Families at Stock
We stock proven winners. well bred. top pedigree. excellent bloodlines.
At 'No Mercy Lofts' we focus on breding top racing families with excellent bloodlines and pedigrees. We first started racing Busschaerts back in 1991, then later in 1998 invested in the Louis Van Leemputten family and more recently Gaby Vandenabeele family with impressive results across all families. Details of our families:
I first started racing the Busschaert family back in 1991. The base of these birds has always been through Ted Faber’s famous “Red Rum” 11 races as a yearling – 10 x 1st prizes. My brother Tommy had 2 sons of Red Rum via Paul Smith (Regency Lofts) and Eddie Wright (Fountainhead Lofts). Both these cocks bred multiple winners, and Paul Smith cock was the Sire of “Bingo” a 1982 hen that went on to win 6 x 1st including 1st fed Skibbereen and the 2nd best velocity from a mass release of 31,000 birds beaten by a bird on decimals that was flying 25 miles shorter.
When Tommy finished racing I kept a group of his Red Rum birds and also obtained all the stock birds of the famous “Harry Clinton” from South Belfast who was racing out of his skin with the “Red Rum” and “Nellie” lines from “Fountainhead”. His famous son of Red Rum – a cheq cock called “Harry” was an amazing stock bird, and over the next few years I blended all these lines together.
Right from the start they produced winners. They won from 10 miles to 500 miles. I got one pair from Harry Clinton that were from Keith Gaut “The Dark Destroyer” these were the parents of an amazing cock called “Golden Eye” who was on loan at the time to Alan Darragh. This cock had produced 10 x 1st prize winners from his first 11 eggs. I ended up buying “Golden Eye” and he went on to produce 23 different 1st prize winners.
He and his offspring were blended into the Red Rum blood and kept winning for me and a lot of other fanciers i.e. Gary Gibson got his first ever birds from here and was winning right away. Jackie McErlean got his first birds here and won his first Ulster Fed Open with them. One Cheq w/F hen bred 10 x 1st. Eamon Wright took the loan of my stock team for a year when I got cancer and those y.birds kept him winning for years after.
In 1993 I gave 6 ybs to my friend Pat Tabb, one of these was a small blue cock “Coca-Cola”, he went on to win 6 x 1st and also 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th federation, also 2nd, 5th, and 9th in the Penzance Championship Race. When Pat sold up he was purchased for £1150 by Heno Byrne in Dublin, but was left here to be paired on the Bull System with my own hens. He produced scores of winners over the years. His Sire had 5 x 1st and was 27 open Dinard and his dam lost many races through bad trapping – the hen was broke and raced to 3 different lofts and won good prizes in each loft – her last race was Dinard were she finished 44 open.
One son of “Coca-Cola” was a cock called “Seamus” – he was picked up “Flown Out” from a really bad race from Cashel as a YB. It took months to bring him round, however as a yearling on W.Hood he had 11 races in 11 weeks – every race on our programme, he scored on the 4 Channel Races and was sent to Lamballe in France for his 11st Race – only 4 birds made it on the last day timed within 15 minutes he was 4th Open. Next year he won 1st, 2nd, 1st, 4th, and 3rd in the first five sprint races after this he was retired and put to stock. His half brother was 3rd open Lamballe 2years later from Colin Long.
Seamus’s blood is still very prominent today as for the last 2 years he bred, I only put him over his nieces to maintain the blood line. One of these offspring was sold to Tommy Moorehouse – Kings Cup Winner was “Tommy’s Girl” this was in 2013 and she has already produced him some great birds.
In 2012 I donated a Busschaert hen YB to a charity cancer sale, it was purchased by the late Maurice Wilkinson, this hen was timed in the Penzance National and the Kings Cup in the money and her children were also timed in the money at the young birds Nationals that year. In his words “your hen is responsible for 60% of the points I gained to become INFC Champion that year”. This hen is now owned by Ron Williamson as Maurice left his stock to Ron. Ronnie has promised to swap me a pair of YBs from her and told me no later than 2 weeks ago how highly he rates this hen.
