At last we’ve managed it! A yearbook of our own, albeit a make do and mend affair. The first step has been taken thanks to you the Belgian Club member. Last year it was “How shall we have it printed? How many photos can we include? What will it cost?” Those questions still need answering but at least we are in print thanks to you. Without all your contributions, adverts, articles, news etc., this would not be possible. It is truly a Club effort.
I was unable to include all the articles and apologise to those persons who wrote one that is not included here. I am sure there is now a basis for an annual or biennial Club Book and we may have solved the main problem of the printing, so start writing for 1979! As you can see everyone can contribute their experience with Belgians.
1978 is proving to be a busy year for the Belgian Bantam Club, which now has around 120 members, the highest number it has ever had.
Our Club Show, judged by Dick Clifford and Eric Green, attracted an entry of 188, and several new members showed there for the first time. The area club show is being held on 18th November at the Yorkshire Poultry Club Championship Show at Bailden. In the meantime, we have the National Championship Show at Alexandra Palace. For the second year running, we are having a Club stand at this event and, for the first time in the Club’s history, we will have a Yearbook to offer to new members as they join.
This Yearbook is a simple one, but we hope to make our next year’s into a thicker “Breed” book and include the standards for Belgian Bantams. Paul and I are most grateful to all of you who have responded to our requests and arm-twisting for articles for the Yearbook and we are grateful to Paul for putting the finished results in order and duplicating them.
I was looking through some newspaper cuttings and photographs recently that my father had collected on the Belgians. The extract from the Yorkshire Herald of Thursday December 11th 1913 showed a pair of white booted and millefleur d’Uccle that had won prizes in the shows of the season - Crystal Palace, York, Nottingham, Kendal, Aylesbury and the Dairy - and two things struck me. How alike, in many ways, were those first Belgians and the attractive so English looking booted, which alas seems to have disappeared from the scene. How the type of the Belgians has improved over the last half century and for this I believe our Club is much indebted to Mr John Sears, who has always been a great exponent of fullness in feather, hens with short backs and cocks of proper bantam size. The colour and markings of 1913 stand comparison but especially the hen of today is much improved - better muff and boule, short backed and cobby.
But it is about the Barbu d’Anvers that I was asked to write something! My earliest recollection at home was of laced-blue, quail, white, cuckoo, black and they were all very good; I should say in that order. The millefleur, porcelain and caillouté arrived later with the self-blue and blue-quail last.
I remember walking round the Belgians with Harry Fox at one of the Dairy shows after the last war when the d’Anvers were having rather a thin time and he said “you know a lot of people don’t know that the d’Uccle and d’Anvers are quite distinctive.” I must admit I had rather thought of them, one with a rose comb and the other with feathers on its feet, and it was a most engaging half hour listening to a very experienced old hand.
The historians I am sure will know, but the two breeds are quite distinguishable and may each be of distinct stock. Apart from the comb and the foot feather I have noticed that their stance is quite different: d’Anvers seem racier, as shown by one photograph I have of years ago, showing a laced-blue cock with one foot lifted off the ground and its spur proudly poised in characteristic style. Both male and female are smaller, especially so in quail, with muff and hackle feathers different in detail from the d’Uccle, the fanning and spreading forward of the wing when a cock is fussing around a hen are particular qualities I like.
They are generally not quite so full in feather as the d’Uccle, nor need to be, because they are smaller and here, particularly among hens, they tend to show less type. The distinctive colouring in millefleur and porcelain are not quite so strong, yet the cocks make up for this in that they are more spirited and the more entertaining of both breeds. I remember one very small blue-quail cockerel in an open wire enclosure that used to fly up on to the gate post each time feeding came round with a greeting crow that came from his heart!
When producing d’Uccle in quail and laced-blue I found the factors of single comb and foot feather were not too difficult to produce in two generations and this made an interesting point. d’Anvers blood could be and has been introduced to bring fresh blood into d’Uccle but, as the reverse does not seem possible, may this not be one of the reasons why d’Anvers have proved the more difficult of the two? Yet I have expressed a preference for the clean legged because, as one dear old friend said, they are tidier about their foot in bad weather! Incidentally in this experiment (producing quail and laced-blue d’Uccle), fixing the finer points of colouring and marking took longer.
If millefleur is the spectacular colour of the d’Uccle, I would say quail is of the d’Anver, judging by the exclamations of visitors seeing the breed for the first time, and then to add that a first class quail d’Anver cock is the most difficult of all to breed to the standards of our splendid book.
Making new colour varieties in a breed has always fascinated me. Some colours such as lavender or blue are pretty easy to establish, as the former is a straight recessive to black.
I made my original lavender d’Anvers by crossing a porcelain d’Uccle cockerel on to black d’Anvers hens. The results were blacks with red throats in the hens and red hackles in the cocks. All were rose combed and all feather legged. Those mated interse gave some lavender with straw saddles in the cocks, rose and single combs, feathered and clean legs. Wherever possible I selected birds with rose combs, clean legs and the minimum of straw and put them back to pure black d’Anvers. One should breed two generations a year. After the resultant blacks have been mated interse some self-lavender should appear if one is breeding large enough numbers.
