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We maintain a number of different families. Each one represents a slightly different gene pool. While these pools are each a subset of the larger gene pool of all racing pigeons, it is their subtle differences that potentially give them great value in the breeding of winning racers.
It is important that you understand the role of a family in breeding pigeons. It is a means to an end (winning races) and not the end itself. The families that we keep are here because we think they may add value to our breeding program. They are all under constant evaluation. Over time, some are eliminated and others are blended together. Occasionally we experiment with new ones. As a breeder, we keep more (many more) than the average fancier will need. The one or two families that will be appropriate for you will depend upon the goals you have for your loft.
Listed below are the families we currently maintain. While they are grouped together and discussed in generalities, don’t forget that each family exhibits variation and individual pigeons may deviate (sometimes wildly) from the characteristics of the family. The three letter acronyms (such as JRJ and BRO) are listed here since they appear in some of our pedigrees and reports that you may come across.
Group 1 - The Sprinters. There are a couple of reasons we maintain a family of sprinters. First, many Old Bird and Young Bird schedules have a number of races that are under 200 miles. It makes competitive sense to have a family that can excel under these conditions. Second, the genes necessary to excel in the very short races (for example, quick orientation) may be a useful component in building other families and in producing race or futurity birds.
Julien & Roland Janssens (JRJ) - Two generations of specialization in the sprint races by this father son team, coupled with an extraordinary exportation by Hapyco Lofts of many of their very best birds has made this an ideal starting point for our sprint family.
Group 2 - Middle Distance.
Janssen Brothers - While we suspect there were a few more outcrosses than generally believed, the birds of the Janssen family nevertheless represent one of the few true families in the sport. A treasure that should not be lost over time, this family will remain unblended and intact in our lofts for as long as we have pigeons. To be sure, they will be used in the development of new families, but the “old line” Janssen family will be preserved. We maintain a number of subfamilies, based upon their origins:
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BRO
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We can trace 100% of the ancestors of birds in this subfamily back to the Janssen Brothers loft.
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KUI
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These birds are down from the loft of Jan Kuijzer of the Netherlands. Jan is the breeder of “Libra” (mother of “Van Moorsel”), “Vos Schalie 39” (called the “Best Racing Red Janssen the the World!” by Campbell Strange) and “Vos 31” (perhaps his most prepotent sire).
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TVH
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Down from the birds of Tini Van Herpen and intensely linebred around his famous “De 64”.
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SME
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Down from the birds of the late Wout Smeulders.
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KLA
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Down from the birds of the late Jos Van Limpt (De Klak).
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HEK
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Linebred around “Hekkenklak”.
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MIR
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Linebred around “Blue Miracle”
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FIR
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Linebred around “Fire Flight”. This was a fantastic racer who was first bought by Campbell Strange and then sold outside of the U.S. relatively early in his breeding career. The availability of his descendants in the US is rather limited. Our early tests have shown this to be a very powerful racing family.
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BVL
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Linebred around the “Blue Van Lier”.
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D46
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Linebred around the “De 46”.
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JAN
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A blend of the above subfamilies and other selected Janssen pigeons.
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034
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“The Gold Standard” (2034-AU-94-HANG) was a bird bred by Mel Miroth and given to Ray Roemmich (the breeder of Campbell’s famous “Lodi”). This hen was mostly Janssen (7/8ths) with a touch of Delbar (1/8th). We acquired her when we bought out Ray near the end of his pigeon career. She has been a breeding wonder, not the least of which was breeding “Roi Tan’ who is the sire of Jim Richesin’s 4 x 1st American Ace, “Smokin Joe”. She was also the dam of a California Convention Race winner.
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JOE
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Jim Richesin’s 4 x 1st American Ace, “Smokin Joe” is an exceptional pigeon. Jim and I paired “Smokin Joe” with his granddam “The Gold Standard” in 2004. From this mating Shewmaker Genetics took a cock we call “Golden Joe” around which we will be doing some heavy testing in 2006.
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DOL
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At the first Vegasrace.com, there were a dozen birds which shared over $500,000 for the first drop. One of these birds was bred by Hapyco Loft and is known as “Vegas Doll”. Over the last few years we have had several opportunities to purchase children and siblings of “Vegas Doll”. As we do with all of our “experimental” purchases, we put them through our testing program. Without exception, this family has tested very very well.
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Van Loon - One of the most celebrated families of the past two decades. Truly great pigeons who have produced spectacular race and breeding results for many fanciers. The Planet Brothers, Campbell Strange and Gijs Peters to name just three.
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S73
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This family is strongly linebred around the great “Super 73”. There are several subfamilies of the “Super 73’s” around the U.S. based on his most famous sons. The three that have done the best for us are those of “De Marco”, “Super Secret” and “2778”. An excellent family for the futurities. They cross particularly well with Grondelaers, Janssens, Van Loons and Hofkens.
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VAN
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Our Van Loons come from three basic sources - about a dozen birds directly from Louis Van Loon in the mid to late 90’s, birds down from the Planet Brothers collection that was obtained from Louis Van Loon in the mid 80’s and a nestmate to the European record bird “The Raven” who was a Van Loon bred by Thei Bours of the Netherlands.
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Hofken - These are some of our most valued pigeons. Not everyone will admit it, but the Hofkens are behind many of the really big futurity wins of the past several years. We like them because they consistently race well and can at times win by wide margins. They cross particularly well with Janssens, Zoontjens, Van Loons and Grondelaers.
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HOF
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The majority of our Hofkens are from or down from Verheyen. You will find “Rocket”, “De Oude Pol” and “Oude Merckx” in the background of just about every one of our birds in this family.
