DIRK AND LOUIS VAN DYCK

Van Dyck
Dirk & Louis Van Dyck : Kannibaal Dynasty .The Family Van Dyck is living in the province of Antwerp. From where we live in East Flanders - near Ghent, it is about one hour driving.Dirk is already pigeon racer for about 35 years. The uncle of his father was also pigeon racer, in this way Dirk got the virus and never lost it. His father Louis was, despite of what many people think, not the founder of the colony. It was Dirk himself. Why are the Van Dyck pigeons so special ? Well, first of all, they are one strong related family of super pigeons, built around Kannibaal, Rambo, Bourges ; lets call it the Kannibaal dynasty. The Kannibaal became 1st national Ace pigeon middle distance KBDB in 1996. His halfbrother Bourges already won 2nd national Bourges against more than 40.000 birds ! The father of both pigeons is the legendary Rambo. Isnt that the dream of every pigeon fancier ? To have a strong related family that performs super ? Well, I was talking about things that are making those pigeons so special. Well, maybe the most important thing are the results made on other lofst than their own lofts. If you know that the Kannibaal is the grandfather of the most important pigeons in the loft of Gerard & Cornelis Koopman. Not only there, but also in many other famous lofts people are racing like crazy with the Van Dyck pigeons.Racing yourself excellent is one thing, but make other people race super, that is another thing. The Van Dycks did both of those things. Just to give you one example :The Kannibaal is father of GOLDEN LADY, the BREEDING PIGEON Number 1 on the KOOPMAN LOFT.She is daughter from ‘De Kannibaal’ (1. Nat. ace pigeon middle distance Belgium 1996) x sister ‘Rambo’.( By the way : we are able to buy 6 direct children of Kannibaal in 2005 ! Reserved already 2 years ago..Probably the last ones, as the Kannibaal family is not fertilizing for a very long time...Bourges from 1994 e.g. is not fertile any more in 2005. The 2 first pigeons we bought are almost full sisters of GOLDEN LADY Koopman, as the mother of those pigeons is a daughter of Bourges with a hen that is the sister of the mother of GOLDEN LADY.)‘Golden Lady’ is mother of ‘Kleine Dirk’, 5th worldchampion young pigeons and best ace pigeon from the Netherlands 1999. ‘Kleine Dirk won e.g. 1. Nat. NPO Troyes 17.883 d., 1. Nat. NPO Bourges 7.155 d., 1. Maaseik 3.522 d., 2. Lommel 3.612 d., 3. Hasselt 2.668 d., 4. Boxtel 10.093 d., 6. Chimay 16.306 d., etc.‘Golden Lady’ is mother of ‘Annelies’: 1. Chimay 15.438 d., 2. Troyes 13.137 d.*, 2. Chimay 10.000 d.*, 3. Rethel 1.318 d. (* = other pigeon from the loft).‘Golden Lady’ is mother of ‘Yi Min’: 5. Hasselt 2.668 d., 16. Boxtel 3.966 d. ‘Yi Min’ is mother of ‘Amoré’, best distance pigeon in The Netherlands NPO 2002 and 2. Olympiad pigeon sportklasse long distance (NL) Lievin 2003. ‘Amoré’ won a/o 5. Chimay 4.149 d., 6. Nat. NPO Ablis 13.022 d., 14. Nat. NPO Orleans 10.825 d., 18. Nat. NPO Sourdun 13.022 d. ‘Golden Lady’ is grandmother of o.a.: ‘Mister Ermerveen’ (1. ace pigeon middle distance The Netherlands 2000 – Olympiad pigeon Kaapstad 2001 - 1. Chimay 10.000 d. - 3. Hasselt 4.422 d. - 3. Chimay 1.828 d.), ‘Miss Ermerveen’ (1. Troyes 13.137 d.), ‘Ermerveens Hope’ (2. best distance pigeon The Netherlands NPO 2002 and 1. Olympiad pigeon sportklasse long distance (NL) Lievin 2003 - 1. Nat. NPO Orleans 9.188 d. - 1. Boxtel 2.397 d. - 2. Nat. NPO Ablis 13.022 d. - 2. Hannut 4.414 d.), ‘Emira’ (1. Nat. NPO Orleans 10.825 d.)So, you can understand that the VAN DYCK pigeons are wanted all over the world as they are the foundation of what is now one of the most famous lofts in the World : Koopman Loft.On the picture you can see from left to right : Nikolaas Gyselbrecht, Louis Van Dyck, Dirk Van Dyck and Thomas Gyselbrecht.

