UkPigeonRacing

The dynamic Dutch partnership of Martijn and Buck de Kruijf from Woerden in the province of Utrecht have unanimously dominated the pigeon sport in recent years in fact we can say with confidence that this is the premiere small loft in the Netherlands . The father and son partnership of Buck and Martijn De Kruijf have set the Dutch racing scene ablaze with astonishing results every year ..Buck began with pigeons (helping his father in in 1980 )and then flew solo in 1983 , then in 2012 in its present form the partnership attained international fame with their “Stephanie”, winner of 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon speed TBOTB and 1st Dutch Olympiad Pigeon speed Budapest 2015. In 2016 they won, among other things, 1st Nat. S2 Fontenay 12,266 p. and the National Derby of Juniors (fastest pigeon in the Netherlands) with their “Dakkapel”. The top pigeon of 2017 was “El Salvador”, 5x 1st and 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon speed and 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon yearlings at the Nat. Competition “De Allerbeste”.In 2018 there was “Super Mees”, 2nd Dutch Olympiad Pigeon Allround Poznan.In 2020, Martijn and Buck won, among other things, 1st Nat. S2 Fontenay 19,100 p. with “Tabitha” and 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon young WHZB with “Special Seven Twenty”, and in 2021 they won 6th Nat. Ace Pigeon Speed NPO and 1st Peronne 1649 p. (fastest Prov. 18,607 p.).2022 Was without a doubt one of the best seasons ever with 16x 1st prize in the combination with among others 1st NPO (east) Issoudun 3481 p. and 1st Nat. S2 Chateauroux 8122 p. (with "Sven BFF") and with that they became 3rd best fancier of the Netherlands NPO and 2nd Nat. Ace Pigeon Allround Pipa-ranking ("Little Mees").In 2023 they did even better with 18x 1st in the combination including 1-2-3-5-7-8-9th Niergnies 954 p., 1-5th Niergnies 1734 p., 1-3-4-5-6th Niergnies 1210 p1st Lennik 2714 p., 1-3rd Niergnies 1248 p., 1-3-4-5-6-9-10th Pont St. Max 1882 p., 1-5-6-8-9th Pontoise 1475 p., 1-7-8-9-10-11-12-13th Melun 1088 p., 13-31-33-47th Nat. Issoudun 27,085 p.), etc. and with 1st Nat. Speed Champion (designated) NPO they can add a new national title to their list of achievements, this in addition to o.a. Olympiad Pigeon Allround Maastricht 2024 and 3rd Nat. Ace Pigeon old/allround Pipa ("Olympic Isa"), 4th Nat. Ace Pigeon yearlings De Allerbeste (22-565) and 4th Nat. Ace Pigeon old De Allerbeste ("Little Mees")!In 2024 they won o.a. 1-2-3-5-12-14-15th Niergnies 3207 p., 1-2-6-7-13-15-17-20th Melun 2000 p., 1-3-5-7-9-10-11th Quievrain 1857 p., 1-2nd Pont St. Max 1285 p., 1-7-8th Niergnies 1060 p., 1-2-3rd Fontenay 644 p., 1-16th Biergies 602 p., 1st Issoudun 509 p., 1st Ste. Maure 393 p., 1-3-6-8th Arras 485 p., 1-2-5-6-7th Niergnies 287 p., 2-3-7-10th Melun 1065 p., 2-5-8-11-13th Pont St. Max 1839 p., 4-5-7-8-13th Arras 1962 p. etc. and with that they were flagged as 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon young NPO, 2nd Nat. Ace Pigeon sprint NPO, 5th Nat. Champion sprint, 4th Nat. Champion young pigeons and 3rd best fancier of the Netherlands at the NPO!
All these results have been obtained with a genuinely small team of quality pigeons , and this my friends is no exaggeration as the entire race team at the start of the season consists of 30 hens and 24 cocks . During our conversation Martijn explained that they “whittle this down to 20 couples of old birds and a total of 65 youngsters, with the lofts measuring 90 cm x 120 cm for the hens
160 cm x 240 for the youngster
300cm x 160 for the cocks and after the flights the hens as well .
So lets look now at how both Martijn and Buck motivate their colony of marvellous racing machines in order to achieve such staggering success while competing against household names such as Gerard and Bas Verkerk and the iconic Willem de Bruijn. I will let Martijn explain after all there is nothing better than getting information straight from the champions themselves. “we fly with hens and cock paired with each other and they go to the same race points however they dont see each other before the race, only on their return , also on Wednesday after a short training flight in order to prevent the hens pairing with each other , they learn the game quickly!” When it comes to young bird racing the policy at this loft due to limited space is to race young cocks and hens together and once the longer races begin Martijn and Buck allow them to go to nest on either eggs or a small youngster however it was stipulated to me that if the birds do not perform or are late from races then the nests etc are removed .
When I asked about the lofts procedure In terms of feeding Martijn stated the following: all the birds can eat what they want for 1 hour , at the start of the week (Gerry plus with energy mix added later in the week, the birds are also given Candy mix and minerals from the company Patagoon.
This loft specialises in races from 80 - 650 km approximately 50- 404 miles , the birds used to attain these results are a blend of bloodlines from the likes of Willem de Bruijn, Herman Ceusters, Verkerk,Rik Hermans and more recently the long distance blood of fanciers such as Koopman and Bakker,Henri van de berg has been added to the gene pool. I asked what their selection criteria were and Martijn explained “we make our selection based upon race results as we have a limited amount of space , new introductions are tested vigorously in the race loft long before any stock pigeons are purchased . So upon hearing this it strikes me that this not a colony of “paper pigeons “ but of workhorses forged in the fires of fierce sporting competition within which only the strong survive and it is this winning formula which makes Martijn and Buck de Kruijf the brightest jewel in the crown of Dutch pigeon sport , I wish them success for many years to come!





