Alexandre Hansenne

These three cocks below and some Dedoyard hens were the basis of the Hansenne Strain.
Bronze Chequer Cock      Direct from Deoyard               1860
Mosaic Cock                    A champion of Verviers     abt.1865
Blue Cock                        A champion of Verviers     abt.1866 

The bronze tint in the bars of many Hansennes even today is legacy from the original Dedoyard.
The Mosaic Cock and some time later a Blue Cock were purchased by Hansenne. In both instances he bought the entire lofts and killed off all the birds barring the Mosaic and Blue Cocks.
For more than 30 years Hansenne cultivated this strain without a single cross from another loft save only Mons. Vekemans, of Antwerp described as the King of the Belgium Colombophile
and the best strain in the World;
We have seen that one of the foundation cocks was a Mosaic. If a true Mosaic it must have carried a part red basic colour gene. I suspect that the red in this foundation stock was the recessive red, otherwise it is difficult to account for the vary rare reappearance of mosaics and still more rarely red, at long intervals in the history of a carefully conserved strain.without outcrosses for more than 30 years through generations of Blue Chequers and Blues. A Red Hansenne was not impossible. The recurrence of bronze in the dark chequers is also evidence of the presence of a recessive red inheritance.Note: there were at least two reds in the Hansenne loft of 170 birds on a visit by Dr. A Ward in 1896.
For those interested in the colour characteristics of the Hansenne strain, the following was the distribution of colour among the 196 birds in his final sale in Brussels Dec 16th 1903

Blue Chequer                   70
Black Chequer                 54
Blue                                  39
Light Blue Chequer           9
Dark Bronze                      1
Pencilled                            1
Plum                                   1
Mosaic                                1
Blue Chequer Pied             7
Black Chequer Pied           6
Blue Pied                           4
Dark Chequer Pied            1

Ref: The Creation of a Strain by Wing Commander, W.D.Lea Rayner M.B.E