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The Gene Environment
By H. Eysermans
Double Oak, Texas

This article has been written to clarify some issues concerning the selection of birds as additions to the loft. It is not as simple as finding an outstanding bird.

I have based my beliefs and philosophies on the analysis of actual experiences.

To explain this more clearly we must analyze two examples of what happened in the past.

First a little background.

For 20 years my father and I raced pigeons together in Holland. The local club VPC had about 350 active flying lofts. I started racing pigeons in the US in 1976 and imported 24 birds from my father's loft in 1979. I culled all of the 1976 starter birds and their offspring except for 3 birds, shortly after the imports arrived. In 1980 I had one single bird derived from the 1976 starter birds on the loft. All others were the imports and their offspring.

I have to use some experiences or examples from the past to explain my points.

The first example concerns the "feather-feet" mentioned in the "The Pigeon Bible" (First edition published in 1995). During the period 1953 through 1969 the feather-feet were prevalent on our loft. This was all derived from a single 1951 Simons hen. No other feather-foot has ever been introduced on our lofts. Feather-feet certainly appeared to be a dominant feature at this time just as the literature said.

After 1969 they started to disappear. They disappeared gradually and in the mid seventies there were no more feather-feet on my father's loft. My imports in 1979 (from my father's loft) did not include a single feather-foot.

According to the literature, feather-foot is a dominant feature and it should therefore have been lost forever. If a dominant feature does not show up in particular bird, then that bird does not possess that feature anymore and cannot give that to its offspring (again according to the literature). In the mid eighties I did breed a number of feather-feet out of pairs where neither of the parents had feather-feet. In fact, I did not have any feather-feet on my loft in the US until this happened.

Where did this come from?

There is only one bird where that could come from! It must come from the Simons hen. (If it came from any other bird without feather-feet the explanations I will give a little later are still true.)

The second example appears to be not related at the surface but it is related. In 1983 my father sent me 24 more birds. Thirteen were our own bloodline and the other 11 were for crossing in the future if needed fresh blood. These 11 birds consisted out of 3 "De Klak" birds, 3 Lazaroms (Aarden) birds, 2 Stichelbauts and 3 Bostijns. My father handpicked these 11 potential cross birds out of more than 150 young birds. They were quality birds and the parents were high priced acquisitions by C v.d. Berghe. Mr. V.d. Berghe passed away and my father helped Mrs v.d. Berghe with the sale of their birds. In appreciation he was offered the first pick (12 birds) out of the young birds. Most of the birds he selected had already good performance records as young birds. Knowing my father's ability to select good birds, and the fact that he was also aware of their performance records, I was sure that every single one of these birds was far above average.

I tried to cross these birds to find out if any of it would work with our bloodline. It did not work that great. Only the Stichelbauts seemed to cross well with our bloodline. The feedback from Holland was that a number of flyers were very successful with the v.d. Berghe birds, especially the buyers of the Klak and Stichelbaut birds.

I decided to donate a "De Klak" hen, which I really liked, to a club auction in Lawton, OK to help the club raise funds. The hen fetched the highest price in the auction and was purchased by Mr. Leon Holmes. A year later Mr. Holmes made it known that the hen was the best breeder he ever owned. He bred four youngsters and all four were multiple diploma winners and 3 were also first place winners. The hen obviously fit a lot better in his loft than it did on mine.

A year later I donated a bird of our own bloodline to the Wichita Falls, TX club auction. This bird also fetched the highest price in the auction and was also purchased by Mr. Holmes. He was, of course, trying to duplicate his success from the year before. The feedback one year later was the second bird was a total failure. The youngsters out of the second bird were useless. He was disappointed and did not understand the difference in results. The second bird he purchased was obviously a bad bird.

The results were, however, predictable and have nothing to with the quality of the birds. We will explain why it was predictable because the addition of a good bird to your loft is not necessarily an improvement. It will also explain at the same time how the "world-class" pigeon graders find mates for your best birds and have that "uncanny" ability to put good breeding pairs together.

