Going through some old brochures from twenty to thirty years ago and I came across  some of our old original Vandenabeele breeders. We made many visits to Gaby’s home and lofts over many years and added to our stock loft every year.   This included children of some of his later champions like Rudy , Super Romeo and New Bliksem  that we never included in any brochures.

These birds featured are a cross section of what we was breeding from at the time however there was very many more of the same caliber. These were simply magnificent performers when crossed with most other quality middle distance and one day long distance lines.

We are very lucky to have retained some of the blood even today, especially through the Young Couple, however I can only blame myself for not having far more to work with.

Now all these years later, we are planning new breeding pairs as usual and I realise even more that fashions come and go, and all new birds have the DNA of the old lines but not many today are in the same league as the very top lines like ‘Kleinen’ and not many fanciers have the ability like Gaby Vandenabeele to retain and improve his winning genes year after year.

The real craft in breeding performance birds  that we can learn from the old Master Fanciers like Gaby Vandenabeele is to identify true quality and improve every year by selection through racing at a high level and having the skill to regularly introduce new blood to maintain the  vitality and natural health to maintain the top results. This obviously takes a long time and patience however there is no short cut in the end.

Some of our ‘Back In The Day’ Gaby Vandenabeele Breeders…