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HOFKENS "DRIEBANDER" FAMILY In the 50's and 60's there was a butcher in the village of Merksplas by the name of Gust Hofkens. Local fanciers knew him to be by far the best in their area. Living some 100 kms away, only the clever Jan Grondelarrs traveled to the Hofkens loft to purchased birds which later enabled him to became world famous.In
the early 70's, Hofkens began to compete in the great provincial
races and also Union Antwerpen. His reputation soon soared as his
pigeons (fully pooled) earned large sums of money and
other fanciers also
had terrific results with
Hofkens blood. When
Mr. Hofkens died,
his pigeons were sold at auction. Some time later Johan v. d. Sterren
won first place
at National Montauban with a
Hofkens bird.
Suddenly the Hofkens birds
became a highly sought after commodity. Those who had Hofkens birds
advertised their wares in the media and further spread the name and
embellished the reputation of the Hofkens strain. Hofkens
himself never had
a strain but rather started with birds from Fons Janssen (the only
Janssen Bros. who married).
He
later bought very good birds from Van Rhijn Kloek, from
Berendrecht, and from Paenen. He also got good birds from a Dutch
fancier Van Geloven in Tilburg. In fact, Mr. Hofkens was always seeking
better birds and if he liked a bird, he would try to buy it or if that
wasn’t possible he would suggest a breeding arrangement whereby the
two fanciers would share the babies. "Driebander"B64-6151613, was the pigeon Mr. Hofkens liked best of all, a pigeon
which is now world famous. Mr. Hofkens always said "All youngsters off
my Driebander are super. If not in the races, then they are super
breeders".
"Driebander"
died when Mr. Hofkens went to show it to a
fellow fancier, and stumbled with the bird in his hand. The super
breeder’s bloodlines,
however,
live on. Let’s
see some of the fantastic results of the descendants
of the “Driebander” family.
In 1997 and 1998 Choice Loft acquired One (1) Grand Daughter and Nine (9) Great Grandchildren of “Oude Hofkens Van 72".
HOFKENS "OUDE POL" FAMILY
Mr.
Verheyen is often described as the "Belgian King of the
Olympiads".
The Olympiad annually accepts only 3 short and middle distance pigeons
from each competing Country. Over an 8 years period Mr. Verheyen had 6
of his Hofkens racers represent Belgium at the Olympiad. "Oude
Pol"
B73-6453443, paired with "Eenwitpen" B75-6506247 was the Golden
Couple of Mr. Verheyen. "Eenwitpen" was an inbred of
"Driebander"(Grandson of
"Driebander" x
Daughter of "Driebander").
Choice Loft has acquired Five (5) great grandsons/daughters of "Oude Pol", two of which are grandchildren of "De Portugees" and their mother is "Blauw Govers Hofkens" B86-6103783. This hen was one of the Golden Hens owned by Mr. Verheyen. A thorough check of the Verheyen pedigrees will reveal the prominent role this hen played in his racing and breeding success. Another two hens we own are granddaughters of "De Raket" B84-6529200. These two hens are presently the foundation hens in the Choice Loft. We also acquired some great grandchildren of "De Merckx" and "De Klein Merckx".
VAN DEN BOSCH
Jos
Van den Bosch, who
was a diamond dealer, lived in the small town of Berlaar. Many people do
not know that
Van den Bosch was the fancier from whom Huyskens van Riel and his friend Rene
Stijnen bought a round of eggs . The babies that hatched from these
eggs became the foundation of the famous Huyskens van Riel strain.
The Janssen brothers’ "Halve Fabry" was the great grandfather of
world famous "Oude Merckx" B67-6282031, the mother of
"Halve Fabry"
was a hen (B59-1005026) Mr. Fabry got from Jos Van den Bosch. The
grandmother of the Hofkens legendary "Driebander" was a Van den
Bosch hen. (For more information please visit http://www.pigeonsport.net/as/
and read the wonderful articles written by Ad Schaerlaechens). One
of the first to recognize and capitalize on the potency of the
Jos Van den Bosch pigeons was Stan Van Beemen of Deurne.
Some 30 years ago Mr. Van Beemen purchased pigeons out of the best Van
den Bosch breeding couples for his own breeding loft. The World famous
Karel Meulemans did exactly the same by
going to Jos Van den Bosch for
the foundation of his own exploits (the "Oude Van den
Bosch" paired
with "Blauw Janssen
Hen"
formed
the legendary Meulemans Golden Pair). Stan Van Beemen and his daughter have remained at the top of the Antwerp racing pigeon competition for more than 20 years. In 1993 they won "King of Union Antwerpen" and in 1994 they earned the 1st champion loft of Antwerpen middle distance. Further proof as to the high quality of their loft is shown by Van Beemen bird race results in other lofts. His "Pinguin Loft" is well known in Japan. Tokyo, Chiba and Shizuoka fanciers hold Stan and his pigeons in the highest esteem.
The Van Beemen story, with his Van den Bosch based pigeons, repeats
itself in the pigeon racing hotbed of Taiwan. The
Taiwanese
win out of turn with
his pigeons, especially on races over the ocean, and they enjoy hosting
the man they call "Mr. Ice
Cream" (seems like Stan also owns an ice
cream parlor). Here in the Choice
loft, Van Beemen's Van den Bosch base pigeons, crossed with our Hofkens base
family produce extremely strong long distance racers. Examples of their
powers are shown belows:
In 1997 we acquired two cocks and several hens from The Van Beemen breeding loft.
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