STRIKKER

About

'Achieving great results with few pigeons', that was the idea when Frans Strikker restarted racing pigeons in 2015.

Until the late 1990s, Frans raced from 100 up to 1000 kilometers with his father Fons at the parental address, with a focus on the marathon races. The ‘captain of the ship’ then was his father, who in particular mastered the game with the hens from the nest in the marathon races. In recent years it was Fons who was involved in breeding and Frans in racing.

Initially a few pigeons came from a fanicer who raced well in his club, later in 2015 three pigeons from Will and Falco Ebben from Boven-Leeuwen were added. Frans chose them because they performed very well with few pigeons and with the idea that this would increase the chance of usable youngsters. It turned out to be a bull's eye, there was a daughter of Diablo x Famke (both 1. NPO), a son of Edgar x Evolution (eight children won top 10 NPO) and a grandson of top breeder Icarus. All three gave youngsters that won first prizes in his club, federation and province (NPO Afdeling 9/Oost-Nederland)! In the years that followed, several pigeons from the top loft of Will and Falco Ebben came to Hengelo, so that the percentage of Ebben pigeons came to be around 90 percent.

From the first 'racing year' in 2016, the pigeons proved to be able to compete with the better pigeons. Among other things, a 3rd ace pigeon youngsters in the federation was achieved. After a few years of building up, Frans had a good team of eight couples together in 2019 and the sprint championship (not nominated) in federation and 4th sprint (not nominated) provincial was achieved.

Spring 2020 seemed to be off to a good start. The pigeons trained great and nothing seemed to stand in the way of a continuation of the good results of 2019. Unfortunately, Corona threw a wrench in the works and the pigeons were put back in the darkening. After the restrictions were suddenly lifted, it turned out that the pigeons had come out worse than they had entered. The pigeons trained much less, probably a result of incorrect feeding. The results were mediocre, so the races were stopped. After the pigeons were put back on the nest and the feed was adjusted, training came back. The result was an excellent finish in the late tour with a 2nd late tour not nominated provincial.

In the spring of 2021, the feeding system was adjusted, with the base consisting of Beyers Jan Keen Superlight and thirty percent Paddy. This turned out to be a golden move, the hens trained hard and immediately performed very well. In addition, from then on almost only ten hens were raced. On average, the hens flew 90% prizes over the entire season in 2021!

In 2022, the system was further perfected, which led to wonderful results (see performance). The hens again flew a high prize percentage of 84%. Slightly less than in 2021, possibly a result of withholding the Olympiad pigeon and losing (bird of prey) the sister of "Andrea's Choice", the "20", who had become ace pigeon late tour in 2021.

In 2023 there will be no participation in the races and the focus will be on breeding pigeons.