Pigeon fanciers from across the region flocked to the Port Alfred Country Club on Saturday to bid for an assortment of prized birds put up for auction that brought in R13,500 by the end of proceedings.
The thoroughbreds will be homed at Fish River 1 Loft to be prepared for a total of six races over the 2025 season. All monies taken in at the auction go towards the rand prize that will be on offer. The birds will be raced from the Fish River loft and back again.
The Kowie Pigeon Racing Club under chairmanship of Ray Schenk, organised the auction with auctioneers Paul Mills and Jeremy Maclaghlan in charge. The birds are trucked in from various locations in the country, among others Nelspruit, Kimberley, Pretoria, Cape Town, George and Gqeberha.
A total of 150 birds were put up for auction with fanciers from Gqeberha, Makhanda, Ndlambe and East London present at the auctioning of the birds.
“We had a successful year last year … and through word-of-mouth pigeon fanciers realised it’s something worthwhile to participate in, hence the increase in the number of birds,” says Schenk. “Once the auction is done, the birds will be carted off to Fish River 1 Loft where they are homed. “The final race determines the winner of the grand prize.”
Schenk says there are a few similar lofts in the region, such as Diaz Lofts, others in Cradock and Despatch and the country’s major loft – The Africa Pro Loft – at Phala Phala. “But this is a unique situation that a pigeon club like Kowie Pigeon Racing will collaborate with a single loft for a sale race for the season”.
“The Fish River 1 Loft is owned by Richard Wedderburg and Dr Neil Croft, who are independent parties and we partner with them for this particular race,” says Schenk.
“They also take in other birds for a different competition. These birds (auctioned) will also fly in their competition if they are activated by their buyers.
“Our racing season starts in June next year; so now we breed the birds until January. They moult in February and start their resting period and you build them up again (for races).”
“It’s the second year we have organised this auction and I think it’s a first in South Africa where a club links up with one loft and brings birds from a cross-section of SA to be put up for auction and race them.”
He says buyers typically looked at the lineage of the bird, which is available to them before making any bid.
“These fanciers know most of the breeders in South Africa; so they know what they are getting in a bird. There is quite a big footprint available of the birds’ history … so they study the catalogues made available and bid according to that.”
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, October 31, 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