On this picture you can see from left to right : Dr Carlo Gyselbrecht, Georges Van Riel ( famous son of the legendary JEF VAN RIEL - Huyskens Van Riel, Dirk Van Dyck and Thomas Gyselbrecht ). Georges Van Riel lives close to Dirk & Louis Van Dyck ( Dirk lives next to his father Louis together with his wife and little 1,5 years daughter Natalia ). Georges Van Riel quit pigeon racing about 2 years ago, all his pigeons were sold to Taiwan, it was the end of the long long Huyskens Van Riel story as Georges has no successors.You can read more about the Huyskens Van Riel Story on http://www.pipay.be/artikels/huyskens-Vanriel.htm . On the picture Carlo and Dirk are holding the 2 first youngsters we bought direct from Kannibaal, they are SO wonderful ! Maybe one of them will be another Golden Lady, who knows ;-)To be clear : these pigeons are not destined for the Gyselbrecht breeding lofts, as Gyselbrecht is only racing long distance. The pigeons will be put in the Pipa Elite Breeding Centre where only the best of the best will house.

Dirk & Louis Van Dyck : Kannibaal Dynasty
Dirk and his favourite pigeon, in his opinion the best he ever had, the KANNIBAAL. Even 9 years after his best performances, Kannibaal is still a legendary pigeon in the pigeon world. He is even becoming more and more popular in countries like China. Kannibaal is not a heavy pigeon, it is middle sized, has a beautiful eye, a firm body, elastic wings...
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Dirk & Louis Van Dyck : Kannibaal Dynasty
Dirk is a lovely man, he doesnt like to talk about all his great performances. He likes to live a bohemian life... He enjoys life in all its aspects. He has a wife that likes pigeons, he just built a new house, he is president of the local pigeon club, he is happy with small things, ... We had a very nice afternoon.

Dirk & Louis Van Dyck : Kannibaal Dynasty

Dirk Van Dyck and Carlo Gyselbrecht.
Dirk & Louis Van Dyck : Kannibaal Dynasty
Nikolaas, Georges, Dirk and Thomas next to the painting with the Rambo, Kannibaal and Bourges. This picture is taken in the new house of Dirk ( he is living here for about 1 year ). Before he lived in the house of his father.

Dirk & Louis Van Dyck : Kannibaal Dynasty
Dirk, Thomas, Nikolaas and Georges.
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Dirk & Louis Van Dyck : Kannibaal Dynasty
Dirk and Carlo Gyselbrecht. In the middle you can see his new computer. He also has an internet connection and just like many other fanciers all over the world, his favourite pigeon site is PIPA.We also showed Georges Van Riel PIPA and he was very surprised to see articles on his father HUYSKENS - VAN RIEL on the pipa site.

The Bourges, 2nd fastest pigeon against more than 40000 birds ! Bourges is the halbrother of Kannibaal.

This is a very small pigeon, actually a fancy pigeon. Dirk uses them as baits for the pigeons when they got home. Dirk breeds them himself, however it is not as easy as breeding regular racin pigeons.Dirk & Louis Van Dyck : Kannibaal Dynasty

This picture is a little bit dark. But it shows how much space the Van Dyck family has... An enormous piece of land for belgian norms. And on this piece of land Dirk is working from morning till evening, doing all kinds of jobs, mostly related to his pigeons. He also built a very nice brick loft, from which he will race in the near future. One day, he would like to race the long distance over there.

Also something that is invented and made by Dirk. It is very useful to bring all young pigeons in the baskets without having to take them one by one.
Thomas, Georges, Dirk and Nikolaas, holding the Rambo, Bourges and Kannibaal !

Thomas, Georges, Dirk and Nikolaas, holding the Rambo, Bourges and Kannibaal !

Everywhere Dirk has those automatic droppings cleaners...This picture is taken in the new loft in brick.


Picture in the new loft...In Georges Van Riel his opinion it will be even a better loft than all others...so we are very curious.


Air picture from a part of the Van Dyck lofts
Dirk & Louis Van Dyc
On one of the pictures above, you have seen the small pigeon, the bait that is used to make the other pigeons go more easy into the lofts. Well, in this small boxes in front of the lofts, these small fancy pigeons house. Dirk made all those things himself, as he is a very handy man.

Dirk, Carlo and Nikolaas looking in the loft of the racing hens. Dirk also races hens.


The mais Dirk gives to his pigeons is bred by Dirk himself on his land.

The new house ( about one year old ) from Dirk Van Dyck. Dirk lives here with his lovely wife and his beautiful daughter Natalia. The wife of Dirk is from Poland, so whenever Polish fanciers come, his wife can do all the translation; very useful sometimes Dirk tells us, as there are coming polish fanciers regularly.Well, actually there come fanciers from all over the world to handle the famous Kannibaal Dynasty.

Youngsters arriving at home. When we arrived I had the chance to help Dirk to bring away the youngsters about 8 km away and liberate there to train. The youngsters obviously arrived earlier at home than us.

Dirk & Georges carrying the young birds to Dirks small van.


Dirks beautiful daughter Natalia. She also went to join us to liberate the birds. Like you can see, education in pigeons starts from a very young age ! ;-)
The actual liberation.Finally we would like to thank Dirk, his wife and Georges Van Riel for this splendid afternoon. We enjoyed a lot to see those superpigeons and of course we also enjoyed the very nice company of Dirk and his family. It was also a big honour to meet Georges Van Riel, the son of one of the most famous pigeon racers Belgium ever had.Hope to bring you more pictures from trips soon !