All material Copyright © 1996-2007 by Silvio Mattacchione & Co. unless otherwise noted.
Articles
Good Samaritan
by Silvio Mattacchione
"No good deed goes unrewarded” is often spoken half in jest, but I believe it is in fact a truism. When an
individual goes out of his way to do what is morally right and just, when he does so freely and
unencumbered, when he expects nothing and wants nothing in return, the fates or the muses have a
way of compensating that good deed in the most unexpected way, so unexpected that it can be life
changing. So it was with the beginnings of that unique family of “American” racing pigeons now
generally referred to as the “Silverado Family” or often mistakenly called the “Silverado Janssens”. (Note: This article is in PDF and is quite large so please be patient while it loads.)
by Silvio Mattacchione
Over the years the racing pigeon sport, in its focus and virtually in its entirety, has moved in a direction that may be, diametrically opposed to all of those qualities that initially drew so many of our generation (1950s and 60s) into the sport as young children. Our sport may in fact be slowly dying.
by Silvio Mattacchione
A great number of successful pigeon fanciers actually owe their success to the Janssen family of pigeons developed by Gerrit Spanjaards - and don't know it!
Spanjaards: Source Loft "This is a Chinese translation of the Spanjaards"
by Silvio Mattacchione
A great number of successful pigeon fanciers actually owe their success to the Janssen family of pigeons developed by Gerrit Spanjaards - and don't know it!
Successfully Breeding the Racing Pigeon
by Silvio Mattacchione
Warnings on the importance of discerning self-education in the pigeon fancy, and nine rules for consistently breeding high-quality racing pigeons
by Silvio Mattacchione
A pure strain of racing pigeons did not-and will not-happen naturally. It requires careful, dedicated inbreeding of stock.
The Most Famous Pigeon Fanciers in the World:The Janssen Brothers of Arendonk, Belgium
by Henk Van Limpt-De Prut
(translated by Joop Ekstijn and edited by Silvio Mattacchione)
There is no other loft that has been as important for the development of the modern racing pigeon as the Janssen Brothers loft.
by Silvio Mattacchione
To say that the pigeon racing sport is steeped in myth, would be to utter an understatement - in fact, an understatement of grand proportions. Though most in the sport pride themselves on their knowledge of science, nothing is further from the truth.
Ray Crawford: Young Man with a Passion
by Silvio Mattacchione
Ray Crawford has in a short period of time shown that the will to learn, the will to work hard, with honesty and fair play, and most important, love of your hobby and your pigeons, can and will lead to success.
Minerals: Essential Ingredients for Good Health
by Silvio Mattacchione
A deficiency of just one mineral may disrupt the entire chain of life, rendering other nutrients either useless or inefficient. A body needs the broadest range of chelated minerals in balance to regain and maintain good health.
The Tough Young Birds Race In Taiwan
by Roger Liu, with introduction by Silvio Mattacchione
In order for you to appreciate the ruthless, demanding nature of pigeon racing in Taiwan, my friend, Mr. Roger Liu, has given me permission to reproduce his article on pigeon racing in Taiwan. I am sure you will find it of great interest.
A Preventative Medication Program That Works
by Silvio Mattacchione
Keeping your pigeons at the peak of health requires a simple, yet important regimen of loft hygiene and preventative medication.
by Silvio Mattacchione
The severity of your future need to cull is directly proportional to the amount of thought, effort, and research you are prepared to put into your original purchase. If you do your job right when selecting your original stock, you can keep future culling needs to a minimum. Truly exceptional racing pigeon fanciers eliminate senseless, wasteful culling by breeding only their truly exceptional birds!
Eye Sign: Two Required for Maximum Performance
by Silvio Mattacchione
Not a true scientific theory, the eye sign "theory" used by many racing pigeon fanciers to assess the breeding or racing potential of their pigeons has no foundation in science.
The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side: OR IS IT?
by Silvio Mattacchione
Your local stock has great value because it is acclimated to your special conditions. When combined with new inbred stock, magic can, and does, happen — but only if you have the courage to see and pursue what so many others will never do! Stop wasting your money, do your research, and purchase good, honest, hard-working birds. Cross these with your local stock and smile as you collect the winnings!
Thomas Mattacchione 1: Long Distance and Super Long Distance Racing Pigeons
by Silvio Mattacchione
When Thomas decided that he wanted his very own racing pigeons we discussed it many times. He really did not want to offend my feelings but he finally said it straight up, "Dad I want my own birds, not your birds. Your birds are yours and I really want birds that will be mine! Birds that I can work with and develop."
