In the southern part of Poland, in the picturesque village of Łąkta Dolna, lives the enthusiast Tomasz Babral. With his wife Jadwiga and three children Stanisław, Berenika and Tomasz, he races pigeons as SG Team Babral.

Tomasz was interested in pigeon racing as a child, but it was not until 2005 that he became a member of the Polish Racing Pigeon Breeders' Association. He plays in the FG Stadniki, RV Myślenice, Kraków Regional Association. In 2007 he became the 1st Young Pigeon Champion FG Stadniki and the 1st Champion RV Myślenice against 150 breeders. He also won the cup for the best breeder in the FG.

The Babral family moved in 2012. Since then, Team Babral has been playing in the FG Trzciana, RV Limanowa 2, Nowy Sącz Regional Association. Tomasz is the chairman of his local pigeon club. For his work and achievements, he was awarded the silver medal of the Association of Polish Racing Pigeon Breeders.

Currently, around 120 breeders from the 4 flying communities play in RV Limanowa 2: Trzciana, Łososina, Jodłownik and Skrzydlna. Every year, around 6,000 pigeons in the regional association and around 1,200 pigeons in the flight community take part in the flights.

Team Babral's stock consists of 80 pigeons: 60 racing pigeons and 20 breeding pigeons. The racing program begins between the end of April and the beginning of May and consists of 14-16 prize flights over a distance of 100-1,200 kilometers. The young pigeons take part in five prize flights over a distance of 130-330 km. The racing season for the young pigeons ends in September. The young pigeon race serves more as a training and acclimatization phase, which is why the results achieved by the young pigeons are not so important. The right performance is only required of the two-year-old pigeons, which have to complete the entire racing program.

The Babral team has developed its own feeding, care, training and motivation system, which is adapted to the family circumstances and the work of the family members. Tomasz has good contact with many successful breeders such as Roland & Denis Faber, Ryszard Murzyn, Jerzy Koźlik, Krystian Kahler, Jaap Koehorn and Bartosz Morel. This has helped him a lot to improve his breeding and racing performance in recent years. The cooperation with the Röhnfried Team Polska contributed to the greatest success of the Babral team. The pigeons of Roland and Denis Faber, Frederik Wolf, Wolf & Fusch and Bartosz Morel were paired with the pigeons of Ryszard Murzyn. These pairings have proven very successful in the Babral loft. Tomasz Babral has not only brought good animals from well-known breeders into his loft, he has also experienced and learned a lot from these successful pigeon lovers. This has had a strong influence on his breeding management.

Caring for the pigeons

Röhnfried products help to keep the pigeons in top condition all year round. Tomasz finds the products Blitzform, Carni-Speed, Avidress Plus, Moorgold, Avimicin forte, K+K Protein 3000, Rozitol, Optibreed, Hexenbier, Entrobac and Badesalz indispensable in his loft. The correct use and dosage of these high-quality preparations is important.

The pigeons are played dry on a total widowhood basis. They do not raise any young before the racing season. Mating takes place around February 14th, taking the phases of the moon into account. When the females lay and the first pair leaves the nest, the eggs are removed from the nest and the pigeons are separated. All pigeons are sent to the first four races, after which the weaker partner stays at home. Before the race, the females are not shown, but the day before basketing the pigeons stay together for about two hours. After this time they are fed. The pigeons are always fed to their full potential. The basic feed remains the same for the entire racing season, only the additives change during the season. After the race, the basic feed is mixed with the diet feed. During the week, the basic feed is enriched with energy feed containing milk thistle, hemp, peeled sunflower seeds and peanuts. The percentage of additives changes depending on the day of the week and the difficulty of the flight. The greatest attention is paid to regeneration after the flight. The pigeons' bodies must be rebuilt after the flight and prepared for the next performance.

Training - it all depends on the intensity

The racing pigeons train twice a day, one hour each morning and evening. There is no compulsory training. The pigeons decide for themselves how long they want to stay in the air. With the right guidance, they like to fly and do not look for comfortable place on the roof to land and sit. Great importance is placed on the intensity and not on the duration of the training. It does not matter much whether the pigeons stay in the air for 20 or 45 minutes. Before the prize flights, the pigeons are driven privately for training on 5 km, 10 km, 20 km and 45 km, until they immediately choose the right route to the home loft after the start and return home quickly. After training, the pigeons can stay together until the evening, as after the prize flight.

Conclusion on the 2020 racing season

The 2020 racing year was a little different due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We did not know whether the racing season would start and whether we would be able to race our pigeons. In the end, we were able to get our racing animals to the start with a two-week delay. The weather was changeable, we had flights in heat and headwind where the speed did not exceed 1000 m/min, but there were also flights with speeds of 1800 m/min. Our pigeons had to fight not only against the competition, but also against rain and changeable weather conditions.

I wish all pigeon lovers much success and lots of joy with their pigeons.

Good flight!!! TEAM BABRAL