Mitchel Vervelde (Papendrecht) Racing against strong competition will only make you stronger

"Tell me who you race against and I will tell you if you have good pigeons" these are the words of famous Ad Schaerlaeckens who knows pigeon racing through and through. 

Well if we look at which competition our interlocutor Mitchel Vervelde is competing against so strongly we can say nothing but "PURE TOP CLASS".

Talking about Mitchel's top performance, here is a clear overview of the last seasons

1st Nat. ace youngbirds WHZB/TBOTB '16
7th Best yearbird national competition "De Allerbeste 2023"
1st Peronne 11,370b. - 2020
1st National S2 Pont St Maxence 12,729b. - 2022
5th NPO Melun 18,401b. - 2023
6th NPO Pont St. Maxence 19,142b. - 2020
6th National Issoudun 27,061b. - 2023
8th NPO Pont St. Maxence 7,593b. - 2016
8th NPO Peronne 8,965b. - 2016
10th NPO Pont St. Maxence 6,610b.
10th NPO Pont St. Maxence 34,317b. – 2023

And this against top Dutch lofts such as Peter Van de Merwe, Willem de Bruijn, Verkerk Gerard and Bas, Bossua Kees, JJ Eskes etc... All top motivated champions !

"Special Girl"

Mitchel races with a very limited racing team, you can read more about that further on in this report. Competing against lofts with the "big basket" at the basketing table every week is certainly not easy. But Mitchel is a character guy, a fancier who chooses perfection and for whom every detail counts. Did we once read that "quality always beats quantity" well Mitchel confirmed this statement by breeding and playing the best young pigeon in the Netherlands in 2016. It was hen "Special Girl" (NL16-1553134) who crowned herself the best young pigeon of the Netherlands in the national competition WHZB/TBOTB:

Thanks to grandpa Cor van Zanten

As usually happens, there were more pigeon fanciers in the family but the real introduction to the sport was through his grandfather Cor van Zanten from Dordrecht. Although grandfather Cor did not give him the real lessons of a champion, he was taught the love for pigeon racing. After several years with and from grandpa, he wanted to try it on his own and was allowed to set up a small loft at his parents' home in Papendrecht.

In 2015, a pigeonloft was erected in the fairly small garden behind his parents' house . Because of the limited space, Mitchel had resolved to race only young pigeons for the time being. As Mitchel is also out working every day, there was not much free time left to do all disciplines well either and in hindsight this was a wise decision.
In the early years it was of course quite a problem if you only race with youngsters to get a good team of pigeons, because there was no room for a large breeding loft.
Because he managed to achieve very good results with the youngsters he did have, he got help from several fanciers with Dennis van Toor and Maurice van de Kruk as main suppliers. At the start, his great example was Adrie v.d. Rhee from Alblasserdam, also his mentor to whom he could always turn for good advice. In short, almost all problems were solved, but the most pressing one was solved by his mother, namely the lack of time in the morning. Because when you have to be out and about before dawn as a construction electrician, you can't really do what is required for the plans Mitchel had in his mind, namely being among the top.
It was arranged so that instructions were left behind every morning and the feed was prepared for the flight crew. That this cooperation works well they have shown for almost a decade with top results.
Before the story continues I should explain that Mitchel races his pigeons under two names, this is because of the Ladies League in which he also wanted to participate. Therefore, they are raced under the names Mitchel and Bridget Vervelde.

In 2023 also with old pigeons

The 2023 season became the year of change and they competed with the old pigeons but, due to lack of space, no youngsters that year. The first few races they followed the system of total widowhood, this was not really a great success and then they decided to continue with the hens only to finish the season and this went better than expected. They started with 18 hens and at the end of the season there were 14 left. It was going to be a year of trying but in the end a year in which the established fanciers were put to the test with great success, in short Mitchel Vervelde was a revelation as a first year and old pigeon player.

Herewith the results of their team - the results of Mitchel and Bridget together.
All results in the district Drechtsteden.

