"It must be said" Ruud begins his story "I started the new season 2023 with a lot of question marks. Last year we raced for the first time at my new location at Zoelen with a small team of yearlings. They did very well. Our youngsters 2022 also stormed home when the season was suddenly done due to an outbreak of bird flu in neighbouring Maurik. We had to watch the last 4 youngster races from the sidelines. What now we thought? How can we select this team? Both my dad and I didn't know and decided to add an extra loft of 9 metres. The pigeons were housed in the new loft in early December and the preparation for the '23 season could begin. 
If we analyse it all now, buying an extra loft was apparently not such a crazy idea because the "inexperienced" yearlings are doing wonderfully well with last weekend's top result as a provisional highlight. Also last week's win from Pont St Maxence against 9,142 birds. "
 

Coming back to last weekend's result. La Ferte is 530km away and winner "NL22-8307573" flew at a velocity of 1,163m/m over 4 minutes off her loft mates. She is a granddaughter of base cock "Germiny" x "Nadra" (Koopman) crossed with Chris Hebberecht's "Ike" line.

 

We wish Dolf and Ruud every success in the coming weeks

Stefan Mertens