Dirk Van Den Bulck lives in Grobbendonk in Antwerp, a colony that has had a major impact on international pigeon racing in recent decades. The “Kittel” and “Greipels” can no longer be counted on one hand and both in Europe and in the Far East these pigeons are doing extremely well. Many of us are only too happy to get a pigeon from Dirk and after a few years of having a “break” (in 2014 Dirk sold all his pigeons except some 15 late youngsters) Dirk is back at the level where he should be. It is and remains a top colony you have to reckon with every week and you are never done with. Dirk’s vision and guidance has been the same for years and the new superstar of his colony is “King Arthur”, who became 1st National Ace pigeon speed youngsters KBDB 2023 and this 10 years after his illustrious predecessor “Kittel”.
At the current base are mainly pigeons from Leo Heremans (Vorselaar). The hen with ring number 6387871/2007 out of “Nieuwe Rossi” x “Eénoogske” immediately ensured success and the train took off. Furthermore, Dirk bred together or bought pigeons from other speed stoppers from his own region such as Rudy Van Reeth (Herenthout), Jos Cools (Grobbendonk), Staf Boeckmans (Grobbendonk), Patrick Boeckx (Vorselaar), Wilms-Vermeerbergen (Mol), Johny Panis (Herentals), Eric Vercammen (Herentals) and of course he also visits Yannick Deridder/Flanders Collection (Liedekerke).
Dirk: “Chain results I can’t present, they don’t really interest me. You have players who roll up every week, but they often do this with different pigeons. I look at palmares, the performance of each pigeon individually, that counts for me.” And what palmares Dirk’s pigeons have! Apart from the national ace pigeon, 2023 was another farm year for Van den Bulck. In 2023 he achieved from Quiévrain a so-called ‘clean sweep’ i.e. that all first champion titles and first ace pigeons were won by him as you can read in the list below: 1st Overall champion Quiévrain 1st Champion old birds Quiévrain 1st Champion yearlings Quiévrain 1st Champion young birds Quiévrain 1st Ace pigeon old birds Quiévrain 1st Ace pigeon yearlings Quiévrain 1st Ace pigeon young birds Quiévrain Dirk often performs like this.
Toppers of racing season 2023
BE 23-6133516 “King Arthur”
1st National Ace short distance youngbirds KBDB 2023
1st Provincial Ace short distance youngbirds KBDB 2023
1 Quievrain 1,409b ( 6 Prov 14,839b )
2 Quievrain 1,680b ( 8 Prov 12,977b )
2 Quievrain 1,309b ( 9 Prov 17,466b )
2 Quievrain 1,050b ( 13 Prov 13,500b )
3 Quievrain 1,054b (24 Prov 16,363b )
3 Quievrain 998b ( 32 Prov 14,468b )
9 Quievrain 563b
35 Quievrain 1,132b
47 Quievrain 1,255b
BE 21-6201004 “Green Eye”
1st Ace yearbirds Tienverbond Quievrain 2022
1st Ace old birds Tienverbond Quievrain 2023
Won from Quievrain
1/418p – 1/413p – 1/352p – 1/320p – 1/172p – 1/127p
2/173p – 2/156p – 3/419p – 4/95p – 5/1.905p – 5/305p
6/360p – 9/815p – 11/258p – 12-946p – 12/450p – 13/951p
16/1,040p – 17/1,092p
Won on provincial level from Quievrain
1/9,484p – 2/6,948p – 3/3,639p – 6/3,672p – 8/7,081p – 12/5,649p
16/3,715p – 20/2,687p – 26/6,636p – 40/3,377p – 48/11,748p
52/8,652p – 73/7,822p – 81/9,661p – 97/17,368p – 98/17,439p
NL 19-1624180 “Flying Dutchman”
Kweker : Lahid Farid
Won 1st, 3rd and 3rd Ace Tienverbond Quievrain in 2020-2021-2022
Won op Quievrain 1/337p – 1/274p – 1/195p – 2/271p – 2/267p – 2/414p
2/95p – 3/232p – 4/330p – 4/258p – 4/172p – 7/339p – 7/218p – 8/208p
8/362p – 9/198p – 12/209p – 14/1,453p – 14/704p – 15/409p – 21/294p
23/1,991p – 36/1,032p – 50/1,092p
Won on provincial level from Quievrain
1/6,810p – 1/6,602p – 2/6,948p – 7/4,434p – 8/5,386p – 12/2,687p
13/5,102p – 37/4,438p – 51/4,673p – 58/2,878p – 61/4,350p –
79/6,054p – 93/3,219p – 98/17,746p
Won as an old bird 3 weeks after each other 1ste – 1ste and 2nd
fastest of 21,914 pigeons on June 6
fastest of 15,124 pigeons on 23 May
2nd fastest of 21,764 pigeons on 30 May
Widowers
In the garden there is one loft for widowers, here all the baskets will never be 100% occupied because the selection level is very high at the Van den Bulck home. Dirk is very strict when it comes to selection. He has no use for top birds that do not win any prizes for weeks on end, he wants pigeons that are both in the top of the result and that “show their class” every week. By “show their class”, Dirk means winning every 10. Surely this is the minimum standard. If you make such a strict selection over the years, you will of course get very far.
