'THE KING OF SPRINT'
- Sesame Street Bert Pigeon 10
- Doing The Pigeon Bert
- Doin The Pigeon Bert
- Bert's Pigeon Search
- Bert Pigeon Search
- Bert Pigeon Game
- Bert Pigeon Trouble
Bert Braspenning.
ICON IN PIGEON SPORT
Provincial Bert Braspenning enjoys more than 50 years widely known for his years of stellar play on the middle distance and sprint races. Because of this he became also a great national reputation, the
NO DAY WITHOUT PIGEONS.
In the organization he was no stranger, many years, he held various management positions. Always pigeons, no day without, even when he was 8 years long practiced the sport of cycling. He was 35 years been a popular judge of racing pigeons. Received an EEC certificate as an international pigeon racing journalist, cared for many years the weekly reports for various newspapers and magazines, wrote in national newspapers and writes still in some international pigeon magazines. Bert committed on the sport for 40 years for cancer control, he was 'Member of Merit' of the NPO (pigeons) and the KNWU (cycling). For his positive contribution to the pigeon and cycling and his dedication to fighting cancer, he received a royal decoration.
LOOKING AHEAD.
It is interesting to from all of the year’s top pigeons view the results, only thus could have filled an entire newspaper. It would be even more interesting to look ahead that’s why only the results of the last two years. By the pigeons Leo Heremans (B) by top player Willem de Bruijn are the fast Braspennings, beautiful light scratches and predominantly blue light, become truly multi-talented and belong now on the one day long distance races to the top. The last two years was less 12 times reached a victory in the district. Therein flies every week to around 250 fanciers who, depending on the distance, between 2,000 and 5,000 pigeons bring to the start. With great regularity, Bert Braspenning is the major eye catcher, not only for his outstanding performance, but mainly by the high price rate that his pigeons in the top of the result been rewarded.
SMALL BUT FINE.
If it’s going about performances Bert Braspenning belongs over 50 years in the major provincial champions. In that game context, he won everything there was to win. We certainly can not rank him among the fanciers with a large number of pigeons. For many years he knows his inimitable performance gain with 24 pairs of racers. For years he played only with cocks but since 2000 with cocks and hens on widowhood. The hens play according as the season progresses, the best average. It is striking that yet each year the best pigeon in the loft is a cock. Bert plays with mostly rather young pigeons. In his loft you will see just a single three-year, the yearlings dominate (60%) and 2-year olds. The real top pigeons move quickly to the breeding loft where 18 couples care for the annual supplement of youngsters. Bert plays with approx. 50 youngsters whose parents are almost all winners or champion pigeons. Just toppers gives toppers, says Bert.
SIMPLE
According to Bert, the game with the pigeons are not as difficult as many think. Most fanciers make themselves difficult. This is because they can not afford a prompt treatment and then it will not work. Those that do will also achieve performance. Commitment and confidence in your pigeon is the basis for a good result. Performance will definitely not come from a bottle or pill. The key is good pigeons and a good manager. The rest is irrelevant! Beginners should read a lot about birds and listen to what older fanciers have to say.
Bert does the care in the racing season at the minute. Only then will the pigeons come in the right condition and only birds in good condition can race prize. Pigeons that have to deliver top records need a good and varied diet. Bert gives all birds throughout the year the same feed and that is always Mariman Variamax. Bert says: they breed well, mould fine and perform great.
ONLY ON GRAIN AND WATER IT WILL NOT WORK
Bert was during our visit with very busy with the preparations for the new season. He had just paired his racing pigeons for the second time, they may breed five days and then go on widowhood until mid September. He races with cocks and hens, the hens are as much as possible every week, the cocks get for one day long distance race one week rest. All the racing pigeons train twice a day, the hens from 7-8 hours, 8-9 hours of the cocks and the youngsters from 9 to 10 hours. In the afternoon, again the same ritual, first the hens from 4-5, then the cocks from 5-6 hours and from 6-7 hours following the youngsters that in the evening from a quarter to eight and a quarter to nine the next morning are darkened. The darkening ends mid-June and then it’s according to Bert watch out! Experience has taught him a few weeks after stopping darken the e-coli problem may rear its head. After darkening he acidified drinking water every day with apple vinegar and weekends getting the youngsters a two days cure coli of Dr.van der Sluis. In season the biggest problem is canker. To prevent this gives Bert every four weeks a cure from Saturday night 7 hours until 12 hours Monday. After each daily training flight around the loft the pigeons get in the morning 13 grams of food and in the afternoon 17 grams. An exception is the Thursday, then the pigeons may for half an hour eat what they want, then the tray is removed. The same goes for the Saturday night, as soon as the hens were transferred to their home department cocks and hens get for half hours the opportunity to eat whatever they want.
