Not yet official but very soon confirmed: 1st Ace-pigeon Long Distance Obrafo (coëf. of 1.32!). When it comes down to the Ace-pigeons on the long distance flights, the loft of Oliviers-Devos of Kumtich stands at the highest top of our sport.

Who doesn’t still remember the recent results of the famous “603 Steketie”? With his 6 first prizes in the national top 100 from Pau (2x), Marseille, St.Vincent, Dax and Perpignan. This 2385603/98 is able to score at the top from 200 till 1000 km. His career as a racer ended in 2002 with a superb Perpignan on the 4th August, where he scored on local level as 2nd against 225 other pigeons and on provincial level the 17th against 892 pigeons. This dark white feathered cock could have been sold for many times already and for a lot of money but this colony decided to hold on to this bird and they never regretted it. Nowadays he even proves himself of being a very good breeder too. Besides here we can talk about a “Steketie-line”. The first great winners out of this base are already known and I’m sure others will follow. Six of his sons and six daughters are all staying on the breeding loft. Another answer to the question of "Who has them better" is the new Ace-pigeon Ave Regina Arondissement Louvain on the heavy long distance races. It’s already the third year that Oliviers-Devos won this 1st Ace-pigeon Ave Regina with not less than three different birds.


Left to right: Willy Devos, Rudi Oliviers, Gaston Oliviers and Coenen(Faithful supporter and helper.)

This year it’s the 2358460/99, “The Béziers”, who honored the colony. He got his name thanks to his result on the flight from Béziers in 2001: local 1/125, prov. 5/595 and nat. 46/6.522. That same year he also scored from Vierzon local 24/323 and from Brive local 17/434, prov. 31/2.031 and nat. 603/22.026. In fact another fond-miracle was born. In 2002 this “Béziers” kept on going with Bourges 447/23.957, Cahors 148/11.211. Then 2003 when he proved of being able to do the hardest work under the burning sun with Dax local 3/100, prov. 6/415 and internat. 254/19.420. Next Perpignan local 4/305, prov. 10/686, nat. 150/7.537 and interant. 334/16.800.
Not soon we will find a bird like this and most certainly not a better one. “The Béziers” is son of the 630/98, top-bird with among others Dax 6/348, Perpignan 8/274 and many other powerful prizes from Narbonne, Cahors and Brive. His parents were also two top-racers on the flight from Jarnac. His mother is the 550/94, related to the 4th internat. Pau. These are all birds we can only dream about.

5024821/01 “The White feather Stockmans”
Is 1st Ace-pigeon Long Distance KBDB Vlaams-Brabant 2003 and he will probably also be the 1st Ace-pigeon Long Distance in Obrafo. As a yearling he already scored wonderful from Jarnac: local 1/221, prov. 1/444 and s/nat. 4/6.856! In 2003 he kept on going especially on provincial level and in Eastern Brabant. We must remember that the loft isn’t situated perfectly on provincial and national level. Far away from the ace of Brussel-Antwerpen and even further away from the both provinces East and Western Flanders. But as you all could read this didn’t keep them from top-prizes from for example Jarnac, which is situated for Centre and East. So Oliviers-Devos is almost legendary connected to Jarnac.
“ The White Feather Stockmans” will be the 1st Ace-pigeon Long Distance Obrafo with a coefficient of only 1.32 and at the same time he wins the provincial title from: 21/06/03 Angoulème – Obrafo 1/74, prov. 2/246, interprov. 5/954.
05/07 Limoges – Obrafo 4/388, Vl.Brabant 13/1.124, zone C 27/2.158, nat. 347/16.504.
19/07 Souillac – Obrafo 2/130, Vl.Brabant 6/451, zone C 4/1.556, nat. 379/8.327.
This super racer was born in 2001 and at this moment he’s already a wonderful talented long distance racer. Surely we will hear more about this one too. According to his name and the first numbers of his ring, 5024821/01, we can see that he’s originally from the province of Limburg. This one was breed by Ivan Stockmans from Lummen.
The “White Feather Stockmans” is son of the 526/96, a super racer on the loft of Ivan with 1st prov. Jarnac in ’00, 5th prov. Jarnac in ’99, also a 9/3.850 from Chateauroux, 2/3.579 Jarnac, etc…. His mother won as a young hen 11 prizes, with 7 prizes per 10. She was 1st Ace-pigeon Long Distance… so … a good nest of superior pigeons.

