janaardenhoues

The site of the Jan Aarden Pigeons Club will tell you everything about the details! Historical stories but especially the stories of today. But their is no future without a past! Therefore this story is a must for every topfancier in the world!Altough the race results of Jan Aarden were good, they were of not of toplevel! A few good results but no consistency in the results. Jan Aarden was a real gentleman. He runned together with his wife the Aarden Hotel in Steenbergen. He also had a job as bookkeeper. The Aarden Hotel still exists and every year a lot of pigeon fanciers from the whole world visits this place with historic value! The main question is: where did the famous long distance pigeons of Jan Aarden come from The answer is clear and simple. Piet de Weerd (born in Oude Tonge and living in Brabant/ Breda) )brought him the best material of the world of that moment and adviced him where to buy pigeons! Jan Aarden had the patience and skills to build with these pigeons his famous breeding loft! Racing is silver, breeding is gold! Pigeons of Oomens (Delbar-Deguffroy), Delbar (oa via Dusarduijn and Wagemaker) , Stichelbaut and Meesters (from Zesentachtig maal het Zilvervosje) and later on Burgemeester Boels, were the main sources. Why became the name of Aarden so famous, even more than 50 years after the top-period of his own loft? The reason is simple. A bit of public relations and a dozen of topfanciers in the neighbourhood of Steenbergen were extremely succesfull with the Aarden pigeons and a few built up their own Aarden based strain. The quality and successes of these pigeons were distributed like a “ snowball” through the country.

Basic couples

It were especially a few golden couples that made Jan Aarden famous. Here they follow. They were extremely important for the successes that had to come and for the further Story!

The basic couples

***** (A) ***** the “Goei Koppel” : Donkere Wagemaker (Delbar via Stok) * “de Oomens duivin” (the main breeding hen also named “de Piet de Weerd duivin”; (Delbar * Deguffroy

***** (B) ***** “Donkere Wagemaker” (and when he was died the “Geleende Wagemaker”) * “de Kromme” (a direct Staf Dusarduijn = Delbar)”

*****(C) ***** “Geschelpte Koppel” alias the “Oud Koppel” : Late Meesters (from “Zesentachtig” maal “Zilvervosje”) maal “Den Late Geschelpte” , a daughter of (A) “het Goei Koppel”.

***** (D) ***** “Late Meesters” maal de “Oude Bonte” (from Donkere Wagemaker * Elfpennertje)

From couple (C) came the absolute toppigeons and the pigeons with the best inheritance and breeding power like the “37”, “38”, “49”, de Diepe Mees ……. The “37” paired with the “Donkere Delbar” was, altough this is a very personal observation, the best long distance couple ever! See photo:

"Jan Aarden with the 37"

The “49” formed with the “Kleine Cools” also a famous couple. With these mainly Delbar based pigeons the rules of long distance overnight racing were changed!! These pigeons dominated these races for more then 50 years. An absolute record in the history of Pigeon racing. Selection at the 1000 km races and specialisation were the key words that created this success. The inheritance and breeding power of the Aardens did the rest. Soon more about the successors of Aarden. Fanciers that made these pigeons and the name of Jan aarden famous around the world!

The Jan Aarden pigeons were not big, very well balanced, with very soft feathers and beautiful eyes! The so called Aarden Eyes! These pigeons are well known for these quality. As beautiful as the paintings of Rembrand, Vermeer etc

The successors of th 1st generation.

A few fanciers were very important for the success and fame of the Jan Aarden pigeons. They succeeded with children, grandchildren of the famous breeding couples of Jan Aarden himself! The first generation (1950 –1960) were almost all fanciers from Steenbergen and good friends of Aarden. We introduce:

***** Toon & Piet Ligtenberg. They bought from Aarden their famous “Oude Witpen” and “the Bontje Aarden”. This hen was coupled with an 100% Aarden (from Geertse) and they became the parents of two of the most famous Aardens ever: the worldfamous “10” (56-472110) of Ligtenberg and the famous “Oud Doffertje” of van der Wegen (58-341753) !!!! The stock pigeon and origin of the worldfamous van der Wegen strain! A sun of the “10” became the father of the famous “Dolle” of Marijn & Martha van Geel and was at the origin of this strain world class pigeons! In a total sale the van Geel strain was sold for a fortune! Speaking about inheritance!

***** Friend of the house and "soigneur" at the Aarden loft Toon Stoffelen became famous by the “Oude Witpen”, a son of the old couple. He was the father of two miracle hens: “Mooike” and “Kleintje” and a few others. These hens dominated the National races for a while! All the pigeons of Stoffelen were sold by Piet Lazeroms. See the photo of Toon Stoffelen:

***** Jan van der Par bought a son from “37” x “Donkere Delbar” and breeded from this cock the famous “01”. According to Steven van Breemen in his beautiful and interesting book, one of the best Aarden breeders and racers ever. Also the same ending of this strain, sold to Piet Lazeroms!

