The Gebroeders Brugemann consist of Kees, Peter and Jos.
Also Colinda, Jos' wife, and Miela, Peter's wife are a part of this combination.

From left to right Peter, Jos and Kees in the cheese warehouse.

Their pigeon lofts and the cheese warehouse are located at the Noorderweg in Assendelft in the Netherlands.

History.

It was Lou Brugemann, the father of the brothers, who founded the basis for the love that they all have for the pigeon sport. Lou was a pigeon fancier at heart, who, together with son Kees, had several pigeon lofts over their cheese warehouse at the Wilhelminastraat in Krommenie. At that time Jos was still a fairly young boy but was already interested in the sport, but Peter only joined the combination in the nineties, when they changed to the long-distance races. From the beginning of Lou's pigeon sport career as a restarter they were already very active on the lofts in Krommenie. Lou had been away from the pigeon sport for about ten years when the races were changed from Sunday to Saturday. Saturday was and still is the busiest day on the markets where Lou sold his cheese.
In those days they had a fairly mixed team of pigeons in the loft, but Lou and Kees wanted more.
They contacted Raoul Verstraete and several pigeons from him found their way to Assendelft.
But it still was not enough and they continued their search. Their real success started when they met retired mushroom-dealer Charel Goossens from Boortmeerbeek and later Booischot, both in Belgium.
Charel had an extensive breeding loft. Lou and Kees brought children from among others the 'Kleine Blauwe', the 'Fondman' and the 'Geschifte' from Gust Hofkens to Assendelft, and these brought the colony to a higher level instantly.

   Father Lou with Charel Goossens  (1980)                             Jos with Charel Goossens (1980)

At one point the pigeons from the lofts over the cheese warehouse in Krommenie were moved to their home in Assendelft.
In Assendelft they had a few chicken sheds that were converted into pigeon lofts. In these lofts they proceeded to breed many champions and win many championships.
One of the most evocative couples, continuous producers of champion pigeons, was the couple Kras Verstraete (out of Brave Zot x Vurige) x Vetbrander Goossens (bred out of the pigeons from Philemont de Rijck from Begijnendijk, who's super loft was bought by Charel Goossens). The '249' out of this couple became best speed pigeon of the Vredesduif competition.
In 1983 they even obtained the 1st championship of the NABVP, then with 18,000 members. This championship consisted of the one-day long-distance races and Bergerac. An important part in this was played by the '256', who became champion pigeon of the Rayon (Noord Holland), with lead prizes in the races from Etampes, Orleans and Ruffec.

 The old lofts (renovated chicken sheds).

 Kees, father Lou and Jos in 1986

De Gebroeders

Time didn't stand still and the old cheese warehouse in Krommenie had to be demolished. They decided to build a new, modern warehouse at the home in Assendelft, with space for several pigeon lofts over the warehouse.

 Lofts over the cheese warehouse.

It was also decided, partly because the market trade in cheese became busier and busier, to change direction in the pigeon sport and to exchange their successful racing program with many highlights for a new challenge, the overnight long-distance races.
For this purpose they bought pigeons from Huib Oostenrijk, who, together with his shortly before deceased brother Hein, was the best Barcelona racer of the Netherlands.
From Huib they bought the '78-062', who won an 11th, an 18th, a 25th and a 30th national from Barcelona and Perpignan.

 Two stock pigeons purchased from Huib Oostenrijk, left the 'Oude 62' and to the right the 'Wegvlieger'.

They also went to Jan Moerman from Wateringen, who was extremely successful with young from his direct Wim Muller pigeons.
And they bought pigeons from the wonder couple of Gerrit v.d. Kruk from Steenbergen. Out of this couple, two brothers flew the 6th and 8th national Barcelona 1987, the most difficult Barcelona in history.
They also bought a few Nipius pigeons from Johan Reekers from Vriezenveen.
Willem v.d. Burgh from Maasland provided them with a hen of the old Aarden breed, the '04'. Coupled to a son of the 'Kleine Blauwe Hofkens', she became another important pillar in their stock building.
Also the Theelen and Kuijpers pigeons from Vertelman came to strengthen the breedingloft.

Sadly, by this time Lou had become ill. He did see the new accommodation but not the success on the overnight long-distance races. Jos, Kees and Peter too decided to join forces and thus the combination Gebroeders Brugemann was born. Every pigeon that was not suited to the overnight races was sold through magazine 'De Duif'. This was in the beginning of the nineties. From then on, they were becoming more and more successful on the 1,000+ km races. They kept building on their father's lifework and they reaped the success!

In 1993, the Chiba (Moerman x Oostenrijk) flew the 3rd national Pau, while two weeks later the Orhan (Moerman x Oostenrijk) won 5th national Barcelona.

This feat was repeated in 1994, with the Tycha (Oostenrijk x Reekers) winning the 3rd national Pau and two weeks later with the Myra (Oostenrijk x v.d. Kruk) becoming 8th national in a very difficult Barcelona in the furthest drop.

And in 1995 and 1996 they kept winning top prizes time after time as well. At the end of 1996 they decided to sell all racing and breeding pigeons that were two years or older. This happened in cooperation with magazine 'De Duif' (Jan Hermans) in the venue Jan Theelen in Buggenum, Belgium.
The sale was a spectacular success, and the top pigeons went to new owners for high prices, with most of them going to Japan.