The widowers just do winter breeding together with the breeders and raise one round of youngsters. Afterwards, there is no second pairing but daily training starts. Dirk attaches great importance to the fact that the widowers train twice a day during the season. Even on Saturday morning (day of basketing) they come out here. A trained athlete can handle much more than someone who rests a lot. He compares it to modern cycling, where men who have to ride a time trial first warm up before going full throttle at the moment of truth. So why shouldn’t our pigeons fly again on the day of basketing. Only in fog or heavy rain, the pigeons are not released but otherwise training is the message here.
Before the start of the season, the old ones are raced 4 times, this up to 45km and then they join the local towards Quievrain. Once the starting shot is given, they go into the basket every week for Quievrain or Noyon.
When basketing, the hens are shown but they are only put in half a box, the cocks can’t get in because Dirk thinks that pairing before basketing is not allowed or possible. If you leave them together, you sometimes miss one that “does its job” and for the head/mind of the fancier this is not okay. That’s why they are now half-baked and basketed together for a few minutes. When coming home, they are always allowed to stay together for a few hours, if the flight only comes home in the late afternoon, he leaves them together until the day after.
Young pigeons
Young pigeon racing is one of Dirk’s specialities. His system is “not common”, but the results and the rankings in numerous championships (regional and national) prove that his system pays off. The cocks and hens of the 1st round are separated in 2 lofts. These youngsters are destined to be raced later in the season on pure widowhood (coupled with old partners). The youngsters of the 2nd round stay together and are played on nests.
The youngsters are darkened from the end of March until the end of May/beginning of June, never longer. As a speed player, the months of June and July are very important, that is when the youngsters are at their peak.
As we reported earlier, he has a separate system and the youngsters of the 1st round have already been taken away 20 times in the month of April. In the beginning never far, we speak of barely 200 or 300m but departure and confidence is important for youngsters. Dirk defends his system: “My youngsters get used to the big basket from a very young age so they don’t get any stress from this. The selection of my youngsters usually happens before they go to Quievrain, those that are not in line or have difficulties finding their way back don’t get a chance. Again, the comparison is made with humans having to learn a new language as children. A 3-year-old child can learn a new language much easier than someone 40 or 50 years old. That’s why my approach to also make the youngsters quickly familiar with the basket, departure and their orientation.”
The young pigeons train twice a day and are even taken away three times a week during the season. The only disadvantage is that the very busy traffic around Brussels makes it more difficult to take the pigeons far away. Last year, during the season, I already drove less and can conclude that it had no impact on performance so it will be the same this year. The only thing that remains is the much rearing for their first Quievrain. Compared to the old pigeons, the youngsters are not allowed to train on the day of basketing.
The young hens of the first round and the widowers are on bean straw while the young cocks of the first round and second round are on grids.
So Dirk plays his 1st round on widowhood with old partners and sees them after their first Quievrain for the first time. Some time is then taken off to let them mate properly and the pigeons stay together for a long time when they return home. As the season progresses, this time always gets shorter and shorter. In the beginning, I usually separate them on Sunday evening in the dark.
Guidance
The first 2 days after the flight and upon returning home from a flight, the pigeons are given the Wal Zoontjes mixture (Beyers). From Tuesday evening until basketing they get Sport (Duivenvoeders Huygen). A daily portion of sweets ensures a good bond with the pigeons.
To stimulate recuperation, they get Tolyamin Forte by Schroeder – Tollisan at homecoming and every other month Dirk gives 3 days of Tricho Groen. Furthermore, very little goes on the feed and in the drinking pot. For the airways, Dirk only cures if necessary, but that will only be once a season anyway, if so he usually uses Soludox.
Dirk: “I certainly don’t want to minimise the work of vets. If your pigeons are sick, they are the perfect persons to help you. However, not all underperformance is due to illness. Sometimes culling a few lesser pigeons can be enough to make the group train better. An old fancier’s wisdom says: ‘No vet can stand up to a sharp knife’. Remember that we all breed more bad ones than good ones, so normally you have more bad pigeons than sick ones. Furthermore, sometimes you have to accept that not every year is equally good, especially when, like me, you play with a limited basket. With a limited team, there can’t be a topper among them every year.”
Loft
Winner