Friday morning they get back 13 grams of food and afternoon at 4 hours they get allsome small seeds so they do gowith an empty stomach in the basket and because they also went to drink. By arrival there is a pinch of small seeds in each breeding loft and only in the evening they get plenty of food. Regardless of what time a pigeon comes home, the hens always goes at 7 pm away with the cocks. Before they are basketed Bert always shows the hens, the first three flights even one hour and subsequent flights 10 to 20 minutes.
De first two flights are behind us and the results are there. De first blow is half the battle is said. That was certainly the case with Bert. On April 2 he started against 483 pigeons with 1-2-3 (26 prizes of 41 birds), the second flight of April 9 looked like 4-5-9-10-11 at 587 birds (29 prices from 43 pigeons). When the pigeons will be managed to keep this condition throughout the year only the crumbs remain for the competitors.
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Sesame Street Bert Pigeon 10
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Doing The Pigeon Bert
In the 65 years he plays with pigeons, he won over a thousand first prizes and championships.
Although he belongs to the older fanciers, he is still very motivated so that competition will have to reinforce all the stops to beat him.
A place in the pantheon of great champions, he has long deserved.
Doin The Pigeon Bert
Tribute to the legendary Bert Hession from Chris Williams
Towards the end of 2019 one of the most well-known and respected fanciers that the United Kingdom has ever produced Bert Hession passed away.
I have just received a phone call from my friend in Blackpool Mick Barlow Mick is a close friend of the Hession family and it is my privilege to having been given their blessing to write this article. It is a mammoth task when one is trying to compose an article on a fancier of Bert’s calibre such was his prowess in the world of pigeon racing that it becomes a labour of herculean proportion. It Is said that when a person dies that a whole library of knowledge is lost forever , for Bert it would be a travesty if his name and legacy were not recorded in some small way in order that future generations of pigeon racing enthusiasts remember the great Bert Hession “The king of Blackpool “ Perhaps legend is a phrase that is used all too often, but in the case of the late Bert Hession no other adjective will suffice, for Bert was and will always remain, a global icon in world pigeon sport. Not only for his fantastic results which saw him rise to become one of the UK’s most successful and above all respected fanciers. But lest we forget that the great man was also instrumental in introducing to the UK, along with his friend Dave Allen of Sheffield, one of the most iconic families of pigeons to ever grace our skies, the legendary Staff Van Reet dynasty from Mol in Belgium.
1984 was a momentous year in the history of British pigeon racing for it was in this year that Bert Hession and Dave Allen purchased the second round of youngsters from Staff van Reet, this marked the beginning of the staff van Reet era in England and with descendants from this loft both Bert and Dave would rise to meteoric success on the world stage, which would see others fanciers beating a path to their doors in search of quality pigeons and there is no doubt that the “King of Blackpool” had within his lofts, pigeons which were truly the envy of the masses! In every generation there are fanciers who stand out, individuals whom it would seem have the Midas touch, this is certainly the case with this competitive colossus, who also displayed tremendous talent on the football pitch in his younger days .However it was the humble racing pigeon which truly ignited his imagination. Like generations of fanciers before him Bert’s formative years in the fancy were spent in the so called “boys clubs” which were a big part of our great sport in its so called golden era, in which many a future racing champion served their pigeon racing apprenticeships the young master Hession cut his teeth and honed his incredible skills in what can only be described as pigeon racing perfection in those far of distant days a pigeon clock was regarded as a luxury item and the now common place electronic timing system would have seemed to all fanciers of this era as something straight from the mind of HG Wells or “Flash Gordon“ so for these young lads “clocking” was a matter of picking up a returning race bird and running with it to the club house for verification .
Bert's Pigeon Search
This was the perfect breeding ground for Bert’s competitive nature which would help him run rings round the competition in his later years! It was during this time that Bert came into contact with the established fanciers in and around the Layton area, it was from these dyed in the wool fanatical fanciers the likes of Norman Moore and Louis Reilly who taught Bert the importance and discipline of cleanliness and hygiene in and around the pigeon loft along with many of the key attributes which all fanciers who strive for success .
Bert Pigeon Search
There is no doubt in my mind as I sit here trawling through the extensive archive which was compiled by the Hession clan throughout Bert’s stellar racing career, that two of his key attributes were sporting discipline combined with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge , as previously mentioned Bert was a gifted footballer who played for Stockport County under the management of one Andy Beattie who played for Scotland later becoming the first manager of Scotland’s national team and was a man of great honesty and integrity these values were no doubt also instilled within the heart and mind of the young Bert who like his manager was also known for these virtues!
Bert Pigeon Game
Andy Beattie