Now after another cross with black and the resulting offspring mated interse one should have self-lavender d’Anvers, but they may carry the gene for single comb. So select the best two cockerels and pullets and mate them to any single combed breed. If on hatching any chicks are found to have single combs then its lavender parent should be scrapped.
In the 1950’s I set out to produce millefleur d’Anvers. This proved much more difficult. I used a millefleur d’Uccle and a black mottled d’Anvers. Feathered legs and single combs apart there is no direct relation between the colours. I had to use the millefleur d’Uccle twice, but I did produce some reasonable birds. I had the best of them penned for the Dairy Show together with some smallish Silver Pencilled Hamburgs, which I made with the aid of the Rosecomb bantam, when fowl pest struck and I lost every bantam I possessed. After that I only kept pedigree pigeons, as I could not bear the idea of years of work and recording being destroyed again.
Someone might try to produce self-creams. I tried - fairly easy until one tries to get rid of the lavender tail feathers. I gave up! Anyone going to make cuckoo d’Uccle? Should be pretty straightforward.
What a pity Terry had to suffer such a blow just when the fruits of all that work had been realised. I am sure there are several experimenters in the Club just ready to take up the challenge. I already know of one having made a start on cuckoo d’Uccle. - Editor
Of all the colours in poultry whether large or small fowl, the colour black - red or black-breasted red in the male and sa1mon breasted or partridge in the female, has always been popular in lots of breeds. But alas not for the little bearded Belgian. There may be a few on the Continent, but I have never seen any in the show pens in this country. However, there could be someone tucked away who has them or who is trying to make them, as I accidentally did. At least I produced something approaching the colour a couple of years ago in trying to make a bantam version of another breed - I will have to tell you the breed so that I can finish my story - the black-red Araucana bantam.
I crossed a very brassy lavender Araucana cock with a millefleur d’Anvers hen, and of the five chicks produced, two pullet chicks were brassy blacks with a few white feathers in the crest, but of the other three, two cockerels were black-breasted red, with near perfect rose combs. They were slightly crested but showed no sign of any millefleur or lavender in them. The final chick was a pullet and a perfect salmon-breasted partridge but a little bit on the double-laced side. However in crossing this little pullet back to her large counterpart, I produced the right thing, in Araucanas that is! So why not in Belgians, either d’Uccle or d’Anvers? Cross a lavender onto a millefleur and see what happens.
My first essay into the breeding and exhibiting of purebred poultry being with Barbu d’Anvers, they will always remain my special favourites.
I take a special delight in watching the cocks, after their mincing wing shuffle, throw back their heads, really winding themselves up, to produce a crow which is an unmistakable challenge. It’s not all bravado and bluff. Either through the surreptitious peck at feeding time or the terrier like worrying of one’s trouser leg, they display their true colours: full of pluck, almost to the extent of sheer foolhardiness. Many is the time that I have seen them beat a discretionary retreat having taken on the large marans cock, at least four times their size! Don’t get me wrong, however, as these same characters have perched on my arm and quite readily fed out of my hand.
Of all the more frequently kept colours I still think quail is the most striking, although laced blue and black mottled (Caillouté) are also very smart. I suppose I favour these three colours most, as cocks at any rate show much better type and size than the other colours, with the possible exception of cuckoo. The cuckoo hens in particular are generally very good especially in boule and beard, though often tend to look a bit long in the back. This is perhaps the biggest main fault in many of the colours of d’Anvers, though as a rule most of the birds we see in the show pens are either pullets or cockerels, and an older bird generally improves as regards type. Another contributory factor to the production of these large long-backed birds may well be hatching too early. With modern compounded foods the Belgians, hatched early, often grow far too large, particularly blacks and blues (a tip is not to change their food from chick crumbs too early). Hatching in May, June and July seems to be the soundest practice although several people hatch as late as September. If these later hatched birds are reared inside over most of the winter they will do as well as any hatched in May. Despite what I have just said if, when you hatch early, you do manage to produce small, typey birds (which in quails you are more likely to do anyway), hang on to them. Provided they have no main structural faults and the colour is reasonable, they will be the answer to problems of over large long-backed birds whenever you hatch. Egg size is also a pretty good indication of the size of the offspring, though not infallible (don’t forget to take the size of the cock into consideration). Keeping very close records of the weights of all eggs laid and of those I set for hatching over the past few years, I would say the following generalizations are reasonably true.
Do not take all that I have said as Gospel. It is primarily written to stimulate discussion. Remember that you are the person who knows your birds best and how they perform. What is true for one breeder’s stock may not apply exactly to your own. Keep accurate records. Don’t be discouraged by initial setbacks. Fix what your ideal is in your mind and remember there’s always another year. There is plenty of scope for the improvement of d’Anvers. Just pick a colour.
