The brown red Pekin when bred and shown to its standard colour perfection. is undoubtedly one of the most striking coloured of the Pekins on the show bench today.

The combination of a gloss green ground colour on the chest ,body, footings and tail, over- laid by brilliant lemon on the hackles, backs and wing bows is required. In both male and female, the neck hackle is striped with black, which enhances the overall appearance. In both Male and female the striking contrast of finely lemon-laced chest feathering against a green-black ground colour completes a very attractive bird. The females shoulders and backs should be free of all colour including ,edging or shafting other than glossy black, as opposed to the males lemon back & shoulder colour. The top- colour of the males however is never as light as the breast lacing be, however the desired specimen must not have back, wing bow, shoulders and coverts a deeper shade as is seen in Black reds.

JUDGING THE BROWN RED PEKIN

In judging Brown-Red Pekins, the Standard calls primarily for "chest lacing" (of a golden/straw) in both males and females, starting at the throat; with shoulders, back and tail coverts light straw in males and neck hackles and sickles finely striped with black in males. Females have only the light straw neck hackle finely striped with black and lemon chest lacing. Remainder of the body and footings not coloured in either sex and to be solid black. Wings, primaries – “crow winged” ie. solid black with no gold or lemon edging to any of the wing feathers whatsoever.

Two other colors are permissible in the Brown-Red, ie Black Breasted Brown-Red - as above, but with no chest lacing (male); Streaky Breasted Brown-Red - as above by streaks of light straw on the chest as opposed to lacing (male). (Similar to streaky breasted Pile OEG). Often these three colour combinations are exhibited in the one class and I have seen many a judge discard both the black breasted or the streaky breasted birds simply because he/she was not familiar with the breed requirements The key to establishing if a bird is an eligible brow-red in the correct class or category is always the top colour, thee Breast and the hackle colour distinction

FEMALE COUNTERPARTS other than laced -breasteds

Female counterparts to the Streaky-Breasted Brown-Red should have the streaking of the required lemon shade down the chest as in the Standard Brown-Red, and Standard Brown-Red colouring on the rest of the body. Counterparts to a Black Breasted brown red will have a solid black breast with no lacing but must carry lemon neck hackles that are finely striped with black

COLOUR MISCONCEPTION

Too many breeders and exhibitors a showing Brown red females on the show bench that are neither eligible for the Laced breasted brown red class or the Black breasted class, due primarily to the fact that they are black birds with only a hint of red in the neck and not defined lacing or striping in the hackles.

I categories these birds as “red neck Blacks” which are obviously derivatives of Brown reds that have probably had infusion of Black or white and the extent of the dilution of their brown red colour is often evident by the lack of colour definition in their hackles,

Whilst they will be undoubtedly excellent breeders if the type is right, they should not be on the show bench particularly if the neck striping has no clarity. In most cases these red neck birds will have an abundance of rich green sheen and can often be extremely valuable in the black breeding pen

PITFALLS

Breeders need to be extremely diligent in monitoring the shades and extent of any particular shade of lemon they use in a breeding pen. The darker mahogany is not encouraged and must b bred away from, It is sometimes necessary to use this colour to improve other points within a stud, however, care is required not to over stamp the colour of a non standard bird into your breeding program.