The loft.
On the breeding section we find about 30 couples. Almost all members of the breeding team come out of national and provincial winners and ace-pigeons. Own investments and of course their good connections with the Herbots family all are at the base of the success. They breed 3 rounds of youngsters after the breeders got together rather early. The first round moves to Ivan Stockmans of Lummen and 30 of his early young cocks move to Kumtich. All together about 150 youngsters will fly around the loft of Oliviers-Devos. The first round usually had to do the national classical flights but after 1993 they quit the game with their youngsters. It’s impossible to score on all kinds of levels but they will get a new possibility and they will surely make the most of it. In fact they will stop the widow-hens game because they didn’t get what they expected. Besides in ’92 and ’93 the colony won very good prizes with their youngsters which I’m sure nobody has forgotten.
2004 was started with 90 widowers among which 35 old birds and 55 yearlings. When we take a good look at the results, we won’t find many old pigeons; more than 10 is rare and 3 to 6 is mostly the number.
With the yearlings it’s different. As youngsters they flew 6x Soissons (200 km) and no middle long distance. (This will also change in 2004, now the young birds will have to learn about more distance). The route they will follow will be: Momignies, 2x Soisson, 2x Middle Distance, 2x 500 km and last but not least Jarnac. The birds will also be selected by these races and they will clock from 500 km on. The yearlings got the chance to grew without hard work but after this chance they have to prove themselves without any kind of excuse.
Rudi Oliviers-Devos, the leader of the team assures us that well rested birds, as well old as two-year old, are a true must to succeed on the long distances. Two hard long distance races per season can and is allowed to be done. And we can check his good reasons on the national and international level.
The loft was build around some original pigeons of: Steketie, Bruinisse (Holland), J.Van der Wegen (Holland), Hausoul (Holland), Herbots Brothers, the late Dessers from Alken, Vervisch, Matterne. The latest in bring came from Kipp and Sons (Germany) and Wijnands from Holland.
Rudi Oliviers says that 75% of the colony contains Dutch blood, a prove that not only the Dutchmen have super birds but they also treat us very honest with a lot of quality.
Oliviers Devos has succeeded also splendidly with the pigeons of Herman Brinkman. With the pigeons they bought in Tuk, they have also very good youngsters.


Rudi Oliviers and Coenen.

The care.
The widowers never get barley during the season but they have to eat a well-known racing mixture and super diet. Four till five times a year they also visit their vet, Raf Herbots. They never work with programs and caring-schedules. They prefer natural products like tea, garlic, 4-oils, grape sugars along with some vitamins and Zell-Oxygen. We also heard that the pigeons should never forget the color of ordinary water.

Oliviers-Devos.
Oliviers-Devos stands for a team of four friends and all fanatics of the pigeon sport, four men who work hard to get at the top and stay there. Rudi Oliviers is the leader of the pact and he runs the team with a lot of common sense. He lives next to his parents and the loft is build throughout the two gardens. His father has a lot of work to do every day again and he does a very good job too. Willy Devos is the sponsor, who has good relations with the Herbots family. He also advises about the building of the loft. Another very important member of the team is Roger Coenen, who can’t be missed either. These are the champions, all very well known in the pigeon world.
In December 2002 they sold their summer youngsters with an average price of 13.000 old Belgian francs, they even had some birds of 40.000 francs!
This colony is not eager to see their name in every paper, they are to be asked to appear in the pigeon papers. They only like to take care of their birds and try to stay at the top, where they belong.

We want to thank them for the nice talk and the information they gave us. Rudy thought the season of 2003 wasn’t as good as he wanted because there were no provincial victories. But what about the super results from Castres, Limoges, Jarnac, Souillac and Perpignan?