F & J & G Dickey of Randalstown -
Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:49 pm
The Dickey Family Partnership and Their Birds
For the past number of years, Geoff Dickey, his dad Frank and his son Jonathon have been quietly assembling one a strong colony of performance pigeons based on the Sticker Donckers and Stefaan Lambrecht families of birds. This is the first of their sales ever, and is divided into two parts, the second of which will follow within a month or so.
The Sticker Donckers partnership was dissolved in 2019, and, as such, their birds are no longer available direct from the source. Instead, collectors of these top bloodlines are now the fountain of these well proven strains. Geoff admits that he has been “in the right place, at the right time” in relation to these Sticker Donckers, benefitting initially from a shipment which was China bound before it was delayed indefinitely and subsequently, birds were made available to Geoff.
Further additions have been made from the lofts of Gibb & Byrne, including some directly sourced birds which they made available to Geoff and for which Geoff is very grateful for. He now has many directly bred Sticker Donckers, as well as a very well tested and prizewinning race team, some of which have graduated to the stockloft where they continue to breed prize-winners for Farmview lofts and others. Some of these winners, such as Graham O’Reilly (Ardee), Robert Scott (Doagh), J. Mowbray & Son (Abbey Social)
.
Some great producers also coming from Farmview stock - such as "The Golden Couple" of Gary Gibson (Cullybackey) - and many others have gone on to found their own families of successful breeding Sticker Donckers at their lofts.
NIPA Winner - “Blue Dream” is a great granddaughter of one of Geoff’s stock birds “Andy”, she won 1st Sec. 2478b. and 1st Open NIPA 16,325birds from Corrin in 2018.
The “Old Lines” of “The Stamkopple”, Veel Vervoort”, “Dortmund Duiven”, Goeie Zwarte”. Oude Blauwe”, “Zus Witring” and “Lompe Vos” are all in plentiful supply throughout the colony – some now very rare and in high demand from all over Europe
Not only do these birds excel under good management in the hands of their owners, but they also do well at One Loft Racing. Just this year, Graham O’Reilly bred a youngster to finish 2nd Open in the Wild Atlantic Way OLR, winning over €15,000 and over €2000 in pools to boot. In the North Coast Classic, another bird of Graham’s finished 52nd Open. The parents of both of these prize winners were bred by Farmview lofts. The positions of 14th & 28th Hotspot finals have also been won at the NCC OLR.
Typically, medium in size, tight feathered, powerful up-front with tidy tails and good handling characteristics, this family of birds don’t seem to have a preference for a particular wind, having won on the very short distances (Mullingar, 80 miles) to Penzance (300+ Miles). On many occasions with multiple drops and taking all the prize positions in the club. Recent additions to the lofts are the Stefaan Lambrecht colony.
Geoff and the team have assembled a super team of stock birds which are still being tested and developed by them. Initial signs are good. Bloodlines such as “Lady GaGa”, “The Raven” and “Stephanie” amongst many others now reside at Farmview and some are being made available in this sale.
The Sticker Doncker and Stefaan Lambrecht families of birds housed at Farmview Lofts are rightly recognised now as some of the top performing birds in Ireland. Careful attention to detail, whether that is pairings, racing methods, motivation, feeding or training, has catapulted this loft to the fore over recent seasons. This is no fluke.
The Dickey family race into the Ahoghill Road, Randalstown and are members of Randalstown HPS in Northern Ireland. In 2010 Frank Dickey decided that he wanted to race a few birds and attained birds from Davy Scott from Kells. These birds were the stock foundation of the Dickey lofts. Frank, known as “The Wee Hamper Man”, and grandson Jonathan, were the partnership and they raced a few races with success, winning a race with only 6 widowhood cocks away and picking up other minor prizes during their first season.
At the outset, it was a simple set-up of just two 12 foot lofts holding stock, old bird and young bird racers. Now there are more racing lofts and single penned stock lofts. Geoff subsequently joined the partnership and they now compete as Frank, Jonathan and Geoff Dickey. Since the formation of this partnership, the lofts have gone from strength to strength with new stock birds, pigeon families and racing systems being added – indicated by the Dickey family partnership being the highest prize winners in their club and have won the Mid Antrim combine section and topped The Cullybackey Centre on numerous occasion over the past recent years, proving the old adage that “Hard Work Pays Off”.
Their Methods -
Old Birds are raced on the widowhood system with the Racing Cocks paired the same time as the stock birds. The racing cocks are allowed to rear a nest before racing. Hens don’t get paired at all, they are kept in aviaries during the week but get to run with the spare cocks all day Friday. During the week the hens are left to loft fly around the loft and are kept for racing the channel as the partnership believe they race better from there having won 11th Open Bude, 58th Open Talbenny, 38th Open St. Malo etc.