   Great interest for the total sale in venue Theelen, Buggenum.

  Jan Hermans sells the Orhan

The strength of the stock pigeons proved to be considerable though. In 1998 they peaked again with the two-years pigeons in the race from Barcelona, with a 10th and 18th national by the two nest sisters Sumara and Sumari, out of the Oostenrijk basis with 25% blood from Vertelman & Zn.

From Marseille they also succeeded with a brilliant series, starting with the Marilla (Oostenrijk x Moerman) becoming 6th national.

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The Barcelona twins 1998                                                                              The Marseille team 1998

Inauguration as emperor of the long-distance of the ZLU in 1999.

Present basis endurance races

The basis of their present endurance colony consists among others of descendants of the above mentioned pigeons, in particular offspring of the 'Orhan' and the 'Myra', crossed with pigeons from Jan Roelofs from Alkmaar and Cor de Heijde from Made, both in the Netherlands.

Relocation

The cheese trade kept growing and growing, but the warehouse space didn't grow with it. So they started looking for a bigger business premises, preferably with living quarters. But that was more difficult that they thought... Still, in 2013 they managed to buy a beautiful farm house with a number of outbuildings and lots of space at the Noorderweg in Assendelft. In one of the barns they built a new cold store for the products of their market trade, while in the easterly point of the roof of another barn they constructed several racing lofts for the overnight long-distance pigeons, and in the westerly point the breeding lofts. These were again fantastic dry roof lofts with plenty of ventilation.
Behind the house, they built a loft for another discipline, the one day long-distance. And at the front of the overnight lofts they constructed a young pigeons loft for the new generation of overnight long-distance pigeons.
The first weekend of July 2013 they participated for the last time in the races from the old address. It was a weekend with beautiful, warm summer weather with a head wind. And it became a successful weekend, from Barcelona they won the first prize in the Fondclub Noord Holland with the Myloe (17th national), from Chateauroux they won a lead prize with the Witpen Richard and from Montauban the '724' became 7th in the Fondclub Noord Holland.

In 2015 they will start with 24 widowers and hens on the one day long-distance, 16 one day long-distance breeding couples and about 80 young pigeons. The start with overnight long-distance pigeons is apart from the 12 designated breeding couples with 35 old pigeons, 50 yearlings and with some 100 young ones. All overnight long-distance pigeons are raced from the nest. The one day long-distance pigeons are raced on widowhood. The overnight pigeons and the one day pigeons are raced from strictly separate lofts.
The care of the pigeons is totally different too. A largely rejuvenated colony of pigeons at the Noorderweg, a colony with a simple but excellent care system, and for the rest just good pigeons and no frills.

Family sport

For the Gebroeders Brugemann the pigeon sport is a family sport. They are people anyhow with a warm heart for the animals which are present in abundance around the farmyard; cats, dogs, pigs, horses and above all pigeons are there in large numbers. Each family member is involved in the pigeon sport, which is a necessity anyway with the men having to spend so much time on the well going market cheese trade. Colinda, Jos' wife, has a number of horses with which she rides in competitions. She is also the one who predominantly looks after the budding one day long-distance colony, which consists of pigeons from Rik Hermans, Rudi de Saer and Richard Faber. Their daughter Lara is also crazy about horses and she helps as much as possible with looking after the horses and especially the young pigeons.
Peter's family is also fully involved in the care taking of the pigeons in Assendelft, but his daughter Manisha has also her own little loft at their house in Krommenie, where there are a fine number of one day long-distance pigeons. Kees helps here as much as he can, but he spends most of his time at the various markets.

Miela Ramcharan, Peter's wife, after her victory from Marseille in the Fondclub Noord Holland in 2011.

Colinda Pfersich, also involved in the pigeon sport from an early age through her father. Here she is 15 years at old.

Lara, Jos' and Colinda's daughter with her young pigeons. How tame they become!

Manisha, daughter of Peter and Miela, in the breeding loft with 'Grandson Leeuw' from Marcel Wouters. White, coloured and red pigeons are her favorites. Just as with many junior members.

The future

After they moved house, it has been quiet concerning their achievements for a while, but now they have plenty of 'home grown' pigeons once more, they are more eager than ever to start with the races, and the emphasis will be on the queen of races, Barcelona. That is after all the race in which they have won most of their victories. Their pigeons can take on those 1,250 kilometers.
We often see that Barcelona is the best race for fanciers with their kind of pigeons in the loft.
In future, they will again set their sights to the one day races, the kind of races which made father Lou champion of the NABVP in his early years.

The Brothers are on the move again.

We wish you lots of reading pleasure.

Gerard Dekker.

In the breeding loft

The racing lofts for the overnight long-distance, at the top the nest boxes for the old pigeons, downstairs for the young ones.

Top left the racing lofts for the extra long-distance.

The location at the Noorderweg, with Jos and Colinda's house, the cheese warehouse and to the right the horse boxes with above the nest boxes for the extra long-distance.

The loft for the one day long distance pigeons behind  of Jos en Colinda's house.