History of The Frans Zwols

I often get asked about the background and history of the Frans Zwols strain. So I thought I would do my best to outline the history of the strain that Frans Zwols built up over many years and Zwols Pigeons have continued to practise since buying Frans life time’s work in late 2015.

Unlike many of the new strains of today, Frans Zwols built his strain on the principles of using key pillars and once these were in place just some select crosses on some occasions by joint breeding and then adding a proven racer from the cross into the stock shed as can be seen with Speed champ and Silver Girl (Silver Girl being the line that the Grizzle comes from)

Frans began racing pigeons in 1972 and formerly flew in a partnership under the name Comb Zwols-Werink before changing to fly just as Frans Zwols. In Frans local area it was always considered a real hotbed of Dutch pigeon fanciers including the great Gerard Koopman, Jan Lotteram, Gerrit Lahuis, Leideman Brothers and many more. Racing in the Afdeling 10 which often sent 20,000 plus pigeons a week, this meant Frans knew he would need exceptional pigeons to compete against the very best on a regular basis and as such from the start only sourced pigeons from the very best and most trustworthy of sources. Frans had a close friendship with the family Vredeveld, which has lasted to this day and Harm pigeons were the obvious first base line on which Frans Zwols built his family of pigeons. Harm was and is very famous for his super Janssen breeding pair Boy and Queen. They produced such a strong line of winning pigeons such as: Loverman 1st WHZB Ace Pigeon, Loverboy 1st World Champion, Bandit Queen 1st WHZB YB, Game Boy 2nd National Ace YB, Lucky Boy 1st Hasselt 6005 birds & Mickey Boy won 1st from 15,000b etc. 

The blood of the Love Pair Boy and Queen run through the very heart of Frans and now Zwols Pigeons to this day. With some of the more modern day champions like inbred Mickey Boy 716, Eagle Boy, Blue Prince, Truke, D’Artagain, 3 Musketries, Game Boy, Frisian Boy Junior and even the Prince of Rekkem all carrying these original lines of Frans Zwols.

Frans was very aware that to build an all-round family he also needed other lines and he always had great admiration for the Leideman Brothers, who also fly in Afdeling 10 and have the ability to score big victories especially on the longer day races. Frans decided to blend the best of Leideman Brothers super lines with the Boy and Queen line and from these generations of champions were born. The pigeons Frans had from Leideman Brothers where mainly around their super couple Tip Top x Zeeuws Meisje, and they in combination have bred 100s of top winners. These included the Super Tip Top Junior, Bert and Miss Kacet.

Frans also had a super hen called Chinese Lady, via Leideman Brothers who bred De Diament, worth noting that Chinese Lady was bred from a full sister of the super Tip Top Junior. De Diament in turn was dam of the famous 3 Musketeers and the seven sisters, Dream Girl 200, Pomeroy cock and D’Artagain among others.

Next to be added was the inbred Golden Smeulders via Eijerkamp and what a brilliant addition this proved to be as he was the sire of many great pigeons including Frans, (who in turn was sire of King & Queen of Rekkem, Rekkem 083 and Cristoffel) in addition to Frans he was also sire of Brother Frans, Smeulders 91, Smeulders 592 and Smeulders 654 among others.

The last two pigeons that were added which made a big impact were in 2008 when Frans added a nest pair of cocks called Euro 1 and Euro 2 again these were very cleaver additions to the Frans Zwols family and have made a big impact from the start with Euro 1 breeding the Prince of Rekkem in his first season. Euro 2 opened his breeding account by breeding the winner of 2nd 19,737 birds since the first year both of these cocks have gone on and bred many winners and breeders of winners to date and have proven a very good cross into the original Frans Zwols lines.

In 2016 after Zwols Pigeons had brought all of Frans pigeons, Frans still very much had his finger on the pulse and told us about a hen called Tesla which had just won 1st NPO and had already won 2nd NPO the year before, both with over 11,000 birds in the race along with a 5th 2,000 birds and other prizes, the other very important part was she was bred from a full brother of Tip Top Junior. So Zwols Pigeons Lofts added two children of this super hen to our Frans Zwols stock. Again this has proved a good move with both children already breeding winners.

Zwols Pigeons have continued using the same principles used by Frans since 1972, by pairing to keep the lines strong, adding proven winners back into the breeding loft along with children from the proven champions and then selecting them on a very strict policy (so only the very best make the grade) to keep the main bloodlines strong for years to come and as Frans always did, keeping our eyes out for an exceptional cross to add when the opportunity arises.

I hope this gives you an insight to the way Frans and now Zwols Pigeons have built and kept improving this fabulous family of pigeons. As the results prove the family just keeps getting stronger and stronger over the generations. With the New stars breeding as many, if not more bigger winners than the originals did, which proves the strain has and is being kept strong and continuously improved through strict breeding policies and even stricter selection policy.