In 2004 our family celebrated 80 years in pigeonsport. This page tells you a bit of our history, offers a look at our new lofts and is generally meant to let you know who we are.

The beginning

It all started in 1924. That year, a man by the name of Louis Daelemans, who was living in the small Belgian community of Viersel, decided to start keeping racing pigeons. In those days, when the Belgian Federation still counted something like 300.000 members, this was not really an exceptional feat. The whole village, in fact even almost the whole street, was racing pigeons and Louis merely joined the hobby of most of his relatives and friends. After all, in an era when there was no TV and even no radio to speak of, when travelling all over the world was the realm of the very rich, playing soccer, bicycle racing and keeping pigeons was all there was for fun.

Louis, who was 19 at the time, started - like so many fanciers before and after him - with pigeons he had gotten from an older fancier in the neighborhood. Clocking was done in the master clock of the club. When a pigeon arrived home, the rubber ring had to be taken to the club by a runner. Needless to say the speed of the runner often was of as much importance as the speed of the pigeon, especially on sprint races. Unfortunately for Louis, the club was on the other side of the canal and although his brother Frans was a very good runner, the detour to the bridge proved to be an insurmountable obstacle. Nothing so smart though as a human being they say, and very soon the Daelemans family came up with a very original solution. The key to victory was the unique advantage that Frans was one of an identical twin. The plan was simple. When the pigeon arrived, the ring was put in the timble and the timble in a leaden "egg". Frans then ran like hell to the bank of the canal and threw the egg across to his twin brother Gust. Gust then proceeded to the club which was only a short distance away and where everybody thought that he was Frans! The deadly disadvantage thus circumvented, the competition could finally be beaten...

Despite this not 100% koosher system, Louis was indeed a fancier to be reckoned with. Pretty soon he started basketing his pigeons in the famous Provincial town of Lier, where one of the biggest clubs of the country had its seat. In the strong HaFo Club of Lier, the middle distance races of Creil and Compiègne were very popular and Louis decided to try his luck on those competitions. On his first race from Compiègne, he immediately made a name for himself by taking the 1st and 6th position with a red hen. Naturally, the week after the same hen was again basketed for Creil. No pigeon arrived home. Only two weeks later the red hen did make it back, both its wings cut short!!! Which just proves that in "the good old days" the competition was not as clean as romantic ideas would have us believe...

Anyway, after getting married in 1930 and building his own house in 1932, work became more important than play and for the next 13 years not much was happening on the pigeon sport front. The war from 1940 to 1945 brought a lot of misery, but also a revival of pigeon racing in the Daelemans family. In 1940 Belgian soldiers were staying at Louis' house. One of them happened to be a strong pigeon racer from Oeselgem in West Flanders, called Frans Devaere. He told Louis: "Whenever you start racing again after the war, you must come to Oeselgem for pigeons and nowhere else." During the war, keeping pigeons was stricktly prohibited by the German occupational forces, but many fanciers managed to hide their birds somewhere, waiting for better times. Among them was one of Louis' brothers. One day however, young August Daelemans, Louis' son, was playing on the attic of his uncle and accidentally discovered the hidden treasure. Scared out of his wits that the young boy might talk too much and so give him away to the Germans, August's uncle promised him some pigeons after the war, provided he kept his mouth shut. So, barely had the Germans been chased away by the Allied forces, or young August decided to build his loft in the roof of his home and dilligently proceeded to cut the beams to make some room. A sound beating later August was assisted by his father Louis - having first saved his house from becoming roofless - in building a brand new loft. The loft was filled with the promised birds of the uncle (among which a De Scheemaecker hen) and with some Devaeres (which were Stichelbaut origin), and the Daelemans family was back in business.

--- Louis Daelemans' wedding picture. When this was taken he was a pigeon fancier for 6 years already.

