How long have you been keeping birds?

I have been keeping birds for about 60 years – virtually all my life, I will be 70 this year so since I was about 10 I suppose. I was brought up on a farm and we always had poultry and ducks. The breeds we had were the norm in those days, like Sussex, RIR, but it would be around 33 years ago that I first started with the Pekins.

The first ones I bought were a pair of Blue Pekins from Dewsbury Auction for my 9 year old daughter, Judith, who showed them at a pet show; she got a second and a special, so it all started from there really with Pekins.

When do you start your breeding programme?

I like to start early, if I can get a few eggs in January or February, and go on till the end of May. I used to breed nine colours, but have cut down to 5 now. I have about 11 breeding pens on the go, and tend to use incubators. Pekins are not fantastic brooders, although having said that, the buff and the partridge seem to be more prone to go broody than the other colours. Some people swear by broodies, but I find when you have got the eggs, you don’t have the broodies and when you have a broody hen, you don’t have the eggs, so thats why I tend to just use incubators. I usually try to hatch over about 300, but last year I only did 250, mind you, now I’m only breeding 5 colours I intend to cut that down to about 120 or so. Out of those 120, I would keep a few of each colour, about 4 females and a couple of  cockerels.

At what age do you start to sort out your show and breeding stock?
You can spot the good’ns more or less straight away, when they hatch, because you are looking for a short wide one, they then go through that scraggy stage, but when they start to feather up, you can be sure of the good ones then. You will most probably find that the ones you thought were going to be good at hatch, are the ones that come back looking good. You will find that with Pekins they tend to get better with age.

What makes a good show Pekin?
I use 3 words to describe a good bird, ‘Short, Wide and Deep’ Short back (meaning short in length), wide back (meaning broad width ways) and deep body, (meaning the front tilts forward) and a good specimen should tilt from back to front. When you’ve got that it means you will have the ‘type’ that’s important for this breed.

What do you feed your birds?
Well I don’t have any secret feeding regime, I feed them on ordinary growers pellets, they go on that when they are about 8 or 9 weeks old. I am a big believer in cod liver oil that I mix in with the pellets, it gives them a nice sheen on the feathers. I don’t use any grain at all, just the growers and I pay about £5.95 for 25 kilos, so that’s not too bad.

What do you see for the future of the breed?
I see a good future, I think there are a lot of new people coming in and starting to keep the breed. A lot of youngsters are coming in and showing interest in Pekins, especially down in the south, which is really good to see. I think the Pekin Club is in really good shape at the moment. The Pekin is a popular breed and we get over 300 entries at our club show in Stafford, the record is 366 in 2002. I think the future for the breed is very good.

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