The foundation of the strain of top racers from Siebren Wierstra.

In order to achieve that, a tremendous amount of loft visits have been conducted, many pigeons were bought and also a lot of them were removed. Literally, because Siebren will never sell a bird in which he doesn’t have any faith!

Another cornerstone was and will be the ability of pigeons to stay healthy naturally. Any pigeon that can’t cope and gets ill easily is removed from the loft. This resulted in removal of several pigeons that were sensitive to the most common diseases; amongst them were offspring of great lofts or ace birds. It can hurt a great deal to remove a pigeon that cost the big bucks or was of royal blood according to its pedigree, but it’s an absolute must to build a strain of pigeons that will keep winning for generations to come.

How was this strain built that we’re talking about?
The foundation consisted of the very best Janssen pigeons that could be found. Their offspring was raced heavily and only those that showed themselves real winners were kept and formed the basis.
 

The first seriously winning birds showed up in the early 80’s, and amongst them were a full brother and sister; namely “Blue 36” and the super smart hen “Witpen 54”. They were bred of the old 111-line of Siebren, mixed with the best Janssen blood of Tiny van Herpen. Their mother was bred off two direct Janssen’s, line of the Jonge Raket of 76 x Oude Vos. Pigeons like this “Blue 36” and “Witpen 54” were birds Siebren wanted his strain to be like (and who wouldn’t ?!). “Blue 36” won a.o. 1st against 1748 p., 1st against 5797 pigeons and Witpen 54 won amongst others 5 firsts of which the best were 1st of 4205 and 1st of 5883 (Al results mentioned are without doubles!) 

“Pigeons of great health and speed… “

In 1988 two youngsters came to the loft of Siebren, which later played an important role in the foundation of the strain for future years. One of them was a beautiful light chequered cock (NL88-2958361) which was a grandson of the world foreknown 019-cock of the Janssen brothers of Arendonk. The other was a vale Janssen hen (NL88-1216180) “Angelique”, descending from the best lines of Wout Smeulders available ( brother Rode Appie and daughter Marietje). The “361” came from Henk Simonsz and had an astonishing pedigree, filled with superpigeons who showed their royal blood also in performances. Angelique came from the golden Smeulderspair of Piet Schrijvers, a couple that wrote history in Holland.

Lets start with the earlier mentioned grandson 019,  “the 361” of Siebren, who was bred from a direct (!) son of the legendary 019 of the Janssen brothers paired to “Autoduifje”. This line is still the foundation of the present-day loft of Siebren, which he enriched with other noble lines and topbreeders.

"Autoduifje" was bred by Henk Simonsz from a real phenomenal breedingcouple. The cock of this couple was bred from a sister of the 73 of Gijs Peters which was Holland’s best pigeon in “Wie heeft ze beter”. Mother came from a direct daughter of the “019” from the Janssen Brothers of Arendonk, through Tiny van Herpen.
After this bird won the car (hence her name “Autoduifje”) not the bird but the car was sold! The amount that the car brought in was spent on just one pigeon, but not just some pigeon.

It was a direct son of the famous “019” in Arendonk, which was in the flying-loft at that time. Henk knew that this yearlingcock was there and that it was a fine pigeon. After several visits in Arendonk and the necessary negotiations with Louike, the deal was closed and the “Son 019”  (B86-6320876) was brought home!

Henk was now able to make his own dreampair (inbred to 019 with a superior hen) by mating this direct “Son 019” to the gifted hen “Autoduifje” (who was also offspring from this 019). It was indeed a dreampair, as the youngsters born from this couple appeared to be superbreeders, amongst them was the “361” which went to Siebren. One of his brothers went to Reke Stobbelaar from Diemen and turned out to be his foundationcock, delivering many first prize winners in large combines.

The amount of superflyers which Siebren bred from the “361” is truly amazing, they won many firsts in the large combine. Besides that, many toplines of other strains fitted perfectly well, like the Smeulderscouple. A nice example of this is “Topgun”, a well built son who won 1st of 2900 and 4882 pigeons. Topgun’s mother was Voske 605 who, like her sister Angelique, came from the famous Smeulderskoppel and was closely related to legendary pigeons like “Rooie Appie”, Wonderboy 05 and 06 and James Bond.
 

At Siebrens own loft it was mainly “Angelique” mated with descendants of the 019-line, which brought tremendous successes, over 15 first prices. Others also discovered the class of Wierstra’s pigeons, like mr. Brandsma who won a first in Afdeling K against 8419 birds. It’s father came from Siebren and was bred from a daughter of Angelique.
 

It was in 1995 that Siebren got the opportunity to buy a full brother of the famous Autoduifje from Henk Simonsz, which waas at the loft of mr. Stobbelaar in Diemen. Allthough the little blue cock was getting older (NL88-868), Siebren bred four beautiful young cocks from him in 1996. One of them (Quattro) won a first on Creil as a youngbird already! Along with his three brothers (“Spider-Bullit and Arrow“) they would play an important role in the development of Siebren’s  strain.

By the end of 1996 Siebren’s complete loft was sold through Sportmagazine de Duif, with exception of the youngsters from that year. Among them were the before mentioned 4 brothers, which he had bred from the brother of the ‘Autoduifje’, they stayed with Siebren. This sale was a huge success, although he had to say goodbye to many of his top birds.
But Siebren kept looking forward and went on making plans for a new home for him and his family.
 

