Purebred Pigeon Sept/October 2025

GIANT HOMER – Page 36 – Purebred PIGEON Breed of the Issue - AMERICAN GIANT HOMER and there is one thing for sure, they raised pigeons their way. I am not claiming they never put two winners together as breeders, but by and large, they didn’t mate pigeons according to how they finished in the show. They recognized that a show winner or loser is just one person’s opinion on one day. It was always amusing to see them sell a 1 st place bird and not budge on a 10 th place no matter the offer. They knew the features that were hard or easy to eliminate and the ones that were hard to reproduce. Another thing these guys had in common is their commit- ment to one breed, and sometimes only a few colors within that breed. I know there are many fanciers who have become master breeders in more than one breed, but most of those are small breeds, not big beefy birds like Kings, Mondains and Gi- ants. It takes a lot of loft space and a special talent for getting fertility out of pigeons that are so far removed from nature. Earl Golding from Waco, Texas, only liked white and AOC (Tiger Grizzle) French Mondains and that’s what he fo- cused on. In fact, it was hard to talk him out of anything in his favorite colors. Of course, he unintentionally raised some ash reds, blues, blacks and browns and if you were going to leave with something, it would probably one of them, not one of his whites or AOCs. I think it was 1980 when he won Champion French Mondain at the NPA Grand National in Houston with a white. There were over 800 FMs at the show. Those were the days. Earl’s focus helped him win at the highest level. Earl was a terrific pigeon man, but his superpower was loving, not liking, two colors and keeping 40 or 50 pairs of them. It prob- ably doesn’t have to be pointed out, but a 50 pound bag of good pigeon grain could be purchased back then for $7.50 and a backyard full of pigeon lofts was not against the HOA rules. Marvin Koenig’s superpower was his German stubborn- ness, and he preferred his French Mondains in ash red, blue and black. He was a very successful in standard Cornish chickens and when he tried to get quality French Mondains to get started, no one would sell him good birds. So he famously left a show saying he would just raise his own, and that he did. To the people who would care to admit it, his birds had more influence in the advancement of the breed than any- one’s, although he let very few leave the Golden Horseshoe Loft in Austin, Texas. I hate to mischaracterize any of these five master breed- ers I have been fortunate enough to know, but it seemed that it was a lot easier to get a good cock from them than a good hen. They put a higher value on a good hen and they always kept spares. Paul Cook from Stephenville, Texas, was a bit of an exception. He would sell you the best young hen he owned if you were willing to pay the price, and he didn’t need the money. I learned more about raising pigeons from Paul than anyone in my 50 years in the hobby, and one of the reasons he would sell an outstanding young bird is that he didn’t know its breeding potential – and neither did you. It could have been a cracker jack show bird but not a particularly good breeder. Conversely, Paul rarely sold an old bird. A proven breeder was priceless but the way you might get one of those is that he would just give it to you when he was done with it. He helped many people get started. Paul’s superpower was having the healthiest loft of French Mondains. He had a microscope and was always look- ing for answers when a bird wasn’t quite right. He was one of the first breeders I know to use vaccines, and he was one of the last breeders to use an antibiotic, although he kept plenty just in case. He was the first breeder I know to keep his birds exclu- sively on wire. He said not having to worm your birds was a big advantage. Wormers are poison, he said. I remember several times taking fecal samples in his loft and looking at them under the microscope for worm eggs. Never once found them. These master breeders had very different methods of raising pigeons. Some bred exclusively in individual breeding pens, others used community lofts, others used a combina- tion. Although going to visit Maurice Durkee, Earl Golding or Marvin Koenig’s loft was absolute eye candy because they raised from 40 or 50 pairs and kept a lot of spare breeders, I have to admire Darvin Jenner and Paul Cook most because they achieved just as many wins but never kept more than about 10 pairs. They were also the most generous with their birds because they weren’t insecure about letting a po- tential top-notch bird leave their lofts. They never said it out loud, but they knew they were super breeders and it wouldn’t hurt them in the least to let some good ones go, especially to someone who expressed a sincere interest in showing and becoming an active member in the club. Paul Cook and Darvin Jenner did use feeder pigeons (pumpers) at times and both limited the number of colors they messed with but they have very different methods. Paul had insulated lofts with artificial light and he raised 12 months a year. I remember a 4-year-old black hen he showed was Grand Champion French Mondain in a Texas show in the late 1980’s and she was already the mother of 40+ offspring, hav- ing been paired with 7 or 8 different cocks over three years. Darvin on the other hand had about the same number of Giant Homers but when he found a click pair that raised above av- erage birds, he left them together for the rest of their lives in attempt at raising a bunch of brothers and sisters over several years, therefore establishing a line much faster than most people could. When I first knew Darvin, he was particularly strong in indigo, black, andalusian and reduced. He and loft partner Stu Austin got out of Giants briefly and when Darvin got back in, he was back in the winner’s circle in no time. I remember when he entered about a dozen young black hens at the National, the judge said that was the best class he had ever judged. They looked like peas in a pod, and they were the direct result of Darvin identifying a few click pairs that he