I should like to recommend Barbu d’Anvers. I became addicted ever since my children kept them as pets some twenty years ago. I now keep two small pens, one of quails and one of lavenders, under free range conditions in about half an acre of suburban garden. The birds’ attractive faces and colouring, and their social behaviour is an unending pleasure that can be enjoyed from the windows in winter and a deck chair in summer. Improbable as this may sound, the bantams do little harm in the garden (the vegetable patch is however enclosed) and a great deal of good. Without the encumbrance of feathered trousers, the d’Anvers can wander without harm to their plumage through bush and briar, eating grass and weed seeds, and enjoying particularly all kinds of animal life from insects to tadpoles. We do not in consequence suffer from such plant pests as greenfly, slugs and snails. All the litter from the pens - based on peat with toppings of grass cuttings or straw, goes onto the compost heap and eventually on the garden. We gave up pesticides and herbicides many years ago and only use chemical fertilizers when the bantams are shut up for the night.
Our neighbours - on four sides - have never yet complained of the cocks crowing and have even expressed their enjoyment of “nice country smells”. Straying through the fences is now no problem as each succeeding generation instructs the next on the dangers awaiting any youngster who goes beyond the flock’s boundaries. This “danger” comes in the form of a large flapping umbrella, kept for the purpose, but now rarely necessary. One of our first bantams (a kind gift from Mr J L Sears) known as “Little Missy” was an habitual truant and would spend a large part of the day high up in the branches of a neighbour’s sweet chestnut tree. When the wild birds mobbed her too much - thinking she was an owl - she would take to the air again and plane down on to her home ground.
As for breeding, I got such pleasure from rearing chicks under the chance broody that I have not got round to using an incubator, with its obvious advantages for obtaining the results one wants. However I confess to getting an enormous boost when my birds are successful in shows, and especially so if some young bird I have not thought much of, and parted with, proved to be a winner. One learns all the time, and my ambition is to produce a porcelain. Altogether I recommend any town dweller with some garden space and a craving for the “good life”, to start off with d’Anvers. Here you have interesting animals around, which are not dependent for their happiness on human company, yet enjoy this if encouraged. Here you can have eggs and meat from birds which have never seen the inside of a battery cage, broiler house or processing station, but have had healthy and fulfilled lives. And if the d’Anvers walk the garden they walk, as they should, without any of those frills so out of place in what is really a jungle bird.
After buying a pair of blue-quail d’Anvers five years ago I have found them most delightful little birds. Now I have four other colours and have had reasonable success with all; my most satisfying being Best Belgian at Alexandra Palace 1977, with a very good type black mottled cock.
My one regret is that of the people who purchased birds from me few can be persuaded to join the Belgian Club, though I do know of two or three who have joined.
I would like to thank all the members who have helped me build my stocks over the past years, and I am sure, like me, they are people to whom this beautiful little breed becomes an addiction. May many more become addicted, for they are surely one of the most delightful of our bantams?
Ornamental, I most definitely find, is the appropriate term where Belgian Barbu d’Uccle are concerned. Having kept this variety of Belgians for several years now, I find that they engender far more interest from passers-by than any other breed of poultry that I keep. Most of my poultry pens are situated in a garden that is some ten feet below road level, thus summer visitors to our neck of the woods are able to enjoy a grandstand view as they stroll by.
The most distinctive feature of the d’Uccle is, of course, the feathers that adorn their legs, and it is this that triggers off countless comments and questions from these casual observers. Amid the “oohs!” and “aahs!” and “what are those?” comes a whole clutch of nouns to name these footings. Not once have I heard them called such by the way, but plus fours, leggings, wellies, socks, boots, slippers, spats, breeches, flip-flops, flippers even, are commonly expressed.
I well remember on one occasion though, when it wasn’t a Belgian of the feathered kind who became the centre of attraction but a lady, who, after enquiring what breed the bantams were, stated that she had originally hailed from Belgium. Both she and her lady companion thought the d’Uccles’ hairy legs extremely sexy. Their screams of laughter amid the general hubbub of crowing and cackling going on at feeding time attracted no fewer than seventeen onlookers. Small wonder that feeding time takes twice as long as it should on occasions!
Lest anyone should feel that they are a delicate breed I would hasten to add otherwise. I find that the three colours that I keep - black mottled, porcelain and millefleur - thrive under natural conditions and, if chosen for showing, stand confinement well. They breed readily without any need for trimming footings and vulture hocks. I would add here that when the bantams run at large, these would get broken to some extent anyway.
All my hatching is done naturally by broodies and I find Belgians hatch well when conditions are normal. However, millefleur and porcelain chicks in hot dry weather in summer sometimes have difficulty in emerging from their shells even though they have chipped right the way round. This is because the skin or membrane inside the shell becomes uncommonly tough and leathery in these circumstances. The few chicks which I have come across imprisoned in such a situation promptly make vigorous movements to stand up, on release, proving every time that they are not weaklings. A few drops of lukewarm water sprinkled over the eggs near hatching time increases humidity and helps alleviate the problem.
Finally, if someone would like to have an attractive, different, tame and affectionate breed of bantam I would not hesitate to recommend Belgians.
Black plumed sheen
Kissed with flake of snow,
Splashed white creatures, muffed and hackled,
Promenading, cock and hens together.
Regal stare through tri-lobed beard
That smothers gently beak and eye;
Soft too the flow of plumaged mane
And spreading footing on cushioned feet.
Besprinkled d’Uccles my garden to grace,
Descendants from some Lowlands’ farm.
