Alan James On Large Moderns

Alan James is a quitely spoken chap but is straight-talking nonetheless. I can relate to his passion for the Pile colour, and it was good to catch up with him at the 2016 National show, where he won the award for Best Large Modern and got onto Championship Row. I put the following questions to him...

- Grant Brereton

Remind us of your win at the National. What other wins have you secured?

A very pleasing result, when after nearly a year’s preparation you get the top row. Piles are hard to breed you have to plan several years ahead. I have been very lucky over the years taking Best Large Modern at both the National and Federation shows, with both pullets and cockerels. I have also won a good few Large Hard Feather classes.

How long have you kept Modern Game, and is it just the large fowl or bantams as well?

I have kept large Moderns for about 15 years. I have also kept Bantams for about 20 years.

What varieties do you keep?

In large birds I started with BlackReds and moved onto Duckwings and Piles – the only standard varieties available.

How many large Pile do you breed per year?

I try to breed about 15 Piles per year, as I said earlier you have to plan ahead so you start with a good stock of pure females in both Pile and Black-Reds.

How do you breed them - i.e. Black-Red to Pile or Pile to Pile?

I put a Pile cock to both Pile and Black-Reds to get a few good Piles – I also get some yellow-leg Black-Reds and some green-legged Piles; all are useful in the breeding pens. If lucky, I get a nice Black-Red cock with yellow legs, which is the ideal cross on a Pile hen. I also put a Black-Red cock on Pile hens also with a good chance of a yellowlegged cock.

Pile on Pile would seem the obvious choice but I have found a lot of bad points came to the fore. But saying that you also very often get a few ghosts, these are kept and used on Dark Black-Red hens with very good results.

Do they need to be hatched early for size?