More interviews with:        <<Harry Shannon>>  (World record 22.05 Hours)

                                               <<Hidde de Jong>>   (Great time young tipplers 19.32 Hours)

Interview of Heinz Kaupschafer with Piet v.d. Werf after flying his world record of 20.01 hours with his young tipplers

( 0101 / 0108 / 0109  from 2002 ) This took place at the 1st. youngsters match  of the N.V.C  at the 6th. of July 2002. 

What kind of feeling do you have after such a success ?

Answer 1: “How I feel right now? I find it hard to describe what feeling I get after improving the world record youngsters (young animals),this is something you only dare dreaming of. During our visit to Ireland in 2000 it got trough to us (Me and George de Vries) what world class animals we got in our lofts. Different training flights we saw and the pigeons of Hugh Coulter and Harry Shannon are of the same quality as the ones we got in our lofts. George and I spoke a lot about this. The art is the way you handle the animals, how to get the far most out of the animals, also about that area we learnt a lot in Ireland. The result is obvious, but these things don’t go by them selves, the tippler sport is brainwork, good observing and having a lot of contact with the animals and always try to take lessons of mistakes that were made. Of course I’m very happy I got the far most out of the pigeons, although I am conscious that during such a day the weather has to be in your favour, especially around the evening the weather is very important and can define the out coming of a match.”.

Please some details about you. Where is Oosterbierum in the Netherlands? How long are you living here already? What’s your age and tell something about yourself?

Answer 2: “Oosterbierum lies in the province Friesland in the Netherlands, about 1 km. from the Wadden sea near Harlingen (11 km.) and Franeker (7 km.). In the year 1938 I was born in a town called Heeg (near Sneek) also in the province Friesland. Friesland is a province that has his own language and that has a big history. In the early days a large part of Holland was part of Friesland, even in to Belgium, and also the land was stretched out farther to the north-east side than it is now. Even a part of Germany (think of Ost (East)-Friesland) and Denmark belonged to the Fries empire. When I was 14 years I already worked in the bakery. After my military service (or duty) I came to Oosterbierum. In 1958 again working in the bakery. I also met my wife there. She has been growing up in a fisherman cottage near the sea-dike and her father was a fisherman by occupation (profession) there. My wife later became nurse and worked as a nurse for many years in Arnhem and Leeuwarden. In 1964 we got married. We’ve got 4 sons and now we also have 5 grandchildren. After being a baker for 43,5 years I could make use of the VUT- arrangement (chance to retire several years before you reach the official retirement age) and so I can enjoy my retirement and time of that comes with it. The pigeon sport I always had to pursue next to my very busy job, but now I can spend lots of time with this magnificent hobby, which hopefully will pay off it selves in my results”.

Tell something about your loft!  How many compartments are there, what’s it’s position and where is the light/lamp? How many breeding couples do you have en how many youngsters did you get this year to fly?

Answer 3: “My loft is 9meter long and about 2 wide, it’s divided in 5 compartments and it’s standing in my back yard. The aviary is at the north, it’s not ideal but there are no other options/possibilities. In one of the compartments I keep the food with also 16 boxes where I box in my flying animals. In one compartment I keep my droppers, one compartment for my youngsters and two compartments for the breeding couples, in each one there are made 8 breeding boxes. As you can read I don’t have a lot of space for my pigeons, but probably that’s my luck. Strict selection has always been necessary to make use of the available space optimally. Especially if you take in mind that besides my flying tipplers I also have build up a pedigree of black Chinese gulls. Those are my Fries horses, the tipplers are my racing horses. In front of the youngsters compartment and the two breeding compartments is placed the aviary in which the pigeons can stay at all times. This year I had 8 breeding couples flying Tipplers out of which came 40 youngsters who made it to get to fly. More animals you really don’t need. I rarely have problems with the breeding of the animals. Something about lamps/lights. The first two years I only had one 150 Watt lamp, but in case of an emergency I found it necessary to place an extra lamp. This is a halogen lamp of 300 Watt. So now they both can be used. These light are hanging at the wall against the house”.

What age where the youngsters at the time of the flight? Are the youngsters relatives of one another and are sexes known already?

Answer 4: “The 3 pigeons who flew the record are from early march and so they were 16 a 17 weeks of age during the flying of the record. I think it’s two cocks (males) and one hen (female). Two of them are from the same nest and the 3rd on is a nephew and so they are all relatives of one another”. .