I was surprised to find that I have now been keeping black mottled d’Uccles for six years. During these few years I have come across a number of problems but have always enjoyed breeding and showing this attractive colour. I am writing about some of their advantages and disadvantages in the hope that it will be of some help to any new fanciers starting with this colour as complete beginners as I was.
My first seasons’ breeding was something of a disaster as I reared fifteen cockerels. They were of good type but all had exceptionally large wattles. It was particularly disappointing when most of them ended up in the pot as they were all very tame and had become personal friends; they were not very tasty either. I was then left to begin from scratch again at the start of the next year. However I have not suffered from the problem of large wattles since.
Markings are particularly important to bear in mind when making up the breeding pen. I try to avoid breeding from birds that are too gay, having large splodgy markings, but at the same time to use birds that are evenly marked, paying particular attention to the shoulders and wings of females. At the moment there are many females about with black shoulders and wings. While placing importance on markings, type must never be forgotten, similarly foot feather, boule, beard and muff, eye colour and size should all be considered.
Black mottleds do not need as much show preparation as some other colours. It is easy to maintain a beautiful green sheen (birds with a purplish tinge should be avoided). A stock bird with a few red feathers will usually produce birds with a good green sheen. Although black mottleds cannot be shown in their first year they have a reasonably long show life and in some birds markings continue to improve over several years.
Last year for the first time my mottleds produced some whites much to my delight. These now add another colour without an extra breeding pen.
For a breeder looking for quick results I would not recommend black mottleds but for someone prepared to have patience and perseverance they are a very satisfying colour to keep. It can be very disappointing when a promising youngster moults out as a poorly marked adult, but it is a real pleasure to breed a good black mottled.
Some years ago at the Club Show I bought my first Belgians, a pair of black d’Anvers. I liked the colour but I also liked the challenge of breeding a colour that was in only three or four hands. My first year’s breeding produced a good cock bird that won at the following year’s Club Show, and in various classes that it was shown in at other shows. However some of the fun went when breeding blacks seamed to take off and a number of people started to keep them (sad to say the interest has since waned). Also my interest in Belgians had begun to move towards d’Uccle. This was sparked off by a beautifully kept quail d’Uccle cock with a wealth of foot feather owned by Eric Green. Eric was experiencing breeding problems with quail at the time and couldn’t help set me up with a trio.
It was at this point that I decided why not a combination of black and d’Uccle? Black d’Uccle! My first thought was where do I start? There appeared to be none in this country but Veronica Mayhew suggested I get in touch with Mr Ward and by a stroke of good luck he had a basically black cock. This had been thrown from his breeding a blue d’Uccle. The cock had white in his beard, flights and footings but otherwise was of good eye, type and colour.
In the first year of breeding I obtained three white hens for mating with the cock. One hen died, one didn’t lay and the other laid seven eggs and ever since has been barren. In the end I settled for a black d’Anvers hen and hatched two chicks late in the season. Both of them had rose combs and very slight feathering on their legs. The following year I fixed the single comb by mating father to daughters. The comb was fixed but the foot feather was still very poor and looked to be the main problem. The next year I just managed, after the Club Show, to get some eggs down using the original cock bird before it died. The resulting chicks varied but I was able to select one cockerel of good type and colour that had no hocks, good shank feather but no footings. Also one pullet of similar quality. The main problem that I could see was that I was never going to be able to fix good foot feather by breeding these two together.
My dilemma for this year was, therefore, to decide what birds to use for breeding. I finally decided to put the black cock from last year’s breeding to the blue d’Uccle hens that Mr Ward had created and were now in my possession. There were two factors in favour of this idea. Firstly many of the blue pullets from last year had tended to be dark and secondly my original black cock had been blue bred. The only problem that I could foresee was that some of the blues were breeding brown in the wing and hackle feathers. Imagine my joy when at the end of this season I had three excellent type pullets of good colour, foot feather and hocks. Also a similar cockerel and one that was not quite such a good colour. There were also several other cockerels whose only fault was not enough feathering on their toes, and perhaps a little more wattle than I would have liked. Mind you I’m not against a little bit of wattle in d’Uccle. The Club standard does say “wattles as small as possible” whereas the d’Anver standard says “rudimentary only, preferably none”.
My joy, however, was short lived. It is said that you shouldn’t count your chickens before they’re hatched; perhaps it should be “don’t count your chickens before they are adults” because by adulthood I had been reduced to two pullets and three cockerels. The best pullet and cockerel both developed head and leg weaknesses and several of the other cockerels developed the brown feathers I had mentioned earlier. None the less each year I have improved the blacks and I have got good pullets to breed from next season. Where do I go next year? Well there are several possibilities:
I suspect I shall be using a combination of the above possibilities. Of course I could always use that cuckoo cock that I produced this year!!!
Whites. These are the most common off-colour and are in several hands.
Blues / Blue Mottleds. I don’t know whether there are any more of these around. I have produced a nice cockerel this year but the next step I think will be to put a d’Anvers in to get the lacing and the colour spot on - yet another long road to follow.
Quails. Last year the remaining fertile cock was put to a single comb d’Anvers hen. This year the offspring were put back to their father. I’ve not heard from Eric Green about how he fared but I do hope he has produced some cockerels. My old cock turned out to be infertile, but by sheer luck I managed to hatch two quail pullets out of my black hatching.
