Batenburg -Van de Merwe Auction

Hello, my name is Hugo Batenburg, from Batenburg-Van de Merwe. I play together with my wife Anita, the daughter of Piet Van de Merwe. We were invited by PIPA, on account of our auction. Together with Thomas I would like to show you some of my best pigeons. Hugo, we see a few pictures from your childhood here. Could you tell us something about how you started fancying pigeons? It was thanks to my father, who was a fancier himself. I was mad about pigeons. This is me at the age of 11 or 12 with a white-headed pigeon. That pigeon was born in 1976 just like me. It would eat the feed from my mouth. I was always in his company. I was always thinking about pigeons. I still do. We are 30 years later now: You are here to make a film. Together with PIPA I purchased New Witbuik, the Dutch Barcelona winner of 2012. It is 30 years later, 30 years amid the pigeons. This is the 'New Witbuik', this year's Barcelona winner. He is a great ***; I purchased him together with PIPA. When I saw that pigeon I was impressed. I thought: "This one is mine." This is the son of the 'New Witbuik'. He is well developed. He is also included in our auction. He was the first youngster that I had bred from 'New Witbuik'. He was coupled with one of our granddaughters of Witbuik. The Narbonne: first national and second international Narbonne. I have purchased this pigeon. I saw him in a newspaper, it was a wonderful ***. I loved that pigeon right away. I phoned its owner. The interesting thing about this bird is that both the sire and the dam were 50% Batenburg: He has the Witbuik line on both sides. So I decided to purchase him. This is Sisi. She has won a sixth national from Montauban. Together with the Narbonne they are the parents of Miss Cahors, the first national Cahors in 2011. This is the 'Bonte Narbonne', one of my best pigeons at the moment. This is a very strong pigeon. He has won top prizes from Narbonne and Barcelona. Together with his hen 'Maja' he won the Barcelona Masters International. This means: first and second nominated. The fancier with his first and second nominated pigeon in Barcelona. I've always wanted to put much money on a pigeon for an international race. My father-in-law said: "why not two? Let's take Maja and Bonte Narbonne." They were both raced in Barcelona; together they won about 15,000 euros. These are the two youngsters of our Barcelona couple. These youngsters are also in the auction. The '05' and the '06'. This is the hen; looks just like her dam. Soft plumage, not too big, intelligent. I think she is wonderful. This is her brother; the son. He looks a lot like his sire. He is a bit more stout but has a nice and soft plumage. This is the sire of 'Bonte Narbonne', one of my best new breeders. I have had five or six of his children in the top 100 national. He is a heavily inbred Witbuik but he has a great build and he is soft. This will be my new breeder, my new number one breeder. Thomas, these are the breeding pigeons. They are now separated. There are some late youngsters as well. Further down we have the 27 young birds of this auction. They are all DNA tested, ready to breed and born in December or January. They are ready for the job.