Business in the 40's and 50's of the previous century meant: sprint racing. In the small town of Viersel the fanciers raced Quièvrain or sometimes St. Quentin and Pont St. Maxence and that was it. Louis and his son August more than held their own in these races. Especially their De Scheemaecker hen made them the heros of the village when she won a first prize and her 4 youngsters (originating from mating the hen to a Devaere cock) 4th, 16th, 18th and 27th. To this blitz start, Louis and August later added several other 1st prizes, all on sprint distances. Considering the Stichelbaut origin of their pigeons this was no mean feat, or perhaps it was a matter of being King One-eye in the land of the blind... In all honesty, competition in Viersel was very friendly, but not exactly of high standing. Anybody meaning anything in pigeon racing in the area went to the Hafo Club of Lier to race middle distance and compete against giants such as Adriaan Wouters, Gust Hofkens, Van Miert, Van Gorp, Havermans, Houben, Pepermans, Tuyaerts and others. For the time being this seemed a pipe dream for the Daelemans family, but this would soon change. In the early 50's, their "Witte" managed to win the area classic "Stadsprijskamp Lier" (City trophee of Lier) and this made August eager to start competing in the Hafo Club. In 1957 he met Georges Van Riel, son of - you've guessed right - Jef Van Riel of the worldfamous Huyskens-Van Riel tandem. Georges had managed to retain some excellent pigeons out of the total Huyskens-Van Riel auction and he saw to it that 12 eggs ended up on the Daelemans loft. By strange coincidence all 12 eggs hatched into cocks. Jef Van Riel, who had returned to the sport on his own (in fact in combination with his other son François), on the other hand had bred mainly hens. Logically, Jef proposed an exchange: he would select one cock out of the 12, swapping it for 11 hens. In fact, Jef selected two and after carefull consideration he told August: 'I'll take the breeder and leave you the racer'. And so it was: the pigeon that remained on the Daelemans loft developed into one hell of a racer in the Hafo Club Lier, the one that Jef Van Riel took with him bred the Acepigeon Long Distance in Fondclub Antwerpen! As it was, the Van Riel pigeons did really well on the Daelemans loft, winning the Young Bird Championship in Hafo Club Lier. As a side note (and tribute to the knowledge of Jef Van Riel): the racer which Jef left behind, the "Elfpenner", racked up an impressive racing record and was consequently transferred to the breeding loft. He never produced a single decent pigeon, not even when mated to several different good hens.

--- Japanese visitors at the old lofts in Viersel. Many foreign visitors braved the somewhat dangerous steps to the racing loft.

Moving to Halle

After getting married in 1959, August Daelemans moved to Halle in 1964. After spending 4 years living in an appartment in Deurne near Antwerp and traveling to his parent's house in Viersel weekly in order to be able to race pigeons, August was keen on getting something started in Halle. Unfortunately the plot of land he and his wife had bought, although lovely situated, was in the middle of the woods and so unsuited for putting up a loft. Undeterred, August went looking for a partner in the village and found one in the person of his father's cousin, Gust Coninckx. Although Coninckx had actually been a sprint racer all his life, the new team decided to go for the Middle Distance. They got rid of all of Coninckx' (rather worthless) racers and replaced them with youngsters from the old breeding loft in Viersel. After going through a strict selection process as youngsters, only 10 were left. These continued their training as yearlings on the Middle Distance. After the season all 10 were still on the loft, showing their formidable quality. This quality was proven the next year, when Coninckx & Daelemans won the City Throphee of Lier, a 1st Melun with minutes in advance in Hafo Club Lier and got themselves a great result on Orleans.

Unfortunately, although blessed with regular success, the Coninckx-Daelemans period would be shortlived. Karel Meulemans once said "I feel nothing but compassion for people who ever attempt teaming up with a friend". Although it may sound a bit dramatic, this quote only means that to play in a team you really have to be on the same wavelength. With August Daelemans and Gust Coninckx this was really not the case. While August wanted to base their Middle Distance success on the widowhood cocks, which need a strict regime of training, feeding and rest, Gust only cared for the young birds and the 115 km sprint race of Quiévrain. More than once August, who went to the lofts immediately after work, found the young birds still sitting on the roof at 5:15 pm when it was previously agreed that the widowhood cocks would receive their training at 5 pm sharp. Under these circumstances it was mainly due to the high quality of the pigeons that the team still managed to win prizes such as 2 and 6 on Bourges and National among the 100 first against more than 10.000 birds. Nevertheless the cooperation seemed doomed and perhaps it was in a way fortunate that Gust Coninckx' health forced him to quit keeping pigeons, before a major argument between August and Gust could develop.

Meanwhile having secured permission to thin out the trees in the garden somewhat (unthinkable nowadays we have to add), prospects for keeping pigeons in Halle improved and August decided to build a loft in his own garden. Starting out with a modest 5 meter loft, which soon increased to a larger loft with 2 sections for young birds, 2 sections for widowhood cocks, 2 sections for the breeders plus an aviary for the widowhood hens, August for the first time in his life started racing on his own.

