A visit at Gerard Adriaanse in Middelburg Text and photos: Aviculture Europe Our visit took place on Saturday 14 November and I truly think there is always a stormy wind blowing in this province. Although that also provides relatively many sunshine hours for the inhabitants, because by this wind, the clouded sky is always soon blown clear again, proved by this rainbow which you can see here above. We were lucky, as - according to Gerard - the day before it had rained all day long. In any case you are always most welcome here in the province of Sealand. Today we were even welcomed with coffee and Zeeuwse Bolussen ; a famous type of pastry from Zealand, with which the local bakery had become this year s Champion. We had come to see the breeder Gerard Adriaanse and his pigeons. But there is more in the hobby than the breeding, as you can hear the breeders frequently say. It is the complete environment on the shows, the associations and the friends who you have there. In this case, the proof was the presence of Cees van de Bemd, the former secretary of the Specialty club for the Long faced Tumblers, who lives 100 km from here in Breda and who regularly comes over to meet his pigeon friend Gerard, like today, just to talk pigeons. This is something unique in the Netherlands, because nowhere in the world you can encounter so many pigeon breeders per square mile as in our country. Cees has meant a lot of for the Breeders Club of Long faced Tumblers during many years. He is a man that gained a lot of respect. But if you start mentioning this, he reacts fiercely, saying that he is not that special and certainly doesn t belong to the upper class. On which Gerard Adriaanse pleasantly shaking yes with the head and say that Cees does not want to talk about it, but in fact he deserves all honour. Above: Gerard judging during the Young Pigeon Show, at the Delta Show. Photo: Delta Show. Right: Gerard has quite a collection of pigeons. In the picture you see: Yellow Chinese Owls, Red Felegyhaza Tumblers, Hamburg Sticken, Polish Owls and Red Babarischi Owls.
Gerard Adriaanse, how it started Gerard made his way into the hobby some 30 years ago by means of a friend of the family from Tilburg, who kept a number of flying pigeons. He was 21 years old at that time. Thus the pigeon hobby did not come as a inheritance from his parents home, however there where always some animals at home. In the beginning, the first pigeons were no exhibition pigeons, just ordinary pigeons, like Highflyers and Helmets, which flew around rather for pleasure. The first exhibition pigeons he bought on the bird market in the village of Liemde. On Sundays, they also often went to the animal market in Mol (Belgium). You can buy there everything, such as ewes, geese, studs, racing pigeons etc. He has been seriously breeding the black Old Dutch Capuchine for 10 years, his first birds coming from the well-known breeders Romein (from Brouwershaven) and Haring (from Goes). After some time he switched to the Mealy. But besides these, he always had other breeds in his lofts; his interest is broad, sometimes it looks more like collecting than breeding, with the lofts becoming overcrowded. In the meantime he became member of the Local breeders Club in Walcheren and started participating in the exhibitions. Above: Another loft with among others Ancient Tumblers. Right: A giant French Lop, pet rabbit of his son Stefan. Another time he was busy with the Kassel Tumblers, being his first experience with Long faced Tumblers, but to be honest, that was merely because in type and stance they reminded him of the Black Old Dutch Capuchins, his former breed. But the way he got them was a one-of-a-kind story. They were kept at that time by a junior member living in the neighbourhood of Utrecht. In those days, it was the only collection of Kassel Tumblers to be found in the Netherlands. And that junior member had to stop because his parents were going to divorce. He had sold his complete pigeon collection to a pigeon trader, while being incredibly beautiful animals. Fortunately someone of the Long faced Tumbler club was informed about this and he bought all Kassel Tumblers and as such they became in the possession of Willaert, Adriaanse and Van de Bemd. In 2001, Gerard even gained a Champion Diploma of the NBS with his Kassel Tumblers. Left: A Red Kassel Tumbler. Photo: Gerard Adriaanse.
As said, the interest of Gerard was broad and he spend much time with the legendary pigeon judge Ben Mulder, who lived at only 500 meters distance. It was Ben who learned him the ins and outs of the pigeon judging profession. That was beginning 1980 s, when he was following doctor s order - a revalidation program, so with a lot of free time to spent. He was seeing Ben Mulder almost three times a week in those days. Now being a judge himself, he specialised in only the breeds that he really likes. The Astatus - a judge with the competence for judging all breeds - he never really aspired. Right: A fine oil painting of a Kassel Tumbler by Jan Hatzmann. He never avoided manager jobs in the board of the Clubs of which he is a member. At this moment he is board member of the Long faced Tumbler Club, Foreign Short beak Tumbler Club, English long Faced Tumbler Club in the Netherlands, Chinese Frill Club and he has been recently appointed - at the request of the NBS - as a coach for promoting the Dutch pigeon breeds at the local children's farm. This last closes perfectly fits his wish to give more information to the public and particularly to the youth, which want to start keeping pigeons. His friend Cees fully agrees with this plan. Gerard sure has his hands full with this all, although this type of enthusiastic people, having learned to deal economically and deliberately with the available time, always seems to find time for an additional task. How he got his German Longfaced Tumblers The province Sealand is a favourite tourism destination, with each year also many German tourists. By coincidence Gerard met a German tourist who used to visit Zealand year after year, and obviously he succeeded in transmitting his enthusiasm for the pigeon hobby, as this man also started to keep fancy pigeons. This German tourist brought Gerard in contact with Paul Wöllner from Saksen (Germany) who offered a collection of Red and Yellow Bearded German Long faced Tumblers for sale, and Gerard took over from him unseen. His first Magpie German Long faced Tumblers were purchased later from another German fancier: Bernhard Strtjohann from North Rhine-Westphalia. Left: In 2001 he even was awarded with a NBS Champion Certificate for one of his Kassel Tumblers.
