A Guide to Practical Breeding Philippine Lemons, 2012 | Page 3

The Philippine Lemons:
The legend continues
By Rey Bajenting
RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology
This account on the different lemon strains was first published in a regular issue of Pit Games Magazine, then as a
separate edition of Legends of the Pit, and finally in a compilation of the Best of the Legends of the Pit.
Original article was written in 2004.

The sugbo lemon, a strain developed by RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology.

The beginning
Yes, it was the great American cocker Duke Hulsey who, forty years ago, brought to the
Philippines the seeds of the tree that was to become the Philippine lemons, but it were the Filipino breeders, mostly from Negros, who nurtured them into what they are now.
In the 60’s the great American breeder Duke Hulsey brought over to the country the
lemon hackled red battle fowl he used in competing on behalf of Don Amado Araneta and son
Jorge ―Nene‖ Araneta. Most of these battle fowl were of Duke’s butcher-hatch-claret blend.
They were the predecessors of the Philippine lemons.
Whether Duke had ever set them into a strain or just produced them as battle crosses
was uncertain. Some of those he brought here might even be of different breeds as the late
Duke Hulsey had many bloodlines.
No body could tell now with certainty, as nobody seemed to have asked then. What was
important at the time was, no matter what they were, the hulseys were efficient killers.
Duke brought these fowl here in the 60’s yet. Those years were then considered a new