Champions choose quality
Champions choose BEYERS

On Saturday the 20^th of May Stuart Wilcox secured 1^st & 2^nd Section 1^st & 2^nd National from Fougeres 222 miles in what turned out a very heavy race. The birds were liberated in France and had to face 25 mile an hour head winds in the English Channel with higher gusts and high temperatures when they arrived on land.

Stuart who is assisted by Jeff Wells timed Turbo Lizzy at 12.21, followed very shortly after by Turbo Natalia at 12.22. Both hens are raced on Widowhood, a system they learnt from Albert Derwa and both are 3 years old and have been very consistent racers. The sire of both hens was a 2016 cock called Turbo Magic which is bred by Koen Minderhoud from Late Turbo 608 winner of 1st Ace Pigeon One Day Long Distance 2013 in Province 1 Zeeland. 2nd Prov Roye 7,452b 2^nd Prov Gien 3,824b, 2^nd NPO – Chateauroux 2,227b (Beaton by Geeloger), 4^th NPO – Chateauroux 3,238b, 4^th SS – Sens 1,412b, 7^th Prov Souppes-s.-L. 6,036b, 8^th NPO – Ruffec 2,084b. Late Turbo 608 is a full brother to Nieuwe Turbo 1^st NAT Ace WHZB LD plus 1^st Sens 1510b, 1^st Niergnies 1795b and Miss Turbo dam of Champions Cornish Queen, Super, 69, Super 221 etc. The dam of Turbo Lizzy is a 2012 direct Koen Minderhoud, the dam of Turbo Natalia is a direct Dirk Van Dyck hen along with Magic Turbo was purchased at the Blackpool Golden Duif Auction in the Savoy Hotel. As well as a very keen Pigeon fancier Stuart Wilcox is also an Auctioneer and works together with Rik Hermans of the Duif.

Turbo Lizzy has won 1st Club 244b 29th WoESRC Yelverton, 7th Fed Sennon Cove 953b, 12th NW Section CSCFC Coutances, 25th Fed Yelverton 1342b and 34th Open BICC National Poitiers where she flew 9 ¼ hours. Turbo Natalia has won 2^nd Club Exeter 210b, 7^th Fed Wadebridge 682b, 16^th Fed Yelverton 1101b, 41^st Open NFC Guernsey, 116^th Open NFC Sennon Cove etc.

We asked Stuart how the birds are prepared and he responds. The birds are fed on PREMIUM VERKERK SPORT mixed with PREMIUM KOOPMAN ALL-IN-ONE which are very fatty mixtures, we are happy that these mixtures give all of the nutrition the birds need however on the advice of Dick De Leeuw we added a small amount of energy corn on the last two feeds. The hens are also given Super Depurative and Super Energy from Country Wide. I’m not one for heavy treatments, the birds get Parastop every November and are wormed and cankered before the season, after the first race they are given a respiratory treatment on the corn and that’s normally it. In terms of Supplements, the birds get BEYERS RELOAD on return and some mixed oils and BREWERS YEAST. As a prep for racing 3 times a week they get Zell Oxygen from Dr Wolf and CONDITION from BEYERS on the food. I always give my birds a special bath two days before basketing for a National with salts and de-scaler. The help we receive from Sam & Joe from Countrywide and Dick and Koen from BEYERS has been brilliant. Again on Dick and Koen advice we brought URTICA-CHLORELLA MIX and DETOX MINERAL MIX which is given on return from racing.

On the above system we are always impressed by how quickly the birds recover and how well they exercise around the loft which is very important to us as we can no longer road train due to birds of prey.

Champions choose quality
Champions choose BEYERS

A high-quality grit and mineral mixture supplemented with selected cereals and seeds; a carefully formulated combination of herbs and clay products that help rid the body of waste materials.

The composition of this mixture ensures better absorption of nutrients, allowing a more efficient build up to optimum condition.

Champions choose quality
Champions choose BEYERS

My name is Stuart Wilcox from Bristol in the UK and I am a lifelong pigeon fancier. In 2018 I met Dick De Leeuw at the “Gouden Duif “ in Antwerp and after a few beers in fact many beers he suggested I tried some of the BEYERS range of corns. Part of my breeding stock is from Albert Derwa who had always talked of the quality of BEYERS so for me it was an exciting prospect.

In the UK we have quite varied racing, the majority of the races are from France which means the pigeons have to fly the Channel. In good weather, this is ok but weather patterns and winds are often unpredictable so it is often the case that pigeons have to fly longer hours to get home. I often hear the term feed to win, however in modern times I believe the fancier also has to have an eye on feed to allow a pigeon to come home, even when it makes a mistake. Our race program starts at 100km and finishes at 960 km’s. Whilst it’s true to say that not all my pigeons compete all the way through to the final race, I do house my middle and long distance pigeons together and I feed them on the same system.

I spent some time studying the various mixtures that BEYERS offered, one thing I really liked was that some mixtures were linked to certain fanciers and there was lots of information and videos (You-tube) explaining various methods. It was easy for me; I wanted to fly a middle distance pigeon like Gerad & Bas Verkerk and a distance pigeon like Gerard Koopman. What I also took into account was that Gerard Koopman and Gerard & Bas Verkerk are both famed for their performances on very heavy flights and this suited the problems we encountered racing the English Channel.

In 2019 we combined PREMIUM VERKERK SPORT and PREMIUM KOOPMAN ALL-in-ONE  as our main racing mixture. Straight away we spotted some real differences in the pigeons, soft plumage and plump muscles with a nice pink tone and the birds were really active. We noticed a massive uplift in the birds exercise around the loft and the birds would really fly with zest. I work so I have to leave every morning at 7.30am, its always a risk that I cannot get my pigeons in on time, esp when they exercise really well however what we also noticed on this feeding system is that once the traps were open the birds would quickly enter the loft which we put down to the liking of the Peanuts in the KOOPMAN ALL-in-ONE mixture. The cocks are feed add-lib twice a day and the hens once a day.