Germany

My name is Uwe Held, I am 45 years old, I have been keeping pigeons since 1972 when I was 10 years old.
My first pigeons were "white Marthams", since I had two pairs of them given to me, I fell in love with them.
I specialise on breeding white Marthams. Aside from that I'm crossbreeding a couple of "Blacktigers", F3 generation of blacktiger Danish Tumbler and Marthams.

I've also got Magpies in yellow, red and black.

My breed was built with a few single birds and "inbreeding" (half sisters, grandparents to grandchildren, aunt to nephew-great nephew, Magpies x Marthams etc.)

Basically I don't breed more then 6-8 pairs from my race and concentrate on one colour. The breeding season begins in January and ends in August.
Crossbreeding pairs are allowed to breed all the time. I always keep the better most pigeons to the breed and I have good results. This season (2008) I breed 56 youngsters from 10 pairs!

My pigeons are also very shy that’s why I feed them "very" bare. Thereby, they are calmer and more accessible.
The average size of my pigeons amounts from 28 to 32 centimetres. Basically, I pay attention on large, high standing and anyhow elegant pigeons.

Fred Kitchen was a very good friend of mine and we had corresponded over many years. 

I took some photos of them, my Marthams and my magpies. Hope you'll enjoy!

Uwe has very kindly sent us some information about Magpies that he has found on the internet. Click through to see:

American Pigeon Keeper Journal 1933

Marthams		Blacktiger
Black Magpie		Red Magpie
Magpies in the loft		More Magpies in the loft
Black Hen		Black Cock
Yellow Magpie		Black Magpie
Uwe's set up 2009		Uwe's Marthams & a Magpie 2010
Marthams 2011