Lavender and Lavender Mottleds. There are several of these in three or four hands. The mottleds appear to be better quality particularly with regard to feather. My lavenders are very poor in feather quality although their type is good.
The first Belgian remembered was a quail d’Anvers hen shown by Robby Thompson in 1945. It went around the shows for many years with mixed success, mostly owing to the fact that people and judges didn’t know what it was.
He never had a cock to mate with it so unfortunately the breed and colour died here for over thirty years. In the 1950’s Willy Hall (who was the poultry reporter for Farm Week) obtained some porcelain d’Uccle eggs from Charles Mayhew from which were hatched a couple of cocks. Also in the fifties Robby Thompson’s brother came over on holiday from the USA and brought a sitting of eggs of mottled d’Uccle. Some hens resulted from this sitting, which were mated with Dilly Hall’s cocks. The first chickens were mostly black mottleds with unfortunate red patches. Then blues started to appear that were of a truly excellent colour. These were distributed and continued to be shown during the ensuing years. About three years ago Martin Baxter had a pair of these lovely blue hens, which unfortunately when they were sold seemed to be the end of a line and they have now disappeared from the local fancy.
Lurgan Show put on a class for Belgians in 1948 that has continued without a break since. Some years there were only a couple of birds, which nevertheless maintained an unbroken line. Four years ago Rendal Henderson showed a lavender d’Anvers cock with much success and the following year Trevor McCullough showed some excellent blacks from which he bred many birds. These have been subsequently spread about.
When we had five members in 1975, Emile Swann started the local “Ulster Society of the British Belgian Bantam Club” and he must be commended for the amount of work he put into promoting Belgians here. We are now in a healthy position with regard to d’Anvers though we feel the d’Uccles have gone back. There were too many large untypey birds used in the rush to acquire stock four years ago. We now hope that in the next few years we will be able to show at the Club Show and win!
You will be pleased to hear that Mr D Cochrane from Duns, Berwickshire has now almost fully recovered from his recent illness. He recently spent a short time in hospital and because of this was obliged to reduce his stock of Belgians considerably. At the moment he has only two cocks and three hens. However next year he hopes to breed as many as possible from these quail d’Anvers and intends to add another colour in d’Anvers to his stock. Just recently he was offered a trio of very nice Scots Grey bantams but refused the offer, as he would rather stick to Belgians.
Since he started to show quail d’Anvers in 1974 he has won some seventy awards including sixteen specials, all by his quails.
He reports that Belgians are more frequently appearing in shows in Scotland now. There were quite a fair number in the Belgian class at Ayr Poultry Club Championship Show last February, but only two of the exhibitors were Belgian Club members. He won first and second in female class and had third and reserve with his cockerel. He also won the rose bowl at East Calder (Central Scotland Poultry Society Show) for Best Any Other Variety. So it seems Belgians are at last becoming more popular over the border.
We have kept Belgian bantams for twenty-five years and have wondered for the past twenty what their stock was like in their country of origin. We decided last year that we would if possible take our Spring Bank Holiday in Belgium. Despite problems with the car we were, with the help of Msr Bob Massart, at last able to realise our dream. Within a few days of receiving his letter saying everything was arranged we were heading for the white cliffs of Dover. Arriving in Zeebrugge at about 12.30am Saturday, we stayed overnight in Blankenberg and after lunch went to call on Bob in La Hulpe. He is a very dear friend to us and has attended Reading Show on several occasions. After spending a pleasant afternoon with Bob, who by the way helped us with our shopping as we don’t speak a lot of French, we travelled on to Lens St. Servais, to meet the Jenott family.
Msr Jennott, whom we had only met once before at Reading, introduced us to his family and they made us all very welcome. After an excellent evening meal we sat and talked Belgian bantams with Msr Jennatt and Hubert his eldest son, drinking some hot stuff from Rumania: Needless to say we all slept very well. On Sunday, while our children visited the Jennott family home, we accompanied Msr Jennott to the home of Msr and M Caprasse. Msr Caprasse, who has also been to Reading, keeps d’Uccles in black mottleds, porcelains, millefleurs, whites, self-blacks and cuckoos. It was in the two latter colours that their best birds were to be found. We enjoyed a pleasant couple of hours around his pens, handling and talking Belgians with the: help of our interpreter Msr Jennott. We then went on to visit Msr and M d’Artienne who only had a trio of millefleurs but also keep a large stud of Chinese Owls and excellent rabbits (Belgians of course!).
On Monday we went to the home of Msr and M Blomme who live in Hanis where Flemish was spoken. But with M d’Artienne translating Flemish to French for Msr Jennott and Msr Jennott translating French to English for us we didn’t do too badly. The Blommes had several varieties of ducks and geese that we had not seen before. They also had a herd of bantam goats, which are very beautiful, and running about amongst these was a beautiful black longhaired wild boar (domesticated).
We spent the afternoon shopping and after tea we went to the home of Msr and M Van Acker. He is the secretary of the Belgian Bantam Club in Belgium. They had excellent d’Uccles in lavender, mottled, white, black mottled, porcelain and millefleur, all housed in a very attractive tailor made unit directly behind their beautiful home. Through our interpreter we talked about what we in England think are the good points of the breed and on these we were all in agreement.
