A few days later we got a phone call from a pigeon fancier from a city nearby. “Is the pigeon B15-6026363 yours?”
We drove immediately to this man to pick up our hen. Close to his house there was a double web of high tension wires. Our hen must have collided for sure with these obstructions.
The area where our hen crashed ... dangerous for pigeons!
How did this fellow pigeon fancier discover our hen? The dog of his neighbour had this bird in his mouth! Luckily he didn’t kill the bird, he was just playing with it.
After a close examination of our hen B15-6026363 we didn’t notice any wing injuries. She has only got some serious bruises on the chest. She must have collided with one of the iron poles and not with the wires. We are going to let her recover and afterwards we will see if it is possible for her to make a comeback this racing season.
Our hen B15-6026363 after her crash
B15-6026363 was raced last year on the ‘Tour of Belgium’. The system of racing is the following. Each weekend during four weeks the birds are released at a completely different location. It could be at the seaside, which is completely in the western part of Belgium, or in Limburg, which is completely in the eastern part of Belgium. The racing distance is between 75 and 175km. This granddaughter to "Mambo"(B08-6144041) and "Beauty"(B05-6234009) won the 1° prize against 568 pigeons on the short distance race Tongeren (80km) which is located in the east of Belgium.
By the way, our other pigeon also did a great job on this race by winning the following result:
Tongeren (80km)
486 youngsters : 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 14, 15, 17, 19, 27,… 24/35
568 birds (old birds + youngsters): 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 20, 21, 23, 25, 35,… 24/35
Our hen B15-6026363 escaped death twice, the first time by surviving a crash against high tension wires and the second time by surviving the ‘curiosity’ of a dog. She must have a good guardian angel!