Two top class pigeons of Gevaert-Lannoo sold for 39,000 EURO each!

7 auctions closed this Sunday, raising no less than 492,350 EURO in total. The highlight of this weekend was the auction of Gevaert-Lannoo, which raised an impressive 221,925 EURO.

Freialdenhofen & Sons – 18 pigeons – 1,964 EURO/pigeon
Father Freialdenhofen and his sons Heiko & Dirk have been one of the top players in the extreme long distance. As every year, they sell a group of young birds of their best breeders in an exclusive PIPA auction. They sold 18 young birds at an average of almost 2,000 EURO per pigeon. The most expensive pigeon was a youngster of Forrest Gump, which goes to The Netherlands for 3,400 EURO. The auction raised 35,350 EURO in total. A remarkable number of Chinese and Taiwanese fanciers joined the bidding, as 12 out of 18 extreme long distance pigeons were sold to these two countries. The pigeons were sold to Taiwan (6), China (6), The United Kingdom (3), Slovakia (1), Russia (1) and The Netherlands (1).

Van Toor Brothers – 130 pigeons – 1,442 EURO/pigeon
This auction marked the end of the Las Vegas dynasty, as all the pigeons (minus a round of unflown youngsters) were sold today, raising no less than 187,425 EURO, with an average of 1,422 EURO for 130 pigeons. The most expensive pigeon are Olympic Tamara x Olympic Santa Ana, which were sold for 13,400 and 11,400 EURO respectively, to a Chinese and a Belgian fancier. Some Taiwanese fanciers have been quite successful with the Van Toor pigeons in recent years, which explains why no less than 36 pigeons will be shipped to Taiwan. The 130 pigeons were eventually sold to China (43), Taiwan (36), Belgium (9), The United Kingdom (9), France (6), Slovakia (5), USA (5), Spain (3), The Netherlands (3), Poland (3), Germany (2), Serbia (2), Japan (1), Bangladesh (1), The Philippines (1), and Sweden (1).

Gevaert-Lannoo – 54 pigeons – 4,110 EURO/pigeon
The eye-catcher of this weekend and also in previous weeks was the auction of the Gevaert-Lannoo racing team. They had potentially their strongest season ever in 2016, and they decided to contact PIPA to sell their entire racing team, along with a small group of unflown youngsters, or 54 pigeons in total. The 2 stars of this auction were sale 1 and sale 2 of part 1. The first is a hen that won 4 provincial or zonal second places, the second is a cock that won the title of 6th Nat. Ace Pigeon KBDB longer middle distance young birds last year. Bidding for sale 1 (Princess 95) started at 16,000 EURO Sunday morning, and the bidding continued until 2 hours and 30 mins after the official closing time. No less than 13 fanciers placed a bid, and the pigeon eventually got sold to a Chinese fancier for 39,000 EURO.
Sale 2 (Prince 26) was even more remarkable, with a start price of 10,4000 EURO on Sunday morning. The bidding continued until 3 hrs and 30 minutes after closing time, with 12 fanciers trying to win the bid. Another Chinese fancier eventually placed the winning bid of 39,000 EURO. The other pigeons were very successful as well, with sale prices as high as 17,400 EURO, 10,800 EURO, 10,400 EURO, and 9,600 EURO. The 54 pigeons eventually raised 221,925 EURO in total. The pigeons were sold to China (33), Taiwan (9), Belgium (6), Germany (2), Italy (1), Japan (1), Poland (1) and Romania (1).

Jo Bauters – 7 pigeons – 1,914 EURO/pigeon
It was the first time that Jo Bauters organised an online auction on PIPA, and it was a successful one with an average of almost 2,000 EURO per pigeon or 13,400 EURO for 7 young birds. The two most expensive young birds are a brother and a sister of the 1st National Ace Pigeon KBDB longer middle distance YBs 2016, which were both sold for 3,400 EURO to China and Portugal respectively. The 7 pigeons were sold to Taiwan (4), China (1), France (1) and Portugal (1).

