40 years of pigeon sport

FLORIN MOLDOVAN and my family DOINA, LAURA and DACIAN

Motto:
"The good man forgets the harm he was done-
the bad man forgets the good things"

In 1963 I become a member of the OLIMPIA 04 CLUJ-NAPOCA Pigeon Racing Club. At the beginning of 1965 I commenced with my first races. During this year I managed to secure a first place with my pigeons. The race started from Salonta, Arad county.My first pigeons that I started racing with were from the Bricoux blood-line.

During 1973 I entered my pigeons into three specific races, which were organized by other pigeon fanciers from Hungary. I was fortunate to obtain two first places out of three. The birds were released from Gyor, a city in Hungary.

Over the next ten years I tried various methods of breeding, paying particular attention to standard pigeons but unfortunately not even the most promising birds were able to achieve the kilometers limit. But it was a worthwhile experience and helped me to achieve a better understanding of the problems of breeding.

At the end of 1982 I started acquiring good quality racing pigeons, paying particular attention to stock from the long distance birds. These were purchased locally from my home city Cluj-Napoca, from the best pigeons with top results at long distance races and they were comparatively expensive for that particular period of time.

During 1984, from my stock I had 14 pigeons which achieved top scorings at the races with launchings from Teplice-833 km and Gdansk-910 km.

I then started to purchase more young birds from various stock lines, which include the following:Delbar,Guy Vinois,
Van Hasten (Stichelbaut),Catrysse,Van Grembergen (Van Bruaene), and some descendents from Janssen. All these acquisitions and the following combinations of them but nevertheless the work brought finnally the first national titles:
-1986- first national breeders champion at middle distance category, first and second national middle distance- 2 years record with the hens OLIMPIA 216014-84 and VENUS 103809-83, daughter and mother of Janssen-Stichelbaut origin, both of them were also selected for the Romania`s team at the Dortmund Olympiad in 1987.

1987 was a very good year for one of my best performing pigeons, "Ulise"- ring number 216022-84. The bird was bred from the Catrysse line. It won First National place in the Middle Distance category for 2 years, which is at present a record still holding.
Was also selected for the National Team and entered for the Spartachiada competition in Budapest covering 10241 Kilometers during a 2-year period.
Then followed many other national and international succeses which I am going to point separately.

Before 1989 I had the opportunity to visit a variety of lofts in Hungary, Czeckoslovakia and Germany, so I had the chance to further my knowledge and experience by having many discussions with other interested pigeon fanciers.

After 1989 when Romania became more open to Western Europe I was able to visit various parts of the continent together with very good friends from Hungary- Nyitrai Ferencz and Bardos Istvan and many of my own countrymen. Together we went to famous lofts all over Europe, including Belgium and Holland where we were made very welcome. Included in our itinerary were visits to the following well known lofts:
BELGIUM: Janssen brothers, Jos Thone, Tomas Peters, Silvere Toye, De Smet-Mathijs, Karel Meulemans, Emiel Denys, Houben family-Jef, Luc& Nadia, Gyselbrecht family, Julien Vanenoo, Yves Van de Poel- Carlos Marquez Prats, Van Hove Unterhoeven, Eric Limburg, Sonia Van de Maelen, Maurice Casaert, Herbots brothers and many others ;
HOLLAND: Anton& Luci Van de Wegen, Jac Van de Wegen, Wim Muller, Hans Eyerkamp, Dirk van den Berg, Martha van Geel, Herman Brikman, Hegedus-Beker, J. Theelen, Bertus Timmer, Piet Manders, Jan van de Pasch;
neverthelast I want to mention Eros Carboni- the biggest champion of Italy.

Most of the breeding pigeons presently in my loft are of origin from the names presented above. Would be very hard to enumerate all the pigeons I imported.
Over the past years most of my many succesfull birds have been from descendants of the Janssen bloodline and combinations with this line.

The fanciers from whom I received the biggest help in the past years are Nyitrai Ferencz from Hungary and the actual president of the Hungarian Federation, Bardos Istvan, to which I am very grateful for their support.
The pigeon sport and the pigeon fanciers from our neighbor country, Hungary, were of great help for me but mostly for the romanian pigeon competitions; annualy Romania organize about 100 races with launchings from Hungary.

A few words about the adopted loft systems.
My main objective is to breed and rear super champions from my own stock, however I still import good quality birds to supplement the making of future champions. I never sold a pigeon who had exceptional results in my loft, all of them went in the breeding section for reproduction. My oppinion is that you can`t go further without superquality, in the meaning that the pigeons have adapted to the specific conditions of the loft, of the climate and of the geographical particularities. My coupling system is "very good" with "very good", so the chances that the descendent to be also very good are increased.

It`s imperative the pigeon to be very good both at the qualities checked by hand and checked by eye; I never saw a champion without special qualities both revealed by eye-examination or by hand-examination, and please believe me, I had the opportunity to check hundreds of champions...
It`s not the same thing to make a selection between 200 youngsters or between 20; the fancier with 20 youngsters needs 10 years to make a selection from 200 birds.

The health of the birds is the most important thing; I never had a champion who had health problems, of any kind. Treatment is only given after a careful analysis to ensure a correct diagnosis, which will determine the type of treatment that may or may not be required. Giving the wrong treatment will of course be detrimental and may even compound the problem.

The race system I`m using is widowing, but I also basket females in races. My oppinion is that is useless to keep separately and feed the hens just to motivate the males a few minutes before or after the race. In the past years I had plenty of successes with many females, I find them more resistant and more easy to motivate.

The nourishment I`m using is of the best quality and is given after a very strict schedule.

I read a lot about phisycal reabilitation programs after the race, about medication, vitaminisation, true legends about each of them, but I`m looking after the most simple, natural and cheap one which also fits with the characteristics of the loft, and the climate for that particular period.

I had the chance to be national champion at all categories of distances and I may say that whatever distance or type of race you become interested or involved in, you will find that each category requires the same dedication and hard work, so there are no easy formulas in this sport.

Just to reiterate for the benefit of our young and new pigeon fanciers who are contemplating on taking up this sport:

You have to be honest with yourself that you are able to join the sport with fully convicted enthusiasm and respect for other pigeon fanciers, Above all be honest with your own pigeons so that they become your friends and learn to trust and depend on your systems and routines. A healthy and contended bird lives in a clean, comfortable, and a well supplied protected loft.
Purchase breeding pigeons from various fanciers just after you checked the truth of their advertised results. This will ensure that you are actually getting what you have paid for.

Read a lot about pigeons and about pigeon sport but do also a lot of study and observation in your own loft. Only combining the study with the observation and the practical work in the loft you may reach results. Together, tech nical and practical applications, perseverance and a love of the sport will bring you many happy hours and success in racing your own pigeons.

 

THERE ARE NO MAGIC RECIPES THAT CAN MAKE CHAMPIONS WITHOUT PLENTY OF HARD WORK.