Blakliz, and the breeding techniques we applied as example, demonstration and guide to practical breeding. We hope it will help. Foreword: Making the Hard Easy In pursuit of the objectives of this book to make breeding the game fowl as simple to the layman as possible, we cite our experience in creating our own bloodline, the blakliz, as exam. From this breeding he had 17 black birds with white specs in them and over 40 brownred looking birds, he then crossed these back on the Brown Reds-having the Kearny White Hackle in them and Hatch blood. They came all dark fowl with green legs. Mike gave Lun Glimore 6 hens and one dark red cock to breed over them. Here are some tips on how you can be an effective of breeding a gamefowl. First, you must have enough space. Space is the first thing that you must have when you are planning to breed a different gamefowl. The size of the farm will dictate on how many you can produce every season. There are two different methods of breeding when creating or maintaining a strain. There is single breeding and there is group breeding. Single breeding is exactly how it sounds – a cock bred with a single hen or rotating that cock with three or four hens that are individually penned. This should be done about every two or three days. The good thing about gamefowl breeding as a business though is that, locally nowadays, there exist a big and lucrative market for fighting cocks. Many beginners get their initiation into cockfighting and gamefowl breeding usually through family or friends.
- Gamefowl Breeding Methods List
- Gamefowl Breeding Record Book
- Gamefowl Breeding Methods For Sale
- Gamefowl Breeding Method Breeding Program
Are You Raising Chickens as Pets, Or Raising Chickens for Profit?
Reading Time: 9minutes
By Dr. Charles R.H. Everett
For those of us who are learning how to breed chickens or teaching others how to breed chickens, you must realize that breeds of poultry cannot be maintained. Your fowl are either improving or degenerating with each passing generation. Selective breeding is the only means whereby a flock can be improved: this type of breeding demands culling of all birds that do not measure up to the standard of the breed. Every breeder has a standard; if not, then they are multipliers and not breeders. The written Standards of the American Poultry Association and the American Bantam Association are great places to begin your journey in poultry breeding. These Standards do much more than articulate plumage colors. If you want to learn how to breed chickens, this is where you will discover the best body type for production of meat and eggs; as well as the correct type needed for gameness. It is also best to take the opportunity to visit a breeder of the same poultry you intend to keep if possible. Visiting a local poultry show will also give you a better understanding of the birds’ overall appearance.
After doing your research, meeting some breeders and hopefully viewing other birds, you are ready to begin learning how to breed chickens. Knowing your flock as you do, what do you desire to see improved: weight, height, production, color? Are you more interested in raising chickens for eggs, or for meat? Don’t bite off more than you can chew. You need to work on improving only one or two things at a time, remembering that type always comes first. This is assuming that your flock shows good health and vigor. If not, then you need to get that right first before moving on. Selective breeding is a process that is a never-ending journey. We are dealing with living organisms. As such, we need to understand one of the basic rules of animal husbandry: Any group will always move toward mediocrity. This is the main reason for our need of selection based upon a standard.
Having determined what we hope to accomplish with this year’s breeding we proceed, with Standard in hand, to make our selection of breeders. When learning how to breed chickens, it always helps if a mentor is able to accompany you in your first or second year of selection. However, this is not always possible due to distance or otherwise. Doing it on your own is not an impossible task though if you have done your homework and have had the opportunity to see first hand what your breed should look like.
Looking at your flock of backyard chickens, you need to ask yourself a really important question: Can I get to where I want to go from here? For example, if you want to begin to enter a competition with your birds, then there is a good chance that you might need to add a show quality bird to your flock. Or, if you are wanting to achieve a higher rate of egg production then you might need to add a bird from such a flock to your own. This is probably something you have already considered during your research and interaction with other breeders before learning how to breed chickens. Depending on what trait your flock is lacking will determine if you purchase a cock or hen. The old adage, which is generally true, is the hen sets the type and the cock the color. We know a lot more about genetics nowadays than when that phrase was in vogue, but it is still good basic advice especially as it has to do with type.