If you read the "Pigeon Bible" and absorbed the material you will have noticed that a significant change took place on our loft in 1969. The change was the addition of 69NL1395812. This bird was so exceptional that it became the new foundation bird on the loft. In 5 years this bloodline was present in nearly all the birds on the loft. At the same time the feather-feet disappeared. (69NL1395812 won champion bird in the VPC (Valkenswaard, Holland with 350 active flying members in 1970, 1971 and 1972 and was then retired as a breeder. Every youngster out of him got the chance to prove him/herself as a yearling as racer and breeder)

The feather-feet were not "dominant" in the gene pool provided by 69NL1395812 crosses. Since they appeared again in the mid-eighties they must have been in a "recessive" state. They appeared again because I practice periodically close inbreeding to generate breeding material for the future. Because the same feature cannot be "dominant" and "recessive" I use the term "dormant" which is more accurate and descriptive of what really happens.

The lesson to be learned from this example is that the "gene environment" determines which features will prevail (are active) and which features are suppressed (dormant). The gene environment determines if certain genes become prevalent (dominant) or dormant (recessive). In other words: the gene itself is a contributing factor but does not determine if it becomes prevalent and active as the term "dominant" suggests. The outcome is also affected by its competition (other similar genes in the gene pool). If the competing genes are "stronger" then they will become active and prevalent.

This is where the danger of crossing raises its head. When we cross birds from two different families we change the gene environment. The balance, which brings certain family characteristics forward, and produces good birds, can be destroyed. This is why so many "Best to best" crosses don't work.

The introduction of 69NL1395812 destroyed the environment for feather-feet. Since feather feet are not a racing characteristic this did not really matter. The critical racing and breeding characteristics (or genes) were compatible and formed an excellent match. The environment to bring good racing genes forward can, however, also be destroyed in the same manner. The problem is that some race attribute genes, which used to be dominant (active), can become recessive (dormant) in the new gene environment.

This can happen (and often happens) even when we cross two world-class strains or birds.

Since the good genes are in the gene pool it can be recovered but it will take several generations of breeding and selection. It becomes, however, so difficult that most flyers will fail.

Now we proceed to analyze example two.

Since the "De Klak" hen did not cross well with my own birds, and was to the best of my knowledge a very good bird, I donated her to the auction. We know already that "Eysermans" and "De Klak" birds do not cross well. The only "Non-Eysermans" bird on my race team was a Janssen (AU79WF2026) derived from R Neeley (Mexico-Janssen) birds. He was a solid race performer but did not produce anything worthwhile when crossed with my birds. My father had also tried a Janssen cross which produced mediocre results.

The "De Klak" hen was outstanding for Mr. Holmes and crossed well with his birds. I would not be surprised to find out that his loft was derived from Janssens or from a family that has a history of crossing well with Janssen birds.

The balance of features of the "Holmes" birds was not destroyed but enhanced by the "De Klak" hen. They supplemented each other. The gene pool balance was such that the best racing characteristics prevailed.

This is really what you are looking for when adding birds to the loft. The new birds are very similar and are compatible. Their positive impact on the loft is felt quickly.

That is only half of the story.

The situation we have here is represented by the following two equations:

"Holmes" birds X "De Klak" birds equals Success; "Eysermans" birds X "De Klak" birds equals Failure.

What is the prediction for "Holmes" birds X "Eysermans" birds?

The prediction is FAILURE. This prediction does not make any birds good or bad. The prediction makes the combination or crossing of "Holmes" birds X "Eysermans" bird's a poor choice.

"Eysermans" birds and "De Klak" birds are not similar and compatible. They do not enhance each other. The logical outcome is that "Eysermans" and "Holmes" birds are also not compatible. The features in the "Holmes" birds that made it work with "De Klak" birds are most likely the same features will make it fail with "Eysermans" birds.

The outcome was predictable provided that you know the background. Without the background you are stumbling around in the dark and hope for the best. World-class pigeon graders have this type of background for many strains and bloodlines. They collect and study this kind of information because that is what they really indirectly sell when they grade and mate your birds.

Maintain control of the gene environment. The balance is very easily distorted by adding good but non-compatible birds.

The terms "Dominant" and "Recessive" are common terms used in describing the inheritance process. Personally, I do not believe in the validity of these terms. I believe in "Active" and "Dormant" genes. The gene environment largely determines what will become active and dormant genes.

Every time we cross birds from different families we do change the gene environment. The outcome is unpredictable until we have verified the results or have related indicators (like the example) to make a reliable prediction.

