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Beautiful pigeons in hand, capable of competing on the heaviest flights with the national elite, that was originally their goal. In the meantime, it has become their trademark! Despite the small stock of lofts, this sympathetic duo has proven multiple times that they have quality under their roof. For aficionados of extreme tough racing, Pitts now brings brothers, sisters, and descendants of proven performance pigeons, directly from the breeding loft!
Young Talent
30-year-old Michiel Van Haeken already visited his grandfather's lofts as a young kid, which likely sparked his passion for pigeons. Due to his busy job as a landscaper, it's not always straightforward to spend much time with the pigeons. However, the partnership he forms with his stepfather Patrick Petré (52) shows that it is indeed manageable, as evidenced by their results!
From 2006 to 2008, they raced sprints from a garden shed, achieving a series of first prizes and ace pigeons in the club, but due to time constraints from Michiel's studies and Patrick's work commitments, they paused racing for a while.
In 2013, they started racing again (and successfully) in sprints, but soon transitioned to heavy middle-distance racing (best yearling in the club with 9/9 nationals), and from middle-distance they progressed to heavy long-distance racing.
In 2015, they participated in Barcelona for the first time with one pigeon. This pigeon managed to classify, and at Van Haeken-Petré, they were immediately sold on heavy long-distance racing.
Only two years later, they had a brilliant season with a 1st place at both Agen and Barcelona in the strong local at Sint-Truiden, respectively 45th National Agen (15th international females) and 11th National Barcelona!
Task Division and Loft Stock
Patrick takes care of the daily training. Michiel handles the rest of the care and paperwork. Due to their busy work schedule, it has not been possible to participate in all races so far, but they are particularly focusing on Agen and Barcelona. In the future, this duo hopes to extend their success story to more races.
So far, they have only raced females on eggs. In 2019, they raced 'cocks' for the first time at Agen, and they did quite well. For the upcoming season, they plan to race both cocks and hens on eggs, doubling their flying team to 35 females and 35 cocks.
Furthermore, their loft stock consists of about 15 breeding pairs and some feeding pairs. A maximum of 60 young pigeons are kept for their own use, possibly supplemented with some late young from the best pairs. The main breeding lines that form the strong foundation are Clerinx, Grolleman, Paauwe, and Saya.
Health and Racing
At Van Haeken-Petré, there are no secrets regarding health: they treat for trichomoniasis a maximum of twice in the season and twice for the heads. They regularly check with Raf Herbots and adjust as needed based on his advice.
From September to March, a winter/rest mixture is fed. In case of extreme cold, this is supplemented with some molting feeds. During the racing season, they provide three types of mixtures in Attenhoven: upon arrival home and at the beginning of the week 'Relax' from Vanrobaeys. In the second half of the week, the 'Dynamik' from Vanrobaeys, and on the day of basketing, 'Turbo Energy', also from Vanrobaeys. As soon as the pigeons are on eggs, they switch to full throttle (2/3 Dynamik and 1/3 Turbo).
“Once the nest racing starts, we regularly release at about 30 km. As the important races approach, this is increased to 60 and 100 km. For example, on the day of basketing for Agen, all pigeons were released at 7 am in Chimay. We find it very important that the pigeons keep eating once they are on eggs. Thanks to this intensive training, this works very well,” Michiel says. “The pigeons are free to choose their partners. Those who don't choose a partner are out of luck. And if there are too many hens, we bring some cardboard boxes into the loft and let them go lesbian. This sometimes leads to hilarious scenes when a pair of three hens forms, all wanting to brood at the same time. Our 2nd and 3rd arrivals from Agen 2019 were a 'lesbo' pair!”
He adds: “Everyone has good pigeons. It's up to the fancier to find the right motivation for his pigeons to turn a good pigeon into a super pigeon!”
