Mousieur Paul Sion

Donnie Zehr Nov 24, 23

This loft is situated in a lovely garden in close proximity to his beautiful residence and I can assure you that the loft in every way is in keeping with his home.  It is three stories high; the ground floor being used as a garage of four car capacity.  The next floor being used for grain storage with all the appliances for screening and cleaning.  On the top floor are the lofts, and on entering, one is quite taken aback for a moment as you are right in amongst the birds.  No passages corridors or wired partitions to look through.  What a sight for a pigeon man!  Mealics and light red chequers are predominant with a few blue chequers and an odd splash or two.  Everyone looks alike as regards type and all are very tame and intelligent.  There were six of us in this loft including M. Sion and his Loftman and these birds were walking between our legs and round about us as if they knew all about it and were not the least perturbed.  This particular loft is approximately 20 feet long by 15 feet wide so you can see if they had been wild, they had every opportunity of doing their stuff.  M. Sion was picking them off the floor and from their perches without any fuse.  There was no occasion to shut eyes and make a dive at any particular bird.  When M. Sion gave us the birds to handle, I personally got the surprise of my life.  The first bird, Oh Boy!  A super pigeon, the second ditto, the third top-notcher and so on until I began to wonder if I was dreaming all this, but alas, even Paul Sion recognized as one of the greatest of pigeon men could not keep up the standard of super pigeons throughout his loft.  After handling about ten I came back to earth as I realized the super pigeon had gone and I was now getting exceptionally good birds I and then we as we progressed through the loft, I was eventually handling just good birds.  Of course, you must remember that it is not only the perfect pigeons that race well although a perfect pigeon has a better chance of being a better racer, other things considered equal.  I intend in the near future to handle these ten birds.  

The "Young Bird" lofts were next for inspection.  I was not so impressed with the young stock, and in fact was disappointed.  Perhaps after handling the old birds, I expected too much.  After consideration I think the young Sion birds need time to develop and as M. Sion rest his yearling probably that is the reason why.  The racing loft was spacious and big, in fact, everything appeared to be on the large size.  Nestboxes were roomy, the box perches were extra-large and are portable.  The nestboxes are built from the ceiling to the floor on three sides, the windows and trapping arrangements being on the other side.  When the racing season is over the nest are all closed, and the box perches placed in front of them.  M. Sion races mostly on the widow-hood system.  

A visit to M. Sion is not complete without partaking of a meal and on this occasion dined with the family who are all interested in the birds.  This was a great visit, although having visited numerous times at this loft I always leave with the feeling that I will return at the earliest opportunity.