# Janssen



## pooch88 (Nov 17, 2013)

Janssen

I have been fortunate enough to acquire a few Janssen birds in the last couple of days. My question is in regards to breeding and flying these birds. Are Janssen’s’ considered long distance birds or are they a middle distance bird? They look to me like some of the short distance birds I have here in a family of birds I purchased last winter. However I have absolutely no experience with Janssen pigeons at all in regard to racing. 

Any of you care to share some of your knowledge on this strain of pigeons? 

Or if any of you have Claussen birds I could use some input on them as well? It is my understanding that these birds are true distance birds??


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## hillfamilyloft (Jun 22, 2005)

I would google about the Janssen birds. You will have your questions answered. They were brought to the us to speed up our pigeons. Traditionally they were flown shorter races. I would classify them as speed up to middle distance birds. That being said much of my family of birds is based off a full Janssen hen via four birds Ganus acquired from the brothers themselves. The family kills from 150 to 300 miles. My other foundation is mainly Vic Miller birds. These also are Janssen based birds. 
Chances are your Janssens have other bloodlines in them. Guys crossed them into their Gordons, Sions etc to speed them up. 
Looking at the history of the Janssens and all their wins, they were from relatively short distances 100 to 200 miles. That being said, my birds can fly 400 as young birds. Some of the reason for shorter races back then was transportation. Just because birds are built for a certain course does not mean they cannot go 400 or 500 miles.


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## ace in the hole (Nov 27, 2007)

Yes, Janssen's are short to middle distance bird but as Randy pointed out you don't know what may have been crossed in to them. I would say to fly them out and see what their young will do. But they are not long distance birds so keep a close eye on them as the distance gets farther.


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

I pick up a cock from CBS that is part Janssen. Do you have any information on your birds parents ?

If you research the Janssen family you will soon see how many people started with their birds. I hope yours work out for you.


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## pooch88 (Nov 17, 2013)

hillfamilyloft said:


> I would google about the Janssen birds. You will have your questions answered. They were brought to the us to speed up our pigeons. Traditionally they were flown shorter races. I would classify them as speed up to middle distance birds. That being said much of my family of birds is based off a full Janssen hen via four birds Ganus acquired from the brothers themselves. The family kills from 150 to 300 miles. My other foundation is mainly Vic Miller birds. These also are Janssen based birds.
> Chances are your Janssens have other bloodlines in them. Guys crossed them into their Gordons, Sions etc to speed them up.
> Looking at the history of the Janssens and all their wins, they were from relatively short distances 100 to 200 miles. That being said, my birds can fly 400 as young birds. Some of the reason for shorter races back then was transportation. Just because birds are built for a certain course does not mean they cannot go 400 or 500 miles.


The chap I purchased them from tells me that he has been “Breeding this family for several years now and they are all Janssen” I have to take him at his word but I do find it strange that pure Janssen are available at the price I paid. As stated I did a bit of searching on the net and came up with quite a bit of information. I was more interested in folks who have first hand information on breeding and flying these birds. Call me old fashioned but I am always a bit skeptical of the information I get from web sites. One of the reasons I like this site is the variety of opinions and recommendations you can glean from men and women with way more experience than myself..


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## ERIC K (Mar 29, 2010)

If you Google "Mac Armstrong" From New Zealand with the word pigeon you will get to read about this man who races quite successfully I might add, 800 miles with a Janssen based birds. I do believe the the Janssen brothers did race some longer races at one time but their birds were know as short middle distance like Randy Hill has stated.


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## Alamo (Nov 22, 2008)

The Janssen Bros would not ever take a chance in shipping a Champion pigeon to long races to prove their birds could race & win at the distance....They would be fool hardy if they did...They also did not want their birds on a transport OVER NIGHT,so that some bad guys can go though the crates and STEAL any of their birds...Can`t say I blame them....Alamo


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## Rod Hultquist (Aug 23, 2009)

To quote the Janssen Bros from Silvio's Mattacchione's article...."We hate long-distance races because there are too many risks for the birds and you loose them often. That our birds can do the job we have proved, but only to stop all that nonsense that our birds couldn't handle the distance. One time we shipped three birds to Chateauroux (575 km). We won first, second, and fourth in the club. "De Scherpen" we shipped to Montargis and Bordeaux (800 km) and he won two times first. Then the gossip was over. After that, we decided only to ship for the short and middle distances. That's what we like."


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## pigeonjim (May 12, 2012)

This is an article that I have always appreciated and refer back to often. http://www.silvio-co.com/pigeons/janssen.htm


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## benjemon (Mar 28, 2014)

Soooooo..... They stopped breeding 30 years ago?


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## lawman (Jul 19, 2005)

benjemon said:


> Soooooo..... They stopped breeding 30 years ago?


That would be about right, however there are many top fliers in eupope, the US and Canada that have birds directly from the source (the Janssen Bros.) find a respecable source and you should not go wrong with them, As mentioned before on other lines I dont think there are any family of birds still around that have not benifited from having Janssen blood mixed in with them.


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## hillfamilyloft (Jun 22, 2005)

My top hen is a full Janssen bird via two Ganus Birds bred from 4 he purchased for the Janssens. The 4 have are 1999/2000 birds out of early 90s birds. The have Janssen bands. Not to say they were not bred from birds purchased from the brothers and Ganus bought the grandchildren. All in the lineage have Janssen bands and are archived as such. She is a brilliant bird. Only getting a few eggs out of her a year. She is an 04 bird. When researching I sometimes find Ganus stretches the truth when it comes to names and such. Anyway she is a top notch bird that has bred winners and her offspring have bred winners.


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## rogerven (Aug 22, 2015)

Looks like most famous breeders breeding for all around, have the Janssen stock on the pedigree such as Jaap Koehorn. As I extensively research this past week (which is a daunting task to come back to after not caring for racers since 1985), in my area it seems that the Grayfox and Harms loft also carries the Janssen line via Peter van Osch - http://grayfoxharms.com/sale.html. But Jaap's comment that it is important for a fancier to understand at what distance one would compete is important, i.e. short, mid or long distance. In the midwest what distance is more common to compete with? The way I understand all these is that the farther the distance the higher the risk for a bird not returning. For small time fanciers like myself to lose a bird, your family will be devastating


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