You can see that by Dad (on the right on that image) saw the Van Hee come into the UK at Louella in he mid 70's and was straight over there buying in YB for a job that he thought that he could see them doing well in - and he was right too
The Van Hee's are one of the best distance birds to hit the UK in my opinion
They started right from the off really and I rememnber him winning the Walsall Fed in 1981 from Saintes with a Van Hee cock called "Grunter".
One thing to remember when thinking of those Federation wins from Saintes (488 mls) with the Worcester Fed, Walsall Fed and Wolverhampton Fed was 1. (No other Midlands loft ever did this) and 2. (Rugeley was always the furthest fliers in all 3 Federations)
Fantastic birds
Louella were top at one time for new good strains
I always thought you need to hit them
In 18 months of a new family coming unfortunately as a school kid I never had the money and my dad helped me buy a few birds and equipment but he wasn’t a pigeon man so I never had funds
MIL wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2025 8:21 pm
He always tried to be progressive Neil
You can see that by Dad (on the right on that image) saw the Van Hee come into the UK at Louella in he mid 70's and was straight over there buying in YB for a job that he thought that he could see them doing well in - and he was right too
The Van Hee's are one of the best distance birds to hit the UK in my opinion
They started right from the off really and I rememnber him winning the Walsall Fed in 1981 from Saintes with a Van Hee cock called "Grunter".
One thing to remember when thinking of those Federation wins from Saintes (488 mls) with the Worcester Fed, Walsall Fed and Wolverhampton Fed was 1. (No other Midlands loft ever did this) and 2. (Rugeley was always the furthest fliers in all 3 Federations)
The Van Hees were the base of the family I had back in the late 80s 90s. Had them winning from the first race at 90 miles to 650 miles.
Back just enjoying club racing for the time being.
I can only speak from my experience Andy and I can tell you with absolute certainty that the Van Hee into Rugeley in races up to 240 miles were brutally exposed. I can't ever remember him beating me inland once with a Van Hee - not ever. More than that I'd say I'd have at least 90% of my birds home before Dad had a Van Hee turn up. I even used to go across to his lofts 10 min after we'd timed in and locked up to start watching for his. He wasn't fussed, he was smart enough to know their strength
We flew at No.34 and Dad flew at No.36. He had 25-30 yards off us from all races, so you can see how close our lofts were. You couldn't even blame the Management because when he went and got faster pigeons in 1983 under the same Management the new birds were instantly competitive inland.
Now that's not the fault of the Van Hee's. They were what they were. The further the distance, the more time on the wing they had the better they were - and at Saintes and Bergerac I'd have backed Dad's Van Hee's against anyone. But sprinting - no they were brutally exposed.
Below is an image of his 1991 Fed Topper from Saintes at 488 miles "Grunter"
One of Dad's Van Hee's (that he bred) also won 1st Open MNFC Bergerac at over 600 miles
At the distance - a great pigeon. Sprinting, absolute crap
You never needed to go to the club in Rugeley to see if you were in the shake up or not. From my garden when Rugeley was in its glory I could see 36 different lofts from where I stood. There were even 8 lofts in 16 gardens in our road - so you soon knew if your birds were up to par or not.
MIL wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 9:38 pm
In the 2nd attachment of that article, towards the bottom there features a Busschaert cock called "Eleven Eleven" (His No. was 31111)
He was one of my favourites
A winner of a few races inland, you can see he'd been in the top 50 Open of the NFC Saintes in 1993