There are a variety of techniques for learning how to breed chickens that have been discussed within the pages of Backyard Poultry. I like to keep it as simple as possible and have developed a technique that works well for me. The great thing about breeding is that you get to choose what will work for you. Actually, single mating is probably the easiest method of all to follow, but most folks want to produce more chicks than single mating can give them. The system of breeding I utilize is really a combination of the Rolling Mating and Clan Mating System. I call it Family Mating. Here’s how it works.
How to Breed Chickens: Family Mating
1. Divide your breeding age hens into two groups or families. The makeup of each family should be made based on phenotype. Thus, all the hens in one family are similar in appearance while the hens in the other group are similar. I utilize colored leg bands to designate the two families. For example, one family will wear a red leg band while the other wears a blue leg band.
2. Begin this system with a cock that is unrelated to my hens. This is also where I can seek to add improvement to my flock based upon my stated goals.
3. Each year you will only breed one family. The families will be designated along Matriarchal lines. By way of illustration, this year I choose to breed the Red Family. All the chicks hatched will carry a red leg band: both cockerels and pullets. When breeding the first year, I will utilize the unrelated cock.
4. Only breed from hens that are as close to the Standard as possible. Here you must consider the overall bird. I weigh every hen to make certain I am maintaining the correct weight for my birds. Let’s say I started with six hens in the Red Family and I have narrowed it down to the top three. Do not be tempted to use those others. They must be discarded: give them to a friend, retire them to the hen house for life, eat them or whatever, but do not use them in the breeding pens.
5. Next year go through the same process and breed only the hens of the other family. I can utilize the original cock if unrelated and any cockerel from the other family group. After this second year, it will always be red leg band cocks to blue leg band hens or blue leg band cocks to red leg band hens. This allows me to practice inbreeding, but not in such a detrimental way as to harm my flock or frustrate my goals.
This system of selective breeding is easy to maintain and requires a minimal amount of record keeping. It is most effective if a good group of chicks is hatched each year and then culled severely hard. You should hatch as many chicks as you can adequately feed and house. Remember culling begins in the brooders. You will learn not to tolerate a listless chick or one with crooked toes or beak. At any sign of weakness, culling should take place immediately. I try to keep six to ten hens within each family and three stags.
The selection process continues from the brooder all the way to maturity. Once the chicks have reached this stage, I will take all the pullets and compare them to their mothers. Hopefully, I will see a marked improvement, but perhaps not in all of them. I will keep only the best. If one or two of the hens are better than most of the pullets these will be retained as well. Otherwise, I will replace the existing hens with the new daughters that demonstrate the improvement set forth in my original goals for the year. These pullets and hens will then produce eggs for the family until called upon the year after next for the breeding pens.
By waiting a minimum of two years before any hen is bred I am helping to ensure longevity in my flock. In other words, a hen must be able to demonstrate good health for two years before being utilized in the breed pens. I do not breed pullets except when starting this system. Some hens might even be four or six years old and yet still retained as breeders in this system. I do prefer to use cockerels with these older hens. You need a good active male; cockerels provide this for you. In breeding chickens, you must have youth on one side of the breeding equation be it the hen or the cock.
You will most likely notice considerable improvement of your flock your first and second years utilizing selective breeding with the Family Mating System. Don’t become arrogant or puffed up with too much pride. What you are experiencing is the result of selective pressure which may or may not have been applied to the recent ancestors of your birds depending on the source for your original birds. This is especially the case if your original chicks came from a hatchery. You are still in the learning stages of the art of breeding. Becoming a knowledgeable breeder does not come from a couple of good years in the breed pens; it comes from being able to learn from each new experience with the birds. You will truly learn how much skill is involved in breeding when you look at the chicks hatched in the third and subsequent generations after all vestiges of heterosis are passed.
There will even be years when you are uncertain if any progress was made at all. If operating with a closed flock, you will begin to see unwanted characteristics rising to the surface. This is because you are stirring the genetic pot and recessive genes that might have lain latent for years will now have the chance to manifest themselves. This is just what you want! There is no way to eliminate such traits unless inbreeding is practiced. The Family Mating System allows for inbreeding to take place in a controlled environment.
Learning how to breed chickens is not an “instant gratification” process – after four or five years of breeding you will be in a better position to determine if you need other genes added to your pool; assuming you choose to add a bird that shows traits your flock is missing, do so with caution. You will also be adding lots of other unseen traits that may show up rather quickly when added to your flock.