Thomas Mattacchione Kemyel Lofts Canada 2: "British Show Racers"
by Silvio Mattacchione
Thomas Mattacchione has been helping me with my birds from the age of two. He liked the birds as well as helping with their care. As Thomas grew, we both had a lot of fun with the birds. At age twelve Thomas asked for his own birds and his own loft and so we arranged to import some of the finest stock available in two separate areas of interest.
A Family of Pigeons: "Kemyel Powder Blue Mania"
by Doug McClary
When I started back in pigeons back in 1963 I could never have imagined that four decades later I would have been here, with the same family of pigeons, and enjoying very much the same things that I enjoyed then.
Limited Edition” Ours is a Quiet Mission
Adverts are placed by professional pigeon breeders in issue after issue of most pigeon journals worldwide proclaiming in dramatic headlines, Super Champion, Fantastic Pigeons, Super Crack, The World’s Greatest, Champion of Champions, The Best Bloodlines Worldwide.
Secret Camp-X Agents Saved by “Cleo” The Racing Pigeon!
Camp-X was a Canadian top-secret training facility built on the beautiful shores of lake Ontario during the early years of the Second World War. Camp-X was established December 6, 1941, on the border of Whitby/Oshawa, the facility was conceived of by Sir Winston Churchill and implemented by his Canadian close confidant William Stephenson, Head of British Security Co-ordination (The Man Called Intrepid), to train the most advanced and skilled secret agents the world had ever known. Their task was to train men in the Darkest and Deadliest of Arts, release them behind enemy lines and facilitate the destruction of Fascism. Credited with having ended the war months before it would have, Camp-X gives Canadians good reason to be proud.
Several
years ago I had the very good fortune to chat several times with a fancier
from
Bill Braden Champion Turkey Breeder
Two years after shipping the poults I took the time on Monday, April 28, 2003 to visit the Canadian breeder of these exceptional birds. It was a very warm spring day, and I enjoyed the beautiful drive from Port Perry to Alliston , Ontario. I took all of the scenic back roads and loved looking at the farms along the way. As I arrived at Bill’s farm he was just going out to ship some eggs by mail. Bill returned within 15 minutes and we proceeded to have a wonderful visit, lasting some 2.5 hours.
Canadian Rare Turkeys Fly To UK
On January 5, 2000 Janice Houghton-Wallace contacted me by mail and requested my assistance in a very important project. What was this project? Well it was a turkey project! It seems that most purebred turkeys in the UK had been closely bred. I was astounded to find out that, at the time, there were only 200 Bourbon Red turkeys in the UK and most of these originated from the same bloodline. In fact, I believe, from only one parentage.
Parathyroid? / Not Paratyphoid!
Last
year I was very distressed to find that one of my hens seemed unable to
properly stand on her legs. What could possibly be wrong? I thought. I
watched her intently for signs. Any signs, any clues to what was going
on. She was bright, in good weight, clean white wattle, no vertigo, no
wrenching of her neck, no looking skyward and falling back, no nothing.
Yet she was clearly not right.
LE TOUR DES MARITIMES FUTURITY A CLASSIC MADE IN CANADA TEST
Several years ago I was approached by a young man from British Columbia, Canada who wanted to purchase some birds from me. At the time I was not really interested in selling any stock to him (I have never really been very keen to sell any of my stock in Canada) and I told him so. Well the emails from this individual persisted and my patience grew thin. He made proposal after proposal all of which I replied negatively to. Then finally one day an email arrived entitled "Braveheart" and it was this persons final proposal. It's about time, I thought!
Made in Canada Pigeon Photography By Andrew Skrobot
Jobs, jobs, jobs...where have they all gone? Where do they continue to go? Free Trade, NAFTA...It seems so long ago that one slick Canadian talker, Mulroney, promised us paradise, and told us that unless we got on board, the economic train, would leave us all behind. So we got on board but it looks to me as if we were sold a one way ticket to parts unknown! A "Brave New World" (well maybe not so brave after all, maybe just a rehash of some old world ambitions)...a "New World Order" (maybe, maybe not?)
Mr. Bond :The Rest Of The Story
This article is long overdue, it concerns a good friend of mine known in many magazines worldwide as "TEACHER." Many fanciers worldwide have read these informative and timely articles without realizing that the author was none other than, Mr. Joop Ekstijn of Grave, Velp in Holland. He wrote for years under the pen name of "Teacher" because in fact he was an educator, administrator, lover of fine music, good wine and great food (I know because I sampled his incredible cuisine for 7 days in 1996) in the Netherlands.