On Tuesday, accompanied by Msr Massart, we visited another fancier and then spent the rest of the day sightseeing, returning home to the Jennotts for another excellent meal and to say our goodbyes.
All in all a fantastic holiday, something we’ve always dreamed about which happened right out of the blue, for which we are very grateful to all the people concerned.
Our first Belgians were porcelain d’Uccle, which we purchased from Mr Sears in 1956. I well remember the trio, a small cock, which was of good type, but had “stubby” wings and so was to be used in the breeding pen only; a very nice hen, small but well marked but inclined to be like a Pekin for type; and a vigorous young hen, whose plumage was too blue for high awards at shows. When we purchased these birds Mr Sears very kindly put all the porcelains he had for sale at the time in his penning room, and so we were able to select, with his help, as good a trio as was available. The best hen won several firsts for us, but we were naturally more interested in establishing our own stud of porcelains than in running after prize cards.
I mentioned above that the cock had “stubby” wings. At that time very few cocks were ever shown apart from a small number at the Club Show and at the Dairy Show, as they all suffered from this one fault. The feathers across the wingbow just didn’t develop properly and remained as small stubs usually brownish rather than straw in colour. The remainder of the wing, that is the bars, the primaries and the secondaries, tended to be barred with brown. This barring was more or less confined to the males but it could be seen occasionally on pullet feathers.
Our immediate aim was to try to reduce the stubbiness in the progeny we bred and since we only had one colour to begin with, we were able to hatch a large number of youngsters, and so have a good selection to choose from. From the breeding pen the first year, we produced three useful birds, two cockerels that were definitely less stubby than their father, and a very appealing pullet, that turned out to be too “gay” as a hen but was very useful nevertheless, in the breeding and show pen. The cockerels were on the large side, and one was too blue, but, as I said, “definitely less stubby”. The majority of the cockerels bred in the first few years were very stubby and brown on their wings, and progress was slow, but at least noticeable.
Our first real breakthrough came in 1958 when we produced a very nice small cockerel, with really quite passable wings, but he was cream rather than straw. We showed him as a cock in the breeding pen class at Reading, as we always liked to support that class, and put a cock that was much better colour but stubbier in the straight class for porcelain Barbu d’Uccles. Terry Jones was judging the Club Show that year and spotted the breeding pen and said it was the best porcelain male he had seen for years, and asked why we hadn’t entered it in the Belgian classes.
Another problem that affects the males rather than the females is the poor tail plumage. This arises because the blue in porcelain is really lavender, as can be seen at a glance by examining the tail of a cock. The tail feathers are never the quality of a millefleur, they are frequently short, or, if long, then stringy, and quite often fretted. Once again the only way of improving tail feather is by careful selection of breeding stock.
The females during these years were very nice; just the occasional one still showed traces of the barring, but we never kept such a bird. Obviously, we produced hens, like the one original hen, which were too blue - that is the pea shaped blue spot on each feather was too heavy and so the straw ground colour didn’t show sufficiently. Usually these females were also “smutty”, the ground colour being peppered with blue. Some hens had noticeably narrow feathers resulting in a very small blue and white spot. We endeavoured to breed from hens with the broadest feather, since narrow feather is usually poor quality, and also because the photos of Belgians when they were first bred in this country depict well spangled birds, not the lightly-tipped birds we see in the photos of American d’Uccle.
There was a steady improvement in the sixties in the overall quality of our porcelain males, and today the birds seen in the show pen, although few in number, are very different from those seen twenty years ago. Two of the best we have ever bred were 1960 and 1972 hatched cocks. The former was easily one of the best porcelain males we have ever seen; he was good type, although he didn’t have as much boule as he might have had, but this was not badly lacking either; he was a superb colour, really bright straw evenly spangled with blue and white on every feather and had enormous footings and well formed hocks (not big and floppy as is sometimes the case) and smooth, bright straw wing bows; he had a neat head too, a small comb and very small wattles. So many porcelains that have been shown over the years have had poor coarse combs.
The 1972 hatched cockerel went on to win best d’Uccle at the Club Show in 1976. He had a great deal of character and was more confident than a lot of porcelain males which helped in the show pen. We are now showing a son of his and have two yearling males also from him. All have only a few stubs.
We have found that breeding porcelain to porcelain eventually results in loss of depth in ground colour that is, it becomes wishy-washy. In order to combat this, and also to provide fresh blood, we have crossed the porcelains from time to time with millefleurs. From this mating, pure (in appearance) porcelains and pure millefleurs are produced. The ground colour on the female porcelain is immediately improved. I have seen one or two hens shown that were too rich in ground colour, nearly apricot, but I imagine this only happens if you consistently cross with millefleurs.
Porcelain hens are usually better type than cocks; the best have better boules, better muffs and beards, and so usually receive the honours at large and small shows alike, unless a breeder of porcelains is judging. Over the years we have had some good hens (at least we consider them to be good), but in our eyes the outstanding bird that we have bred is the hen that was Best d’Uccle in the Club Show in 1974 and Best Belgian at the Area Club Show in 1977. She really is excellent type, beautifully marked, and a vigorous bird. We have been showing her daughters during the last two years; one was Best Belgian at the Club Show in 1977, but we prefer the older hen.