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DRI
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Hofken’s “Driebander” (of 1964) is the key bird to the Hofken family. While he is long gone, his influence continues to this day. We have some of the most highly linebred “Driebanders” to be found anywhere.
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HOL
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Hollywood - Not much probably needs to be said about “Hollywood”. A great racer purchased by Mike Ganus, who has gone on to sire many great breeders and racers. We started this family when we could still get direct children of “Hollywood”. Our core breeders consist of six sons and daughters of “Hollywood” when bred to either “Breeder’s Best” or daughters of “Hollywood” and “Breeder’s Best”.
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TRA
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One of our first purchases when getting into pigeons was a group of “Traets” squeekers from Rick Mardis. This family did not “handle” well, but flew like few others. We eventually came to find that they were “Hofkens based” and this was one of the primary reasons we got the Hofkens. Over the years we have kept them straight and improved their conformation.
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Zoontjens (ZOO) - This is our bread and butter family. If we had to reduce our operation to just two families, this would be one of them (the Hofkens would be the other). They have a remarkable ability to find their way home. We experience probably our fewest losses with this family. Bred by Wal Zoontjens and Son of the Netherlands. They are a small loft, fly all the races and live at the top of the race sheet year after year. The Zoontjens were started by Wal’s father and so they represent a three generation family of birds. They trace their origin back to Janssen and Van Loon, so they are an excellent cross to either of these two families. They also cross very well with the Hofkens.
Grondelaers (GRO) - One of our favorite families because they have consistently been top performers. We have keyed on “Bliksem” since he was the common ancestor behind our most successful flyers. Jan Grondelaers was a very sharp breeder. Some of his best birds go back to Hofken’s “Driebander”. As a result the Grondelasers are an excellent cross with the Hofkens.
Lichte Orleans (LOR) - This Jules Verbeeck bred bird was a remarkable individual that Campbell Strange sold relatively early in its reproductive life to Japan. The sale effectively removed ”Lichte Orleans” from any future contributions to US pigeons. We acquired a few linebred “Lichte Orleans” grand children and put them through our testing program. The birds were consistently near the top. As a result, we acquired a few more and added the family to our program.
Houben (HOU) - The record of the Houbens in the South Africa race over the past decade has been quite remarkable. We are keying on the “Young Artist”.
Verbruggen (VBR) - Just a few, but very very good. Houben and Verbruggen traded a few key birds briefly early on. We keep some of both of these families as part of our “genetic palette” for building future families.
Meulemans (MEU) - Again, just a few and very selective. The Meulemans were behind “Super 73” and are descended in part from Janssen and Van den Bosch. The very key “Driebander” of Hofkens also goes back to a (different) pair of Janssen and Van den Bosch.
Tristar (TRI) - “Tristar” was the 2nd National Ace Middle Distance Pigeon of Holland in 1996. In establishing this line we have linebred “Tristar” using several of his direct children. The line includes elements of Janssen (“Blue Miracle”), Hofken and Claessens.
Group 3 - Long Distance. It takes a different kind of bird to fly 600 miles in a single day. Unfortunately, the expense of shipping to these long race stations and the predominance of the middle distance futurities are reducing, somewhat, the number of these birds in the U.S. We believe it is important to maintain these distance genes in our pool. We value them both for their ability to fly 15 straight hours and for certain traits that they can contribute to our futurity crosses.
Jan Aarden (ARD) - To date these are the best distance birds we have. They also win a surprising share at the shorter distances. As everyone nows, they are an excellent cross to the Janssens.
Devriendt (DEV) - Our Devriendts are down from the Galaxy Devriendts and are highly linebred around the famous “Lodi” cock. We also have a collection of the Eddie Tangonan Devriendt’s which have a similar background.
Huyskens Van Riel (HVR) - When I gave my seminar in Salt Lake City in 2001, I visited the lofts of “The Jones Boys”. We handled just about every pigeon they owned and I must say it was one very impressive group of pigeons. Since then we have been following them closely and every year the story is the same - consistently near the top of all the major futurities. This past 2006 AU Convention they were in a group all by themselves - 3 birds in the top 15 places and each bird was in a different loft. In fact, each of the three birds was the first bird to its loft. We now have six pair of the best of the Jones’ and we will be putting them through our testing program. We have no doubt they will be one of our top families.
Wonder (WON) The “Wonder Cock” was bred by Freek Romein and imported by Campbell Strange to the U.S. The family has produced a number of very impressive futurity wins. The dam of the “Wonder Cock” was one of the best long distance birds of her generation in Holland.
Brakele (BRK) - In 2002 I went to Europe with some friends. My purpose in making the trip was to visit some of the Barcelona flyers and to study some of their methods. Marcel Sanger took us to see Harry Brakele, one of the rising long distance flyers in Holland. It was here that I purchased “Destiny” who is emerging as one of our premier breeders.
Beulens (BEU) - During that same trip to Europe in 2002, we visited the Herbots where we had a unique opportunity to go through about 200 Beulens that they had recently acquired. We brought home 11 super birds who are going through our testing program.
Thone (THO) - The birds of the Belgium Barcelona Ace, Jos Thone.
Group 4 - Novelty. These are just for our personal fun. They have to fly because we don’t have any free space around here, but they owe their presence here simply for their incredible beauty.
Whites - All white. Perfect for “wedding” flyers, though we fly them all the way through the 400 mile stations.
Creams - Some people call them “yellows”, but I understand “cream” is the correct term. These are Janssen birds down from Horst Hackemer’s “Yellow Bar Hen”. They fly real well. They have many club and combine winners in the family.
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