Breeding Asduiven is apparently deeply rooted in the Bombeke family, because while we presented the flying wonder "Kyra" last year, this year it's already the turn of another top performer, namely.
"Noor": 2nd Provincial Asduif Hafo Allround, 15th National Asduif, and 5th World Best Pigeon 2024.
This exceptional hen with impressive performances was bred from a direct sister of Kyra, illustrating that at Bombeke, the apples do not fall far from the tree. The better pigeons mainly stem from the same proven family, namely that of the golden breeding pair "551/14" x "554/14" Fabienne.
History
Like with many pigeon enthusiasts, the story of Luc & Dries starts with earlier generations. Georges Bombeke, Luc's father, was already playing with pigeons and passed on the passion. Dries, who in turn caught the passion from his father, still lives at home and has taken over the loft of his grandfather Aimé Glorieux, who lives next door. Thus, at the Bombeke household, pigeon sports remain a true family sport.
At Luc’s, the pigeons are in garden lofts, the old and young, with about 20 males and 32 females playing under the classic widowhood system. The first round of young ones goes to Luc and are trained here using the sliding door. Dries focuses primarily on the old and yearlings. Since the start in an open aviary in 2022, they have also been racing on the heavy half fond and this has shifted to total widowhood since 2023. Dries aims to tackle the heavy fond flights and international flights in the long run. This is of course a multi-year plan. The young from the second round go to Dries and mainly serve as reserves and are trained well.
The Breeds
To start at the beginning: the original breed of Bombeke Luc. In 2006, 2 top breeders and foundational figures of the current breed were acquired from Guido Van Caneghem. Later, many pigeons came from Bauters Jo, known for his "Fabian." Direct descendants of this top pigeon are present.
Later in 2016, some pigeons were obtained from Tom Van Gaver. They received a few eggs from yearlings. Yearlings that later grew into icons like Finn, Magic Bart, grandchildren Ricky, White Finn,... Through the friendship with Tom Van Gaver, Dries also became friends with Bart Geerinckx, from whom several pigeons were obtained through a donation, including a grandchild Gladiator.
In 2019 and 2023, some donations/eggs were purchased from Gino Clicque. Including grandchildren of Golden Prince, Prins Rudy, national winners, and national asduiven. Also, through working with BRICON, pigeons were obtained from Team Baetens, including a brother of the 5th national asduif '214' and children of RAX 2nd national asduif.
For the heavy fond in recent years, pigeons were obtained from "de Molenaar," 1st national asduif, from Camiel Van De Sande.
Important influences also came from Gilbert Oosterlinck (Oosterzele) as the supplier of Noor's father! And also pigeons from Stan De Troyer (De Troyer-Baeyens, Lierde), which especially had a major influence for the sprint races.
The System for Old & Hens
At Luc's, the system works as follows: the actual old pigeons are paired together with the breeders and produce a pair of young ones. The yearlings are not paired with the winter breed (because the young are under light, they have not fully completed their molt at that time). Before the season, all males are then paired in the last weekend of March to breed and train for about 10 days. From then on, the classic widowhood begins. The racing hens are paired in the first weekend of April and remain together until the end of breeding.
The System at Dries
Due to the pressure from his construction project, there were some drastic adjustments this year in Dries' system. The old and yearlings were played in "chaos." Dries: "The sexes, which had been separated since September 2023, only came together during the first training flight and saw their boxes for the first time. This resulted in a peak period at the end of April-May, during which the old pigeons consistently performed well until the end. For the yearlings, there was some decline in performance towards the end. Therefore, we are returning to our old system in the coming season, where the racing pigeons raise the 2nd round of the breeders and are paired the first weekend of January. After that, they remain separated until training and then go together again for another 4 days."
Young Pigeon System
Early young pigeons are bred (the first round goes systematically to Luc's loft), these are vaccinated at the end of February against Paramyxo-Rota and 2 weeks later against pox. Only the first round is darkened, this from the time change at the end of March until June 21. They are also lit from the longest day, maintaining this until the end of the season.
The young pigeons from the first round are started from early March to fly +/-10 minutes, once they do this for 3 days, they begin to do it on their own and eventually train for 45 minutes to an hour. It sometimes happens that they can fly for 1.5 hours already in April and are away for a long time, then you know they are ready to go into the training basket. The training goes step-by-step from 5 km – 10 km - 15 km - 20 km (Ronse). They usually don’t go further than that, after which the young ones go with the organization to Doornik (45km) usually doing this twice; however, in the last two years, they have been basketed the second time for Niergnies as a training flight instead of the second Doornik. After that, they usually go 2 to 3 times to Noyon interprovincial to gain some experience and are ready for what comes next. As motivation, they race this round using the sliding door. The pigeons start widowhood in early July until the end of the season.
The 2nd round, which is not darkened and is in the aviary, is handled much less carefully. They are less frequently commanded and are quickly trained for the interprovincial releases in Noyon.
In 2024, the young ones were only set down on April 4 due to construction pressure. Despite that, they could participate in their first "big" Noyon from June 26 and did 6x Noyon as preparation for 2025.
Day Fond – A Successful New Approach!
Last year we mentioned that Luc and Dries wanted to field a box of hens for day fond. This year, that has been accomplished, with brilliant results:
Limoges I:
- Local 320 Old: 1st, 8th, 23rd (3/5)
- National: 25th, 206th (10,653 participants)
Tulle I:
- Local 225 Old: 2nd (2/4)
- National: 48th
- Yearlings 153: 4th, 11th, 30th (6/8)
Limoges II:
- Local 181 Old: 1st, 3rd, 8th, 21st (5/9)
- National: 133rd, 213rd
- Yearlings: 4th, 8th, 25th, 26th (9/12)
Souillac:
- Old 97: 2nd, 3rd, 28th (3/3)
- National: 26th, 163rd
- JLs 80: 3rd
Brive:
- Old: 5th, 10th, 12th (4/5)
- Yearlings: 2nd, 9th (2/4)
- National Old: 77th, Yearlings: 83rd
Bergerac:
- Yearlings: 1st, 17th (2/2)
- National: 59th (3180 participants)
Tulle II:
- Yearlings: 1st, 7th, 9th, 12th, 23rd, 25th (8/9)
- National: 57th (5753 participants)
References
Results of 7 pigeons at Robert Lech (Poland) with the breed of Bombeke Luc & Dries
- 20/5816 (725km)
- 7/4509 (340 km)
- 10/5099 (243 km)
- 28/2988 (516 km)
- 55/5093 (243 km)
- 24/3673 (516 km)
- 23/3673 (516 km)
- 5/2988 (516 km)
- 12/5966(243 km)
- 3/2695 (158 km)
- 8/3038 (243 km)
- 8/2712 (340 km)
"Miss Bombeke" at Van Gaver Tom and Marnic