I wonder if we will ever produce another hen of the same calibre again? And when will the next outstanding cock appear? In the 1980's? Still, there would be no challenge if such birds could be bred at the drop of a hat.
Dear Paul, Thank you for your plea - little do you know what you ask! I am hopeless at putting pen to paper and certainly not qualified to write about Belgian d’Anvers. I surely know what they should look like and try to achieve one or two right birds, but I’m afraid with me it’s more luck than good management. I choose my breeding pen with some care from the few birds I keep and every year say “no hatching after June”, but I have never managed that and it’s more like August before I finish, which means slow growing chicks. I have Japanese as well, which are very good broodies and find if I mix Belgian and Japanese eggs under the hens they are far less likely to savage a straying chick. I think they must recognise their chicks by colour. It’s been a rotten summer here and I’ve had to keep them indoors much more than usual.
This summer we had a crowd of Irish tinkers who took possession of the common above the farm - eventually they left but abandoned a little King Charles cross dog. I used to take food up for it but couldn’t catch it and one day I went up and found this game hen with six chicks under the same gorse bush as the dog occupied, very newly hatched. She was as wild as the dog but the chicks were too new to be wild so I caught them and then the hen came to them. She has reared five; I think three cocks and two pullets. They are the most independent birds I have ever had. I meet them all over the place and am beginning to wonder how one eventually controls them, short of close penning. The little dog has left the site but I have had news of him today, still in the district, so I hope somebody will feed him.
I daresay most of you will by now be wondering if those early hatched birds really are as good as they promised to be or whether the late arrivals will make it in time for Reading ’79. Perhaps you are disillusioned about this colour, or determined to breed 50 of that next year. What honours will your birds be bringing home for you with this winter’s show season already on us and Ally Pally almost here.
Just what has 1978 been like for us so far: I suppose chronologically we must start with the Reading Show where some new members perhaps acquired stock or existing members new birds, new blood and new aspirations. Despite the change of venue most of the Belgian Club exhibitors managed to turn up, showing 188 exhibits in all. Dick Clifford and Eric Green (judging the Club Show for the first time), both up from Cornwall did us proud. Best Belgian was a very typey millefleur hen shown by Mr D Crook of Norfolk, showing at the Club Show for the first time and following his success at Alexandra Palace last year. Best d’Anvers was a very nice typey cuckoo hen owned by Miss Gail Asplett, who only became a member that day. There was plenty of chat, discussion, a well-attended A.G.M. and then what a Sunday morning!
Barry Davis and I arrived about lunchtime to find at least half the exhibits missing, and exhibitors busily packing away their birds. Only then did we learn of the blizzard that was threatening in the West. All fanciers from South Wales, Cornwall and the West Country had beaten a hasty retreat in an effort to get back before being cut off by snow.
Alan Davies and Mrs Frost from Pembrokeshire, returning by a different route, were able to get through. Alan reached home late that same night while Mrs Frost put up with a relation and eventually got home a couple of nights later.
The Cornish Fanciers seemed to be in a worse case; the M4 reputedly blocked and most of the other roads in the South West impassable. Eric Green and Dick Clifford in one car followed by Clarence Ellis in his managed to force their way through to Exeter driving between walls of snow on the M4! Despite attempting to leave on the main Plymouth road both were just too late as the snowplough gang had decided to finish for the night. Back into Exeter where they had to shovel, bounce and manhandle both cars into the Railway Station Car Park followed by a long, cold and hungry wait for the train into Cornwall. All arrived safely home that evening, returning to collect their cars later in the week.
Unfortunately this fact deprived many of the Belgian Fanciers of the chance to chat with the judges, or in fact many other fanciers, which is always one of the main benefits of this marvellous two day show, let us hope that last year’s experiences do not deter members from travelling up to the next Club Show at Newbury next February, and that the weather is kinder to us.
Unfortunately we have not had much news of the various successes Belgian exhibitors must have had during the course of the year. Mr Pearce had Best Belgian at Royal Cornwall and Messrs C and V Mayhew were on the winning trail again at the Royal Show at Stoneleigh in July. This time it was a millefleur hen that eventually want on to win Best Ornamental. Congratulations!
As far as I can ascertain most people have not experienced the best of years as regards hatching. Especially early on in the season when the winter damp and cold rather dragged itself out well into April. This seems to have been the case for most breeds not just Belgians. Fertility doesn’t appear to have been very good and even those eggs that have been fertile have been difficult to hatch. The damp summer also posed problems for those using incubators. However, judging from one or two comments, several people have a good number of youngsters coming along or ready for sale or showing. One member is even reported to have bred about 150 millefleur d’Uccles so somebody at least must have had more luck.
I found that the later hatched birds appear to be doing well and fertility and hatchability were much higher during July and August. It has been more a case of culling hard with Barry and myself as we both appear to have hatched a high proportion of mismarked youngsters this year. I expect that after Alexandra Palace, Veronica will no doubt have more up to data information concerning this year’s breeding results, which will probably be included in one of her forthcoming newsletters.
