History the EXHIBITION HOMER - by Pat Pratt, January 1987

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Text and Photos: Nico van Benten

You can’t take the risk to make an unexpected surprise visit to Sytze, and that is not because you are not welcome, it is far from that, for a real in depth visit you have to fit in his work schedule. He works on shifts as a process operator at the chemical company Cargill Benelux LTD where they produce i.e. glucose and modified starch for the food industry. The company has established in Sas van Gent, so Sytze can almost walk to his work from where he lives, certainly the distance that we had to travel to come here in Dutch Flanders, was a lot longer. I can imagine Sytze’s hesitation to take a position in any governing board of a National club or breed organisation, as it would always take a long time to travel. But now however he has agreed finally after many years of asking to take up a position on the board of the Specialty Club of Beauty Homers, a club that celebrated its 60-Years Anniversary on October 19th in Apeldoorn, which is a round trip of 500 kilometres from this part of the country.

Living here in Dutch Flanders, he has the advantages of a wide and rural surroundings, where the inhabitants feel like being almost Belgian because of the location, being so close to the Belgian border and in the eyes of the rest of the Netherlands, they are always ‘the other side of the river Schelde’. Sas van Gent has ap- prox. 4,000 inhabitants and is a part of the municipality Terneuzen since 2003. The industrial impor- tance of Sas van Gent, positioned to the canal Gent-Terneuzen dates from the 16th century, when the lock (Sas) was made in the Gent- Terneuzen canal.

Right: This painting has a place of honour on the wall in the living room. This couple of Exhibition Homers was painted by Jan Hatzmann. Note the appropriate background, the Tower bridge.

Left: Standard drawing of a blue checkered Exhibition Homer. Painted by Johan Lentink.

Sytze was born in Enschede on April first, 1955. His father managed a sewing work- shop but also loved change and in 1970, after several removals, he decided to find his luck with his family in Sas van Gent. Sytze was always attracted to animals; since childhood he has been surrounded by animals and when he was 5 years old he already had his first homing pigeon that he kept in an orange box. He got this pigeon from his brother, who was taking part already in racing the pigeons. Later Sytze had all sorts of birds, such as parakeets and canaries. In 1976, Sytze married with Corrie and they had a daughter. Soon the garden of their house was filled with all sorts of pigeon lofts and other animal houses. In 1980 and 1981 he participated in the racing game with his Pigeons, but eventually this hobby demanded too much time and was changed for canaries, Bouviers and German shepherd dogs.

Right below: A head study of an exceptional beautiful head of an Exhibition Homer. Tight lined head shape with fine nose wattles and beak. Note the perfect eye colour and matching eye ceres.

In 1990, when he was 35 years old, Sytze decided it was time to build his own house. Thus he did so and it took him two years, giving the inside a special finishing touch. After the completion of the house, suddenly Sytze had much more leisure time with the house complete and for the garden some plans where made. He was offered a complete stud of Flemish Giants rabbits in the wild hare colour, on the condition that he became member of the local animal fancy association and continued the breeding. That has lasted 5 years, but then he was troubled with a slipped disc, as a result of which he had to stop keeping those Flemish Giants rabbits, as being too heavy. In the meantime he had, however, come in contact with the organised fancy hobby.

Left: Young Exhibition Homer female from Han van Doorn from Middelburg. As it happens there are two top breeders of Exhibition Homers in Dutch Flanders. This animal gained 96 points on the show in Brugge in 2007.

Photographer: Johan Opsomer (B).

At Sytze’s, the Exhibition Homers came in 1994. He purchased 2 couples from Tony Hamelink, but he had no luck with them, because they didn’t produced any fertilised egg. In those days there were hardly any breeders of the Exhibition Homer in the Netherlands, thus he went with three hobby friends to the well-known German Pigeon market in Wassenburg, where he bought for 150 German mark a splendid Exhibition Homer hen, which was perfect in type, stand and head shape. In the eyes of the Dutch fanciers this price was very high, but he had to make an investment to improve further. The next year he returned to Wassenburg and succeeded to buy a suitable red Exhibition Homer cock bird. In the five years that followed he only had ONE young with that red male. Nevertheless these two pigeons were the last birds he ever bought. Eventually he built his current line entirely with the first Exhibition Homers from Tony Hamelink and the two German birds.

Right: Exhibition Homer cock bird from 2006. So far winner of 2 honorary certificates and winner of the Jan Giesbers Prize on the National championship show of the NBS at Avicorni 2007. This photograph was taken by Sytze de Bruine during the Delta show 2007.

During the last years he succeeded in perfecting his Exhibition Homers and many prizes were won. Looking for a new challenge he now is expe- rimenting with colours. He already achieved good results with the blue grizzle colour by using hybrids of Show Homer x Exhibition Homer crossings, from a Belgian breeder named De Pauw.

Other breeds and animals Meanwhile Sytze also keeps some other breeds, which got his interest, such as the Kassel Tumbler. These are very shy birds, especially if strangers step into the aviary. They fly like kamikaze pilots trough the loft. He also has an important collection of American Show Racers, with a lot of quality.

Left: In a separate loft Sytze has a splendid collection of American Show Racers. You can also see some white Homing Pigeons and Kassel Tumblers (red and black).

Right: White Dwarf Hare is another passion of Sytze, together with the Dutch Dwarf Lop.

Finally a number of white Homing Pigeons; these have free flight and they are trained to find their loft coming from several directions. Remarkably fact - according to Sytze - was to see that homing from the south, east and west gave absolutely no problem, but flying back from northern direction seemed to be an extra problem for the white homers. When he saw them free flying in the north direction, it lasted considerably longer before they were back on the loft. The intention is to make these animals available to people who want to release some pigeons at a wedding ceremony. In another barn Sytze still has a number of rabbits: Dutch Dwarf Lops and white Dwarf Hares.

Right: Show Racers in black and indigo chequer and in dominant opal colour.

Below: Kassel Tumblers in red and yellow. Rather shy birds but very beautiful.

Above and left: Three photos of the same Exhibition Homer, proving the difficulty to view and judge the head correctly. The Exhibition Homer in the photo above seems to show some gullet, but this point cannot be judged in the hand. The wedge- shaped skull can be judged by holding the bird in the hand, and in this photo its seems to show some slackening.

Right: Excellent feather quality and beautiful broad flight and tail feathers.

Breeding It is unfortunate that the Exhibition Homer males at breeding time can become rather aggressive if the female is not willing to mate. It is certainly important to observe the couples after putting them together. Because of this Sytze already lost some females. The males peck their females till they are bleeding in the neck and on the head. They can mutilate the female in such way that they can never be exhibited and it can even lead to the death of such a female. Left: Sytze already reached some results in his attempt to make a blue grizzle Exhibition Homer.

The solution was found in separa- ted caging of such a couple in an exhibition cage where they can see each other. But with no way for the male to damage the female. After some days they could be placed together without any problem.

Right: One of the best birds of Sytze, a beautiful blue chequered male.

From mid- February up to mid- June the Exhibition Homers are allowed to breed, and the eggs that are laid later are taken away. During the years he learned that the best youngsters are always the ones that are born in April and/or May.

Left: Head of an Exhibition Homer seen from above. Note the narrow nose wattles and the feather bristles, growing almost up to the point of the beak. This gives a clear view on just how short the beak is.

Normally he breeds 50 to 60 youngsters from his Exhibition Homers per year, but this year he lost quiet a number of young pigeons, which died without any reason from one moment to the other. Lab test of the droppings did not result in a possible reason for this. Exhibition Homers are good foster parents, which raise their own youngsters well. Strangely enough the aforementioned aggressiveness from the male towards the female does not return during the breeding season. Neither towards other couples of breeding Exhibition Homers or towards youngsters on the floor; the breeding season goes perfectly. Right: Exhibition Homer from a crossing with an other breed, clearly shown in the head form. The throat is a bit full and head rather short. The under beak is wanted firmer and the nose wattles are rather large.

Left: A number of quality pigeons together in the corner of the aviary.

Right: A hybrid from Show Homer x Exhibition Homer. These crossings are mostly done for blood refreshment to keep the breed vital, but also to strengthen the beak or introduce new colours.

Left: Exhibition Homer blue chequered. You can never have enough of it; so much class and beauty.

Right: Exhibition Homer with splendid head shape and powerful beak, but the nose wattles should not be any larger.

Feeding and Caring The lofts are crossed out en cleaned by Sytze every day, like most Homing Pigeon fanciers do. To Sytze, any litter, wood shavings or sand imply too much dust and a chance on sickness. Thus the roof covered aviaries have metal floor gratings, strong enough to carry a man’s weight. Regularly the birds have the opportunity of taking a bath and it is visible that the pigeons are in a perfect condition, with beautiful soft feathers.

Above and left: Head study from the same Exhibition Homer.

The pigeons get a standard grain mixture from the Mariman Homer Pigeon line; that is a quality mixture to which he adds about 10 to 20% barleys after the breeding period. Also pick stone is provided, grit with red stone, vitamins and a mineral mixture.

The pigeons are vaccinated against Paratyphus annually and regularly they get a Bogema droplet in the neck against external parasites.

Left: As already described, Sytze is trying very hard for new colours and with these blue grizzle he is already a major step forwards.

Watery droppings is a problem with the Exhibition Homers, especially the squirting and emptying of their bowels when you step into the loft. It is just a matter of stress with the Exhibition Homer; I can speak from own experience with this breed. Sytze succeeded to minimize this annoying problem for a large part, by putting his Exhibition Homers on water ration. He takes away the drinkers soon as they finish eating and drinking. He also adds a spoonfull of cider vinegar to a litre of drinking water to prevent contagious bacteria and moulds and he gives his pigeons regular DIPOBAC probiotica, containing lactic acid bacteria for a better bowel function.

Right and below: A hybrid from a combination Show Homer x Exhibition Homer, but there is still a long way to go.

The Club-life and Exhibitions

Sytze is the secretary of the Local Club Show in Westdorpe, a village neighbou- ring Sas van Gent. It is an association with 62 members and 32 breeders, organising an annual ‘Open show’, where last year 420 animals were entered. Furthermore he is secretary/treasurer of the Provincial section of the NKB (Rabbits Ass.) and NHDB (Poultry Ass.) in Zeeland. Finally Sytze is the secretary of the very popular National Specialty Club for the Homer Pigeon breeds, the SPC. The shows where he participates are Avicorni in Utrecht, from time to time the Noord Show in Zuidlaren, Keistadshow in Amersfoort, Oneto in Enschede and every two years the Sierduivenshow Zuid Nederland in Loon op Zand and the West Brabantshow in Breda. Moreover still a number of local shows, such as his ‘own' Open Show in Westdorpe, the Zeeland Show and the Delta Show, both nearby in the province Zeeland. Concerning memorable Prizes he won, Sytze mentioned the ‘Champion Tour’ with his best Exhibition Homer, starting in 1998 when he became (provincial) Champion at the Delta Show. Then in 2002 at the National Ornithophilia Show, by winning the Trophy ‘Large Price of the Netherlands’ for Best male pigeon in Show. Then in 2003 and in 2004, he was Winner at the Kleindieren Expo with an Exhibition Homer and in 2007, he won the prestigious Giesbers Prize at the National Avicorni show, again with an Exhibition Homer. Of cause it is understandably that if you have so many champions, you want to keep them all. Moreover Sytze is still active with a number of colour experiments. Normally he has already disposed of his overproduction and mismarked birds at this time of the year (end of October). For the Exhibition Homer holds that the number is brought back up to 14 to 18 birds max. Another problem is where to go with your overproduction. Especially this year there is very little interest in Exhibition Homers. History The EXHIBITION HOMER - By Pat Pratt, January 1987

Since the late 1950’s three names have dominated this breed, Jack Ramsay, Wynn Sadler and perhaps more recently Neville Ward try earliest recollections of Exhibition Homers is seeing them being chosen with some regularity for best in show awards.

Blues in particularly have always been very true to type and more frequently seen but N. Ward must be given the greatest credit for popularising other colours, especially the blue chequer and mealy. It had always seemed to me to be a great pity that the Exhibition Homer has so many qualities that are desirable in the Show Homer meaning of course that there has been much crossing and unfortunately this has in many ways meant a redaction in numbers of Exhibition Homers available as the Show Homer has always been the more popular of the two breeds.

Sadly the breed is going through a bad patch at the moment with little stock available but I would hasten to add that type remains very good and beside the colours already mentioned a few red chequers and silvers have been seen. A common fault in many birds is the undesirable length of beak – length of face is required but the beak itself should be rather stout and blunt. Another sad point with the Exhibition Homer which unfortunately does nothing to help its popularity as a show bird is the fact that they are regarded as one of the finest foster parents available and surplus birds are often eagerly taken by breeders of other varieties to act as feeders only. It is a pity they cannot be encouraged to breed e few themselves to increase numbers available.

I have had a pair of Exhibition Homers rear three Dragoons successfully in one nest and they certainly cannot be bettered for rearing the Show Homer, the Show Homer of course will successfully rear the young Exhibition Homer. Entries at the B.P.S.S. National Shows for the period 1961 to 1983 has show a variance of 92 exhibited in 1961 with just 12 birds exhibited in 1972. The overall average was 42.

Left and below: Two old photographs taken from the archive of Louis Maas, picturing Exhibition Homers of Siem Rode around 1950.

The head in the left photo is clearly better, than the head below, where the head line is hollow and probably also narrow.

Left: Head study of an Exhibition Homer of Siem Rode, photographed by Louis Maas from Enschede. This head shows a straight and flat skull line and powerful beak with very nice nose wattles, but is a bit rough in feathering. Although the head could show longer and with a deeper throat.

In 1983 wrote M. Pudam, as the president from the English ‘Genuine Homer and Exhibition Homer club’ in the magazine Feathered World a piece of history about the way the Exhibition Homer started as a breed. For an explanation we have to start with the Show Homer. The first Show Homers which was bred specifically for the shows, was just exhibited in 1880. With the Show Antwerp this two Homer breeds which the preamble were for the other Homer breeds, such as the Exhibition Homer, the Genuine Homer, the Giant Homer and the American Show Racer were. In 1887, the first standard of the show Homer was established by eight, poll chosen prominent breeders of the Show Homer Club. This breeders had been chosen with care, of which there were four from the south and four from the north of United Kingdom originating.

On the following Crystal Palace Show in London this standard was adopted by the members with 75% of the cast votes. A drawing of this standard was then made by the well-known pigeon draughtsman Mr. J.W. Ludlow and was incorporated in the Book of Pigeons of Fulton in 1895. These standard description and - drawing was however not to satisfaction of number - particularly northern - breeders, on which the Manchester Columbarium Society made a new standard drawing. The result being that the Southern breeders in 1888, set up a new Show Homer club in London with the name United Show Homer Club. This resulted in that a number of Southern and Northern breeders in 1889, their own National Show Homer club formed, which made two photographs as standard image, both of a show Homer male and of a show Homer female.

In those years the standard of the United Show Homer Club dominated and it lasted up to 1920 before all Specialty Clubs came together and they agreed to one standard. The previous is to illustrated the unstable situation in the beginning of the 20th century. There were too many trends and at the other side there where too many breeds look the same, such as the Show Antwerp with their three types; the short-, middle- and longface, which the last look most like the Show Homer. Moreover, both the Scandaroon and the English Magpie tumbler have been crossed with to extend the head and give it a specific form.

Book of Pigeons The ‘Book or Pigeons' by Fulton, published in 1895, payes a lot of attention to the Show Antwerp, which was then already considerably perfected, and also to the first Show Homer type. However, concerning the Exhibition Homer there was (still) not much attention. From all the mentioned books, plus other consulted documentation, we can conclude that the Exhibition Homer are closely related to the Show Homer; they eventually splitted from the pure lines of the original show Homer and formed another breeding line that was later perfected. Right: An Exhibition Homer during the Show in Neurenberg from 1992. A German top bird on that time.

Level of the breed in The Netherlands Within the ranks of the Beauty Homer Specialty Club it was the Belgian breeder Charles Verdonck from Oud Turnhout (B) who has keep the level of the Exhibition Homer for over 20 years at a high position. During all those years he was present with its Exhibition Homers at nearly all Dutch National Championships, but unfortunately forced by health problems in 1994 he had clear away all his pigeons.

Also worth a mention is the effort of T.A. Diels from Herten (Limburg) who has imported for many years Red and Blue Chequered in our country from the United Kingdom. And for the complete picture we must mentioned that some 25 years ago, (in the time of Charles Verdonck) B. Nicolai in Dokkum, entered very elegant Exhibition Homers at the show, likewise we saw Exhibition Homers at the shows by J.S. Brandsma from Wommels. Nico van Benten purchased Exhibition Homers from several breeders, all from the line of Sadler from United Kingdom and from the well known (ball cap carrying) Dutch Pigeon Judge Siem Rode. At this moment the top of the Exhibition Homers is in the hands of two breeders, both living in Dutch Flanders, the one being Sytze the Bruine who we visited today in Sas van Ghent and the other one is Han van Doorn in Middelburg also having top animals. According to the present member list of the SPC, also Jos Agemans in Gierle (Belgium) keeps some Exhibition Homers.

