry Jansen of Sarnia, Ontario. The parentage of this birds are the best in the loft, having many the worlds famous breeders in them, like “Verona”, “Hogan”, “083”, “Vos 39” and many more. But I can’t find a way to include this family of birds with the other families in the loft.
For example my Stichelbauts, these birds are quite an inbred family most being bred around a few pairs of key birds that were brought in from other places in Canada. I really didn’t know what would be the best thing for me to do, should I keep them “pure” or should I try my luck at crossing between the families of birds I have.
I also have a strong Janssen family of birds coming from the same breeder as the Stichelbauts. He kept the birds pure and didn’t cross them. The big difference is that with the Stichelbauts being strong long distances flyers, and the Janssen’s being a family that fly’s best at just about anything, I am afraid that I might loss these abilities in my birds if I cross them. I am thinking about crossing the Stichelbaut and Janssen birds more and more next year(2004) because this year(2003) I did just that and the young from this pair came out very strong and solid birds. One young cock off this pair was my only bird home on the day of a training smash. I think the key to this cross was that both the cock and hen of the pair had very strong parents themselves. The hen was the Stichelbaut and her father was my # 1 Stichelbaut cock he was bred in Toronto by William Bellinger. His dam won two races back to back at 300-400+ miles for William. The cock was a Janssen and his father is the foundation of almost all my Janssen’s in the loft. He was bred by a great fancier in Ontario also. I don’t think that I will cross all of my Stichelbauts because some just don’t have the background that the others do as far as I know.
I also have some very strong flying birds from Norm Wells of Sask. These about are not such a close family as the other are in the loft but are just as good if not better. My #1 stock pair came from him, it is a pair of Van Loons bred by CBS in the US. The parents of these birds were imported from the lofts of Koopman and Son of Holland, they were world champions in 94 and 2nd in 95. They both have the lofts foundation cock, “Zitter” in their papers, but the cock more so then the hen. He is inbred around this bird. The hens breeding is more focused on the old Van Loon Lines of the 60’s and 70’s when at this time they were the most popular and the best birds around. The breeding of old families brings me to my next point.
In my opinion it is easy to see that people now a days aren’t breeding birds to just come home anymore like the case was a long time ago. Back then the birds were much more reliable then today’s racers, they were also physically much bigger birds. These big birds weren’t seen as much of a disadvantage back then as they are today. Back then the birds were bred to come home, simple. But today the birds are being more and more refined to be as fast they can, which usually means smaller birds so they can fly faster. Look at it this way 20+ years ago the birds were being bred for homing instinct, today however they are being bred for speed. I think the problem with this is that birds today get lost so much more easy, because not as many have the homing instinct like the birds of yesteryear, the birds then weren’t as easily lost but they weren’t as fast neither. I prefer birds that have been bred from old lines of birds and that have proven themselves time and time again. I have two cocks that came from Terry in Ont. and there mother was his best Young Bird in ’01. In there pedigrees it shows that she also came from old Janssen lines. These birds I got from Terry were indeed smaller, then the others which were not raced by the pervious owner. One example is a 98 hatch Blue Bar Janssen Cock. I got him with the rest of my Janssen’s and Stichelbauts from a very good breeder that didn’t race his birds. This cock got so big that I had to cut off his band to save his leg because he out grew it. I’ve read a article by the Janssen Bros themselves and they say not to pair to large birds together or you’ll get chickens. I personally like these chickens they speak of and love to see very large birds in the breeding loft. I find the larger birds have a much better chance of returning home for the simple fact that they are stronger then the others, and don’t get blown of course as easily while returning home. This is especially important when you fly birds in the conditions that we have to here in Nova Scotia. At every race point except one, the birds have cross about 30 miles of water before they can get home, if they do not and chose to stick to the coast line then they are flying almost 50 more miles then they have to.
Ryan Harvey
~Harvey's Racing Pigeon Lofts~
Falmouth, Nova Scotia,
Canada.
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