Thibaut-Boons – 10 pigeons – 1,490 EURO/pigeon
This has been one of Belgium’s strongest middle distance combinations for years, and they will be joining the upcoming Olympiad as well with their 1st Olympiad Pigeon Cat. B. This time they only sold a group of young birds, which raised an excellent 1,500 EURO on average or 14,900 EURO for 10 young birds. The most expensive one was a daughter of Victor, which goes to Taiwan for 2,600 EURO. The 3 most expensive pigeons will be going to China & Taiwan. The 10 pigeons were sold to Belgium (7), China (2), and Taiwan (1).

Philippe Brantegem – 9 pigeons – 1,283 EURO/pigeon
Philippe Brantegem had his very first online auction as well, and it was quite a successful event with an average of 1,283 EURO per pigeon or 11,550 EURO overall. The most expensive pigeon was sale 2, which goes to a Belgian fancier for 1,800 EURO. 8 pigeons will be shipped to Belgium and 1 to Taiwan.

Mark Evans – 5 pigeons – 1,560 EURO/pigeon
Just 5 pigeons in this auction, with most notably a youngster of Mr. Blue x Special Blue (sale 1), which goes to France for 5,600 EURO. The 5 pigeons raised 7,800 EURO in total, and will be shipped to France (1), China (1), Belgium (1), Taiwan (1) and the USA (1).

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

Meet Marshall Rauch: The Jewish Man Who Topped The Christmas Ornament Business

Marshall Rauch made a name for himself as the first Jewish senator in North Carolina. Before that he played basketball for Duke, fought in World War II, helped integrate Gastonia, and was the largest producer of Christmas ornaments in the world.

Host Frank Stasio speaks with Rauch about his legacy and how his faith played a key role in everything he did including the Christmas business.

Interview Highlights:

On growing up in Long Island during the Great Depression:

It’s nothing like it is now. [I] grew up in a little town comparable to maybe Belmont, or Mount Holly, North Carolina, at this time. It was a great place to grow up, we were one mile from the Atlantic Ocean. Lots of youngsters, lots of open fields to play pickup football or baseball on.

On participating in the lesser known sport of pigeon racing:

I was just attracted to it right away. The purpose was to raise the pigeons and then race them. We had a club and they would take the pigeon on the train, I remember, maybe 100 to 200 miles away, turn ‘em loose and then the idea was to have the first pigeon that would get back to your coop.

[It] could have been an expensive hobby. But what we did is we would go out in a park with a wooden box, a stick, and a string. You put corn under the wooden box, you keep it raised with a short stick, and you got a string on the short stick and you get far away. When the pigeon would go in there to eat the corn, pull the stick out, and you captured yourself some adult pigeons. Then we were able to buy eggs from a fella who had some really good pigeons, I mean, I believe we paid like 35 cents for pigeon egg, brought it home […] When they had eggs, you could put other eggs in there with them and they raised them. Eventually you’d get a nice flock of really good pigeons and [we] had a lot of fun with it.

On attempting to bring the one-handed-shot to his high school basketball team:

When I played basketball in High School, now you’re talking about ‘38, ‘39, and ‘40, we shot fouls underhand and set shots were with two hands. They even frowned on one-hand passing if you could have done it with two hands. And that was the way it was, we accepted that […] Stanford came to Madison Square Garden and we heard about this one-hand shooting, they were the first ones to bring it on. So we went to Madison Square Garden, watched them do it, came back and tried to do it on our own team. And the coach would have absolutely none of that…

On fighting in World War II:

They put me into the infantry after that, and I had an exceptionally fortunate career because I was in combat for about a year and a half, and thank God I never got scratched […] We went over in a big convoy, and I was on a troop ship, the George Washington. I don’t know how many thousands of us were on there, but there were a lot. And I didn’t like it down in the hole, and I was sea sick. I came up and was allowed to walk around. I go to the front and see the big guns, but they were made of wood. The guns on that troopship were made of wood. And of course that gave me great confidence.

On integrating businesses in Gaston County:

That is something that is still dear to my heart. Gastonia was just like every other small Southern city. You had two water fountains, I think it said coloured and white, and you had separate bathrooms and you couldn’t even eat in the same restaurants let alone stay in the same motel. School were not integrated. And I was asked to be Chairman of the Human Relations Committee that was going to attempt to integrate Gastonia. Well it was a great committee, we had great fellas on the committee and we were able to accomplish the integration of Gastonia without incident.