 Pont st Max       2649 birds           2e-3e-18e-25e-27e etc      20/38  
Melun                  1411 birds           1e-42e-43e etc                    19/ 34  
Pontoise             871 birds             11e-13e-17e-29e etc         13/ 17  
Pontoise             688 birds             7e-17e-19e etc                    9/ 16  
Fontenay            470 birds             5e-7e-13e etc                      10/ 15  
Niergnies            2989 birds           1e-4e-31e-35e etc              26/ 39 
Niergnies            1025 birds           1e-25e-31e etc                    14/ 19  
Duffel                   1184 birds           2e-16e-17e-19e-23e-24e   17/ 18  
Bierges                1030 birds           2e-6e-8e-12e-17e-20e        12/ 18  
Quievrain            1103 birds           4e-5e-7e-8e etc                   9/ 16  

System youngsters.
We were curious to see how things were going in Papendrecht and got a bit of a picture of his system after visiting this fanatical fancier. It is a summary of some generalities. In any case, his way of keeping pigeons is not revolutionary but it is successful. Mitchel takes a sip of water and starts his story: "In 2024, I am going to race only with youngsters again, this will be a total of just under 100 after weaning and I try to get them together as follows. At the moment I have selected about seven pairs of breeders through the years with one consultation I try to breed a good 30 youngsters from these for 2024. Then about 30 will come from Dennis van Toor and the rest will be supplemented with youngsters from Maurice van de Kruk. These youngsters from Dennis and Maurice are here purely for testing and will go back to them after the racing season.  Should there be a special pigeon among them that third parties are interested in, the proceeds will be divided fifty-fifty. The first young come mid-February and this continues until the end of March and then nothing more. Darkening is started about the third week of March and stopped in mid-June. From the longest day they start with extra lighting. We start rearing the youngsters at the beginning of May and as soon as the weather allows, we race them. At the start this is 2 kilometers, which I do about five times before continuing. After this it is in many small steps up to 20 kilometers. I'd rather ride it 10 times to 5 km than once to 50 km. I think they learn more from those ten times. Taking them away is done after the youngsters have completed their home training. The youngsters stay together until the first short distance race and are raced "on the door" from then on. Before the race, they come together for 2 to 3 hours and after the  race, they are set apart again in the early evening. The youngsters normally train for 1.5 to 2 hours here, which is why they are not taken away by car under the racing season. Since I would be letting them out after work in the afternoon, I would run out of time and besides, I don't see the point of this either. This prolonged training at home was also one of the reasons I stopped using the cocks with the old pigeons (they flew almost 2 hours just like the youngsters), two shifts of exhausting them became too much of a good thing."

How do you think it is because your pigeons fly so long at home ?

Mitchel: "I think it's because I feed the pigeons lightly before the racing season and I do this mainly with barley. That is the main ingredient in my feed mix, that's how I get them to fly. The youngsters also get a little feed before they go outside, which consists of candy seed and some hemp, and then they are released. Under the racing season, the feed does get slightly adjusted but it still contains 10 to 20 percent pure barley (no depurative) but then I will mix with Koopman mixture and Galaxy mixture. A little lighter at the beginning of the week and then increase a little towards basketing. Flying at home does get stimulated at the start by using the flag and then once they train well it is no longer needed. Even during the follow-up flights, they trained as if the season had just started. We let them out around four o'clock sometimes half past four both the old and the young birds. This year the old hens came together for about 10 to 15 minutes before the flight and after the flight also until early evening, never together until the next day. On short flights, they were allowed to stay together for a few hours. The hens did raise a round of youngsters at the beginning of this year, these were eggs from Maurice's breeders and those youngsters then went back. The aviary in front of the loft is only used when the pigeons are bathed, otherwise the pigeons are always inside the loft. The hens are locked in the boxes all day.  Before they are released, they come out of these trays and can drink for half an hour, get a little food consisting of candy seeds and some hemp and then they are released. After this training, they get as much as they want of the regular fly mix (barley, merchant and galaxy) they get plenty of time for that and are then locked up again.

Medical:
Vaccinate young pigeons immediately when they are four weeks with paramixo/rota. After four weeks another vaccination against Paramyxo/rota and again four weeks later vaccination against smallpox with the brush. Old pigeons this year, no yellow cure in the water, but they did get a pill twice during the racing season. All pigeons get garlic in the water almost daily throughout the year. Fill a bucket with water and put a few cloves of garlic in it and leave it until it is well absorbed. In the racing season, the day they return home, they put something else in the water, sometimes Belgasol, sometimes dextrose. Can also happen if I find they have come in a little less, a few days something for the ornithose.

As mentioned in the report, this year the choice is again made to go full steam ahead with the youngsters, racing with old pigeons is perhaps something for 2025 again and therefore Mitchel is bringing his best old pigeons in an exceptional internet auction:

Toppers in this auction are: