Sytze De Bruine. Edited By: Frank Povah

Text and photos: Sytze de Bruine. Edited by: Frank Povah

Christ and Conny live in Axel, a small village in Zeelandic Flanders (Zeeuws- Vlaanderen), and are avid fans of everything that lives and has to do with the hobby of keeping small animals. Both of them spend quite a lot of their free time in visiting and participating in exhibitions in the Netherlands and neighbouring Belgium several times a year, at, among others, the pigeon show ‘De Prachtduif’ in Turnhout, where they are a members and each year enter several pigeons. In the Netherlands you may run across them at many of the larger annual exhibitions, such as the Champion Show, Keistad Show, Pigeon Show South Netherlands SZN, West Brabant Show and the Noordshow – the latter is a 330 km drive for them, and in the Netherlands that is quite a distance! But even there they enter some pigeons.

As a young boy, Christ lived in Breda, where he learned all about keeping pigeons from his grandfather who kept Racing Homers. When the birds were due to arrive home, the grandchildren always had to keep quiet and be on their best behaviour. Christ’s grandfather also rewarded him for cleaning his lofts. Christ started with pigeons at 14, but by his 20th birthday pigeons went out of his life – he was more interested in courting the girls.

In 1997 he came to live in beautiful Zeelandic Flanders, settling in the village of Zaamslag where he began breeding and flying Homing Pigeons.

Above: Christ and Conny in front of their aviary.

Right: Each bird has its own perch in the loft Left: Mookees are caring parents, as can be seen in this picture.

He kept only white ones – and beautiful they were. They homed, but never against the clock, no competition flights or prizewinning for them – breeding and colour were already more important to him.

In 2009, Conny came into his life. Conny Deij comes from a family who have spent their entire lives in the small animal fancy and cooperated in many Clubs; no job was ever too much. Her father, Fre Deij was an avid breeder of rabbits: Silvers, and Tans in the black variety, with very good results. In Axel, Christ and Conny are indispensable helpers, especially at the annual show of their local club Ter Verbetering. There they organise the raffle – including fetching prizes – and many other jobs.

Right: Some pairs are kept in a separate compartment if he wants to be sure about parentage of the young.

In 2011 they decided to take up fancy pigeons. Christ started with Mookees from Jaap Witte, and when they came to fetch the birds, Jaap just didn’t stop boxing Mookees for them! They had come to buy some Browns but they also got a number of Silvers. Soon after, the couple decided that Black Mookees were beautiful, too… they could get one from Tonny Ham. It was a male, but a hen was quickly found at Martin van Wees’s. Today they have Mookees in eight colours, namely:

brown, silver, black, blue chequer, blue black barred, isabel, yellow, and red.

Left: Christ and Conny often win beautiful trophies with their Mookees.

Christ likes the Mookee because they show so beautifully and are peaceful birds with a beautiful type and a broad chest. They raise their young with care, keeping them covered on cold spring nights, and have good fertility – in most cases, it is two eggs, two youngsters. Pairing is simple and the couple almost always accept each other, settling for a simple nesting place. The breed is not pugnacious although they vigorously defend their nest box, but wouldn’t we all. They easily rear up to 6 or even 8 youngsters in a season. In short, a breed recommendable to everyone.

Christ feeds the pigeons a composite feed mix - not too coarse- and if there are youngsters, he supplements it with a mixture of minerals and egg food, and the birds are fond of it. Christ starts the breeding season in late December. He just can’t wait any longer and he finds that the youngsters need to have a long enough time to grow. The colour of the Mookee does not affect its character. Christ says there is no difference.

Right and below: Another passion of Conny’s is collecting frog figurines.

Frogs of all shapes and sizes are everywhere.

The Mookee’s most important characteristics are: Medium size; upright stance; broad breast; well-rounded when viewed from the side, with the neck forming a ‘lazy S’; full manes and a peak crest.

In action, the Mookee should preferably have a rapid tremulous motion of the neck, ‘the shake’. The eyes are large and dark, eye ceres small and pale to reddish in colour. Beak medium long, thin, upper mandible white. Clean-cut throat. Back line sloping to the tail end, broad wings. Tail of medium length and carried about 12 mm off the ground. The legs are of medium length. The feathering is tight. Another point of interest is in the white flights. Both wings should have 1 to 3 white flights, with the others coloured; the allowed number is: 1/1 – 1/2 – 2/2 – 2/3 – 3/3. Ring size is 7 mm.

Left: A pair of isabel coloured Mookees.

Depending on the time available, Christ cleans the loft 2 to 3 times a week. Ventilation he finds important, and the door to the aviaries is open day and night, except in severe cold and when there are young. The loft is 2.75m x 2.75m and built in the form of a log cabin. It is divided into two compartments so that he can separate cocks and hens in winter. Medication is given as little as possible, as he tries to keep all his pigeons on a natural basis.

Christ and Conny exhibit throughout the country – not without success – and can be found at all the major shows. At the last West Brabant Show, the Mookee Club held its club show and Christ had the Trifecta: Best Mookee in Show, Second Best in Show and Third Best in Show, in a field of 66 Mookees. He went home with two beautiful trophies, and indeed he may be proud – a top performance.

Right: A white Italian Owl with a good stance. .

They also have a number of Italian Owls. These are Conny’s, but she is considering getting out of these and joining Christ in breeding Mookees. But she also has a pair of Arabian Trumpeters in yellow silver barred that she took over from Piet de Jong some time ago when he had to leave the hobby because of his health. Conny loves them, partly because she finds the drumming sounds, which she enjoys greatly, so beautiful. Their birds no longer free fly, as 100 pigeons on the roof causes a lot of inconvenience in the neighbourhood.

Another passion of Conny’s is collecting frog figurines. They are found throughout the house, and as you can see, the cabinets are chock-full of them, some of them very nice.

Above: Arabian Trumpeters, yellow bar (creamy). Conny finds the drumming sounds so beautiful.

Left: Blue black bar Mookee.

Christ and Conny, thanks for your hospitality and for allowing us a look behind the scenes of your involvement in the pigeon fancy, we enjoyed it.

We also recommended reading these two articles on the Mookee that we published earlier: http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/12E04A02.pdf And http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/13E01A08.pdf

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