On being a Jewish man in the Christmas business:  

I’ve had my buddies tease me about that and still do. Took me a few years to get the right answer, but the answer I give [is] ‘No, I belong in the Christmas ornament business. One of our fellas started it!’

About Pigeon Patrol:

Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

Buhari releases 74 pigeons to celebrate 74th birthday

President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday marked his 74th birthday anniversary by releasing 74 pigeons, and observing a special parade and inspection of the guard of honour mounted by the Nigerian Army.

The low-key event, which took place at the fore-court of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, witnessed the Inspection of Guard by the president.

The guard brigade, headed by Musa Yusuf, the commander, brigade of guards, also performed a special birthday silent drills, accompanied with special military birthday song in honour of the president.

President Buhari also cut a cake and released 74 pigeons from a cage as part of the activities marking the anniversary.

President Buhari also signed birthday anniversary register where he wrote: “I am impressed with the special drills presented by the Guard Brigade”.

Service chiefs, Ibrahim Idris, inspector general of police; some ministers, including Lai Mohammed and Muhammad Bello of the FCT; Abba Kyari, chief of staff to the president; Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, presidential spokesmen, attended the event.

Gabriel Olonishakin, the chief of defence staff, who briefly spoke with state house correspondents, congratulated the president on his 74th anniversary.

“We are celebrating with the President and we wish him well and good health. We wish him all the goodness of God as he pilots the affairs of our nation to greater heights,” he said.

Tukur Buratai, the chief of army staff,who also spoke to the correspondents, described President Buhari as “a great man and we are very pleased with his accomplishments over the years.

“He is a good leader”.

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

PFOP: Extinct passenger pigeon once visitor to Central Illinois

PFOP: Extinct passenger pigeon once visitor to Central Illinois

pigeons passenger pigeonIn 1810, 24-year-old attorney Henry Marie Brackenridge traveled down the Ohio River to Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and what was still known as the French Illinois Country. Upon passing Louisville, his party encountered the unrivaled natural spectacle of the passenger pigeon, once the most abundant bird on earth.

“In part of the river where the vision extended at least ten miles down … the whole heavens to the edge of the horizon were covered and concealed by a flight of wild pigeons and remained so for upwards of two hours,” Brackenridge later wrote. “During the whole day immense flocks continued to pass.”

Brackenridge, a reliable observer of the American frontier, estimated the size of the principal flock at 10 miles wide and 120 miles in length. This staggering account was no exaggeration, squaring as it does with many 19th century observations, including those of ornithologist James Audubon.

Passenger pigeons — which as late as the mid-19th century numbered in the billions — were found in the forests of North America’s eastern half. Although Central Illinois was mostly tallgrass prairie, the timber along its rivers and streams and in its scattered groves was enough to sustain, at times, prodigious numbers of these birds. In this part of the state they would appear in great abundance several weeks in the spring and then again in the fall.

William B. Carlock, born in 1842 in a log cabin about 12 miles northwest of Bloomington, recalled the “great flocks of wild pigeons” that would pass through McLean and Woodford counties in the spring. He also mentioned the communal pigeon stews and fries held by the early pioneers.

The Rev. John W. Denning, the longtime minister of First Methodist Church of Normal, settled in the area as a young boy in 1849. “Wild pigeons were so numerous that, in their flights, they darkened the sun,” he said. “They congregated in such numbers at their roosting places that large branches were broken off the trees. People did not waste powder and shot on them in those days; they simply killed them by knocking them off their roosts with long poles.”

A network of railroads began linking Central Illinois communities in the early 1850s, speeding the demise of the passenger pigeon. Railroads everywhere gave hunters the means to travel considerable distances to the site of large roosting colonies. And with railroads came the telegraph and the ability to make known the location of colonies to interested parties both far and wide.

These twin revolutions in transportation and communication made possible a rapacious, unsustainable exploitation of what was, after all, a limited resource. Hunters interested in passenger pigeons for market or sport, along with families and sometimes whole communities, would congregate under the colonies with traps, nets, poles, firearms and whatever else would further the slaughter. The scale of violence entailed in these large-scale “harvesting” operations remains shocking, even to those well-versed in the blood-soaked history of the Euro-American advance across the continent.