To get these flying times they of course got to be trained for the lamp? How did you do this and when did you start this training for the lamp?

Answer 5: “I had 5 tipplers I trained with. I don’t like to fly with large couples the control will get worse each time the couple gets larger. Of course I trained them for the lamp/light, something I had most definitely no time for when I was working as a baker, but because I was intensively busy with training the old animals (also for the lamp/light  of course) and it also became very late very often, it wasn’t my priority to train also with the young animals for the lamp/light. When it at last went very well with the team I started with it. This was only the last three weeks prior to/before the flight. What I noticed especially with this team is that it was listening to me extremely well, we had good contact. Every pigeon has been flawless (made no mistakes) up to and including the flight where they flew the record time”.             

How are the pigeons boxed? In separate boxes or in a Kit-box?

Answer 6: “As you could have read in answer 3 I have an compartment where I box up the matching pigeons. Each pigeon is sitting separate so I can check the eating, drinking and stools/motions etc. It is very quiet in there, the pigeons don’t get disturbed or scared of”.

How does the training take place? How often a week are they turned loose and what do you feed them?

Answer7: “After the pigeons were accustomed about the half of April I tried to let the team fly always 2 times a week for about 8-12 hours. I intentionally didn’t train for the lamp to early. I want to try to always get the pigeons flawless back at the loft. When time goes by it gets more and more important the pigeons only come to the loft when the boss is calling them (also with the use of droppers). In the training period I use purification mixture from Teurlings, after each flight during one day short-beaks food and breeding mixture, half by half, this is different from my old animals, young animals/youngsters you can’t give purification mixture all the time”.

Did you take precautions for diseases and things ?

Answer 8: “Three days before the match the pigeons get trimonex (a combination tablet from Siegertauben). This you can order from the firm Klaus”.

How long where they flying the last times during the training flights in the dark? And did you experience trouble with that?

Answer 9: “The last three weeks I intensively trained with 5 youngsters and of course trained them for the lamp/light. The last week we trained one day / one day rest and so on, they flew from about 15.00 o’clock till about 23.00 o’clock, they also went on flying till after 24.00 o’clock sometimes, but I never took any unnecessary risks so there never were big problems”.

When and how long did the pigeons fly during the last training flight?

Answer 10: “The last training flight was on Monday the 1st of July from 15.00 o’clock till 23.15 o’clock, it got darker and darker and eventually this was followed by a heavy rain shower”.

What kind of food did the pigeons get the last week before the match and when is the last time before the flight the pigeons get food and water?

Answer 11: “From Monday evening up to and including Thursday evening ½ flying food and ½ breeding food from Teurlings. Friday evening at about 18.00 o’clock some candy food and clean water”.

Could you describe a little how this day of the record flight went by? Maybe you could say more about different phases of the day?

Answer 12: “I enclosed the report of this super match”.

What are your plans with these three pigeons for the future?  

Answer 13: “The three pigeons I immediately after the flight put on rest, immediately the day after the flight the pigeons lost a lot of down feathers and they started moulting. This shows of course enough of what big exertions this all costs the youngsters to get these results. They deserve all the rest for this further season. Maybe they’ll join the flying team (or for breeding)next year. This we’ll see next spring. I hope you’ll find my contribution satisfying”.

Report of the first young animals flight, kept the 6th of July 2002 at Oosterbierum.

Started at 4.30 o’clock. At the start it still was quite dark en it was raining a little. After a few hours it got dry and little by little (gradually) the team was flying higher. Also there was a nice clear sky with thermion(?). The team obviously took his benefit from this. In great circles they flew over the village, also they were easy to control. It stayed light very long that evening and by the sea it was really phosphoresced. The team was flying very strong the whole day and always in perfect formation, at 0.15 o’clock I saw them flying over for the last time and then I decided to make the full 20 hours. It wasn’t without any risk and therefore it was very exciting. When I put on the lamp/light and released the droppers to get my team down, the umpire/referee told me it was 0.31 o’clock. Within twenty minutes they all were sitting in the cage/box. I knew this team could make a good time, but that they would improve the world record I only dared dreaming about. Flight time 20 hours and 1 minute. A very content/satisfied master. At last I can tell that these three pigeons are after breed from Harry Shannon and Hugh Coulter form Ireland. In 1993 George de Vries and I got hold of 4 couples + two loose cocks, with these pigeons we created our own stock. Sadly George passed away. A stock that brought us great results and also gave us great pleasure.