For many years, Guido Van den Bulcke has been a well-established name in long-distance and heavy long-distance racing. Guido has been the overall champion of long-distance / heavy long-distance 15 times in a period of 17 years during the events in “Eerlijk duurt Langst” in Viane. At the foundation of these successes lies, among other things, the famous foundation male pigeon 'Biscaya'. Biscaya became the 3rd national ace pigeon for large long-distance KBDB in 2007 with 19th national Perpignan 5547 d. and 49th national Barcelona 1262 d., later becoming a foundation male pigeon at the breeding loft. His winning blood is undeniably the red thread in the lofts in Balegem! The best fliers are consistently placed in the breeding loft. Among them reside:
“Da Vinci” who won for two consecutive years at Saint-Vincent and secured national 7th out of 2758 and 28th out of 2949 pigeons. In his career, he won 16 (heavy) long-distance races!
“Valentino” 1st provincial Valence 2018.
“Major” 1st provincial Marseille 2019 and 13th out of 2239 nationally. He won nine international races, of which 7 in groups of ten.
“Valentine” 1st provincial Valence in 2023
“Evita” 5 times Barcelona and 10th Primus Inter Pares BBC.
“Angel” 1st National zone Jarnac.
“Pierre” 5 times Barcelona and 5th Primus Inter Pares BBC.
Play and Care
Little attention is given to playing with the young pigeons. Only a bit of training should suffice for them to stand their ground in long-distance races at a later age. The yearlings are trained as "cocks" and are taken along for flights up to 600 km. From the age of two, they are played on traditional widowhood. The widowhood loft is located on the upper floor of the house and is southeast oriented. During the winter period, the widowers stay indoors. Some of the widowers are only on eggs for 10 days before the season, while the others raise a couple of young ones; this makes no difference in the flying performances. From March, the widowers train only once a day for one to an hour and a half. This always happens with closed windows, but mandatory training with “the flag” is not practiced here. From mid-April, the widowers participate in the first training flights with the organization; the old pigeons are not flown. The widowers are entered as calmly as possible and therefore only see their hen upon returning from the flight. The entire playing system is kept as simple as possible. As for the feed, they always receive the same commercial mixture in a communal feeder.
Hens
Since 2018, a number of hens have also been played. Here too, the successes have not been lacking: “Angel” won 1st national in zone JARNAC as a yearling. The intention is to participate in the classic Barcelona with the hens on eggs. Guido can already look back on some nice results here.
- “Evita” 15-4101299 has already won Barcelona five times: 5th /216 and 7th / 202 and 8th / 215 and 28th / 187 and 19th / 131, thus being flagged as 10th PRIMUS-INTER-PARES.
- “Venus” 18-4127734 won Barcelona three consecutive years: 3-4-15 locally.
- “bontje Barcelona” 18-4127673 also won Barcelona three times: 6-7-30 locally.
Championships 2023.
- 3rd overall champion heavy long-distance “Eerlijk duurt langst”
- 4th heavy long-distance old + last 1+2 F.C.D.
- 4th champion heavy long-distance old 1+2 “Eerlijk duurt langst”
- 5th Heavy long-distance F.V.O.V.
- 6th champion heavy long-distance PE East Flanders
- 6th Jan Breydel Trophy – Bruges championships
- 7th Barcelona Masters with 1+2.
- 7th Super Marathon F.V.O.V.
- 16th heavy long-distance national K.B.D.B.
- 23rd overall king long-distance and heavy long-distance 1+2 F.C.D.
- 28th Barcelona Masters 1 flagged.