Even more tragically, the nestlings were highly desired by hunters for their tender meat. This selective targeting decimated successive generations of squabs and contributed greatly to the subsequent population crash.

McLean County resident E.L. Rodman remembered “wild pigeons beyond number” in the 1850s and 1860s. He said that Thomas Bolby, who lived in Old Town Township east of Bloomington, would use a “stool pigeon” (or decoy) and net thousands of birds at a time. “He would take them to Bloomington by half-wagon box loads and I think that one load would have been sufficient to supply one (bird) to each person in the town, for it was not a large place then,” noted Rodman in a 1922 reminiscence.

As if this wanton slaughter wasn’t enough, hundreds of thousands of pigeons were taken captive so sportsmen could organize shooting contests using live birds.

“A pigeon shoot will come off LeRoy Friday this week,” reported the April 20, 1875, Pantagraph. “Five hundred wild pigeons have been secured, and a good time may be expected. Lovers of the sport are invited.”

In early October of that same year, the Bloomington Shooting Club received 2,000 live passenger pigeons for a two-day program at the old west side fairgrounds. The carnage included “world-renowned exhibition shot” Adam H. Bogardus killing 50 birds in eight minutes, all the while loading his own gun. “This will be by far the largest shooting tournament in Illinois this year,” boasted The Pantagraph, “and nearly all the best shots in the West will participate.”

The slaughter in Illinois continued into the 1880s, at least in the larger forested sections of the state where the bird could still be found in sufficient numbers. “Hunters report immense quantities of wild pigeons around Havana (Ill.),” noted the March 15, 1882, Pantagraph. “One man got 900 in one day, and killed as high as 20 at a single shot.”

By the mid-1890s, the days when millions upon millions of passenger pigeons passed through Illinois were gone, never to return. “Wild pigeons are rapidly becoming extinct in this country,” reported the Nov. 13, 1895, Pantagraph. “They made biennial visits to this locality several years ago in large numbers, but have been decreasing in numbers each year of late until very few of these birds are ever seen here now.”

Twenty short years later, wild pigeons had disappeared from not only Illinois but from the entire North American continent as well. “Martha,” the last known passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on Sept. 1, 1914. “From billions to none in less than a century,” it was said of this appalling tragedy.

There are passenger pigeon taxidermy mounts and specimens in universities, museum and various research institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere. The John Wesley Powell-Dale Birkenholz Natural History Collections at Illinois State University include three “stuffed” pigeons, two of which are mounted. The third, a “study skin,” is dated May 26, 1877, and originated from Warsaw, Ill., a Hancock County community along the Mississippi River. The two mounted pigeons came from R.H. Holder, a Bloomington resident and amateur ornithologist.

Back in the fall of 1914, word of Martha’s passing was cause for somber reflection among some in Central Illinois.

“There is a touch of sadness in this announcement to those who still remember the millions of these beautiful birds that used to sweep in migratory flight across this country,” reflected The Pantagraph. “Every man who was a boy in those days can still picture to himself the long extended and graceful lines in which they moved, column after column, for hours and even days.”

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)

Ross MP: ‘Carrier pigeon better than mobile phone in parts of Highlands’

Ross MP: ‘Carrier pigeon better than mobile phone in parts of Highlands’

carrier pigeonA ROSS-SHIRE MP has told PM Theresa May that mobile phone coverage is so poor in some parts of the Highlands that people would be better using carrier pigeons.

Challenging the Prime Minister to take mobile infrastructure in the Highlands more seriously, Ian Blackford said coverage needs improved across Scotland.

Speaking in the last Prime Minister’s Questions session of 2016, he said that results just published by the Government’s own infrastructure watchdog put the UK behind even countries like Romania for coverage – making this one of the poorest served areas in the world.

“In the Highlands it is typical to get the message ‘no service’ and it would often be better to use carrier pigeons.”

Carrier pigeon better bet than mobile phone in some areas, claims MP Blackford. Picture: Fotolia

Will the Prime Minister recognise this is not acceptable and take responsibility for improving the mobile infrastructure. It is time to connect the Highlands to the rest of the world!”

 

About Pigeon Patrol:

Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.

Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.

Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)