Article Published: 10 September 2007

By NM September-“The Black Cock”

Now here’s a gentleman that definitely puts the fear in the word fierce. As fierce a competitor as you can get, one realize when looking at the outstanding results of this man and his birds. Down to earth as you can get, but here’s a fancier that leaves nothing to chance when it comes to his beloved sport of pigeon racing. As competitive as anyone can get as his achievements in his club Blackheath Racing Society and his Union B.D.H.U. reflects. Countless top 10 Federation positions of his birds will need a special article in order to do justice to these magnificent family of birds.

Racing Loft

A glance into the history of how this love affair between Ivan and his pigeons started...During 1970 he bought property in De Deur –Vereeniging. On this property was a corrugated loft with racing pigeons. The previous owner of the property convinced him to keep the loft with pigeons and that’s how it all began. He started racing pigeons in 1971 in De Deur (Vereeniging). From there he moved to Johannesburg where he raced in the strong TRPF against the likes of Piet Schoeman, Pieter de Wet, Walter Dinwoodie, Zandy Meyer and many more. He won his first Fed in 1974. When his fellow club members at that time informed him that he won the Fed, his reply was, “What is a Fed”. Below the readers can view the Diploma Ivan received for winning his first Federation.

He also had the only bird on the day while racing in the TRPF, (TRPF 74- 100696) and this bird’s blood still runs through his current family. From Johannesburg he moved to Durban and then to Cape Town, where he is currently racing in the BDHU.

The start of his pigeon family... Over the years Ivan blended together various Puttery lines (Slimme, De Wet, Churchill, Wally Dinwoodie & Lady Dudley) to which he added a cross of Van Ryhn Kloeck and Goosen origin, ending up with this magnificent family of birds.

Foundation Cock-ND96-877
All the top winning birds in his loft is related to his foundation cock. Both these hens is closely related to the foundation cock-The blue pied hen won 2nd Theunissen Board (1000 km) and the cheq hen SA FB-2002-23397 is a 2 x winner (Springfontein (800 km) & Theunissen Board). *FBHU (Federated Board of Homing Unions) with a membership total of 730 members entering 13 birds each on average.

Now the reason for this article…………Just like Gesin Lerm, Ivan Yeo is the proud owner of a bird which won 2 Feds in the BDHU (2007). Picture below.

Wing of 737

737 is actually a triple winner, but this year won both the Victoria West(512km) & Hanover Rd Feds by 8 minutes. She also scored 2nd Board in the Hanover Rd race ( 644km). She is a daughter of the foundation cock and full sister to 23397.

About Ivan’s management...He is definitely not a medicine man, and only treats his birds when absolutely necessary. Products like Emtryl, Terramycin, Sulfamezathine, etc. is used and he also uses vitamins twice a week. Ivan do not believe in any racing program of any sort and routine/preventative medication has no place in his management. He don’t train his birds a lot, especially on the longer distances. He scouts around for the best possible racing mixture and further relies on the quality of his birds. He also believes that a bird must try it’s absolute best when returning home from the races and do not hesitate to put a bird to stock if it consistently performs well.

For all the fanciers out there who are still racing with Putterie birds, I’ve included the following 2 pictures just for interest sake. The first picture was taken from the old Sonny Kippen book (The Queen) and the second picture a putterie bird which Ivan put to stock. Coincidence or what...

In conclusion, I’d like to thank Ivan and his lovely wife for their hospitality and would also like to leave the readers of this article with the following thought...I’ve done 2 loft visits so far and in both lofts all the winning birds were related too one bird. Should we as fanciers not shift our focus from the medicine bottles & “DOEPAS” and focus on obtaining the best possible birds and breed our own family of winning birds???

Article by NM September-“The Black Cock”