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Gebr. Pouw - the Janssens are still doing it!:

Nederhorst den Berg - a village with two churches and a pub. You feel the peace and tranquility. On Rembrandt van Rijnhof 32, a cozy little house surrounded by worker houses, very close to the center of the village, live Louis and Herman Pouw.

Pigeons were completely unknown land for the Pouw family when one day a pigeon landed in the garden. But Louis felt the call to bring this pigeon back to its feet. The room for the rabbits was converted into a mini-loft and the family feld in love with the sport. A 2 meter small loft was built, soon 2 more meters and so on and soon was the small garden full of lofts. And from the first time the brothers had their thoughts about quality as the most important thing - and they have been faithful to that ever since.

1981 was the first year with a round of youngsters and early in 1983 the brother Herman became a fully member of the partnership so they started playing in the name of Gebr. Pouw.

The brothers are very grateful to Kobus de Weerd from Hilversum that really was a big help and inspiration in the beginning and he showed the right way for the brothers. He helped them building the lofts and he learned them some of the good tricks to know. And he helped them buying the first pigeons - Janssen pigeons - especially from the lines of "Sohn Jonge Merckx", "019", "Geeloger" and "Stier" - and these pigeons became the baseline on the loft.

Classical widowers:
Every year Gebr. Pouw start with 32 widowers and 70 youngsters are selected to be the team - there is no room for more pigeons in the small garden - the breeders are already moved to another location.
The week before Christmas the birds are mated - and when the youngsters are 14 days old, they are moved together with their mother to the youngsters loft. The cocks are left alone in their loft till the first week of April. Then the birds are mated for the second time - and start the new season on the nest. When the youngsters are 3 weeks old, they are moved again with their mother, and the cocks begin the widowhood.

At Gebr. Pouw the widowhoodsystem means that they have a lot of possibilities for motivation. Every week they change small things - short time together with the hen, long time, nest bowls, tobacco stalks when they arrives from the flights, a full day together and so on.
And regarding the medical field the brothers are also progessive. Jan van Wanrooij from Belgica-de Weerd is their medical advisor. Before the mating they are normally treated with a blind cure against trichomoniasis and coccidiosis - and on the second round of eggs they are treated 5 days with Baytril. 4 weeks in to the racing season they are treated 2 days with Belgamix Trichostop and every six week they are given Appertix. When they return from the flights they are given oil and bieryeast and on Sundays the pigeons have glucose.

Motivated youngsters:
If you want to be a serious player on the national flights with youngsters, you have to darken the youngsters. When the youngsters are 5-6 weeks old Gebr. Pouw start the darkening system from 18.00 in the evening till 10.00 in the morning until the start of June. During this time of darkening the young cocks and hens are together - and after this period they have to coupled up as soon as possible as an attempt to motivate the youngsters. The floors is filling with a thick layer of straw which is renewed every 3rd week - cozy corners are built with wood and nest bowls are placed several places to give the pigeons many places to mate up. In case of Adeno virus, they are given "4-in-1-mix" from Belgica-de Weerd. During the winter time they are regular given herbal tea.

Future:
Right now are all the old lofts demolished completely and the Gebr. Pouw will built completely new lofts from the company P&P. The loft will be 9,30 meters long and 2,30 meters deep. There will be 4 compartments - 2 compartments for in total 24 widowers, 1 compartment for 24 widower-hens (for the first time in 2012 they will try the total widowhood) and the last compartment for 50 youngsters.
The loft will be equiped with all modern achievements.

And in the past two years a number of birds from C & G Koopman and Gaby Vandenabeele have been introduced - these new birds will be crossed with the old Janssen line to give quick results - and until now it has been a success giving:

11.06.2011 Bourges (606 km): 1st against 1381 pigeons
NPO (North & South): 4th against 7633 pigeons

26.06.2011 Chateauroux (652 km): 1st against 1392 pigeons
NPO (North & South): 21st against 7714 pigeons

Some results of recent years:

2007 - 2008:
(35 x 1st prize)
Duffel: 1st./19.077 pigeons
Duffel: 1st/3.668 pigeons
Duffel: 1st/17.091 pigeons
Duffel: 1st/4.843 pigeons
Duffel: 1st/3.132 pigeons
Nijvel: 1st/15.051 pigeons
Nijvel: 1st/3.613 pigeons
Nijvel: 1st/2.011 pigeons

2009 - 2011:
Strombeek: 5.418 pigeons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Duffel: 11.597 pigeons: 1st, 3rd, 8th, 10th
Nijvel: 11.690 pigeons: 1st, 2nd
Strombeek: 6.356 pigeons: 1st, 5th
Nijvel: 1.329 pigeons: 1st
Bourges: 1.381 pigeons: 1st
Chateauroux: 1.392 pigeons: 1st
Pommeroeul: 1.577 pigeons: 1st

In several other places the Gebr. Pouw pigeons give success - an example of this could be:

Boudewijn Pouw from Utrecht in the Netherlands:
His NL08-1298105 won e.g. 1st Mantes la Jolie against 1992 pigeons, 1st of Peronne against 1469 pigeons and 2nd Peronne against 2171 pigeons. In 2010 he was 9th National Ace-pigeon on the short distance NPO and 9th National Ace-pigeon Short WHZB.
This bird was taken from a 100% Janssen Brothers bird of Gebr. Pouw (a brother of the NL07-1614715  1st/1.469 Breteuil Tb) and a hen from two originals of Gebr. Borgmans.
Gebr. Pouw already bred the NL08-1298122, 1st Ace-pigeon Short CCG 8 2010 for him.
Also from Gebr. Pouw from the lines of "Nasser" (1st of 32 950 pigeons) and from the line of "Gebroken Poot" (grandson of the 019 Janssen). These lines gave e.g. the NL07-1614715, 1st Epehy against 3453 pigeons.