My ventures into bird breeding and showing began several years ago.
I had always bred animals such as guinea pigs and rabbits and had a keen eye for the best hay and ripest dandelions on the verge. Following this instinct one day, I left a winding country lane and stopped at a pet and garden store. Having wandered outside to see the display cages with their familiar budgies and canaries, I caught sight of what looked like a pair of strange chickens. These were in fact Kings. I was intrigued and managed to swap some guinea pigs for them - I was hooked.
After this I joined the British King Club. I then met Gary and Doreen Eaton and so joined the local London & Essex Club. I purchased further stock from S Goodman, K C Keller and Basil Jennings. Subsequently, I bred a dun hen which I entered for the Peterborough Championship Show. This bird won Best Young Bird and Best Self. The same bird went on to win the South Coast, London & Essex and Swansea Championship Shows - Best Self.
Encouraged by this success, I progressed to showing 25 to 35 birds each Championship Show, winning Lurgals Points System two years in succession for top marks gained at Championship Shows.
Having attained such awards and success with the breed, despite the setbacks common to us all, I set out on a new breeding programme for 2008/9. To this end I visited breeders in Germany, searching for top quality stock and have obtained the following:
2 Pr White
2 Pr Black
2 Pr Self Red
1 Pr Self Yellow
1 Pr Self Duns
2 Pr Blues
1 Pr Silvers
1 Pr Mealy
1 Pr Cream Checks
1 Pr Andalusians
The Kings are bred in a large loft, having separate nesting areas for each pair. The breeding boxes are approx. 3ft x 2ft, which works well and helps ensure that the youngsters do not get scalped by other parents. Each colour section are interbred in colour units, to obtain the strongest colour, ie Black Dun, Red Yellow, Black Andalusian, Mealy Cream, Silver Blue, Red Mealy.
I hope to breed 20 - 30 youngsters from this breeding pattern and, if I meet my quota, I shall play with moving birds around and changing pairs. I hope to produce some Browns, Chequered Khakis and Splash Reds/Yellows.
The feed for these birds comes from Gem Corn Store food at their Chichester shop. Various products, grains and minerals can also be obtained there, other products can be had from Richard Henderson at B Leefe & Sons Petworld Pigeon Supplies. Gem produce their own all-year high protein mix which is excellent for Kings.
