In the raceloft are 24 nestboxes so there is room for 24 cocks and 24 hens. Mostly we start racing 30 birds (the others are caught by a hawk) and after a few races we again select 3 to 5 pigeons that we stop racing, but we leave them on the loft.

The future widowhoodcocks and hens are mated, together with the breeders, on december 1st. Some birds raise youngsters from the breeders but most of them raise their own because the racebirds are also your future and if you have confidence in them you should also be willing to raise their youngsters.
Beginning of march the racebirds are mated again with partners that won’t be shipped to the races. This way every racebird has 2 partners that are not meant to be raced, and you can use this sometimes during the raceseason. When the eggs are 3 to 4 days old the birds are seperated again and widowhood starts.

Before the races start to pigeons are trained 15 times at a distance from about 25 km. The widowhood cocks and hens are training only once a day while the weather is still cold. On days that we train them they stay inside the rest of the day. From 1st of may on the birds are training around the loft twice a day. The hens also. The first few days mostly we need the flag but after that they train by themselves.

In wintertime the birds get medication against paratyphus for two weeks (One time PARASTOP from Dr. De Weerd and the next year PARACOLI fron Dr. v.d.Sluis). When the birds are sitting on eggs they get a Tricho-medication for 7 days with RODINAZOLE 10%.

Two weeks before the first race the pigeons get the so called PS (Prange Suppe, a German product named after the manufactor) which makes them train outragious and cleanes the throats, they get lighter but also feel stronger. This stuff is also given twice a week during the whole season untill the last race in september. During the raceseason the pigeons get BS from Dr. De Weerd the first two days after a race, the 3rd and 5th day PS and on the 4th day WN or ORNI-SPECIAL from Dr. De Weerd or ornithose-red Dr. v.d.Sluis. Every 3 or 4 weeks they also are given a Belga-Magix tablet. After the last race they get nothing anymore.

Mother Betty, Klaasje and Gert Jan Beute

After the lest race, when the youngsters are weaned they get no food for the next 36 hours. After this they get very light mixture and so called “karnemilk”in the water. This makes all the birds moult terribly. After this week and light mixture they get Prestige moulting mix from GARVO.

During the breeding the pigeons get Prestige breeding mixture(Garvo). The breeders get also smallseeds and all kinds of wildseeds every day.

As told the breeders are also mated december 1st. we love to practice the so called Line-breeding. The breeders have to respond to certain quality’s: They have to be 1st prize-winners, Acebirds or children of them. Their bodies have to be perfect (Gert-Jan is a pigeon-judge) and the eyes must have a full circle. Pigeons without that have no chance to get in the breedingloft. Because they are inbreeding the same lines allready for more than 40 years it hardly ever happens that a bird with a bad body is born. All the pigeons in the loft have a short backwing, a very short keel and closed vents and above all, very soft feathering. If you see one you see them all.

During the race-season the pigeons get Garvo Super 2000 mixture, cleaning-mixture, Profi- solution, Super Energie and a lot of smallseeds and peanuts. During the Vitesse-races the pigeons get 30 grams per bird. 10 grams in the morning and 20 in the evening. Every day around lunchtime the racebirds get some smallseed and peanuts in their nestboxes. In fact the pigeons get more than 30 grams this way.
On raceday they get a full hopper racemix and hempseeds.(Saturday) On sunday and Monday they recieve lighter mixture and Tuesday +Wednesday racing mixture. Thursday they get double portion. On fridaymorning they get full hopper untill 11.00. At noon again some hempseed and clean water.
For the one-day fondraces the feeding is different Then we use H.E.4000 from GARVO. They get this the last 36 hours before shipping. On the day after return they get cleansing-mixture.

We race widowhood with cocks and hens but it is no double widowhood racing. One of the partners is always home. During the race-season the birds are always having 1 or 2 trainingtosses about 25 km. This is also the case after a heavy smash on the oneday-Fond. The pigeons still remember the smash and this way they get back the easy-return feeling. This theory about training tosses and feeding 3 times a day is given to them by the German champion Günter Prange that is a close friend to the family.

The youngbirds are in 2 sections separated by a door that can be closed so the system can be playing them “on the door”. Basicly there are half of the youngsters from the breeding loft and the other half is from the raceloft. The racebirds are mated also in Line breeding. From birds that don’t have a full circle we never breed. Those ones can be excellent racebirds but never will get the chance to put in the breeding loft.

The youngbirds can go into an aviary and are never put into the dark but even on the contrary. After weaning the light goes on 24 hours a day for 10 to 14 days. After that we copy the European summer from 5.00 to 22.00 hours. This way fhe birds drop their primaries allready in februari. This system Beute is for their birds very succesfull and they continue to use it. When the races start most of the birds are entirely through the moult and stay on 2 or 3 primaries that they throw when the birds get treated like above system after the races.
Each year we loose a lot of youngsters because of the hawks. He catches one as soon as they come outside but you loose another 10 because of the fear. Mostly they spread allover the country but if they get used to this we hardly ever loose a youngbird .

The Beute pigeons almost always return home, even after some days. After 3 races we allready know what are the best birds and what birds worthless. These ones are stopped racing. Because of the Dutch National system we always ship 10, 20 or 30 birds. This way we can get the most points. Luckely that the system in Friesland, in the North of Holland are using a better system now.

Visiting the Veterinarian doctors.

Beute is visiting several of the best pigeonvets there are in Holland. We mentioned allready Dr. De Weerd and Dr. v.d.Sluis but also Dr. Jellema and de Belgian Dr. Mariën. Why so many? Well we have our birds examened 3 or 4 times a year every time to another vet. Beute likes to learn, when you go to different vets you happen to hear all kinds of different theories and opinions. We were lucky to hear that the last few years nothing was found, not even 1 single worm.

Management and sharing tasks.

The name BEUTE & SON WAS UNTILL 2000 A. BEUTE & SON, but father Arnold Beute died on may 8th 1999. That season we finished under his name. Since the next season the name BEUTE is representing Mrs. Betty Beute and the son is Gert-Jan like he was before. At BEUTE the sport is a really family affair. Gert-Jan’s wife Klaasje is very busy in the clubhouse and is the local band-administrator. Bernhard, their son cleans the lofts every Saturday for an extra time and besides that we always have the friend of the family Richard “Pim” Hoogewoonink who is always at hand to do the special things in exchange for some good birds and advise. But because Gert-Jan is wordt in a continue-business mother Betty, who is 71 years old now has to do a lot of things. The whole day she spends with the pigeons and she also has a lot of knowledge and experience. During the sixties and the seventies she took over when husband Arnold was working in his business.

Pigeon-talk.

On Friday and Saturday are the socializing days at fam. Beute’s home. A lot of fanciers are gathered around kitchentable to do the pigeontalk. About 5 cans of coffee per morning are finished says Mrs Beute. It’s a pity that some them not mention this in their loft-reports.