Membership has reached an all time high, around the 120 mark. So far this year we have 20 or more new members and I expect several more will join as this year’s young stock is sold.
I was surprised to hear that Dick Clifford had not been well; in fact he has not been to any shows since April due to trouble with his legs. He has just about been able to maintain his own stock and garden. However you will be pleased to know that he is making a steady recovery and hopes to be able to travel to shows once more this winter, although he will not be going to London. Hopefully there will be an opportunity for all Club members to discuss their year’s trials and tribulations at the Club Show next February, weather permitting!
My first introduction to Belgian bantams was at a Crystal Palace Show. I was only a boy at school, it must have been about 1926 or 27 and I had only then read about them. I wrote to Mr Kenneth Ward, the founder of the English Belgian Bantam Club imagining, as a boy would, that the cost of his birds would be about £1.00 each. I was horrified to learn that millefleurs were £18.00 a trio and porcelain £20.00! However when I wrote back and said I was only a schoolboy he replied at once, that at the end of the breeding season he would endeavour to let me have two trios for £5.00 each. Thcse duly arrived and were obviously, now I know, well worth £25.00 a trio. Those were the foundations of my stud of Belgians which gradually increased until for many years I used to have two pens each of the following:
Barbu d’Uccle: millefleur, porcelain, caillouté (black mottled), white, quail and attempts in the last few years to produce cuckoo and blue.
Barbu d’Anvers: quail, cuckoo, black, white, blue and attempts to produce millefleur, porcelain, ermine and other oddities.
This resulted each year after the breeding season, in a total of some 150 adults and at least 500, if not more, young stock!
When I started with Belgians there was no club actually in operation. I can just remember Richard Terrot, the previous secretary, as well as many of the older fanciers: C A M Wood of Chippenham, Mr Blackwood and many others. Harry Fox of Matlock always had a few good birds and was very helpful to me - I never bought a bird from him, he always gave them to me! Mr Ward was the kindest, most knowledgeable and wonderful man one could ever meet. His elder son always kept a few Belgians as pets, while his younger son, Mr Cecil Ward, had a very fine stud and ill health was the only reason he had to dispose of it. He is, to my mind, one of the best authorities on Belgians today, with a keen sense of the finer points of type and colour.
I am very sorry to have had to dispose of my stud and it is the first time since I was sixteen that I have had no bantams, but I was very unwell when I made this decision. A year or so later my large stud of pigeons went too. However I have made a wonderful recovery so all is well, but I am not going to play with fire and start them again.
I am not certain of the date when the club was revived with Mr Ward as President and myself as Secretary, but it has always flourished although it meant much hard work in the first place. I think the club today is doing very well indeed under the secretaryship of Veronica Mayhew. Her newsletters are excellent and there are a fine body of fanciers lending her their support. Having been president/secretary of various clubs in the past when letters often totalled 30 a day I know only too well how much work she must undertake.
I think that millefleur, porcelain and caillouté d’Uccles and quail, cuckoo and black d’Anvers are even better than in the past. Let us hope that the club continues to prosper.
After starting keeping bantams as a schoolboy of eleven, I had several breeds in the first couple of years. Then I came across my first Belgians, a trio of millefleurs from the sale of Mr Sugden’s stock. From that moment I knew which breed was for me and selling all my other breeds I started to specialize in these beautiful birds. I was lucky at the time to live very close to one of our oldest members, Edgar P Morton, who took me to see other stock (Belgians being few and far between in the fifties). Then at my first Bingley Show, Edgar introduced me to John L Sears. I will always be indebted to them both, for from this meeting I was asked by Mr Sears to send all my birds down to him. Halifax to Surrey. 250 miles. I thought “how will I manage the train fare on my pocket money”, but I agreed and managed it.
Some two weeks later the rail van arrived with my baskets and two more. I opened them to find my own birds plus two more trios, one of millefleurs and another of porcelaines, a new colour for me. There was also a letter saying which of my birds was of any use and how to mate the new stock to breed as many chicks as possible. What a start from a really true fancier. Since those early days when the Club had about thirty members, and one could count on only half a dozen regular exhibitors, the Belgian has come at the forefront of the fancy, and can now boast of over 120 members. For the first time I can remember a year book has been produced. This is due to the excellent secretaries that the Club has been blessed with. J L Sears seeing the club through the lean years, breeding hundreds of birds to distribute round would be fanciers and the present secretary, Veronica Mayhew, who has been very successful in stimulating a tremendous amount of interest in the breed through our newsletters and tours round fanciers and shows.
I can always remember looking at my first coloured standard and thinking “look at all the different colours of Belgians”. Well, now we have most of them on view at the annual Club Show; this is no doubt due to the increased membership and it pleases me no end to see all these “off colours” exhibited. But what about the most colourful of them all: the partridge shown alongside the quail hen. Has anyone ever seen one, or if not, know how they were bred?
In summing up, I would say the Belgian is here to stay, and with so many colours and two varieties to meet the demands of the exhibitor or fancier it has so much to offer. This, I think, in return has helped the breeds, for with so much competition the birds seem to get better all the time. Here’s wishing good luck to the club in the future.