The best way to add a new bird into the breeding flock is through a “sidemating.” In other words, the bird is not thrown directly into the overall breeding system. For example, let’s say you obtain a new hen. Breed her to one of your cocks and toe punch all the chicks so as to make them easily identifiable from the others you hatched.
Then observe as you’re learning how to breed chickens: Do they feather as quickly? Do they grow as well? Do they manifest the trait you were looking to include in your flock? Do they show some weakness you were not aware of before the mating? After getting answers to these questions in a satisfactory way, save a couple of the pullets and mate them to a cock of the other family next year. Again, marking the chicks in such a way as to interpret the good and bad they will bring to your flock. If you now decide to keep them, take the best pullets from this second generation and add them to the family you hatched that year. This may seem likely an overly cautious approach to you at this point in your breeding, but trust me, this is a tried and true method practiced for generations by practical breeders of all types of poultry.
I wish you well on your adventures in learning how to breed chickens. There is always more to learn—much more. Along the way, you will encounter folks who really prove to be helpful. You will also find many that are very willing to give advice about things they really know nothing about. Learning to tell the difference between the two is part and parcel of the world of chicken breeds.
What are your recommendations for someone learning how to breed chickens? We would love it if you would share your advice, recommendations, and stories with us.
The Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities (SPPA) is happy to offer breeding guidance to members. You can join today by mailing $15 to Dr. Charles Everett, 1057 Nick Watts Rd., Lugoff, SC 29078.
Originally published in the April/May 2011 issue of Backyard Poultry and regularly vetted for accuracy.
Pets → Pet Care
- Author Tim O'mara
- Published January 27, 2008
- Word count 1,411
Gamefowl breeding is a tedious and lengthy undertaking that requires full time attention. If you don’t have the heart for it, don’t do it. The good thing about gamefowl breeding as a business though is that, locally nowadays, there exist a big and lucrative market for fighting cocks. Many beginners get their initiation into cockfighting and gamefowl breeding usually through family or friends.
When asked what they like most about breeding, majority of rooster-raisers would say it’s the joy of coming out with a winner by their own design. Acquire as much information as you can about gamefowl breeding before even buying a single rooster.
Start by visiting some experienced cockers and observing methods of raising gamefowl. You can also learn so much from readily available reading materials and videos on the subject. If you’re an internet user, a number of good websites about cockfighting can provide some of the information that you need and you can also meet cockers and friends from all parts of the world who could be more than willing to share their knowledge and experiences.
Start within your budget and with the right planning.
Plan your breeding within the limits of your time and budget. As time goes on, you can keep your numbers down through selective breeding and hatching. And you must be willing to cull any defective or inferior birds. Huge farm is not a must to raise quality gamefowls. Quality is more important than quantity. Prepare your yard and have some housing ready for them.
Start with the right broodstocks.
It is said that 'the end justify the means', but, although this may be true at some extent, in gamefowl breeding the end result comes a little bit longer than others that you can not just try any means for a shooting-an-arrow-in-the-dark end. Veteran rooster-raisers always say that gamefowl breeding becomes very expensive and wasteful when you start with cheap brood stocks. That is cheap in every sense of the word.
The first rule is to make sure that what you are breeding is the right stuff or close to it. In choosing a good brood stock, one must take into consideration the following steps:
a) Scout for winning bloodlines of breeders who have established names in the field or breeders who are on a winning streak;
b) Choose which bloodline do you intend to produce;
c) If possible, find out the family tree of your preferred bloodline;
d) Try to seek the best source of the brood stocks that you need;
e) When you have identified the best source try to get from him the best that he got, even if you have to pay more;
One thing in common among those who became successful in gamefowl breeding is the fact that they all placed considerable investment on their brood stocks.
Partners Peter Uy & Joseph Choa never leave any stone unturned when they are buying seed fowls in the United States. Tukaan producer-host Emoy Gorgonia revealed that if Peter & Joseph are offered a broodcock priced at $1,500, they would simply offer back $2,000 for a better one or an ever higher amount for a rooster that is supposedly not for sale. They look not for the physical features, but for a rooster’s potential to produce winners. Today, the partner’s farm in Antipolo City is one of most preferred source of brood stocks locally.