Many other fanciers also succeed enormously with pigeons from Buck and Martijn, but we would like to put one name in the spotlight here, Tom Van Gaver. Tom received 2 young pigeons from the De Kruijf family. One is 20-613 (from the stock couple "Pipa Koppel") and in 2023 he became 1st Nat. Ace Pigeon small middle distance old KBDB and Olympiad pigeon middle distance Maastricht 2024. The other is 20-621 (daughter "Argenton") and she won 1st Prov. Argenton 533 p. / 4th Nat. 2276 p., 1st Prov. Montoire 409 p., 1st Chateauroux 115 p. / 19th Nat. 4003 p., 1st Chateauroux 424 p. / 5th Prov. 3606 p. and in 2024 he became 8th Nat. Ace Pigeon all-round old/yearlings KBDB with a.o. 1st Nat. Zone Sancoins 1027 p. and 2nd Prov. Bourges 1317 p.!

Also at Patrick Noorman the “Kruijfjes” are doing fantastic with 1st Prov. Ace Pigeon all-round / 4th Nat. Ace Pigeon middle distance NPO 2024 and 1st Prov. Ace Pigeon natour 2024, and that with 2 direct from Woerden! And finally Ruud Bakker won 1st NPO Morlincourt 5232 p. in 2024. with a pigeon born from joint breeding with Buck and Martijn!I UK Fanciers such as Alfie Hawthorn and Stuart Wilcox have nothing but the highest praise for the super pigeons of the De Kruijf family and the positive impact they have had on their own lofts .

An exterior view of the entire loft set up , as you can see dear reader here space is at an absolute premium and so its all about quality pigeons .

How long have the 1 loft races been going in oz Murray
I know it is debatable but I wouldn't say they have been so successful in this country and I say that due to the extensive losses.
If that's due to UK weather, I would think they would be more successful in warmer climes.

Diamond Dave wrote: Fri May 30, 2025 11:06 am How long have the 1 loft races been going in oz Murray
I know it is debatable but I wouldn't say they have been so successful in this country and I say that due to the extensive losses.
If that's due to UK weather, I would think they would be more successful in warmer climes.

Some may disagree but the weather plays NO part in the UK huge losses. If 'Proper' races are successful on any given day, OLRs can't blame the weather. The OLRs fail in the UK simply because they are badly run. Most start with TOO MANY birds to manage correctly.

Completely agree, too many birds from vastly different bacterial backgrounds, not enough experienced staff to deal with the amount of birds and in the main silly training programmes.

Devo1956 wrote: Fri May 30, 2025 6:16 pm OLR is very hard, if you breed youngsters yourself. Even more so when you get youngsters bred for you, I was lucky last year to get some good youngsters, bred for me from Christoph and Leon in Germany. To enter the German Classic OLR, This year Murray as bred 2 youngsters for us, to race in the OLR in Melbourne Austrailia. Other OLR I have done I Bred my own youngsters, what you have to remember. Is when the youngsters enter the loft. You have no part to play in their Development, Health, Feeding, Training, and preparation for racing. This is why you have to choose the best OLR you can trust.

'OLR is very hard'? I think the words you are looking for is, OLR is a lottery. As you say YOU have NO part in it. You hope those looking after your birds know what they are doing. Unfortunately most running them don't.

I struggle to keep my own small loft of birds in a healthy condition - god only knows what it must be like with so many birds.

Nice bird, bit rough with those babies though

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