--- The "first" loft in Halle. Actually this was already the second phase. The first structure consisted of the two sections on the left. This first structure did not exist for long as such. Very soon the loft size was increased by adding the part on the right with the aviary in front (two sections for the breeders).

--- The loft in Halle as it looked in its final phase. An extra 2 sections were added to the left, now transforming the whole structure into a full blown racing loft: from left to right were the two sections for young birds (with traps), 2 sections for widowhood cocks (flying in through open windows) and two sections for the breeders. The widowhood hens were in a small aviary at the back of the loft. Also note that the old wooden aviary was replaced by a metal construction.

Unfortunately, racing on his own proved to be a difficult task for August. Filling his days with his work for General Motors and his evenings and weekends with writing reports for various pigeonsport publications, preparing sales programs and auctioneering pigeons, and receiving a hoard of foreign visitors, left little time to pay much attention to the birds. Son Frank was still at school and had his mind set on going to university to study biotechnology, so it was no more than logical his parents impressed on him "school first, the rest later". The result was of course Frank wasn't much of a help at the lofts either. Nevertheless, August managed to get his share of the prizes when he did find the time for the right preparation. In any case, the quality of the pigeons on the loft was beyond questioning. At one point there were no less than 40 original Janssen Arendonk on the stockloft, not to mention a number of Mariën-Meulemans birds, pigeons out of (the then almost unbeatable) René Somers' basic pair and his Dokus-dynasty, Pros Roosen pigeons out of Lokeren x Fabiola, direct William Geerts pigeons such as 2 daughters of Prins, a daughter of Buffel, a daughter of Kas x Witstaart, "Mirage", a grandson of Raoul Verstraete's famous Mirage, etc. The Bourgesduivin, 6593429/81, won 1st Orleans in 1981, 1st Bourges Yearlings 1982, 3rd Provincial Bourges Hens 1982 and 10th National Bourges Hens 1982. On 8 races, this wonderful hen scored 8 prizes in the top 10%. Other stars of the loft included Alleenvlieger, Jonge Moordenaar and De Van Berendonck. Alleenvlieger, 6140605/84, (a grandson of Alleenvlieger of Fiermans-Geudens), never missed in 1985 and scored prizes such as 17th Montargis against 1177 pigeons, 43rd Etampes against 1574 pigeons, 15th Bourges against 867 pigeons in the famous Antwerp Union and 26th Provincial Bourges against 3257 pigeons (30th National against 10333 pigeons). Jonge Moordenaar, 6140679/84, was a son of Moordenaar Gillyns x Daughter Prins of William Geerts. In 1985 he won 2 firsts from Dourdan (against 1361 and 2270 pigeons), a 33rd Etampes against 1370 pigeons and a 7th Quievrain, among others. De Van Berendonck, 6516630/82 was a direct son of Willy Van Berendonck's 78.000. In 1985 he won a 10th Quievrain, 14th Etampes, 20th Etampes, etc., never missing.

The third generation

In 1986, despite being in the middle of his studies in biotechnology at the university of Ghent, Frank could no longer resist the pigeonsport virus that had infected the Daelemans family since 1924, and joined his father as the third generation of pigeon fanciers. From now on, the former Daelemans and Son loft of Louis and August, later the August Daelemans loft, would be replaced by "The Loft of the New Generation".Although father and son now raced as Daelemans August and Frank, most of the practical work on the loft still had to be done by August, while Frank took care of the administration in the short moments that he was able to leave his studies in Ghent for home. Things didn't improve when Frank, after getting his Master's Degree, joined the army for a year of national service and started his working career directly after that. Despite these difficulties, the team on occasion still managed to surprise the competition, e.g. when their Blue Diamond, 6540835/92 became 3rd Acepigeon Middle Distance in the Halle-Schilde-Oelegem combine in 1993. This pure Meulemans out of Genopte Meulemans x sister Bourgeske Willy Van Berendonck, racked up a great season winning 47th Dourdan against 1439 pigeons, 26th Dourdan against 1343 pigeons, 24th Orleans against 400 pigeons and 11 prizes in the top 10%, all in the famous Antwerp Union, to name but a few. It was the last success witnessed by grandfather Louis, who passed away that same year, aged 87.

