I remember walking down the aisles of pigeons on display at the Winnipeg Fancy Pigeon Association annual show and seeing the most magnificent Yellow Jacobins. I wanted some so bad. They belonged to Dave Loewen and there must have been 20 or more of them in Yellow alone as well as Reds and Whites and they were all so clean and fully feathered and every one was a carbon copy of the next. I already had Fantails but those Jacobins kept drawing me to them. I was with George Anderson at the show so on the way back from the show that first evening I asked about these Jacobins and Dave Loewen. George said Dave had the best Jacobins around and he was sure that if I asked him he would have a pair for me but they would probably be expensive. The next day I was waiting when Dave got to the show and immediately asked about getting a pair of Yellow Jacobins. He said he had none in the show for me but he would bring a pair from home on the last day of the show and they would cost $50.00. This was about all the money I had but I wanted those Jacobins so bad. He delivered the birds as he said he would, one was a late hatched young cock who went on to win Grand Champion of the show for me a couple of years later and another late hatched hen he let me have for $15.00 the following spring won B.O.S. of the show on three different occasions as well as Best Yellow at the Canadian Jacobin Club Annual show against such great breeders as Marcel Giguere and Ed Bachman in the early 1980’s. Whenever the birds I got from Dave won he was always so happy you would think he still owned them. He would always say - “they are all my breed”.
Dave was a tall lean man, already old when I first knew him, his back was bent from years of hard work and his large fingers were twisted and swollen with arthritis. He spoke with a heavy German accent and I always remember him with a cigarette in his hand. When it came to his birds he was a perfectionist. He often talked of the old country and his experience with livestock there. He had great knowledge in feeds and feeding his birds which is no doubt why they did so well for him.
He kept Fantails and Jacobins for years but his arthritis made it impossible for him to lace his Fantails so he got rid of them about the time I met him. Dave kept Jacobins in Yellow, Red and White and they all came from the best stock he could find. He purchased his original Jacobins in the early 1960’s and these included stock directly from Boug, McNorgan and McLean. Dave’s loft was large and his birds always had lots of room and were always in wonderful condition. Dave also kept a stud of flying rollers. He had families of these in each Yellow, Red and White selfs and he took great pride in flying them and breeding the most intense colours. The rollers also served as feeders for his Jacobins. Dave did not travel much to shows. He seemed quite content to show just in Winnipeg because the shows there were large, well organized and competitive. Due to his generous nature with his birds there were always several breeders showing and breeding Jacobins so the competition was always good. Dave often got beat with birds he had sold. Dave’s Jacobins were world class but he had nothing to prove to anyone.
There was always someone trying to buy Dave’s best Jacobins and he would almost always sell them for the right price but Dave was a Master Breeder and would always end up breeding better birds than what he had sold. On one occasion a fancier came and made Dave a good offer on his entire crop of young birds at the end of the breeding season and Dave sold them to him. On many occasions Dave let breeders hand pick birds from his breeding stock but they could still not beat Dave in the shows or at conditioning. Dave never had any fear of getting beat at a show. He always wanted the best bird to win no matter who owned it. Dave probably let more good birds go to new fanciers than anyone I have known and it is a shame to think that a large portion of them were never seen again. But this was a chance Dave was willing to take to get someone started in Jacobins. Any bird I ever wanted from Dave he let me have in time and I know of many other fanciers who will tell you the same. I remember wanting to get started in Reds and so I phoned Dave in the fall and asked if I could buy a Red from him. He said to come see him and he would have one for me. When I arrived at his place he handed me a Red cockbird and he said “this bird will win best Red at our next show” and he did. He charged me $20.00 for that bird and I built a whole family from him. This man taught me more about breeding and conditioning Jacobins than anyone I have known.
Dave kept wonderful breeding and show records of his birds all in a binder and by looking back through the pages you could trace any of his birds ancestry back 20 years or more. Where the original birds came from was listed as well as which birds were sold and who bought them.
In January of 1985 Dave phoned me and asked if I would take his stud of Jacobins. I didn’t know what to say other than I would be honoured to take them. Not long after, I arrived at Dave’s home and we boxed all of his Jacobins. I can’t even imagine how he must have felt. He then asked me into his home where he said “there is something else you must have” and he handed me his precious book with all of his records. He then reached out and shook my hand and I felt his pain but at the same time he knew he could count on me and I sensed this also. Dave passed away a couple of years later.
I have continued on with that same book and most of my Jacobins today can be traced back to ancestors over the past 40 years listed in that book. But it is not the birds but rather Dave Loewen who set the perfect example of how to nurture and care for our hobby by sharing his kindness, his knowledge, his praise and his birds to guarantee the future of this wonderful hobby. I have tried to live by his example and he will always be very much a part of what this hobby is to me.
Clint Robertson Email: clint@jacobins.ca
