English hen is French No1

NOT content with electing an Englishman to the Académie Française, an English cock has been declared the most handsome in France to win the President of the Republic’s prize at the Salon de l’Agriculture in Paris.

The Buff Orpington raised by Meurthe-et-Moselle amateur Gérard Nivert at Laneuveville-devant-Nancy was chosen by the judges ahead of French varieties.

Most of the rest of the prizes in the concours général agricole at the International Farm Fair are for professional breeders but Mr Nivert won the amateur prize in a move that was greeted by other breeders as a reward “for work well done”.

The Orpington is an English-origin breed but the winning 5kg bird was raised in France. It is now on display in a cage emblazoned with the tricolore ribbon in the Basse Cour display area.

President of the French Hen Federation Jean-Claude Périquet said that amateurs had to be praised for their work: “Without them a dozen species would have disappeared from France 40 years ago – like the emblematic coq gaulois.” He added that hens were coming back more into favour with rural families because they “eat anything and cut household waste”.

See related story on Académie Française electing Prof Michael Edwards: Académie elects first ever Briton
Photo: Smudger94