PIGEONS AND EVOLUTION THE UNFORTUNATE HIJACKING OF SCIENCE
The average person rarely ever thinks about pigeons. Yet pigeon fanciers seem to be able to think about nothing else. It is my intention, to one day write a brief article that will show that pigeons of some form or other have been involved at the center of many of the worlds great events. A pigeon brought Noah the news that heralded the end of the great flood.
Ronda Mariani: New York Pigeon Fancier called Guru Of Color
The "pigeon fraternity" is unknown to the vast majority of the people worldwide. We are but a tiny undercurrent in a great ocean of humanity. An entire world, a sub culture populated by both "saints and sinners," "givers and takers, by "workers and drones," " good men and on occasion con men," "liberals and conservatives," "champion and novice," "young and old." Our sport reflects the real world, in all of these proportions. The vast majority of pigeon fanciers are good men. I know many who are doctors, or teachers, engineers, dentists, lawyers, bank presidents, insurance brokers, film directors, movie-stars and even athletes. However most of us are just average people with everyday jobs (let us take heart and never forget that those everyday jobs and those everyday people are what make this great world of ours really tick!)
"Bayo Casablanca": World Record Over The Sea
I believe it would be safe to say, (everyone would be in total agreement) that racing pigeons instinctively do not like to fly over bodies of open water. Pigeons will endure in most cases, hundreds of kilometers of additional flying time to go around a body of water as opposed to taking the risk of going over it. How often have I heard in our combine and others, that so and so got a really good performance because his bird must have flow over a portion of Lake Simcoe thus giving him the advantage and the win by many minutes ahead of the competition. My old friend Karl Winterstien often trained from the narrows (of Lake Simcoe) because the "old fox" believed (and rightly so) that if he could get some of his best birds to fly over a portion of the lake it would give him a distinct advantage, and so it often did.
Weather Warfare: Could It Be Affecting Our Racing Pigeons?
Over the past three decades racing pigeon fanciers world wide have taken note of the fact that we seem to be losing more and more birds. Smashes occur not only in ill weather conditions but on days that one would not normally suspect a problem. Is it the proliferation of mobile telephone signals, sunspot activity causing disturbances in the magnetic fields of the earth, countless other explanations that have been put forward or possibly, some other explanation? Something more sinister, possibly? Weather manipulation perhaps? Weather warfare, you never know!
I have written this article as a matter of public record, recognition of a "lifetime achievement in the racing pigeon fancy." This article appears in the winter of Karl Von Gardony's long life while looking back over 75 years of past competition. It is my acknowledgement of his ability, his perseverance, his intuition, a job well done.
Are Vaccines Good For the Health of Our Racing Pigeons?
Once you have been in the sport of racing pigeons for a long enough period of time, it will eventually dawn on you that your success depends totally on only one thing, the health of your racing pigeons. Without health, even super health, you can not ever be a successful and consistent winner. Health is more important than pedigree, bloodlines, technique, systems or any other single factor. If you cannot keep your birds healthy, if you cannot keep them free of stress, if you cannot keep their immune systems strong and optimized, you cannot win!
Successfully Starting A Family Of Racing Pigeons On A Small Budget
In
the following brief article I will give my readers an actual concrete
example of the approach that can be taken if a novice or a pigeon fancier
returning to the sport wishes to achieve success. I know that success
can be achieved so long as the new or returning pigeon fancier is dedicated
to doing his research. I intend to use as my concrete example the case
of a Canadian, Don Glionna, a former tippler fancier who chose to return
to the hobby at age 64, (after
he had knee replacement surgery in 1999) on a limited budget flying from
a small backyard loft in downtown, Oshawa, Ontario.
Racing Pigeons Section Contents
Background on Silvio Mattacchione, his pigeons, his loft, and inbreeding program.
A group of articles and editorials addressing various aspects of the sport of pigeon racing and the history of Silvio's line of Spanjaards/Janssens pigeons.
Buy fantastic pigeon books online! Selections include The Will to Prepare by Robert Kinney, Rotondo on Racing Pigeons by Joseph Rotondo, and The Pigeon Guide by Dr. Jon Esposito and Shannon Hiatt.
Some of Silvio Mattacchione's own winning stock is for sale.
Sivio Mattacchione offers a wide range of racing pigeon consulting services and consults with owners as far away as Australia, Mexico, Taiwan, The Philippines and the United States. Each consultation is tailored specifically to meet the client's needs, and is conducted in as thorough a manner as possible.
Good causes supported by Silvio and the racing pigeon and parrot communities.
Clever pigeon pictures constructed of keyboard strokes by artist Jerry Downs.
Links to other racing pigeon sites including those of clubs, products, and information resources.
An easy way to navigate a series of pigeon web sites!
Silvio's e-mail, mail, phone, and fax contact information.