The way to recognition of the Dutch Colour Homer By: Sytze de Bruine. It has been a year or two ago that I was contacted by telephone from an old Racing Homer fancier and also breeder of the Old Dutch Turbit, Jos Kleijnen, from the village of Linnen in the Province of Limburg, the Netherlands. He had stopped racing pigeons a few years ago, but he still had his Racing Homer pigeons in many colours. The reason he called me was that some friends from the racing sport had also stopped flying with their birds, but they still had pigeons in fantastic colours. In order to be able to continue doing something with these birds, the idea is to start breeding racing homers for their colour and exhibit them same as we do our fancy pigeons. The idea was born and had to be further developed. Jos wanted colour pigeons in various colours as they existed, and he wanted to include them somewhere at a club so it would all been smoothly arranged and could be on the Dutch Colour Homer as it was soon to be called. The first thing Jos had to do was draft a standard description, so we started how the type should look. With the help of Theo Rijks, Jos soon managed to draft the standard and it all looked pretty good. Also a picture from a German article about the Homer Pigeon was used to complete the whole. The idea was born and had to be further developed. Jos wanted colour pigeons in various colours as they existed, and he wanted to include them somewhere at a club so it would all been smoothly arranged and could be on the Dutch Colour Homer as it was soon to be called. The first thing Jos had to do was draft a standard description, so we started how the type should look. With the help of Theo Rijks, Jos soon managed to draft the standard and it all looked pretty good.
Also a picture from a German article about the Homer Pigeon was used to complete the whole. Noted were a number of addresses of people who were interested, but the addresses seemed to have been misplaced in the turmoil of the day. Later some of them were found. Later in (2013), I was phoned again by Jos. He said he doubted if he wanted to join the Dutch Beauty Homer Club because he had the feeling he was not being taken seriously by the board. He had the idea his young Colour Homers who had participated for judging during the club day of the Dutch Beauty Homer Club (SPC) had not been judged in a positive way. I told him that we at the SPC seriously wanted to have the Colour Homer in our club, and it does not matter whether we have 11 or 10 breeds within the club. We also find these fanciers need a club to be connected with, and what could better than at a club like the SPC where Homer pigeon breeds are represented? We decided now to push things a bit and try to get the breed recognised. Meanwhile, my fellow board member and pigeon judge Daan Admiraal also became enthusiastic to the idea to have the Colour Homer pigeon with its many beautiful colours in our Club. Daan has put a lot of effort toward the Dutch NPA to get more support from them to give the necessary support. All of us working together should make it possible to get it finished soon. The standard of the Dutch Colour Homer has been somewhat modified by Daan and me; more refined and styled into a way that it should be accepted now by the Standard Committee. By e-mail we have presented the draft of the Dutch Colour Homer standard for approval to the Secretary of the Standard Committee, Mr. Hans Schipper. The Dutch Colour Homer breeders will enter their pigeons at the upcoming Dutch National from the NBS (Dutch NPA) in Nieuwegein in January 2014, probably in their colours: White, Black, Andalusian Blue, Red pied, Yellow pied and Almond
We hope to have as many colour varieties as possible recognised. Now, we have to wait and see how things will develop. When this article is posted online, the Champion Show in Nieuwegein, being the Dutch National Pigeon Show of the NBS, will be history and the results will be known. We the Dutch Beauty Homer Club - assume that the standard recognition will be a fact. An already long standing breed should not be missing from our shows and is an addition to our already long-standing hobby, and a way of participating for the pigeon breeder who has stopped flying his homing pigeons, but still has some pigeons that he wants to keep for fun. Their breeding for colour, still is a nice goal. Finally, we do not want to withhold from you the drafted standard. Of course, subject to modifications by the Standard Committee and depending on what comes out of the recognition procedure. We have become very excited about it and hope a large number of new pigeon breeders who want to breed these Colour Homers and exhibit them in our club. See hereafter; DUTCH COLOUR HOMER (conceptstandard SPC November the 7 e, 2013)
