Who is janssen brothers

He left this part to his father and brothers, nevertheless he knew exactly what was going on on the lofts. In fact everything happened in mutual consent. After the death of his brothers, Louis kept on going racing the pigeons even it was only to foresee the fanciers who still wanted something out of the famous Janssen strain.

Until there were still about 26 pigeons on the lofts. Mother Pauline and sister Irma did the housekeeping together for the entire family and they also took care that the visitors were well received. Sometimes it was mother Pauline who had the last word when making a decision whether a certain pigeon could be sold or not or whether a fanciers should be helped out by giving something very good.

Three children left the parental house. Fons and Frans were also fervent fanciers. Frans lived in Arendonk and was with the strain he took from home one of the best. Fons would go and live in Baarle-Hertog and would race also really well over there. He got a big part in the building out of the Janssen pigeons strain. He was the one that took care that the strain from Fonne Ceulemans and Jef Schoeters would make their entry at the Janssens. Marie married pigeon fancier Tist Eyssen, who also lived in Arendonk.

Tist Eyssen would also become world famous with the pigeons from his father in law and brothers in law. The famous white gate aside the house gave access to the garden behind the house.

There were some breeding couples and some older pigeons. Left of it was a garden loft where the young birds resided. In front of the loft there was an open aviary. This is where the widow hens resided. What stroke immediately when you entered the small court yard was a water well under the pear tree. Out of this well they took the drinking water for their pigeons. The nest pigeons and widow cocks resided at the attic of the house.

In the roof there were some shelves. At the beginning of the ties I had the opportunity to visit the brothers myself for a few times. In company of Hein Cuijpers from Heerlen, who could go and get his ordered pigeon we drove to Arendonk. It was a strange feeling, the moment we drove into the Schoolstraat and parked our car at number 6 where the famous brothers lived. When entering the white gate we were kindly welcomed by the friendly dog and very quick all the brothers came out to welcome us. After this kind welcome we were received in the living room with a bottle of beer.

When visit came along there was always one of the brothers who went to the loft to clean it up quickly a little bit more. There were three lofts for racing pigeons and on the floor you could find bags with separate cereals and seeds. In several big buckets you could find the food that was being given on a daily base to the pigeons. The lofts of the nest pigeons and the widow cocks were just as simple as the loft itself. The pigeons were directly under the rooftiles and you could look outside through the cracks.

Here and there was a glass rooftile. Under the vault there was a long shelf were the pigeons were being fed. The nest boxes for the nest pigeons and widow cocks could be closed half with a kind of swing door. Behind it was a dish. The widow cocks could rest on wooden blocks. The lofts were very clean and you could see that the person in charge did his job.

They knew their pigeon breed like the back of their hand. They knew how to handle their slate blue, clear blue, white-eyed, red-eyed and yellow-eyed pigeons every season again. It was their secret weapon with which they managed to breed a homogenious group of great pigeons year after year. These pigeons have very soft feathers, supple wings and well defined and strong muscles. These pigeons look great and they are generally in great health.

These pigeons have everything you need! The Janssen brothers were always limited in space and the number of pigeons that could spend the winter in Arendonk was limited to 80 to birds. In the last few years there were only a few couples left in their loft.

Janssen wanted to keep things simple, regardless of their worldwide reputation. They could have grown as much as they wanted but Louis decided not to. He had a few basic values: a small, healthy and good group of great quality. It was not thanks to impressie results in the national long distance races that the Janssen brothers gained their excellent reputation.

It was not thanks to a short period in which they dominated the field in the races over km that they gained international recognition. Keep in mind that there was no internet back then; there were only a few pigeon magazines that reported about their amazing achievements. However, they knew surprisingly well how to draw the attention to their results. They managed to promote their pigeon breed in the newspapers and many fanciers paid them a visit to have a look at their pigeons or to purchase some of these birds to reinforce their own lofts.

Many of these fanciers turned very successful with these birds. Many other fanciers followed in his footsteps. It was only later that fanciers from China, Japan, America and the rest of the world found their way to the lofts in Arendonk. That is when Janssen turned into a world famous pigeon family. They have become world famous thanks to the achievements of thousands of fanciers from Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany etc.

Arendonk is synonym to pigeon racing, Arendonk is pigeon racing. This is mainly thanks to Louis Janssen and his companions. They have turned Arendonk and the Schoolstraat into a sacred place for many fanciers.