A good example of someone who started it right, although, he admits that he had to spend more than a million peso as 'tuition fee' before he learned his lessons is Sonny Lagon. With only four years of serious breeding behind him, Lagon has earned his place among the country’s finest game fowl breeders. When he found out the right source of the brood stocks that he needed, Bruce Barnette of Alabama, Sonny immediately made his move. During one of his early visits to Barnette’s farm, Lagon wanted to buy a particular rooster, but, was told that it was not for sale. When Sonny insisted, Barnette jokingly told him that he would only let go of the rooster for $5,000. Right there and then, Sonny handed Bruce $5,000. The rooster may not be worth that much, however, Sonny was able to earn Barnette’s attention, trust and later on, friendship.
There are those who had been in the breeding business for years, but never got off the ground. Why? Because they started with the wrong or untested brood stocks. They probably got bargain seed fowls in the beginning, but ended up spending more and losing their investments in the long run. And in game fowl breeding or in any endeavor, something that is started wrong can never be made right.
Important things that you should know
a) Strain – a strain is a family of gamebirds that have the same physical characteristics and easily recognizable traits that make them different from the others and they must also have the ability to reproduce themselves to be considered a strain. Basically, all gamefowl breeds are man made designs that first stem from the Wild Red Jungle Fowl of Southeast Asia (the local labuyo perhaps). Through selective breeding, we now have the birds we see today. Creating a strain is the result of one man’s vision. It is developed through selective breeding, for many generations with a single family.
b) Single breeding – a cock bred with a single hen or rotating that cock with three or four hens that are individually penned.
c) Group breeding – is breeding a cock with a group of hens. It is similar to flock breeding except a smaller amount of hens are bred to only oen cock at a time.
Specialize in only one or two breeds at the most.
The first thing to consider when you aim to be a breeder of fine quality gamefowl is to specialize in one or two breeds at the most. This could be done through line breeding, inbreeding, out-crossing, semi-outcrossing and infusion.
Gamefowl Breeding Methods List
a) Line Breeding – is the most common form of maintaining a strain. This is when a cock is bred to his mother, grand-mother or even his great-grandmother or if a pullet is bred to her father, grandfather or her great-grandfather. Breeding to their aunts, uncles or even to their cousins will also work.
b) Inbreeding – is the breeding of brother to sister. It is important when you need to accentuate or lock in the good genes or traits of your strain.
c) Out-crossing – is when you bring in new blood. The main purpose of out-crossing is to produce battlecocks. These are the ones that you’re going to fight or sell.
d) Hybrid vigor –the main reason for out-crossing is to establish a high degree of Hybrid vigor. To breed an individual that is better, faster, stronger, smarter and gamer than his parents is the result of hybrid vigor.
Sex of a chick is not a cocks’ fault.
A cock has thirty-nine pairs of chromosomes composed of one pair of sex chromosome and thirty-eight pairs of autonomic chromosomes, while, a hen has one sex chromosome instead of a pair. A cock gives a sex chromosome to every fertilized egg, but a hen gives her sex chromosome to maybe 50% of the fertilized eggs she lay. If the fertilized egg receives sex chromosomes from both the cock and the hen, it will hatch to be a stag (male), but if the egg only has a sex chromosome from the cock, it will hatch out to be a pullet (female).
Remember that as much as possible, always keep youth to one side of the breeding. Breed a proven hen, which is at least two years old, to a young brood cock and vice-versa.
With this information, I guess you can now start in gamefowl breeding. Of course, be sure to provide your birds with the best nutrition and health care available. A comprehensive vaccination program is a must considering that game birds are very susceptible to a wide range of avian pests and poultry diseases.
Lastly, keep track of each chick’s ancestry by keeping good records, giving each brood cock or brood hen its own identification code and marking each of their chicks with the identity off the breeding that produced it. This can be done with toe punching and nose marking, then later with wing and legbands. Through, this you’ll be able to identify which pair of breeding to continue with or to stop
Tim is an authority on game fowl
Gamefowl Breeding Record Book
breeding and concepts. He is actively involved with many poultry associations
Gamefowl Breeding Methods For Sale
including the online game fowl show
and gamefowl encyclopedia.