At the end of '97 and the beginning of '98 we all heard about Jos Deno, that he possibly was going to stop with the pigeons. Because of his busy life as an undertaker, Jos has to work almost every Saturday so then he has no time to look for his birds. Several times in 1997, he found out that his pigeons were already on the loft. Now, in 1998, Jos switched over to the long distance, with help from his friend Philip Herbots.

Fond :
Philip encouraged his friend Jos and so the tandem Deno-Herbots raised, in '98 it was the one-day fond. The basis of which Jos disposes, has already proved that they can handle the Semi-Nationals and the Nationals. They have showedit by their victories from Chateauroux and Clermont Ferrand. This basis still exists for 50% of those Verbruggen pigeons. Through the years about 100 moved from Gommaire straight to Jos, superior class pigeons with great feathers which is very important according to Jos. Without good plumage, no good pigeons, white eyed pigeons with character. These birds were also paired to the old breed of Jos, especially the line of the "Witneus" and the other Meulemans birds from the old couple of Karel, the "Oude Vandenbosche x Janssen hen".

Then he also got some reinforcement from Gaby Vandenabeele ; from several National winners from Brive and Limoges. Also he got some of the wonderboy from Brussegem, Erik Limbourg, here we also find several good-flying pigeons.

So you can see that the basis of fond is definitely present.

The friendship with the Herbots Brothers already produced some top-products which have shown their results already. Because they form a tandem now, the heavy fond-violence did nothing but growing the last few months.

I saw there an extreme beautiful round of youngsters from Hollands best fondplayer, Jean Hausoul, a supercolony on the one-night flights.

So we can say that Jos again has the courage and the motivation to get on with his birds. The transition to 1998 already showed the results but they are ready to throw very high in 1999.

Enjoy it too :
The preparatory flights on the mid-fond :
16/5/98 TOURY : 175 Yearlings
1,5,7,16,19,20,21,23,26,32,34,38,...........
16/5/98 TOURY : 355 Old birds
1,2,5,8,11,22,23,25,29,32,35,40,.......
23/5/98 ORLEANS : 122 Yearlings
1,5,11,14,15,16,20,21,22,23,26,....
23/5/98 VIERZON : 495 Old birds
5,6,8,11,14,18,20,28,31,35,37,62,73,79,81,105,119,140,154, (39)
Provincial 2213 Old birds : 12,17,21,33,37,46,50,73,84,99,102,208,253,266,268,355,430,
517 (39)

On the Long distance :
06/06/98 BRIVE PROVINCIAL 2091 old birds
2,14,40,230,300,352,357,385,411,511,558,573 (33)
BRIVE S/National : 7672 old birds
3,22,76,553,560,832,1028,1047,1120,1212,1664,1839,1915 from 33
BRIVE National : 23142 old birds
37,254,629,2829,2854,3979,4715,4793
08/06/98 VIERZON 414 Yearlings :
2,8,11,14,20,24,33,38,43,49,51,57,65,69,82,94,97,105,109 (41)
Provincial 2017 Yearlings : 3,27,36,87,106,144,157,173,191,205,244,299,311,319,387,482 (41)
13/06/98 ANGOULEME 111 Hens Provincial :
2,3,6,7,9,11,15,21,22,29,33,34,37 (16)
268 Yearlings Provincial : 5,6,10,16,18,......
772 old Provincial : 36,64,213,239, 4/5
20/06/98 CAHORS 116 old :
2,10,11,14,18,19,23,34,39,40 (21)
1002 Old Provincial : 7,36,44,67,115,131,159,253,....
11090 National : 223,634,723,999,1544,1661,2047,
20/06/98 CHATEAUROUX 450 Yearlings :
10,22,40,52,63,72,73,74,75,92,99,109,115,117,125,130,133 (40 put in)
27/06/98 PERIGIEUX Provincial 111 Hens :
1,4,5,8,10,11,12,13,22 (16)