People would do anything to obtain one of these precious pigeons. They will go down into the history books as illustrous and highly popular pigeons. The collection of pure sprint racers have turned into a world famous breed. For instance, the cleaning of the lofts was done by the girls as well as the boys. Henri died in His wife Pauline was the head of the family until she passed away in She was known for her kindness and all the children loved her very much.

Henri, as I mentioned earlier, was only interested in racing the natural system, and in spite of the fact that the sons built a widowhood section, it was never used as long as he was alive. Henri was very much afraid that the use of the widowhood system would, after a few years, hurt the quality of his pigeon family due to the fact that he would not be able to test the race quality of the hens. You see many of his best birds were hens. After Henri's death, the sons decided to continue the life's work of their father.

In the meantime, some of the children were married. Those that remained divided the work amongst themselves. Adriaan took care of the nestbirds and the youngbirds, Louis took care of the breeders, Jef did the shipping, the cleaning of the nestbowls, the opening of the clocks, and the care of the dog. Mother Pauline and Irma did the household chores and took care of all the visitors. It was finally decided that Charel would take care of the widowers.

Yes, you read well. After the death of their father the sons started very carefully trying the widowhood system. At first with only four cocks! The House at Schoolstraat 6 in Arendonk. People that visit the Janssen house for the first time may be a little surprised at what they find. They may expect, as with most superstars in every kind of sport, a large imposing home. In this case, what you find is a very humble home that was built before the Second World War.

As is the custom in Arendonk, the entrance to the Janssen home is a small door around the back. The Janssen Brothers are downtoearth, honest men that remained faithful to the fashion in which they had been brought up. These were people who worked hard in the cigarfactory until they could retire on a pension. They have a little dog that barks very loudly at every stranger who enters their home. This is not the average residence of famous men, but rather the residence of very good and unpretentious people.

In the backyard yo u immediately notice a well and a pear tree. From this well is drawn the natural water to fill the drinkers of the famous pigeons.

Their hospitality to visitors is wellknown, as is also their appreciation of punctuality. Their lofts are as unassuming as their own homesmall but efficient! Everything has a use. No expensive or unwarranted materials. They are still the same as they were years agothat is except for a very expensive alarm and security system.

Charel mentioned that it was a shame that they had to use it nowadays. There are four sections built on the attic. The youngbird section and the nestbird section are below, and above are the two sections for the widowers. As soon as you enter the lofts, you notice how quiet it is. All the landing boards are on the southwest. There are also two lofts in the backyard. The other one is built with an aviary for the widowhood hens.

Notice that all the race sections are situated directly under the tiles that cover the roof of the house. Several tiles made of glass take care of providing the light inside the sections. So fresh air is always there.

Many times the brothers have to remove the snow out of the sections. There's no need to close or open the ceiling in order to get more or less air for the pigeons. The most important thing is to keep the sections as clean as possible. If that's done seriously it's no problem to keep the birds healthy. Every time you enter the lofts they are as clean as can be. No matter how many people visit in a day, they always clean once again before someone else is allowed into the lofts.

The floors always look as if you could eat from them. Once per week they use the vacuum cleaner so that there's no dust in the lofts, and besides that, they regularly take broom and brush to disinfect the lofts.

Once every year they have the big cleaning and they brush everything with water and chloride. After that, all the walls are painted white again.

The Stockbirds of the Janssen Brothers. When we are sitting comfortably together having a drink, the Janssen Brothers start talking a bit more. Sitting in their wellknown easy chairs they tell us about their family of birds:.

In the year , Fons got himself a blue cock from a man called Ceulemans from Berlaar. This man was already an old man at that time. The youngbirds out of that cock were doing very well. Louis, at that time a very young little fancier, got the "Oude Vos" for himself when the pigeon was three times as old as he was the bird was already 19 years old.

Louis made himself a nestbox that he placed on top of the toilet situated in the backyard. The "Oude Vos" was very happy in that box and Louis saw that a suitable young hen called "Jong Voske" was made available to him.

This young hen was very much in love with his cock. The young hen had won the second prize the day before in the race and Louis tried to make her get into the nestbox on top of the toilet. After some time he succeeded and was already dreaming of the pair making love to each other in his own "loft". But when he looked a few hours later, he saw that the old cock didn't like the hen at all and he had pecked her head so that it was all covered with blood.

You can understand how this gave him big problems with the rest of the family. Around that time, Fons Janssen became friends with Mister Schoeters from Herenthout, and later got himself the socalled "Oude Duifke van '25". The "Tamme". In , both Adriaan and Charel were also very enthusiastic fanciers. Our Jaan had his "Tamme" that was sitting always on the hedge.