Meanwhile, due to his work, Frank had moved to Sint Niklaas, in the East Flanders province and it became even harder for him to help his father at the loft than before. So, after much deliberation, August and Frank decided to stop focusing on the middle distance and start racing the long distance instead. The Janssen birds, which over the years had built the reputation of the Daelemans loft in the eyes of collectors worldwide, were kept, but in 1996 the middle distance birds were sold or removed to make room for long distance racers. Basically August and Frank went to three sources for their long distance pigeons. The first source was Herman Van Helmond, 8 times 1st National winner and breeder of the wellknown Jan Aarden pigeons. The second source was Christ Musters in Holland, where they got the Van der Wegen pigeons. The third source was Jan Dons, president of Cureghem Centre, the organising club of the worldfamous Barcelona race. Over the next few years the new long distance team would be supplemented with pigeons from Gaston & Danny Devooght and Vanbruane. Finally, August and Frank also returned to one of their "old loves": the Meulemans pigeons. Since the early eighties, Karel Meulemans had started to focus on long distance racing himself. In 1999 this culminated in winning the National Long Distance Championship. Reason enough for the Daelemans family to reinforce their own long distance loft with the bloodline that had done so well for them in the past.

Despite their still very full agenda's, August and Frank nevertheless managed to get some success in long distance racing. "Kleine Champ", an original Van Helmond, made sure their entry on the long distance scene was noted: In 1999 the 2 year old won 1st Barcelona in Wijnegem Fond, 3rd in the Antwerp Union, 5th Provincial against 1444 birds and 88th National against 14038 pigeons. "Moedige", a Van der Wegen through Christ Musters, won a 4th in Wijnegem Fond and a 75th Provincial in the same race. Those who thought this was just a short term success soon were proven otherwise: over the next four years Kleine Champ would race Barcelona each year, scoring a 4th in 2000, a 6th in 2001, an 8th in 2002 and finally a 5th in 2003 in Wijnegem Fond. Meanwhile their "044", a half Van der Wegen with some Jan Dons crossed into it, also managed to win a 1st on Barcelona in Wijnegem Fond, as well as a 14th San Sebastian in the Kempische Fondclub. Things looked bright for the future, but August and Frank decided to give their history a new twist.

The great move

In 2002, after some debates in the family council, Frank (who had started his own business as a pigeon broker in 1996) decided to buy a new plot of land in Sinaai, some 5 km from his house in Belsele. The idea was to erect a new house and pigeon lofts in Sinaai, retire the racers in Halle and then move everything to the new lofts. After this move, with Frank, his wife Martine and daughter Nathalie in the new house, August and his wife Maria would then move to Frank's former house in Belsele. This whole operation would put father and son within 5 minutes from each other's doors and so they would finally be able to race as a team, with both teammembers taking care of the pigeons.

In August 2002 construction work on the new house and lofts started. The new setup was by far the most ambitious and professional the Daelemans family had undertaken in its near 80 years of pigeon sport history. In stead of having a separate house and lofts, as had thusfar always been the case, the racing lofts would this time be integrated in the house itself. Professional pigeon fanciers all over the world have many different opinions on systems, housing, etc., but if there is one thing they all agree on it is this: nothing beats the superior quality of in-house pigeon lofts. The only drawback is the dust. To counter this, an isolated double wall was constructed between the actual living space and the lofts in the house. With no direct connection between these two parts the pigeons can take full advantage of the dry and warm circumstances of the house while dust and feathers are kept outside. This way, the Daelemans family could have its cake and eat it too!

End September 2003 construction was finished and the great move started. One month later everything was in place, both Daelemans families occupied their new homes and the collection of pigeons could start to settle into the new lofts. With everything nicely on time, breeding could start in November to have youngsters ready for the racing season 2004. At the same time it was decided not to focus exclusively on the overnight long distance anymore (since August and Frank, now living only 5 minutes away from each other, could spend as much time on the pigeons together as they wanted) but to re-introduce middle distance racing on the lofts once more. The long, hard but oh so interesting challenge of building brand new racing stock could begin...

--- The new lofts in Sinaai (2003). In the back the three widowhood loft windows can be seen on the first floor. Above the garage, at right, is room for two young bird lofts.

---Another view at the young bird lofts atop the garage. At right is the new breeding loft, comprising of 2 sections for breeders with aviaries in front and a section for widow-hens.

---The widowhood lofts from the outside, at the terrace.

Inside the widowhood lofts---

---View inside the young bird lofts.