We are always looking for material to cross into our family of birds, even when we don't need them. The reason for this is that the right crossing material is difficult to find and identify. It is not something that you can do in a hurry. It takes more than just acquiring a good bird. It takes time to evaluate the compatibility. We prefer to know exactly what we need to add when the time comes and like to have it ready or know exactly where to get it.

The method we use to verify if a certain family crosses well with our birds is simple. The bird gets two chances to prove that it is worthwhile (will be mated to two different mates). An exceptional proven bird might get 3 or 4 chances but you usually get offspring from an exceptional bird, not the exceptional bird itself.

All but 6 birds of all the birds in the loft are available for these breeding experiments. We must select good birds as mates for new birds. The 6 birds that are not available are the 3 best breeder pairs. These pairs will never be broken for an experiment.

These cross pairings must produce something that qualifies comfortably on our race team. By comfortably we mean that they must belong to the better half of our race team. That is step one.

Step two is the breeding evaluation. The bird(s) that made it on the race team must produce youngsters that make it also on the race team. We are looking for three consecutive generations of racer/breeder combination birds. The reason for this is that we want to make sure that the gene pool balance to bring the all-important race-attributes forward and active is maintained. We are in a way buying insurance that the fourth generation will be good.

One of our most successful breeding strategies has been to combine multiple 3-generation strings of successful breeding into one pedigree. The best breeding results were produced by using the same basic string 3 or 4 times in one pedigree. It ends up that the couple is not closely related but at the same time it is inbreeding. We like to call it "inbreeding from a distance". By introducing proven good propagation characteristics multiple times into a pedigree we create very favorable odds that it will repeat again. You can almost say that we are attempting to breed the propagation characteristics into our family.

Replacing ONE 3-generation string in a successful multi-string pedigree with a crossbred 3-generation string produced the best birds. This is how we blend successful crossbreeding results into our family.

The essence of breeding good racing pigeons is to put the odds in your favor to do so. Maintaining and controlling the gene pool environment is one of the things you need to do in order to create the opportunity to put the odds in your favor.

Just introducing good birds has destroyed many lofts and the only way for the flyers to remain competitive is to keep on adding good birds. Have you ever wondered why the breeding stations are so successful?

The most important thing in building a racing pigeon family is often not addressed. You must create and maintain a gene environment that propagates the outstanding features. That is not done by random cross breeding.

The Janssen Brothers have been called the "best pigeon flyers of all time" by some of the well-known writers in the racing pigeon sport. This might be correct, but if you disagree with this description you must in all fairness also admit that they belonged to the few best our sport has ever known.

The Janssen Brothers have been known for introducing very little new blood on their loft. This was so well known that the addition of the "Halve-Fabry" (Half-Fabry) was so unusual that it also became known around the entire pigeon world. Many pigeon writers wrote about how careful the Janssen Brothers were when introducing new blood and cited this particular example. They never explained anything further than citing that the addition was 50% Fabry and 50% Janssen. In reality they explained nothing.

I ask you to really think about what you have read so far in this article. Do you realize that Fabry took step one in determining if the Janssen birds and Fabry birds were compatible? Do you realize the wisdom and caution displayed by the Janssen Brothers by introducing a "Half-Janssen" in their loft? (The other half of the "Half-Fabry" was Janssen blood, the name "Half Janssen is just as valid). They knew it had very high odds that it would work out well because Fabry had executed step one of the crossbreeding and evaluation process for them. Fabry had been successful with this cross. Do you think that the Janssen Brothers would have added the "Half Fabry" if the cross breeding experiment had been a failure on the Fabry loft?

A good exercise in breeding strategies is to thoroughly analyze the pedigree of the "Oude Merckx" from the Janssen Brothers. This is probably the most famous racing pigeon pedigree in the world. The "Oude Merkx" has proven to be a spectacular breeder.

His pedigree also supports what we have explained here. Check how many strings lead back to "Wondervoske". Check how many strings lead back to the "Blauwe van 48".

There is a lot more to good breeding strategies than what is described in this article. This article only addresses one of the most frequent mistakes made in attempting to upgrade a loft. The purpose of this article is that it to give you a little more insight into the "breeding strategies of the strain-makers" and to encourage you to learn more.