Over the years I have been very selective as to what other Busschaerts lines to bring in to keep the blood fresh. In 1996 I purchased 2 cocks from Tommy Marstons clearance sale – one an older cock was his main breeder (he only filled for one year after I got him) the other was a young cock later named “Black Jack” he bred winners in his first nest and carried on doing so for years, these lines with the Red Rum lines produced great hard day birds that showed well when the velocities were down to 1200 ypm. One Daughter of Black Jack win the Ulster Federation by 28 YPM.
Two nest sisters 0819 and 0820 both won as YBs and went on to be two of the best producers we had. 0819 is the dam of “Blue Petra” of Eamon Wright. 4 weeks on the trot finishing in the top 60 of the NIPA open with up to 30,000 birds racing, she is the g,Dam of the Maurice Wilkinson hen. These birds have won for every fancier who has got them right and this year some are on their way to a fancier in America to be tested against local strains over there. I have also sourced some fresh Red Rum blood from an old fancier in England who has kept the lines of “Georgie Boy” for years and timed them out to 600 miles. Georgie Boy is the Sire of both “Red Rum” and “Red Rose”.
I have also got some of the old Tommy Marston blood again as he restarted after his heart bypass operation and repurchased some of his old stock back – his main line has been George Corbetts Champion “Wild Eyes”. His dark cock “Boy George” Sire of 10 x 1st and his paired hen “Miss Belg” Dam of Winners with four different cocks are now at stock here.
To Conclude if you are like me and have a soft spot for the Busschaerts, we believe there are no better than what have here. This family have 25 years of winning at every level of competition behind them – very few of the new wonder strains can claim this! Some of our present stock bird as well as those mentioned include: Mealy Joe – 5 x 1st for Joe Beck from Banbridge, he was gifted back to me Joe had to go into Hospital – his Sire had 4 x 1st and was gift egg from Mealy cock who had 3 x 1st and 3 x 2nd for me and was g,son of “Bingo” 6 x 1st. The Sire and Dam of the Wilkinson he Two actual greate grand daughters of Red Rum both bred in 08, both dams of winners. Their Sire had 2 x 1st clubs and 2 x 2nd feds – from “Harry” Also sons and daughters of Seamus Dark Tip Cock – Golden Gun, inbred g,son of Golden Eye , Super Stock Cock This is just a quick summary of some of our stock – check out the photos and pedigrees in our Busschaerts section.
This strain of sprint pigeons was created over 50 years ago by a Belgium fancier Louis Van Leemputten. He became sprint champion in his region for many years. The Wright Bros of Doncaster were among the first British fanciers to bring these birds to the UK. When Roy and Mally Wright got them in and started to race them they hit it off right away and were the top racers in 2 different clubs for the next 20 years. I first heard of these birds through Kieth Gaut who phoned me ranting about how good they where, he recommended them a cross into the Busschaerts. This was in 1998 and I bought a kits of 10 young birds from them. Among these 10 was a cheq cock 98Z24012. He was the first bird I ever won 1st Open Ulster Federation with and this cock was named “Malcolm”. He went on to win 3 x 1st Open Ulster Federation and was the first pigeon in the 108 year old Ulster Federation to ever achieve this feet.
He also scored many other positions including4th, 7th, 9th, and 11th Open Ulster Federation with up to 3600 birds competing. There after I strengthened the Van Leemputten blood lines but kept them pure not crossed. In 2005 I was diagnosed with cancer and for the next 7 or 8 years couldn’t compete at the same level of racing as I had done (we had been highest prize winners for 9 consecutive years).
After years of treatment and a lot of rough times I started to get my strength and drive back and in 2011 was offered the complete stock team of the Wright Bros Van Leenputtens!! During this time Louis Van Leemputten had died but didn’t want the family of birds dispersed so he left instructions in his will that all the birds were to be left to the Wright Bros in Doncaster. I was offered the birds on the condition that they be kept as a family to keep the name going (Mally had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s decease and Roy was about to start his own cancer treatment). So the boys wanted to do what Louis had done for them and I felt very privileged.
