Dr Clive Carefoot
Preston - England

12-11-1987

Dear Clive,

Received your letter recently and nice to hear from you. I have been pretty busy here also working on the breeds created in Australia book which I hope to complete early in 1988 as 1988 is our Bi-centenary year in Australia.

Have been away to Brisbane for a short holiday which was very pleasant. The main purpose of the visit was my uncle’s (my father’s brother) birth day. He reached the age of 100 years and is travelling pretty well. He and I had a few rums each night I was there. Visited a few fanciers friends of mine on the way home.

Have to get the Pekin Club Newsletter  out this month also. No rest for the wicked.

Glad to hear the Poultry Club going well. I am now Assistant Secretary Pekin Club. My son has been Secretary for quite awhile. However his business doesn’t give him much time to spare so I handle the correspondence etc which takes the load off him. We had a very good show in July in conjunction with the Ancona and Leghorn Clubs: 730 birds overall in the three breeds which isn’t too bad. Each Club runs its own show but in the same Pavilion. We run it at Newcastle (about 20 miles from Maitland) and it has become quite an event each year.

Regarding the Colour Standards: we do use the word permissable  from memory with the edging in the Blue Pekins and dusky legs in Black Pekins. As far as the Blue Pekin is concerned an anomaly appears to exist. In Australia it has been the practice to follow the British Standard  which calls for no lacing (I prefer to call it edging) in the Blue Pekin. However it also calls for darker hackles in the male. I have never found out how the Blue Pekins are breed in England. I would suspect double mated to get clear females. However our Blue Pekins in Australia are of the Andalusian Blue make up and if we were to be consistent they should be laced as is the Andalusian. The argument has been going for perhaps 30 years in Australia about the Blues. Some of diehards say they shouldn’t be laced yet these same people exhibit birds that are laced. Occasionally you do get female that are pretty clear of lacing but they are more grey than blue. It is very rare to get a good shade of blue that is clear of lacing. In actual fact we are trying to breed something against what it normally is. This is why we used the word permissable. I think dusky legs in the dark breeds of Pekins would fall in the same category. The B.P. Std allows this in Pekins.

Regarding the Red, Orange red eye: we have found of recent years many Pekins have had brown eyes and it’s taken a while to clean up the eye colour has improved. I can’t say we get much yellow eye but do get what is considered a light eye. A light eye in a Pekin out here is considered a defect and breeders make every effort to darken it up.

As far as the eye is concerned I would have settled for just a red eye for I remember the late Frank Gary who was Chairman of the Standard Committee of the ABA when writing to me some years ago and discussing the why and wherefore (whilst the research was being done for our standard) Frank would not compromise anywhere along the line. If it was to be red it was red.

I was surprised that you have received the part 3 of Gallus species as I sent by sea mail which usually takes quite awhile. Will be interested to hear your comments when you have studied it. Re the ISBN number I obtained ISBN for all my publications. May have omitted putting it on your copy.

Frank Fogarty in my opinion is doing good work on the barred Pekins. He said he sent you some feathers and photos but hadn’t heard from you. He thought perhaps the feathers may have been confiscated. He is a versatile chap in more ways than one and will be doing a paper on the barred project. He has a very practical approach and is forever searching for knowledge on the subject.