***** Chiel van Agtmaal, probably the best racer ever from Steenbergen, bought from “het geschelpte koppel” the “Oude Aarden”. The cock of the famous “Oud Koppel”. This couple from Chiel and his son Henk became the parents of a dozen of cracks and worldclass breeders. The most famous were two superhens: the “500” duivin (61-141500) and the “Donkere Dax”; the stock hen of Janus van der Wegen!! The “500”, according to Piet de Weerd with the “10” of Ligtenberg the best Aardens ever, was the grandmother of “ De Dolle” of Marijn van Geel. At the loft of van der Wegen, the ”Donkere Dax” was coupled with “ het Oud Doffertje” and they became the parents of supercracks, fe “de Lamme” and the “1e National Dax”! At the same race under heavy conditions Stoffelen won 2, 5 en 17 National with exactly the same pigeons! From the “500” coupled with “ de Oude Stoffelen” came a miracle on wings, the worldfamous “26” van Agtmaal. Sold with all the other van Agtmaal pigeons to Piet Lazeroms. The “26” won 4th, 6th, 16th,44t, 74th Nat Dax, 13th, 17th National St.Vincent and still 5-other prices on the long distance overnight races! Seldom, a better racer was born!

***** Jan de Weert also became youngsters from the “de 37” * " de Donkere Delbar" and his Old Aarden cock would be the father of the “76” and the worldfamous“131”. A race and breeding miracle of the same quality as the "10" and the "500"! Her son became the cock of the miracle couple of Braakhuis! These man from Limburg made history with children and grandchildren of this couple; "de Zwarte Moordenaars".

**** Not from Steenbergen came the underestimated Jan Cools from. This "baker" was from a small village in the neighbourhood called Nieuw Vossemeer. He was a good friend of Jan Aarden and played an important role in the development of the Aarden strain. He was owner of his famous “Oude aarden koppel” and of supercracks like the "Carwinner" and the "Barcelona". Aarden en Cools breeded together with their best pigeons (’56) and both lofts came as a result of this, at a very high quality level! In the best long distance strains of the moment (about 40-50 years later) the Cools/Aarden lines plays a keyrole!!! More info about this topic will be given later on! Main reason is that these pigeons have never been commercialised and also important was the fact that Cools was a very gifted and talented breeder!

See the photo of Jan Cools:

***** Not from Brabant but from the islands of South Holland, more specific from Goeree Overflakkee, came the big champions of the NABvP "de Gebr,Vroegindeweij" and "Ko Nipius". From the pigeon village of the sixties Middelharnis. “Ko Nipius" was together with his remarkable “soigneur” Joep van Dongen unbeatable till 700 KM, but at the heavy overnight races they couldn't win a single price with their expensive Belgian pigeons! Untill Nipius buyed the Aarden pigeons, not a single pigeons, but complete baskets! With 4 children of the famous : "Geschelpte Koppel" it had to succeed! And so it did! With children of this Aardens they also became the dutch champions on the overnight races. From Puttershoek (Hoekse Waard) came the legendary "Baker Barendregt". He also made an important contribution in the development of the famous dutch marathon pigeon. His stock pigeons came also from "Meesters" (86 * Zilvervosje) A strain that also played a key rol in the Aarden and Cools strain. Also the Vroegindeweij Bross, who had the main Aarden stock pigeons a period at their loft, were important for the further development of and the success of the Aarden pigeons!

The success story of the Aardens was not at the end around 1970. It was just the beginning. The heavy St.Vincent, Dax and Bergerac (fe 74, 75, 81, 83 etc.) editions were dominated by the Aardens.

See for example the article of the ST VINCENT 1975!!

An very heavy race that was closed by official rules 6 days after the seperation of the pigeon. At that moment only 15% of the pigeons returned.

The winner in south and also the total winner was:

1) Anton Rijsdijk Aarden/Stoffelen

Top 5:

2) C Schouw Aarden/Piet Lazeroms

3) M van Geel Aarden/Piet Lazeroms

4) C vd Eeden Aarden/Piet Lazeroms

5) H Oostenrijk Aarden/Schouteren/Barendregt/Meesters

The winner in North

1) W vd Burgh 50% Aarden

A lot of this toppigeons were bought by Piet de Weerd and often sold after a few years to other topfanciers around the whole world! In this part of the Aarden story we will made the connection between the 60’s and the 90’s and introduce a selection of fanciers that were important in this period. In the next article we introduce the second generation!