Amechtal Pigeons Loft refers to our Amechtal family: Noureddine (my father) & me (Sami). The pigeon sport is a hobby and combined effort which connects us. My father used to have pigeons 30 years ago in Morocco. I grew up hearing stories and one day decided that I wanted pigeons as well, after I have had fishes, hamsters and budgies. I believed that there wasn’t much interaction with fishes and hamsters were too nocturnal. Although I enjoyed budgies for many years, I decided to stop after my first and favourite budgie passed on as well as due to my growing interest in pigeons at that time. After convincing my parents, I received my first couple of pigeons: two show pigeons. We enjoyed the unique characteristics and temperament of those birds.

One day, a tired young racing pigeon landed when our show pigeons were flying outside. It was from that moment that we decided to enter the world of the racing pigeons. My father posted an advertisement to inquire about the sport and we were soon contacted by a  very nice and helpful local fancier, Willem Jansen. Willem introduced us to the sport and the local club, as well as a Moroccan pigeon fancier, Youssef Sedikki, from whom we got our first birds and learned the basics necessary to take care of pigeons.

We joined the local club in 2017 and in preparation a few birds from Belgium were imported from the Roland Janssens strain. In order to vaccinate our pigeons at the start of the year, we contacted a vet and long-distance pigeon fancier Fred Stet. Through him, we met Ron van der Noort who had given the family youngsters to race with.

There was a lot to learn about pigeon racing, but 2017 showed a promising prospect. Most of our youngsters were early enough to make it in the top of Afdeling (Department) 7 three times in a row, however were not timed because of water on the roof of the house. This was disappointing yet also promising.

The following year, 2018, that very same birds were succesfully timed:      the “460” gifted by Ron van der Noort, managed to win a 1st prize in the club out of 560 pigeons  and 52th in Region A1 out of 4,263 pigeons. Two more Van der Noort pigeons consistently scored well, such as the “428”, winner of the 10th Prov. Minderhout out 7.123 pigeons and 9th Nat. NPO Orleans. His nest sister the “429” won the 7th NPO Lessines out of 18.809 birds that very same year.

At the end of 2016, a stray bird from 2015 arrived at the our loft and ownership was transferred. The former owner was the Van den Berg family in Utrecht, who race on the extreme long distances. In 2018, the adopted hen was sent without much prior training to Dax (+- 1100 km) and managed to win the 8th spot in NIC Soest and 2nd in the city of Almere.

This was the mark of our ambition and motivation to aim for better results towards the top.