During a period of over 60 years, Piet de Weerd achieved worldwide acknowledgement because of his manner in selecting and pairing the best and most valuable pigeons in the world. His name is known in the farthest corners of the globe and many, serious fanciers read his articles and books. These are written in his own down to earth characteristic manner. Invitations from all over the world have made him the worlds most widely travelled pigeon fancier.
Back in the sixties he not only travelled numerous times across the Atlantic to the Africa’s but also to South Africa and to the Far East. He established conclusive proof of his unequalled mastery direct after world war II during the period that Jan Aarden tried to build up an iron strain for the toughest overnight races.
The absolute first mother of the strain, the “Oomens-duivin” (H45-907764) and also called by Aarden the “Delbar duivin”, was in fact a present from De Weerd to Jan Aarden.
On the numerous occasions that Piet visited Aarden, he brought one or more pigeons with him to cross them with the stockbirds at Steenbergen. So we may say he is the architect of the Aarden strain. Purchases and pairings of top pigeons by Piet de Weerd, wich made his name in international pigeon sport invaluable were amongst others: the purchase of the miraculous “Wondervoske” from the Janssen Brothers for the tandem Oomens-Van Tuijn; the pairing of the “Franck” (44-306686) at “Heroine” (47-1008650) on the loft of George Fabry: “Porthos” and the “Favorie”, descendants of this pair made the name of Fabry world famous.
Also the transfer of the “Piet” (strain Meulemans) to Raymund Hermes in Germany was a bull’s eye and in South Africa, fanciers are to this day talking about the incredible breeding results of the “Stallion Jan Aarden”, imported by Piet de Weerd and Piet’s magic use of the Cauwenberg pigeon that became world famous.
The famous “Didi” line of Jef v.d. Broucke-de Weerd and later Etienne de Vos (“kleine Didi”) was the result of many years of selection and inbreeding by Piet de Weerd. Also the “Kipp Dynasty” of Althornbach (Germany) is based on Piet de Weerd pigeons, originally the lines of Hector de Bou, Kees de Groot (Jan Aarden) and Albert v. Cauwenbergh (Janssen).