A SUPER DRAFT OF THE MOST DIRECT AND UP TO DATE WINNING BLOODLINES OF THE LIGHTNING FAST LOUIS COOREMANS WILL BE AT:

The Bottom of the Hill Pub, Finglas Village, Dublin. Finglas Exit on the M50 Motorway. The Venue is approximately 3 minutes drive from the motorway exit.

ON SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER 2011. VIEWING STARTS AT 12.30 – SALE STARTS AT 2pm SHARP.

Starting Bids: €50

Any commission bids will be welcomed by Gerry on the above telephone number. If you can’t make the sale, don’t panic, just call and we can arrange a commission bid for you.

We can arrange all shipping of birds to Northern Ireland or the Mainland UK if necessary. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information on shipping.

For the very first time in Ireland we have selected a draft of 50 hand picked Louis Cooreman’s, direct from Louis’ champion racers and top stock birds. They need no introduction due to the Cooreman’s fantastic results in Ireland and beyond over the past 10 years.

Louis 1st Prizes over the past 11 years read as such:
2000: 20x1sts ** 2001: 14x1sts ** 2002: 16x1sts ** 2003: 28x1sts 2004: 25x1sts ** 2005: 28x1sts ** 2006: 42x1sts ** 2007: 35x1sts 2008: 32x1sts ** 2009: 27x1sts ** 2010: 31x1sts ** 2011: 37x1sts

This is all achieved with just 16 widowhood cocks and a team of approximately 65 young birds, no hens are raced in Louis team.

Auctioneer’s Notes:
It was 3 years ago that we first tried to arrange an auction of these Lightning Fast Louis Cooremans, I spoke to Louis’ UK agent, Bob Fenech, in South Africa at the Million Dollar race. At the time, Bob and Louis were already committed to other auctions. We set a date for October 2011. I am sure it has been worth the wait, seeing some of the quality they have released for this sale. These birds, over the past 4 or 5 years, have taken the Britain and Ireland by storm at the top level.

When you study the sale list, you will see that there are many birds direct from the top racers and producers in Louis small racing and breeding lofts. These birds have not only won in Britain and Ireland, they have won in Malta, Portugal, China and further afield. It is a real honour to be displaying such quality in Dublin, and this is one sale that is NOT to be missed.

DOWNLOAD THE SALE LIST HERE

Many fanciers say that widowhood cocks are at their best when they throw their first flight, I personally do not believe this because the pigeon will be very sore after throwing that first flight. This means that the bird will be in pain when it is flying, so its speed will usually be greatly reduced and nine times out of ten, it won’t put down the results we are expecting.

Usually the big form comes when it is half way up on it’s first and just throwing its second flight. Observation has shown us that both the young and old birds are always at their best after they have thrown their second flight. This is probably because the organism of the bird gets a proper push in the right direction from this moment on. Now the bird is in a prime condition and it’s much easier for it to perform at its best.

Of course, as I have said, there are certain exceptions. This year I had some third round youngsters that were not darkened, who flew very well after they had thrown their fifth flight and they began to body molt.

On the Continent

The national middle distance program in Belgium starts with the flight from Bourges at the end of July. Speaking to friends in Belgium, we have been told that the best results are flown by young birds that have already thrown their second flight. This year I was very fortunate to visit the lofts of Daniel Perez, who won 1st National with an Old Bird, which had only thrown two flights. At this time of the year, they are still racing old birds, young birds and yearlings.

Of course it’s not that important to get the birds in this ideal position at a certain time, as a lot of it depends on the system you use and on which races you would like to achieve the best results in. There are certain fanciers who try to have a group of widowers that throw their first flight at the beginning of the season so they are ready for the early races.

I personally pair up in early December, part my widowers and re-pair in March and let them sit for seven days. I never put lights on in the widowhood shed in the winter as this will stimulate the molt and the pigeons will throw their first flight too early for my liking. Also, be careful of loft heaters, as warmth, as well as light can stimulate the molt.

However, if you want to be on top form for the very early races, then it is not a problem in using the lights or heaters through the winter months, but beware that these result will not last the season and your pigeons may not be in top form for the better or later races.

Also food can play a part in the molt

Those who don’t believe this should do some tests. The birds that get seeds containing more oils will come in the molting period much sooner than those birds that get light food. Also, products and additives play a big part in the molting period.

At the beginning of the season you should be careful about using too many vitamins because these also have an influence on the organism of our animals. Vitamins will lead to a better condition that has an influence on the body and therefore the molting will be stimulated by that too.

An important aspect of the vitamins is Methionine, which can be found in products like Methio-forte and Sedochol. Methionine is a product that helps our pigeons recover much faster as well as purifying the liver, as a result, once again, the molting will be stimulated.

So being a fancier is not always that easy, you always have to take notice of which products you use, at what time and how much. A little amount is enough to recover, but when you use more, it will almost always stimulate the molt. In fact these products are better to use in the molting period just like the seeds that contain more oil.

I prefer to use Heparenal rather than Sedochol in the racing season, as this does not contain as much Methionine. It still cleans the liver and blood of the bird as effectively as Sedochol. In the winter months, when the pigeons are molting, I prefer to use Sedochol on the food as the dosage is lower. The correct dose in water is 10ml per litre but on food, you only need to dampen it with about 5ml, with it for very similar results.

I also use oils on the food, usually omega oil or wheatgerm oil, especially for the breeders. I also bath the pigeons three times a week when they are molting. I do this because I think the baths help soften the quills and helps the feathers come through softer and more supple.

I use Gem Thepax a couple of times a week, I think this is a good all-round product. On the food, when I use oils or Gem Thepax, I sprinkle some poultry spice. This is also a very good product to help the molt.

As I said earlier in the article, this year I visited Daniel Perez, Louis Cooreman and Willy Everaert and spoke in great depth about how they race their young birds. It was very interesting and knowledgeable. Louis never darkens his young birds, so he controls the moult through nest conditions and always puts up fantastic results. His pigeons always look fantastic as they are winter-bred, so they are on a natural darkness system and these pigeons body-molt. Once they have thrown two or three flights, they are usually paired, and this holds a full wing for around 8 weeks. The first week they are racing to a sliding door, then they are paired and the whole nest cycle goes on.

Willy Everaert races his pigeons on a darkness system. He uses a lot of light later on in the season. He is another fancier who posts up tremendous results on a very regular basis.

Daniel Perez, uses several different systems, he is a really interesting man racing young birds on widowhood, both hens and cocks, and his pigeons have to have six to eight races over 200 miles as young birds.

We made a DVD on all three fanciers (available soon), looking into their young bird racing systems and how important it is to have pigeons in good feather to win the big races. Many fanciers think that going on the darkness system will change everything and you will achieve top results. This does not always work, all this does is enable you to basket your pigeons up and send them week in and week out. There is a lot more to the system than just darkening the loft for 4 months, but later in the year we will go into darkness in a lot more detail in another article.

So to summarise, yes the molt is very, very important. Everyone will have their own way of doing things, but I personally believe that pigeons are in their best form after they have thrown their second flight.

Yours in sport,
Bob Fenech