From 26th of October till 8th of November PIPA visited some Taiwanese pigeon fanciers together with some European fanciers. We made a trip around the whole of Taiwan.
In Taiwan pigeons are raced in 4 different racing seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter season. Races take place from the sea and pigeons are liberated in all kind of weather circumstances. Pigeons need to arrive within qualifying time otherwise they are not allowed to participate in the next race. A season can consist out of 5-7 races and is sometimes stopped after 2 or 3 races because there are not enough pigeons that returned home.
Different seasons need different methods. In the winter season in the north of Taiwan for instance, people were feeding there pigeons only a little, because races were held with tailwind and the pigeons are motivated with hunger. In the spring season pigeons are raced with headwind and they get a heavier diet. Interestingly, Taiwanese fanciers only race with young pigeons.
We have seen many different fanciers and have seen many different pigeons and we noticed that there are champions in all sizes and shapes. But in general the more small to medium sized type is the one that is more fit to fly over the sea. We also noticed that people import lots of pigeons from Europe and achieve the best results when they cross the European imported pigeons with local winning bloodlines. We would like to conclude by thanking all the fanciers that invited us for their great hospitality. See you next time!
