Base Pigeons
Click on the names below to learn more about the foundation pigeons of our loft.
Janssens
Our Janssens originate from the closely bred Janssen Brothers colony of Arendonk, Belgium, established in 1886. Our stock birds descend from the best performing Janssens and are especially concentrated on Old Merckx bloodlines. The Old Merckx won 23 firsts. His sons Young Merckx (15 firsts), 019 (18 firsts) and Velo are known throughout the world for producing extraordinary pigeons.
Children of 019 sold for $20,000 up, if you could find one. I have owned three grandchildren of 019. My foundation hen Irma is a granddaughter of 019 (off Mike Ganus' prepotent 969 x Princess, a daughter of Young Merckx x Kweekduif van '67, considered by many to be the Janssen Brothers’ Golden Hen.). Irma’s offspring have won 138-documented futurity, club and combine diplomas. Her genes run throughout my present day Janssens.
In addition to the 3 grandchildren of "019" that make up our foundation stud, I own a rare, priceless grandson of Old Merckx. His name is Adriaan and he has produced 3 first place winners, two national award winners, and numerous diploma winners for our loft.
Also to be found in our Janssen foundation bloodlines are closely related descendants of Groete Stier, Blauwe of '69, Korte Witoger, and several other foundation-quality Janssens.
I have crossed five different families of pigeons with my Merckx Janssens and all these crosses have resulted in diploma winners or breeders or diploma winners.
Meulemans
I have only a few Meulemans pairs in our breeding program. They rank among the finest bred Meulemans available in the U.S. -- the last daughter of Ganus' Million-Dollar Cock and a grandson of the world-famous Kadet cock. A son of this pair, de 2000, was one of our best widowhood cocks and is becoming a world-class breeder in his own right. Also in the breeding loft is a daughter of Magnum, one of the best performance Meulemans in the U.S. Magnum was bred and flown by Gerard Schalkwijk of Holland and is now owned by Horst Hackemer.
Our Meulemans have performed well and bred excellent pigeons for flyers in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Texas, Washington, and New York. The Meulemans make super crosses into almost any well-bred, performance family.
The Meulemans were popular in the US in the 1980s and ranked among the most expensive pigeons on the market. However, the infatuation with this family quickly waned since many of them bred large pigeons that were not suitable for the race basket or the breeding loft. This is not the case with our Meulemans, as they are medium in size, with excellent muscle and feather, and produce winning racers when kept straight or crossed.
Fabrys
To complement our Janssens, I have focused on the old-line Fabrys going back to the 1960s when Georges Fabry was alive. Because of space constraints, in 2001, I made the difficult decision to sell all my Fabrys except for one pair that was kept for stock. These are all weather, all station pigeons that excel in long races as well as tough weather. On a hot, humid day, when all the "speed" families have beat themselves into the ground, the Fabrys keep coming. Mouchette, MacArthur, and Barnum are the predominate bloodlines. I owned two direct sons of Ganus' Champion 180, sire and grandsire of hundreds of diploma winners, and my Fabrys are linebred on 180. They make a superior cross with the Janssens and Meulemans.
Our straight and crossed Fabrys have done especially well in the tough Boston Concourse, winning Champion Bird, Old Bird of the Year and 1st North Section, as well as countless club and futurity diplomas around the country.