The new location
The ideal place was eventually found at the boards of the Margrietcanal in Augustinusga, where a big piece of land and an old countryhouse were bought. Before that, the old house had to be sold, which took quite some time. By 2002 all was ready; the ‘old’ house was being sold and the admittance for the new one and the pigeonloft was arranged. After the old countryhouse was brought down, Siebren, Sietske and their two sons started building the complete new home. But before the first brick of the new house was placed, the new home for his pigeons was finished, which is a clear sign of the importance of pigeons in Siebren’s life.
He knew that in the next couple of years there wouldn’t be much time left for the pigeons, with all the hours involved in building the house, but the sooner they would be at home in their new loft, the better.

While the house progressed brick by brick, Siebren also started looking for new material to mate with the remaining pigeons, mainly 019- and Smeuldersline. Henk Simonsz helped him, because he, like no other, knew what to look for. At first the loft of Ulrich (Arnhem) came into sight, where Henk had discovered a wonderful couple (Vechter x Diana), which bred several winners. Ulrich’s pigeons were mainly based on the strain of the world-famous Ad Schaerlaeckens from Baarle Nassau and it occurred that Ulrichs loft was sold totally.

They expected that this super couple “Vechter x Diana” would be very expensive. That wasn’t a big problem, because there were 3 direct daughters from them in the sale, which Siebren bought. He also bought a direct son later on, from the new owner of this magic breeding couple (99-643: “Smart Devil”). This new owner also had success with the offspring, because in the first year that he bred youngsters from them, he already won a 1st  nat. Orleans. Speeking of quality………….At least Siebren owned four of these great pigeons now..
 

The hunt for great pigeons went on with topspeed: at the loft of Oldehaven in Vorden were great Smeulderspigeons, and Siebren bought several from the very best. Later he discovered that among them was an excellent breeder, which was good enough to encompass into the strain. Here name: Blue Mealy (96-751). It was not just a well built and beautiful hen, but also fitted the old line of the Smeulderscouple like butter on bread.

Mated with the earlier mentioned four brothers (Quattro-Spider-Bullit-Arrow, bred from “Brother Autoduif”), Bleu Mealy bred first pricewinners.

Another hit was Dark Angel (99-872), which was bought at the international sale of the famous loft Brouwers-Kodama from Grevenbicht. There were some brothers and sisters from the ‘Raket-line’, who all excelled on national level. The most incredible pigeon from this line was National King, a real eye-catcher, who raced exceptionally. The reason why Siebren wanted offspring from this bird was that he won two nationals: Bordeaux and München!!
 

That is a first from the South-line of flight (Bordeaux), but also a first National from the East (München), which is not only unique, but also a mark of the best of pigeon racing. Siebren bought a small dark hen from this National King (99-872), which he named “Dark Angel”.
It cost him a small fortune, but he never regretted purchasing her, on the contrary, because her offspring proved Siebren’s hope. Dark Angels mother came from Natascha, a pure hen of de Klak who was at the Olympiad herself and won a.o. a first Orleans against 2509 pigeons.

 “Although the construction of his new home took most of his precious time, Siebren ended in the top three in the Gouden Duif in the period 2004-2006, amongst big guns as Kees Bosua and G & S Verkerk “

In the meantime Siebren came into contact with Henk Bussing, who was then living in the city of Ede. Being a topclass fancier who knows his way with pigeons like Siebren, they arranged to trade some pigeons which worked well for them both. Henk owned pigeons of the Janssen-strain, but more interestingly (as a cross for the Janssens) also some very good Van Loons! With the offspring of these Van Loons, Henk was a real nightmare on the races. Henk was also succesfull with Siebren’s pigeons.

He mated “Smart Devil” (99-643, from “Vechter x Diana”) with Dark Angel (99-872, from National King) for Henk. The two youngsters from this mating made some great results: one of them was 1^st young acepigeon in the strong cc  Werbo, while it’s nestmate won a first against 23.000 youngbirds and won a car!.

All this occured while Siebren was still building his house, so the pigeons were under a minimum of care. Some results from this period (2004-2006) were:

• 3rd in the prestigious Gouden Duif, after G & S Verkerk and Kees Bosua. 
• 6 times on Teletext (which is among the first ten in a semi-national race).
• Gold Angel was among the 10 best hens in ‘Wie Heeft ze Beter’.
• In the strong combine “de Walden” he won 1st ace middle-distance, 1st acepigeon old birdraces and 1st acepigeon young in 2006. 
   

Siebren also went looking for people who bought the Autoduifje (88-868) in his totalsale. The  4 young cocks which he had bred shortly before the sale in 1996, were such great breeders, that he had to obtain some more. The cock was sold to the known brothers Van de Heuvel from Gouderak, who also bred a topracer from him in the meantime. Unfortunately the ‘Brother Autoduif’ was too old and not fertile anymore.

But the contact with the two brothers from Gouderak was good, so they arranged for another trade which delivered mutual succes. It was the 19-hen from the brothers which appeared to be a real tophen for Siebren, she won three first prizes: 1^st Chantilly 2935 pigeons, and twice on teletekst (semi-national) first against 5805 and 12.102 respectively.

 

In 2006 the house was finished and also the lofts were ready for the real work. Allthough much time was put in the building of the house, at least they were not lost for pigeonracing, because despite all the hard work, Siebren was able to further build his strain. This strain has developed into a real goldmine of quality-birds, bred for success against large numbers of competitors, under the most harsh conditions!