23-ARPU-42928 Yellow Mottle. Pure Trenton Long Distance. The Origins of the Trenton Strain Conrad A. Mahr, started flying homing pigeons in 1886. His first club was a “family club” made up of Conrad and several of his schoolmates. One of these schoolmates had a cousin (Mr. Bond) who kept homing pigeons and who was moving out of the area. It was decided that the loft and birds would be moved to the schoolmate’s house.

Conrad and his friend got a horse and wagon and moved the loft and birds. For his labor, Conrad received some homing pigeons, including “137 Trenton” out of an old imported pair (blue bar cock and red slate hen) of the Gus Offerman Strain. This pair had won for Offerman, in 1881, 1st and 2nd National in the most prestigious long distance race (550 miles) of all Europe at that time.

The Offerman Strain was basically a cross of the birds of an Irish flyer named McCluthian with the birds of Henri Soffle. The strain of Henri Soffle was founded on birds of Baron Ulen, the fancier credited with having formed the first reliable strain of racing pigeons derived from other varieties of pigeons (The Liege, the Antwerp, the Brussels, etc.). The McCluthian birds were descendents of “ship birds”. These ship birds; were used by captains sailing the channel ports, to relay messages to the owners about when the boats would be docking and the extent of the cargo carried. As a side note: the Hansenne strain also had the ship birds in their background.