This family may not be very well known as neither Roy or Mally advertised their wins or performances and they were only ‘famous’ through word of mouth. These birds have regularly taken the first 5 or 6 top positions for them and others – this year Paul Green after moving back from Malta and restarting took the first 16 positions in the club – all Wright Bros Van Leemputtens. 3 years ago I sold a kit of 7 bs to R & A Gore of Lagan Valley HPS last year they won 10 x 1st in the Lagan Valley Club - the Van Leemputtens were the dominant birds. 3 years ago (2013) I gifted 4 Van Leemputtens to Spence Bros Lagan Valley – 2 of them won 1st club and another 3rd club. This year we were again highest prize winners.
In the young bird season , one race we were 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th, and 12th club 500 birds and 4th, 5th, and 6th fed – the Van Leemputten again were the dominant birds. I could fill pages with the results these birds have gained and some of the fanciers that have used them i.e. John Patterson EDC Champion Fancier, Walters and Broadhurst of Van Wildemeersch. A lot of visitors to my loft mistake this family for the Busschaerts as there are a lot of darks among them with heavy wattles like the dark birds of Corbett etc. They do look very similar and have fantastic eyes, but most important of all they can sprint and are excellent in head or shoulder winds – Malcolms 3 x 1st federations were all in North West Winds – head and shoulder wind to our loft. They also make excellent crosses into any strain, last year I gifted a Leemputten x Busschaerts cross to my good friend Raymond Russell (Lagan Valley), this year he won the club Penzance race by 387 PM in a very tough race with this dark cock.
The Wright Bros have made it easy to match and pair these pigeons and have done all the spade work for me already –they know what lines cross into which the best and have been hard enough on them that the “Chaff” soon fell by the wayside, so if sprint racing up to 250 mls is your thing I cannot recommend these enough like everything else you need to have them right and if you have they will outwork almost anything out there. Try them – I’m here to be proven wrong but almost everyone who has got them has come back for more.
This a relatively new family to the No Mercy Lofts. Our friends Wright Bros of Doncaster wanted to try middle distance racing having achieved all there was to achieve in sprint racing.
They purchased Vandenabeele’s via Koen Minderhoud and Ponderosa stud. Within five years they had won every position in the first 20 of the Midland National flying club except 18th and 2nd including 2 x 1st nationals with “The Bullet” and “Young Barney”. Another exceptional cock is “Star” National beaten on a decimal for 2nd place by a bird flying 70 miles shorter. When they sold a few birds from their stock to other fanciers they also won with them.
In 2013 we flew to Doncaster to view the Vandenabeele’s and purchased some stock birds for ourselves and in 2014 we purchased some more as we were so impressed with the first draft stock. We now own direct children of all the main stock birds. We now have at stock “The Bullet” 1st National MNFC. “Young Turbo” 9th National MNFC and Sire of several birds to score at National level. “Tusks” the Dam of “Star” 3rd National MNFC. Several sons and daughters of Young Barney, as well as brothers and sisters also children of Barney and Turbo Lady we advertised a few of these for sale a few months back and they were sold on sight to one of the biggest studs in Ireland.
Our best YB in 2015 was from the Vandenabeele’s, a Blue Pied hen – in the money 4 times from 9 races. We aim to inbreed and line breed to the main line of winners i.e. “Barney”, “Turbo Lady”, and “The Count” as these at the moment are the dominant winning lines. There are many others winning and selling Vandenabeele’s, they are a super successful family but we intend to work on our own lines supplied by the Wright Bros as they have done so well in such a short period. They are a family with fantastic wing if you study this theory and when right for racing they are deceivingly light in the hand. Mostly blues and blue cheqs with the odd white flighter.
It has been a long time since I have been so impressed with a team of pigeons such as these but more important the basket backs up the claims and they come in any wind. You can view the videos or look at the photos and see quite clearly that they are “a type” and come from a family that can be traced back to only a few base birds.
The stock birds here are never abused and we never let the hens lay more than 3 times a year. Some of the main cocks are “bulled” but even so we will only have a limited number for sale. We have a long standing tradition of racing and breeding champion racing pigeons with top class blood lines since 1991. Our main families bloodlines of Louis Van Leemputtens, Busschaerts, & Gaby Vandenabeele's