By Thomas Smith

Introduction
Jannie & Tersia Engelbrecht are members of the Lutzville Pigeon Racing Club under the banner of the Maskam Pigeon Racing Federation in the Cape Province, of which they are currently the undisputed Champions. Jannie’s passion for the sport originally got him hypnotized from 1992and Tersia joined into the feeling the next season. Although Jannie primarily manages the race team and Tersia attends to the breeders they assist each other with the various loft chores – married, but almost like Twins. Besides other positions within the Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race they have also scored: the 15th best Ace pigeon until January within the 2006 Point’s League Averages of the series, came second in a pre-final event missing out on a car with less then a second – and in 2007 a unpaid reserved pigeon in fact won a pre-final race (known as Hot-Spots), whilst a main entry scored in the 5th position (almost like twins) This had Tersia singing and dancing with joy. They own the finest family of ‘Clausings’ money can buy, but more on this part later in our story. We first need to attend to all the Twins. It’s very important, because of all the Twin indicators; Tersia’s youngest sister & brother are also Twins.

The Miracle of the Avian Twins is born
Imagine a double chipping egg and twin babies (in this report, presumably hens) hatching from it – and live! This miracle happened on the 2nd of November 2007 in the lofts of champion fanciers Jannie & Tersia Engelbrecht from Lutzville. The Twins hatched only a day after their brother was born – all healthy and normal. Of interest to non-pigeon fanciers: a female racing pigeon – is known as a hen (or the dam in a mated pair), will lay 2 eggs in the nest as part of its customary breeding cycle. These eggs are usually laid two days’ apart and between 8-10 days after she was mated. The Twins in our story were born from the second egg which was laid. Besides the fact that the egg held two embryos, it was in this case, only a little larger than the normal size egg known to racing pigeons. In the case of Twins, which incubate in the same egg, one or both embryos may not survive. A Twin egg is often only two infertile yolk egg(s) estimated to happen once in 1, 000, 000.

From the Journals of Hereditary - by Dr Wim Peters.
World acclaimed South African Veterinarian, Dr Wim Peters, passed on the following valuable information regarding Avian Twins, through the chat room of the http://groups.google.com/group/sapml
within which a part of the interview for this article was extracted:

• Twin babies will be identical Twins when they are the same in colour, sex, shape & size.
• Identical Twins occur when both originate from one ovum.
• When they are not identical the two ova would have come down the oviduct very close together and were then enveloped by one egg shell – in which case they would then not be identical.
• Two chicks in the same egg will be smaller and will consequently need less oxygen.
• Should they not get sufficient Oxygen they will die.
• Oxygen is supplied to the developing chick by permeating through the egg shell after which it goes via the blood vessels to the shell embryo – not from the air pocket. That is broken into at the last stage and prepares the chick for respiratory oxygen intake as opposed to that via the blood vessels.
• Should there be oxygen deficiency it is conceivable that the chick might be cerebrally handicapped.
• The roundness of the egg plays no role – some bird eggs are practically perfectly round.
• Lack of oxygen would not cause respiratory problems, but would cause development problems & death, if severe.
• Dr Wim has analyzed the case of the avian Twins of the Engelbrechts and concluded that they are not identical.

About Triplets
Although it is rare, it is reasonably often reported that a hen may sometimes lay three eggs – thus one extra egg as opposed to the usual two. There is no inference upon the quality or the health of the youngsters (known as triplets), hatching from these eggs. On occasion it is found that one of such three eggs may not have been be fertilized. Somerset West Veterinarian, Dr Wim Peters has himself experienced the occurrence of triplets. All three hatched and all three were hens, he said.

The parents of the Twins
The parents of the Twins are of a line less kept or focussed on in the Engelbrecht lofts. One could say that they are an additional introduction that still need to prove themselves against the Clausing family which are an established line in the loft. The genetic potential of the Twins parents are however not meant to be portrayed here as inferior. They descend from the Champion ‘Gröther’ family from Willa Wessels of De Aar, which Errol Vertue blended into his Putterie/ Catrysse/ Stassards, to find his winning family. A direct youngster from the Twins parents scored in the Engelbrecht loft in the 2007 season. Another youngster from the pair was entered at the Bushy Park National Lofts where it ended 2nd Point’s League Champion prior to the final. The Sire of the Twins scored a commendable 3rd Club from a distance of 506 km’s at 1196 mpm.

The American Connection (Dave Clausing)
Amongst a flock of world class stock at the Engelbrechts loft they also proudly own two of the Worlds most celebrated foundation stud Sire’s: ‘Ziko’ and his son ‘King David’. They were purchased from the World renowned breeder, the American champion, Dave Clausing. ‘Ziko’ & King David’ are two of the Worlds most prolific breeders responsible for paramount racers and breeders of ace racers equalled to the best of the best in Europe & the rest of the World at large. These famed specimens, globally known as ‘Clausings’, have a success history in the pigeon racing fraternity unequalled to any other strain or family of pigeons in the World today. The Engelbrechts sold several Clausings between R6, 000-00 – R15, 000-00 each to earn back some of the capital invested in the purchase oft their Clausings. The Clausings are a blend of the following Belgium strains: Houbens (originating from Jeff, Luc & Nadia Houben), Gommaire Verbruggen, the Janssens Brothers and Imbrecht.

‘Clausings’ – the Money-Makers
In organized lofts over the World, known as One-Loft Races, (in SA also called National lofts), pigeon fanciers enter their newly weaned youngsters to be homed and trained from these lofts to compete for cash prize money. Besides a number of pre-final flights during the training period to get the birds in shape and experienced, the ‘big’ money is paid on the final race, (or main) flight. The ‘Clausings’ hold the record for the most One-loft winners in the World. In South Africa the Engelbrechts have scored a win and several positions at the top in only a few years of participation in the National races with their ‘Clausings’. One of these organized races is the International Sun City Million Dollar Pigeon Race, held annually in South Africa – known as the richest pigeon race in the World of all times. It offers a combined cash prize pay-out of US$ 1Million plus 5 brand new motor cars and 350 ways to win. It is dubbed as the tour de France of pigeon racing. The cream of more than 30 countries of the world’s best is entered here to stand the supreme test of quality against each other. David & Anna Clausing have stunned the racing pigeon fraternity by leading the pace in the Million Dollar prize pay-out package with their staggering results in this event. Since inception of the race in 1997 a summary of some of the top results that the Clausings have scored are: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 24th, 25th, 26th, 36th, 45th, 58th, 68th, 90th, 93rd, 99th – and numerous other places in the top 250 cash prize positions. The win which came in 2003 with their pigeon named, ‘Never Say Die’ netted them a cool US$ 200 000 in hard cash. Their own results & and those of others with ‘Clausings’ will fill all the pages of this magazine. As opposed to fainting during their flight in the heat of the day, they kiss the morning sun.

Resume - (a Dollar thank you for your thoughts!)
It is the genetic power of the ‘Clausing’ superstars that interested the Engelbrecht family and compelled them to invest their cash reserves and physical energy into them. Of the Twins Tersia says, ‘they are real special Twins and besides talking to each other they could read her thoughts’ – so perhaps they are saying – ‘thank you Dave & Anna Clausing’. Other than that Jannie & Tersia are hereby saying: ‘thank you Faunty Gillmer, friend and mentor from Noupoort’, thanks Dr Wim Peters and Dr Rob Conradie. On a road well travelled near the African Bush comes a whisper from the wings of the Athletes of the sky as they hover above the Pilansberg – ‘Thank you Heavenly Father for the Gift of Jesus and the wonder of your creation.’