Belgium is without any doubt world-famous for the quality of the Racing Pigeons bred there and names like the Janssen brothers from Aarendonk, Maurice Delbar from Renaix or Dr. Bricoux, to name but a few, have done their share in the past to add to this legendary fame. Though it might seem so at first glance, Belgium is not all about Racing Pigeons, because there is also quite a varied scope of fancy breeds - of course a bit overshadowed by the Racers. It's a fact however that the Racing Homer we know today was brought about also by the influence of different fancy pigeon breeds that still exist today but are perhaps little known outside Belgium itself. Some of the Belgian breeds are perhaps better known on the international scene, since the cocks feature a very particular way of courting their hen. These are the Belgian Ringbeater, the Speelderke and the Smijter. All three of these breeds could be classified as 'performing breeds', which adds a little to the difficulty in breeding them since the breeder should also keep their performance in mind when it comes to selecting the breeding stock.
In this article I would like to spotlight some of the Belgian breeds there are and publicise these breeds, largely unknown to the general Fancy. It is one of my goals to show that there is quite a variety of appealing breeds in this little country that would really look good also at international level.
Well, probably the most popular breed of pigeons of Belgian origin apart from the Racing Homer outside its home country is the Ghent Cropper. As indicated by its name, its home town is the city of Ghent, a little to the north west of the country's capital Brussels. Ghent has a history of long standing and was the second biggest city in Northern Europe after Paris, with a powerful economy in its heyday. The Ghent Cropper is a relative of the Dutch Cropper and therefore shares a number of similarities like the big muffs for example and the relatively massive body. What do we have to expect of a good Ghent Cropper? Of course we want a tall, upright cropper pigeon with the typical nearly horizontal back of the breed. Its globe is fully blown with its widest extension in the upper part. The ideal Ghent Cropper should be as high as long, ie you should be able to put it in a square with all sides of identical length.
A peculiarity of the Ghent Cropper are the so-called 'dominicans', birds whose marking resembles very much the gansel marking found in other breeds. The name 'Dominican' is derived from the cowl of the Dominican monks with their white upper part around the shoulders and the head marking of the Ghent. The Ghent Cropper can impress with a number of markings and colours, the Dominicans for example exist in black, blue, red, yellow and lavender, then there are pied Ghents that lack the wing rose commonly seen in the English Pouter, Tigers and splashes come in the same colours as the Dominicans and to close it all off, the Ghent comes also as tailmark, ie white with coloured tail (however the Ghents usually show also come coloration in the head). These tailmarks are called 'Verheemeltsttaart' in Flemish.
