Aviculture Europe on a visit to W.J. van Camp Photos: D.J. Hamer and Aviculture Europe Drawings: Jan de Jong Although Mr van Camp from Apeldoorn is 64 years old and retired, he does not feel 'old' and certainly does not look like a 'senior citizen'! Besides being a very active pigeon fancier he also competes in walking marathons; now that is really 'showing-off'! Despite all this activity there did come a day when he had to 'slow-down' due to a heart condition but now with a 'pacemaker' fitted he was feeling as good as new, so big surprise when after two years a medical check-up showed that the battery was not working and never had worked! During this time he was (and still is) doing marathons! Left: Van Camp in front of his lofts with Gimpels, his lifework, which shows everywhere, even in the weather-vane on the roof (see above). Van Camp learned the Art of the Pigeon Fancy during his childhood. During the 1950's at the age of 8 he was already helping his father cleaning and feeding the pigeons in his father s loft, later on learning how to pickout the best pigeons and condition them for the Shows. During this time his father had a variety of breeds in the loft; Old Dutch Owls, Old Dutch Tumblers and German Beauty Homers, later followed by Gimpels in Gold Black-Wing, Copper Black- Wing, Gold White- Wing, also Thüringer Wingpigeons, Saxon Whitetails in copper, Starlings in black and Danish Tumblers. Right up-to 1993 you
could see his father s name in the catalogues of many 'Big' Shows and always winning the highest prizes. Right: The breeding apartments are still closed and the males and females separated, waiting for better weather. His first Gimpels In 1966 his father gave him a pair of Gimpels which came from the fancier Van Dijk who lived in Amersfoort and in 1967 his first young birds were penned at the Ornithophilia Show; his first Show and first Prize! with a young Copper white-wing male. He carried on breeding this colour of Gimpel with great success with many top quality birds bred and shown. After some years he added another colour variety of Gimpel, then another and another! until after a few years he had all the colour varieties in the breed in his loft, with many prize winners amongst them. A great variety of colours In the year 1997 he started breeding the Gimpels in Gold blue-wing white bar, both with and without white flights. The F1 came from crossing a Gold blue-wing white flight x black Starling white bar. Several generations later, the descendants did not show the gold body colour but copper, with and without white bars. Today in 2006 he has F10 in Gold blue-wing white bar and F5 Copper blue-wing white bar. Left: Gimpels at Van Camp s, With on the left a copper blue wing, black barred and at the right a mix on its way to a monk or white head Gimpel. The enormous number of mis-coloured birds however forces him to keep a large number of breeding pairs, that is why in 2005 he decided to hand-over all the 'other' colours to other, interested breeders. So now he is left with only the Gold and Copper blue-wing in all recognised varieties, including the white bars. This really is his 'life-
work ; he expects to have the White bars in exhibition quality in 10 or 12 years time. Another 'experiment' concerned the recreation of the 'Monk' marked Gimpel, to achieve this he used a Rhine Ringbeater cross! Now that took a lot of courage! The colour and markings succeeded very well but it takes a long time to re-create the right 'character' and loose the 'ringbeating' trait! Right and below: Gimpels in different colours and marking in their compartments. In spite of their shyness, they appear to be calm in there own loft. On judging Mr van Camp emphasises that the best Gimpels for breeding, are not always the best 'Show' birds. Every breeding pair being a balance of needed qualities, the parents need to complement one another, and only in such a way can the best youngsters be bred. Next comes the actual Judging of the Breed, ideally anyone judging Gimpel should also be a Gimpel 'breeder' so that they know about the specifics and particular difficulties of the breed. For example, when judging the correct metallic sheen, a female should be allowed more tolerance than a male in this respect. Judging should always take place with a good 'natural' light source, good 'daylight', the underside colour/sheen being judged with the head held away from you, whereas the back colour/sheen should have the head held towards you and preferably all the birds being assessed in the same light conditions, even holding them at the same 'angle' to judge the colour and sheen. A real Champion can 'hold' it's colour for many years; in his loft there is a 12 year old Gold blue-wing white flight male,
that once won the Top Prize at the Ornithophilia and continued winning for many years. He is now 'retired' and can enjoy his old age in the loft. The certificate of the before mentioned, already 12 years old winner, has a place of honour at Van Camp. The same holds for every prize he won. Breeding and keeping As a rule, Van Camp starts breeding early in the year, mid-february, so the young birds will be ready for the first big Dutch Show, the Ornithophilia in October. This year however he has started later as the Avicultura and the Ornithophilia have combined into a new Big Show later in the year, this actually suited him very well, as this year the weather was cold and the winter longer than normal and it was still very cold on the day of our visit. Every year he breeds from some 40 pairs, from which he selects about 100 young birds purely on robustness and vitality. Below: A view at the lofts, which take an important part of the garden. Except for some experimental breeding, he has never 'broughtin' new stock. Some in-breeding problems did occur, overgrown beaks, web-foot, missing toenails, crooked breast-bones and some poor fertility. His 'cure' was very strict selection, which enabled him to keep his breedinglines pure throughout the years, even without keeping strict records of who was related to what, but just pairing birds that 'suited' one another best and this has functioned well as long as he keeps an eye open for any problems associated with inbreeding.