Handling the pigeons Gerard is in fact more of a pigeon collector and because he likes them all, you find many different breeds in his lofts. Keeping pigeons comes first, not particularly winning in the exhibitions. That does not mean that he has no quality birds in his lofts, but hunting for prizes is not his first aim. At the moment the German Long faced Tumbler is his primary breed; he has several hundreds of them, he doesn t know exactly how many. You must love the breed, because they are a bit shy, and that applies certainly with strangers in the loft. A number of years ago, before the Domestic Flight was known here, the Long faced Tumbler breeds were in demand as foster parents for rearing Short beak frill pigeons. They are excellent parents, although you must not start breeding early in the year, because of their thin plumage, thus for keeping warm the eggs and youngsters. That is generally also the reason that Gerard still continues breeding with his pigeons after the longest day. Finally he takes the breeding bowls away, but he never separates the pigeon couples and strangely enough the egg production does stops nevertheless. At his house he has two small pigeon lofts, suitable to keep the smaller tumbler breeds. For his German Long faced Tumblers he had the luck to find a place at a farmer who had to stop keeping pigeons due to health reasons. Right: An unusual sight in Holland: A large flock of Alpacas, grazing the meadows at the farmer s where Gerard has his large lofts and aviaries. Left: Head study of a Bearded Dun German Long faced Tumbler. It is only a few kilometres away from his house and he has at least 10 large pigeon lofts with aviaries at his disposal, which cost little maintenance and time him. He goes there each day to feed and water his pigeons. They are fed an ordinary racing pigeon grain mixture, in a quantity which they can eat immediately. He can t let stand full grain supply overnight, because full feeders are an open invitation to mice and other vermin. On asking how much pigeons he breeds, the answer is, that he orders every year 80 pigeon bands at the NBS association and
that amount is fully used. Eventually he has all young grow up and decides on full-grown age if he will keep them or find them another destination. He always has several requests from other breeders on his list, which are first in row. The last surplus pigeons go to a merchandiser and Gerard assumes that they will find their destination too. The selection criteria for Gerard for his German Long faced tumblers are on the first place the stance and overall impression, or, as he says: the elegance. Any bird that lacks elegance, is of no use to him and selected out. Next comes the head of the bird; it must be appropriate and harmonise in the total elegance picture. According to Gerard the now-a-days breed type is losing quality due to the influence of other Long faced Tumbler pigeon breeds which once have been used for this breed. You must have eye and feeling to properly judge this, but in fact this also applies to all other pigeon breeds. As pigeon fancier you have the idealized image on your retina. Every distortion of that idealized image irritates and is immediately observed. Right: Yellow Bearded German Long faced Tumbler As for preventive vaccinations, such as to prevent paramyxo, Gerard stopped this since a number of years. He experienced more disadvantages than advantages from those vaccinations. And his pigeons are purely healthy, thus obviously they have no problems of the paramyxo virus. Left: Black Kassel Tumblers.
Right: Berlin Muffed Tumblers. Above: Berlin Muffed Tumblers in Black, Yellow and Red White tail. Below: Berlin Muffed Tumblers in Black, Yellow and Red White tail, but also an Isabella white flight. Below: Yellow and Red Magpie German Long faced Tumblers. Right: Black, Yellow and Red Bearded German Long faced Tumblers in the aviary.
We were running late for another breeder s interview, thus although there were plenty more things to discuss, we took leave of Gerard and Cees, with our thanks for the enjoyed hospitality. For more information you can address to: Longfaced Tumbler Club in the Netherlands: Secretary: K.W.J. Lewin, De Leijen 75, 8401 AZ GORREDIJK Above: German Long faced Tumblers in Black, Yellow and Red Magpie. Left: Yellow and Red Bearded German Long faced Tumblers. Showing From his large collection German Longfaced Tumblers he can easily pick the birds for participation in the various shows. He usually participates with a large number of birds in the regional shows, such as those of his own local Club and of course also in the Delta Show or the Show in Goes and other shows in the nearby province Noord-Brabant. Fact is, however, that for the National Show he always has to drive relatively many (for Dutch terms) kilometres. Still he takes part annually in the Champion Show of the NBS (Dutch Pigeon Fancy) and other national shows. And not to forget the Club Days, with their one-day shows. In total he participates with his pigeons annually in approximately 10 shows in the Netherlands. He seldom goes abroad with his pigeons, although Belgium is very tempting nearby. In any case the same pigeons never go to two successive shows; having so many show worthy birds he can easily permit himself to change the group. Right: Red Magpie German Long faced Tumbler. Or: Gerard Adriaanse, Trompstraat 25, 4335 HT MIDDELBURG Copyright 2009 Aviculture-Europe. All rights reserved by VBC.