Jaan only had to put his hand on the hedge and "De Tamme" immediately sat on it. After sitting together, they all agreed to put the "Tamme" together with the "Schoon Voske" from Charel.

He bred from this pair two beautiful light chequers with pearl eyes. The oldest brother, Frans, liked these youngbirds very much and was willing to pay five Belgium francs for them approx 25 cents.

Brother Fons saw the disappointment in Charel's eyes and offered him 30 francs. Fons took them both to his home in BaarleHertog and was very successful with these birds. One of the two was lost in a race, but the other one became a real superbird.

This cock won nine times first prize. At first, all the members of the Janssen family thought that Fons was saying this just to please Charel, but when Fons brought the raceresults as a proof, they all were convinced and could not believe what they were seeing.

Charel was as proud as anyone could be! Fons had his heart in the right place and gave the bird back to his brothers. Later, when broken to the loft, the brothers raced him. One day the "Lichte" was shipped again, as Adriaan believed him to be in super shape. That Sunday, the race was delayed because of bad weather. On Monday, they let the birds go and Fons decided to come and watch the birds together with his brothers because there was a strong headwind, and according to him this was the best weather for the "Lichte".

The pigeons flew, according to Fons, longer than you might expect. After he saw his brothers clock a few other birds, he shouted, "None of mine home yet!

The next winter, the neighbours built a new wall. All of a sudden, a big shelf fell down and mother Pauline saw a bird that was scared and raced away. In the evening, the whole family was in a state of panic!

The "Lichte" was gone. He was still sitting on the nest at Mother Pauline told them what she had seen. Two years later, the "Lichte" came back without his band. He probably strayed in another loft and was kept as a breeder. Also the "Blinde" of brother Frans, a full sister of the "Lichte", achieved top results. Charel at that time raced together for two years with his older brother. However, since Frans gave all the good ones away, Charel quit as he wanted to seriously build a strong family of birds.

The brothers told me that Frans kept on racing by himself and had extremely good results. The "Schalieblauw" x "Blauw Duif". As has already been mentioned, Fons became very good friends with the brewer, Schoeters, from Berlaar, and he went together with his brother, Adriaan, to Herenthout.

When they arrived, they also met Mr. Goossens, a friend of Mr. In it was sitting a very neglected pigeon with a lot of old feathers and a dirty tail. The brothers examined the bird carefully and discovered that it was the previous year's latebred, still having three old primaries.

They asked if they could buy the bird, but Schoeters said that this bird wasn't even worth keeping. Nevertheless, they bought the bird and Fons and Adriaan returned home satisfied.

At an auction of Schoeters, Fons bought a few pigeonsamongst others, a blue hen with red around the eyes. She had raced very well and had won, amongst others, a first Noyon and a first Orleans. This blue hen was mated with the "Schalieblauw". It was an extremely good pair. Birds bred from this pair were mostly light chequers with pearl eyes, as the "Oude Grote" and the "Jonge Witoger". The brothers said that these birds had beautiful bodies, silky feather, and a very tough character.

Later, Fons got himself a daughter from the famous "Aap" of Schoeters. She was mated to the "Jonge Witoger". The Janssen pigeons were world famous, not only thanks to their own achievements but also thanks to the achievements of thousands of other pigeon fanciers who obtained descendants in Arendonk.

They were mainly successful in the sprint races in the region Only the brothers knew their pigeons inside out. They knew their pigeon breed like the back of their hand.

They knew how to handle their slate blue, clear blue, white-eyed, red-eyed and yellow-eyed pigeons every season again. It was their secret weapon with which they managed to breed a homogenious group of great pigeons year after year.

These pigeons have very soft feathers, supple wings and well defined and strong muscles. These pigeons look great and they are generally in great health.

These pigeons have everything you need! The Janssen brothers were always limited in space and the number of pigeons that could spend the winter in Arendonk was limited to 80 to birds. In the last few years there were only a few couples left in their loft. Janssen wanted to keep things simple, regardless of their worldwide reputation. They could have grown as much as they wanted but Louis decided not to. He had a few basic values: a small, healthy and good group of great quality.

It was not thanks to impressie results in the national long distance races that the Janssen brothers gained their excellent reputation. It was not thanks to a short period in which they dominated the field in the races over km that they gained international recognition. Keep in mind that there was no internet back then; there were only a few pigeon magazines that reported about their amazing achievements.