A Guide to Practical Breeding Philippine Lemons, 2012 | Page 7

to advertise their birds as sweaters or other imported breeds.
It is understandable. They want buyers to believe that their birds are American breeds
over which they enjoy exclusive rights, and thus, are not easily accessible. Of course, on the
contrary, the lemons are readily available in Negros and other parts of the country.
What they might not have realized is that the sweater which was originated by Harold
Brown out of yellow-legged macleans might contain the blood of the hulsey lemon or vice
versa.
Francis Afable wrote in Pit Games no. 3:
―. . . this popular strain (sweater) started in the United States inside the breeding
farm of Harold Brown. He supposedly got a yellow legged mclean cock from Ted
Mclean and bred it over a mclean-leiper hen with substantial success in the mating. After
blending them the first year, breeding went back to the dad.‖
―These ¾ mcleans made history. Some breeders I talked with were saying that the
pea combed, yellow legged and lemon hackled Duke Hulsey lemon popular here is the
same strain as Harold Brown’s. The late Robbie White was said to have confirmed this
before he died.‖
According to the distinguished Negros breeders I talked with, the lemon blends with
most blood lines because it is a perfect combination of power in the hatch in it, speed in the
claret in it, and cutting ability in the butcher in it.
Bob Cuenca crosses the lemon with hatch-claret to increase power and speed. In effect,
Bob Cuenca was just adding more hatch-claret blood in proportion to the butcher blood.
Paeng Araneta blends it with the blue face, adding more hatch, to add gameness and
also power to his already quick 84s.
Juancho Aguirre has for years been winning in style with his lemon-cecil greys and
lately with lemon sweaters and lemon kelsos.
The Ampils have their own lemon-roundheads, lemon-dan grays, lemon-hatch blends.
And, of course, Lance de la Torre has his formidable lemon-boston roundhead crosses.
Joe Laureño, has been doing pretty well with his lemon-dink fair crosses.
Truly, indeed, Lance de la Torre summed it up in so few a words when he said: ―In
Negros you’re not considered a breeder when you don’t breed the lemon.‖
The talents of the Negros breeders
It could be the original hulsey lemons were not a breed but battle crosses that might not
be even related to one another. Most likely, the Negros breeders who got them were not breeding seed fowls but battle cocks. It could be only because of the talent of some of these breeders
that lemon strains were created.
These breeders created strains out of one individual brood cock. So the different lemon
strains may not be related to one another as they are mostly products of line breeding to a single hulsey lemon battle cock. These individual cocks might have come from different families
of lemon hackled hulsey fowl.
Definitely, the different lemon strains have different genetic composition as each of the
breeders of the lemon strains used different bloodlines in the hen side of the original matings