During the search in my archives I ran up against another name, which I used to hear frequently mentioned by Mr. Diels in former days as ‘being his pigeon friend'. It concerns Mr. H. Teuwen from Roermond, who already in November 1935 had his first Show Homers (red male and white pied female) from the only known Show Homer breeder in the Netherlands, that was Mr. Templeton; an Englishman who lived in The Hague up to 1940 and was member of the South Holland Pigeon Breeders Club EZHSV. Later, after WW II, Teuwen imported white Show Homers from Los Angelos (USA) and Exhibition Homers from the United Kingdom.

Left: Exhibition Homer in 1953 from the English breeders Matthews and Lewis. This female had the name (title) of “Champion Lady Supreme”.

Those Exhibition Homers had been initially intended as indispensable foster parents for the Show Homers, because the Show Homers were too pugnacious and because of their heaviness the eggs where often broken. Teuwen defined the Exhibition Homers as follows: “The former ‘ugly duck’ of the English breeders, but in the years after 1945 this breed has developed into a splendid ‘swan’; a form pigeon at pre-eminence and one of the most popular breeds of the United Kingdom”.

Standard Around 1950 the well-known English Exhibition Homer breeder E.J. Lewis, who had kept this breed bred for already 50 years, was very successful with the breeding and showing Exhibition Homers. In 1953, he gained the title “Champion Lady Supreme” with a blue black barred female and won successively the Gold Cup, the Heroes Trophy, and the King Edward VII Trophy (two times). This female was the bests exhibited Exhibition Homer with diploma in Altrincham (Great Britain) in the years 1954, 55 and 56. She gained NPA certificates under nine different judges. From the hand of this breeder a standard description of the Exhibition Homer appeared in “Pigeons of to-day”, whom we here shortly will reflect. The greatest difficulty at the Exhibition Homer is the headpiece, it must be long and in an horizontal position. A long shaped head with a heavy stout and blunt beak, the mandibles of equal strength, dovetailed into the face and the beak line parallel to the bottom of the eye. As without this being reasonable good, it cannot have the desired headpiece. The Exhibition Homer is fairly large in size, but they are not wanted too big nor yet too weedy and above all they must be balanced. The wattle should be Small and ‘V-shaped’ and fitted well down to the point of the beak and close fitted to the face. The will give an apparently short beak, with length between gape and eye. There is no limit to the actual length of face (back point to centre of eye). The general length of birds shown to-day is 1 7/8 to 2 inch. Although length itself does not make a good bird, the lack of it is a handicap. The head shape is like a wedge. There should be no slackness either on or at the sides of the face. The face should be level and nicely filled in. In the skull (forehead, top and back) the forehead should not be prominent or the top too high, nor yet flat; otherwise the back skull will lose that accentuated curve so much desired. The eye should be fish white in all colours and the cere fine and small. Generally speaking the cere should be black or dark, but the softer colours will have varying shades, of softer texture, both in beak and cere, but the darker the better. The neck should be graceful and free from gullet, gradually broadening on a fairly wide deep chest. The body and feather should be short and cobby, though not small, powerful yet balanced; the legs placed well back; stance upright and bolt, like a guardsman on parade. A bird in condition is firm and clean. The allocation of points by the Exhibition Homer Society to the various points is as follows: Beak and setting, wattle, front, top and back skull, eye and cere, stance and en condition.

If you have other questions . . . For any question about this interview you can contact Sytze, the secretary of the Specialty Club for Beauty Homer Pigeons, including the Exhibition Homer.

Beauty Homer Club (Schoonheidspostduivenclub) with the Exhibition Homer incorporated. Secretary:. S. de Bruine, Burg. Dusarduynstraat 7, 4551 SV Sas van Gent, Nederland. tel.: 0115-453003 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://spc.sierduif.nl

Right: The logo of the SPC that served for many years, but was parted with after the adoption of the American Show Racer. Moreover, the American Giant Homer and the recently adopted Belgian Show Racing Homer were lacking in the logo as well.