Provincial 368 Yearlings :
1,13,19,28,30,36,43 (11)
Interprovincial 1177 Yearlings :
1,23,31,47,49,58,71 (11)
11/07/98 BORDEAUX 355 Yearlings Provincial :
5,6,48,50,59,103,114 (10)
11/07/98 LIMOGES 208 Yearlings :
13,14,20,22,37,55,65,70 (15)
221 Old : 13,14,17,18,21,26,28,42,49 (22)
Provincial 1026 Yearlings : 66,74,99,107,200,305
Provincial 989 Old : 49,57,77,82,92,127,135,220,234
18/07/98 LIMOGES 596 Yearlings :
9,10,12,30,42,46,48,72,95,99,106,108,136,172,176,176,192 (32)
Provincial : 2237 Yearlings : 27,29,48,103,190,200,242,297,371.....
S/National 5253 Yearlings : 42,45,74,187,386,408,487,594,744.....
25/07/98 MARSEILLE Provincial 540 Old :
1,4,55,70,71,111,122,158 (15)
MARSEILLE S/National 2940 Old :
5,20,216,308,311,556,630,886 (15)
INTERNATIONAL 1733 Hens : 2,17,152,188,191,341,398 (Look out : here this was the first Belgian hen and not wanted yearling hens played against the old!!!)
INTERNATIONAL 11881 Old : 17,122,1205,1545,1553,2581,2895
26/07/98 PERIGIEUX 182 Old :
5,12,14,20,30,53 (18)
S/National 1298 Old : 65,105,169,226,411,1123
Provincial 605 Old : 17,37,46,67,96,190
LA SOUTERRAINE S/National 501 Yearlings :
17,23,24,61,67,111,124 (8)
Provincial 192 Yearlings : 11,19,20,37,41,59 (8)
05/09/98 BLOIS 103 Hens Provincial :
1,16,18 (10)
Provincial 170 Old : 1,21,24
13/09/98 LA SOUTERRAINE Provincial Yearlings : 1

The results for 1998 : 7 x 1st Provincial
All together Jos has a total of 52 x 1st Provincial. His title of EMPEROR OF BRABANT is safe with those good results. Who did this before and who will do it after him ?

The pigeongame at the home of Deno :
Jos plays with about 60 widowers and in 1998, he started with 16 hens on widowhood. In '98 it were most of the time the girls who did their best and got those several provincial victories. So we can say that this was a very strong group of yearling-girls, which flew as hard as possible.

His system with the hens in '98 :
At the beginning of the season those hens had a nest, afterwards they moved to the loft next to their old one and there they are only seperated by a little slidingdoor. On this loft they rest on little shelfs. But at the beginning they didn't like to train that much, 5 minutes and the training was over. When Jos read about this in the papers, he found out that most of those hens had no little doors, they could see eachother. Then Jos put some fences in between and the hens could only rest on their own shelf. Very soon the training was nice to see by the fancier. They flew from 40 minutes till an hour and also the prestations became better. The hens train from out of their resting-cot and twice a week they are left into their nest-cot, but they are not allowed into their own little cot. It strikes us that here they eat a lot more too.

When Jos notices that the hens are pairing among eachother, he lets them into their nest-cot and givers them a saucer in their own little cots but without a cock and so they calm down.
On the day they have to be put in, they can have their cock from in the afternoon so they can "make love" as much as they want. When they get home their partner is waiting for them and the birds are left together till noon from the day after. It is very important that the hens are put in the basket every week.

Between the fond-flights, they get a Momignies, Soissons or Toury to fly. If you don't do that, they will paire among eachother and by doing so they keep a rhythm and also the moulting will be slowed down by flying every week. They are fed a sports-mixture and the food stays on the cot for about 15 minutes and then it is moved to the cot of the "loose" pigeons.

Some top pigeons of 1998 :

2389433/97
Father : 3009004/90 Witoogske Bayart
Mother : 3211483/95 Fideelke from the 1st National Brive Vandenabeele

1997 :