Of the young bird team, approx. 50/60 are put on the dark system and the birds are not split. They are trained to 40 miles as many times as we possibly can before racing begins, then trained 2/3 a week when racing starts.
Bloodlines -
Racing took a proper step in the right direction after the partnership visited the Causeway Lofts of Andy McCauley – these birds started them on the correct trajectory with winners coming from his birds right away. It wasn’t to stop there though; the next lofts were those of Gibb & Byrne where more sticker Donckers stock was added in 2009. The partnership also invested in direct Sticker Doncker birds which had been imported by Ian & Peter Gibb. A daughter of “Wondergirl” who has turned out to be their No. # 1 Hen was also attained – she’s a Dam, Grandam and Great Grandam to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Open NIPA. The partnership have also attained a son & daughter of “The Emperor” whose bloodlines are to be found in most of their best racers and breeders.
Some of their favourite Top results are as follows -
1st Mid Antrim combine, 1st Section, 1st Open 2118 Birds
1st Mid Antrim combine, 1st Section, 15th Open, 1553 Birds, National, Rosscarbery
1st Mid Antrim combine, 2nd section, 16th open Rosscarbery, old bird national
1st Mid Antrim Combine, 2nd section, (1,749 birds) Fermoy
2nd Mid Antrim Combine, 2nd Section, 11th Open Bude (6,127 Birds)
2nd Mid Antrim Combine, 2nd Section 6th Section, 38th open St Malo
With lots of other Top Ten Positions.
Since attaining the stickers Donckers, the partnership keep looking for more to add to the team. They’ve added a few directs to their family, some that came via their friend Lyndon Joesbury which have been a great addition – making the stock loft stronger. Grandchildren of the “Lompevos” and “Wonder boy” were also attained, indicating the seriousness of maintaining the strong genetics and bloodlines at the partnerships stock lofts.
In 2019 the partnership decided to go back to Ian Gibb and have now brought in Stefaan Lambrecht pigeons which have settled-in well and also a son of “The Raven” which bred 1st club for them. They have children of “The Raven”, “Royal “Blue”, “Mr. Blue”, “Black Gert”, “Lady GaGa”, “Stephanie”, “Maxiumus” and have also brought in some direct Belgian rung stock. They are looking forward to racing these birds over the next few seasons. SEE pigeonpartners.com
For the past number of years, Geoff Dickey, his dad Frank and his son Jonathon have been quietly assembling one a strong colony of performance pigeons based on the Sticker Donckers and Stefaan Lambrecht families of birds. This is the first of their sales ever, and is divided into two parts, the second of which will follow within a month or so.
The Sticker Donckers partnership was dissolved in 2019, and, as such, their birds are no longer available direct from the source. Instead, collectors of these top bloodlines are now the fountain of these well proven strains. Geoff admits that he has been “in the right place, at the right time” in relation to these Sticker Donckers, benefitting initially from a shipment which was China bound before it was delayed indefinitely and subsequently, birds were made available to Geoff.
Further additions have been made from the lofts of Gibb & Byrne, including some directly sourced birds which they made available to Geoff and for which Geoff is very grateful for. He now has many directly bred Sticker Donckers, as well as a very well tested and prizewinning race team, some of which have graduated to the stockloft where they continue to breed prize-winners for Farmview lofts and others. Some of these winners, such as Graham O’Reilly (Ardee), Robert Scott (Doagh), J. Mowbray & Son (Abbey Social)
.
Some great producers also coming from Farmview stock - such as "The Golden Couple" of Gary Gibson (Cullybackey) - and many others have gone on to found their own families of successful breeding Sticker Donckers at their lofts.
NIPA Winner - “Blue Dream” is a great granddaughter of one of Geoff’s stock birds “Andy”, she won 1st Sec. 2478b. and 1st Open NIPA 16,325birds from Corrin in 2018.
The “Old Lines” of “The Stamkopple”, Veel Vervoort”, “Dortmund Duiven”, Goeie Zwarte”. Oude Blauwe”, “Zus Witring” and “Lompe Vos” are all in plentiful supply throughout the colony – some now very rare and in high demand from all over Europe
Not only do these birds excel under good management in the hands of their owners, but they also do well at One Loft Racing. Just this year, Graham O’Reilly bred a youngster to finish 2nd Open in the Wild Atlantic Way OLR, winning over €15,000 and over €2000 in pools to boot. In the North Coast Classic, another bird of Graham’s finished 52nd Open. The parents of both of these prize winners were bred by Farmview lofts. The positions of 14th & 28th Hotspot finals have also been won at the NCC OLR.