DUTCH COLOUR HOMER (draft standard by the SPC November 7, 2013) Origin: The Netherlands Overall impression Powerful style Homer, medium height in stance, Slightly angled carriage. Breed characteristics Head: The frontal of the head with beak and wattles forms an almost straight line, some small concave is allowed but never convex, top skull slightly rounded, highest and widest point above the eyes, then descending gradually and smoothly into the neck. Eye: Eye cere: Beak: Neck: Breast: Back: Wings: Tail: Legs: Feathers: Colours: Orange-yellow to orange-red and the so called steel-eyes*, bright and sharp in appearance. In brown feathered pigeons, a pearl colour or false pearl eye is allowed. In white feathered the eye colour is bull, when white feathers around or near the eye, the eye colour is darker. Both eyes must be of equal colour! Smooth and fine, colour appropriate to the plumage. Medium in length, not too short and close fitting. Colour may vary in accordance with the feather colour. Strong, medium size, long and smooth. Throat well curved and defined. (No gullet). Well rounded, and forward of the wing butts. Broad, close feathered and tapering smoothly into the tail. Broad and rather long, wings carried on the top of the tail. Medium length, following the line of the back, 12 feathers. Medium length, clean legged. Smooth, tight and close fitting. White, black, andalusian blue, recessive red, recessive yellow, ash red bar mealy), yellow, ash yellow bar (creamy), ash yellow chequer, almond, red pied, spangles sometimes called Meulemans colour, yellow pied, dominant opal and milky, white black shield, white red shield, white yellow shield. Colour and Markings: All colours to be clear and as intense as possible. Ring size: 9 mm. *
Serious faults: Too little or too small, too compact, flat breast, too upright or too horizontal in stance, too much frontal on the head, flat in the front of the head and/or back of the head, too square or angular head, too short, too long or too thin in the beak, full throat, wings too short. Order of Importance: Overall impression, body form and stance, colour, head shape, feathering, markings, beak, eye colour and ceres. Being a form pigeon, body form and stance comes first. The colour comes second. Because it is a Colour Homer pigeon, a pigeon with an excellent type and stance, but with lesser colour can never get 96 points, in contrast to other Homer breeds. The nose wattles of the cocks will always be coarser than in the hens, which should be considered as normal. The recessive red and yellow of the Meulemans is intensive but with some bluish colouration on the back and tail. Note one should always aim for a perfect colour. If you are interested in this breed please contact the Specialty club through this e-mail address: Sytze de Bruine, Secretary Dutch Beauty Homer Club (SPC) e-mail: sdebruine1@zeelandnet.nl Also in Ireland there is a huge interest in coloured racing pigeons. On behalf of Albert Hogan and Wes Murphy we welcome you to the Irish Coloured Racing Pigeon Club website http://www.spanglefish.com/icrpc/index.asp The Irish Coloured Racing Pigeon Club was set up in 2012 by Albert Hogan and Wes Murphy. The aim of the club is to promote the breeding and exhibition of rare coloured racing pigeons in Ireland. There is a huge interest in Ireland for coloured racing pigeons but there are a only a few breeders in the country with rare colours. This is something we hope to change with the help of all our members. In 2014 we hope to start a Junior Section to our club which we hope will encourage young fanciers in Ireland to breed and exhibit these rare colours as they are the future of our sport. On show day we aim for our birds to be judged on both colour and condition. Obviously the rarest colours will get top marks for colour but they may not get top marks for condition. This then allows for all coloured racing pigeons on show day to have a chance of taking a position. In 2014 we are introducing the following colour classes for our shows: 1. Reduced 2. Almond 3. Opal 4. Self/Bar/Check 5. Any other colour (AOC) We are hoping this will allow the judge to judge the pigeons more easily against each other on show day as all birds will be competing against pigeons of the same colour. We would like to wish all breeders a successful breeding and showing season and look forward to hear from the Dutch breeders! Member of the Irish National Fancy Pigeon Association INFPA
On this page you find the Coloured Racing Pigeons pictures from the Ireland breeders Thanks to our sponsors and collaborators Copyright 2014 All rights reserved by the Aviculture-Europe Foundation. This is a publication by the online magazine www.aviculture-europe.nl You are not allowed to copy, distribute, send or publish these texts or photos without our prior permission in writing.