A Guide to Practical Breeding Philippine Lemons, 2012 | Page 4

era in Philippine cockfighting. It was the advent of imported roosters that came in from the
United States.
Now, forty years later as the sport experienced a welcome transformation from an ordinary Filipino pastime to a full blown industry, the bloodline is still very much alive and in use
by many Philippine breeders and cockers.
Thanks to the many Filipino breeders, mostly in Negros, who loved the bloodline and
stuck with it, through the years.
The birth of the lemons
Lance de la Torre told this writer that in the sixties there was a certain Dr. Javelona who
was importing and fighting with success the hulsey fowl.
A bit later, whether inspired by the impressive performances of the hulseys fought by Dr.
Javelona, or for any other reason, Don Amado Araneta began sponsoring the campaign of
Duke Hulsey here in the Philippines.
At that time derbies were not popular. The big timers then fought in hacks, conciertos
and mains. Like many of their contemporaries such as Eddie Araneta and the Rivero brothers
of Manila, the Plazas and Chiongbians of Mindanao, Amado Garcia of Davao, The Lacsons of
Negros, Nyor Dorong Paulin and Cong. Ed Kintanar of Cebu, and others who fought imported
chickens, Don Amado and son George Araneta opted to pin their hope on the imported hulseys.
The Duke brought with him here a number of his fowl. A great majority of these fowl
were battle crosses. There were his lemon hackles. There were also some birds with white under hackles. He also had varieties called the cecils and even a line called miss u. And, of
course, also his greys.
Perhaps the best performers were the lemon hackles as they became the most popular
and a by-word in Philippine cocking. These were his butcher-hatch-claret blend, the ancestors
of the Philippine lemons.
Again according to Lance de la Torre, it was Freddie Yulo, then a close associate of
Amado Araneta, who was responsible for spreading out the hulsey lemon hackles to the breeders in Negros Occidental. Where and when the hulsey lemon hackles were called the lemons
for the first time was not clear. It was believed however, that it was around this time that the
name was shortened to lemons.
Was Hulsey’s hatch-claret-butcher blend
a strain or a cross?
American breeder Owen Mcguiness was the man who bred for Duke Hulsey the butcher
hatch claret blend that was to become the lemons.
For sure the blend started as