Feeding The entire year he feeds the one 'Mix', that is 2 parts 'Racing pigeon mix' with 5 parts barley, which is over 71% barley! This is enriched summer and winter with a small amount of cod-liver oil to supply some extra Vit. D3. Off-course his birds are also supplied with the normal grits and minerals, especially during the breeding season. His birds really enjoy the extra minerals as look in top condition. His birds are never vaccinated. He also never gives any medicament to his birds, he does however worm occasionally as he uses river sand for the aviary floors although this is raked and sieved regularly. He used to 'Worm' with the 'old fashioned' remedies but this was labour intensive and virtually a 'kill or cure' method! The first day the birds would have no food, then they were fed chopped onion sprinkled with bread crumbs; according to Van Camp this was very effective but it took a long time for the pigeons to 'recover' from the 'Cure'! So this is no longer the method used! Today if he wants to give his pigeons a tit-bit, he gives them some dry, brown bread; they immediately leave their perches for that! For many years the manure from the pigeons was used on the garden and Van Camp Senior always had a magnificent crop of French Beans in his garden. Later the manure was collected by another gardener until he retired and gave-up gardening. Now it is thrown away in the Green Refuse Bin and now he has to pay to have valuable 'waste' collected. In Apeldoorn there is a 'micro-chip' on each 'Bin' which registers the weight; over a certain weight, you pay more! With care he always manages to keep within a certain limit though. All over the World His Gimpels are distributed all over the World, not just Fanciers in the Netherlands, he has sent birds to Belgium, France, England and many other European Countries, also to South Africa, Israel and Curacao in the WestIndies. Reward for effort and devotion to the Hobby During 25 years Van Camp was a member on the committee of the Dutch Gimpel Club, that is between 1972 and 1997, the last 15 years being Club Secretary, which often means being the public 'face' of the Club, all this time doing his work with enthusiasm and pleasure. So it was as no surprise that he has been named a 'Honorary Member on his recent retirement from Club 'duties'. He has also been a member of the German Gimpel Club since 1976 where he has been a very successful exhibitor over the years, once, in 1975 winning 'Best Gimpel' out of over 600 birds! While talking to him today we realized just how many friends he has made across the Globe in the World of Gimpel Fanciers
Left: Gimpel Copper black wing white flight, young male, at the Keistadshow (Amersfoort) in 1998. Owner: W. J. van Camp. Photo: D.J. Hamer. Below: Gimpel Copper black wing white flight, young female, at the Keistadshow (Amersfoort) in 1997. Owner: W. J. van Camp. Photo: D.J. Hamer. Below: Gimpel Gold black wing. Young male, at the Ornithophilia show (Utrecht) in 1991, with 96 points. Owner: W.J. van Camp. Photo: D.J. Hamer. Right: Gold blue wing white flight young male at the Ornithophilia show (Utrecht) in 1994.
40 years with Gimpels Just one look One thought One secret hint Knowing a breed só well Is a gift Above, Photo: D.J. Hamer. Looking back on a life full of Archangel/Gimpel history Reflecting all those years on keeping the Archangel/Gimpel, Van Camp comes up with the above words. Succession From his two sons the one became interested in keeping and breeding Cockatiels (Nymphicus Hollandicus). His grandson also is interested in those birds. The other son is not interested in Pigeons, or birds at all, so it is difficult to say if, after two generations of pigeon breeders there will be a successor to take-over his 'Life-Work' with the Gimpels, AS this time will surely come. Luckily his sons are always willing to care for the birds when Van Camp and his wife are away on holiday, so who knows..? For more information about this breed you can contact the Secretary of the Gimpel Breeders Club in The Netherlands and Belgium H.B.M. Hoksbergen, Vordenseweg 29, 7255 BV Hengelo, http://vinkduiven.sierduif.nl This Breeders Club has about 40 members in Holland and Belgium together. Twenty of them are active breeders and 5 of them are regularly showing the breed. If you are interested in buying the breed or further information, you can also contact: W.J. van Camp, Bartelsweg 53, 7311 DJ APELDOORN, The Netherlands, tel.: +31 (0)55-5214380, e-mail: wim-annemarie@hotmail.com Available at the moment: Gimpels in the following colours: Copper blue wing: Gold blue wing: barless; barless; black barred; black barred; barless white flight; barless white flight; black barred white flight; black barred white flight; checkered; - - checkered white flight; - - white barred and white barred and Photo: D.J. Hamer white barred white flight. White barred white flight. Copyright 2006 Aviculture-Europe. All rights reserved by VBC