Typically, medium in size, tight feathered, powerful up-front with tidy tails and good handling characteristics, this family of birds don’t seem to have a preference for a particular wind, having won on the very short distances (Mullingar, 80 miles) to Penzance (300+ Miles). On many occasions with multiple drops and taking all the prize positions in the club. Recent additions to the lofts are the Stefaan Lambrecht colony.
Geoff and the team have assembled a super team of stock birds which are still being tested and developed by them. Initial signs are good. Bloodlines such as “Lady GaGa”, “The Raven” and “Stephanie” amongst many others now reside at Farmview and some are being made available in this sale.
The Sticker Doncker and Stefaan Lambrecht families of birds housed at Farmview Lofts are rightly recognised now as some of the top performing birds in Ireland. Careful attention to detail, whether that is pairings, racing methods, motivation, feeding or training, has catapulted this loft to the fore over recent seasons. This is no fluke.
The Dickey family race into the Ahoghill Road, Randalstown and are members of Randalstown HPS in Northern Ireland. In 2010 Frank Dickey decided that he wanted to race a few birds and attained birds from Davy Scott from Kells. These birds were the stock foundation of the Dickey lofts. Frank, known as “The Wee Hamper Man”, and grandson Jonathan, were the partnership and they raced a few races with success, winning a race with only 6 widowhood cocks away and picking up other minor prizes during their first season.
At the outset, it was a simple set-up of just two 12 foot lofts holding stock, old bird and young bird racers. Now there are more racing lofts and single penned stock lofts. Geoff subsequently joined the partnership and they now compete as Frank, Jonathan and Geoff Dickey. Since the formation of this partnership, the lofts have gone from strength to strength with new stock birds, pigeon families and racing systems being added – indicated by the Dickey family partnership being the highest prize winners in their club and have won the Mid Antrim combine section and topped The Cullybackey Centre on numerous occasion over the past recent years, proving the old adage that “Hard Work Pays Off”.
Their Methods -
Old Birds are raced on the widowhood system with the Racing Cocks paired the same time as the stock birds. The racing cocks are allowed to rear a nest before racing. Hens don’t get paired at all, they are kept in aviaries during the week but get to run with the spare cocks all day Friday. During the week the hens are left to loft fly around the loft and are kept for racing the channel as the partnership believe they race better from there having won 11th Open Bude, 58th Open Talbenny, 38th Open St. Malo etc.
Of the young bird team, approx. 50/60 are put on the dark system and the birds are not split. They are trained to 40 miles as many times as we possibly can before racing begins, then trained 2/3 a week when racing starts.
Bloodlines -
Racing took a proper step in the right direction after the partnership visited the Causeway Lofts of Andy McCauley – these birds started them on the correct trajectory with winners coming from his birds right away. It wasn’t to stop there though; the next lofts were those of Gibb & Byrne where more sticker Donckers stock was added in 2009. The partnership also invested in direct Sticker Doncker birds which had been imported by Ian & Peter Gibb. A daughter of “Wondergirl” who has turned out to be their No. # 1 Hen was also attained – she’s a Dam, Grandam and Great Grandam to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Open NIPA. The partnership have also attained a son & daughter of “The Emperor” whose bloodlines are to be found in most of their best racers and breeders.
Some of their favourite Top results are as follows -
1st Mid Antrim combine, 1st Section, 1st Open 2118 Birds
1st Mid Antrim combine, 1st Section, 15th Open, 1553 Birds, National, Rosscarbery
1st Mid Antrim combine, 2nd section, 16th open Rosscarbery, old bird national
1st Mid Antrim Combine, 2nd section, (1,749 birds) Fermoy
2nd Mid Antrim Combine, 2nd Section, 11th Open Bude (6,127 Birds)
2nd Mid Antrim Combine, 2nd Section 6th Section, 38th open St Malo
With lots of other Top Ten Positions.
Since attaining the stickers Donckers, the partnership keep looking for more to add to the team. They’ve added a few directs to their family, some that came via their friend Lyndon Joesbury which have been a great addition – making the stock loft stronger. Grandchildren of the “Lompevos” and “Wonder boy” were also attained, indicating the seriousness of maintaining the strong genetics and bloodlines at the partnerships stock lofts.
In 2019 the partnership decided to go back to Ian Gibb and have now brought in Stefaan Lambrecht pigeons which have settled-in well and also a son of “The Raven” which bred 1st club for them. They have children of “The Raven”, “Royal “Blue”, “Mr. Blue”, “Black Gert”, “Lady GaGa”, “Stephanie”, “Maxiumus” and have also brought in some direct Belgian rung stock. They are looking forward to racing these birds over the next few seasons. SEE pigeonpartners.com