Bertus Nel lives in Colesberg, South Africa. He is married to Lida and they have three children. Colesberg is situated in the most south eastern region of the Northern Cape Province and close to the border of the Eastern Cape and Free State. Part of the Northern Cape is known as the Karoo and Colesberg is one of the towns in this semi-desert area. Bertus has been involved with pigeons since the age of 10. He started racing (in partnership with his father and brother) in 1983. In 1994, two years after completing his studies, he started on his own as a member of the Riversdale Pigeon Club in the Southern Cape. One of his club members was the late Hannes van der Merwe. Hannes was the owner of a super breeding pair called the Golden Couple. More about the Golden Couple later.

Bertus moved to Colesberg in December 1997 and lives at his present address since 2001. Pigeons from different sources have been tried and tested over the years with mixed success. In 2001 Bertus managed to get hold of Hannes van der Merwe’s Golden Couple. Hannes had super results with these Janssen based pigeons in long distance races. The male OBU 92D/1849 and the beautiful female OBU 93D/0452 were both 1st prize winners in union races. As a breeding couple they were superb and bred 4 union winners. A daughter also won 8th in the 1998 Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race. Their best children at that stage were Kroonstad 1 OBU 95/0189 (1 Union Kroonstad 925km), the Bloemfontein Hen OBU 98D/0230 (1 Union Bloemfontein 724km) and the Sun City Hen OBU 97/2100 (8 SCMDPR). Hannes gave these three birds to Bertus and they changed pigeon racing as he knew it.

When Hannes decided to sell all his pigeons at the end of 2002, Steven van Breemen of Holland wanted to buy all the new stars of the Golden Couple. Among them were Kroonstad 2 (1 union Kroonstad 925km and only bird on the day), Namibia Cock and Bloemfontein 2 Hen (2 union Bloemfontein 724km). Bertus arranged the deal between Hannes and Steven and another deal was struck: Bertus would exchange a few inbred youngsters from his Van der Merwe stock for youngsters from Steven’s national winners and national ace pigeons like Good Yearling, Orleans Lady, Magic Mealy, Magic Olympic Grizzle,Vechter, etc.

In 2002 Bertus and Paul Viljoen bought a very good male on the sale of the late James Jennings. This original original Victor Christiaens cock BELG 93/2066895 was responsible for many 1st prize winners. He did not disappoint and bred 12 first prize winners for Paul and Bertus.  

Bertus is always trying to keep up to date with the latest happenings and news in the sport and has been a subscriber to many international pigeon publications. Many of these publications have and still publish articles about the exploits of Gaby Vandenabeele, one of the modern stars of the Belgium pigeon sport. Gaby is world famous for his racing success at provincial and national level and breeder of super pigeons like Kleinen, Wittenbuik, Picanol, Bijter, Playboy, Kolonel, Bliksem, Sissi and many others. Fanciers that have introduced Vandenabeele pigeons have enjoyed unbelievable success. The fanciers knocking on Gaby’s door and wanting to buy pigeons are many of the top fanciers in the world. A clear indication how highly they think of the quality housed in Dentergem.

Gaby’s most famous pigeon was the phenomenal WITTENBUIK (BELG 88/3206112). He was undoubtedly one of the best breeders in the history of the pigeon sport, responsible for first prize winners at provincial and national level for countless fanciers. After making a study of Gaby’s pigeons Bertus decided at the end of 2003 to introduce Vandenabeele pigeons. To be more specific, he wanted pigeons out of Wittenbuik. Luck was on his side because Gerrie Maritz, a South African fancier who imported pigeons from Gaby, was selling all his pigeons. Bertus bought eight pigeons from Gerrie, one of them a grandson of Wittenbuik. This cock with ring number BELG 98/3020316 was bred by Silvere Toye from a son of Wittenbuik and Bertus named him Witpen Wittenbuik SA. Bertus also wanted to buy a granddaughter (BELG 99/3199599) of Wittenbuik  which Gerrie bought from Gaby. She was unfortunately already sold to Andre Carelsen. Bertus later managed to buy her from Andre. She is known as the Gaby Hen and he mated her with Witpen Wittenbuik SA. This pair bred super pigeons from the first nest. 

 More Vandenabeeles have been introduced and these include direct birds out of Bliksem (unofficial best middle distance bird Belgium 2000) and Super As (2 National Ace Pigeon KBDB 2004). Bertus also made contact with the successful British partnership of M&D Evans (Myrtle Lofts) and bought direct children of some of their best breeders like Golden Gaby (1 National Orleans 606km against 12 875 pigeons). Bertus does not believe in pure strains and will introduce any pigeon as long as they come from an exceptional winning family.

SELECTION

Bertus uses race results as the only selection tool and pays no attention to theories. He prefers medium sized pigeons with strong bodies, light supple muscles, strong pigmented eyes and primary flights eight, nine and ten must be well ventilated.

When introducing new blood he has the following requirements:

They must be multiple performance pigeons, or

Breeders of multiple performance pigeons, or

Direct children of multiple performance pigeons, and

It is also important that these birds come from a family with good results in provincial and national races.

Selection in the breeding loft is very severe and only breeders able to breed winners with different partners are considered good enough to earn a place in the stock loft. Bertus makes use of inbreeding, linebreeding and crossbreeding. Normally around twenty breeding pairs are housed and the racing team before the first race is usually one hundred (old birds and yearlings). Around twenty racers are kept at the end of the racing season.