Battlecock breeding strategy - would it apply to other species?

Haha - you find your solace in cacophony.

 

i get what your saying. but to answer your question comes down to basic genetics. "more like Jocko than Jocko himself" no because you can't breed them to themselves & the more you inbreed the more the genetics reconbine & make something new. do it long enough they start to move farther from "jocko". just because you breed them don't mean there getting the same genetic makeup. i posted some videos that explain what you want to know.

 

In game cocks it's the rooster that determines the quality almost by itself. The hens don't fight and can't be tested outside the brood house so they play a minor role in the genetics. This is not so with game dogs, both parents contribute a great deal to the traits and both parents should be tested always.

 

gringo, You opinion about hens is possibly a latin one as they mostly cross breed,and their birds come every color,and are not bred as they are in the British countries[Family bred or bred to a feather].
Most dogmen had birds and you might find that many did not test their females of bird or dog.You would notice men like Tudor did not use females. Bert Clouse would say"bitches are for breeding".Many still don''t check them ,some might be you neighbors.
Yet these men who bred fowl and dogs would pay a lot for a hen,knowing she was more than half of the breeding.
As to the quality of the animals pre 60 and post 60 It would be hard to argue that game families are more popular and available today than pre 60

 

True but ive seen and had hens with spurs and they would go
Just as hard as the cocks ! But I never looked at hens the same
As cocks for the fact that they dont fight for a hen to make it
On my yard she had to be a good mother ready to fight for her
Chicks come from a good cock that was proven that way I saw
Him or his sons and she also has to be fertile ! ( meaning produces
A large amout of eggs !...

Frank

 

Totally have to disagree with you there, my friend. IMHO, If you don't have well bred hens, then you have to pray your rooster is prepotent or settle for flock breeding. Each to his own opinion of course, but if I spend good money on a trio, I'm looking selectively harder at the 2 hens/pullets...and hope the stag fits......but that's me...
The genetics are no different than breeding gamedogs, just you can have more and quicker.
The hens or pullets of quality stock are very recognizable in their traits and behaviours. This can be seen in large yards where each 'family' has it's 'walk'...very impressive. A lot of my hens (as nmdogs noted) also came spurred and would'nt hesitate to take on a rival hen or bird. The spanish/brown reds would roost at night high up in our trees, some 30-40 feet and in the morning would soar down like hawks..I had a hen that I actually saw go after a Cooper's hawk that was too close to her turf..and she hit him with both heels shuffling down his back, as he was trying to take off. He had to touch down again, but he managed to power out of it..close.UNREAL!roflmao
I believe genetically it's the same as any animal..equal contribution, with a 50/50 chance of which one's better...all dependent on what we want and how we learn how to get it. To have successful gamefowl is no different than having successful bulldogs...just as hard to learn the blood, how to feed, condition, put one up, which heels, then be able to tie and thennnnnnnnnnn...handling, then aftercare meds, etc etc...easier??? noooo
IMHO...the ONLY thing that made it a little easier was the fact that there were a lot of folks that were "masters" at it...born into it, national sport in some countries..very knowledgeable people with a passion for the birds....gamecocks have been around far longer than the dogs, and it shows.
blah, blah...thats my 2 cents...AND NOW FOR SOME>>>>!!!!!!
________________________________________________
FOWL TRIVIA...roflmao
1. With chickens, especially noted in gamefowl, their sex is determined by temperature..if the hen trances out, and sets them until they hatch(eg:without getting off them at regular intervals to cool the eggs or vice versa) the majority or all of the clutch will be one sex, all stags or all pullets.
2. If you cook a regular domestic type chicken in a pressure cooker(for soup stock or whatever), all the bones will completely break down when cooked for an hour. Not the same can be said for gamefowl...they never did break down completely..(almost 3 hours i tried)
3. The age of a gamecock can be determined, by the scales on it's legs,
with dogs it determines their weight...HAAAAAAAAAAAA

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

Most of our teachers felt that it was easier to inbreed a straight comb bird than a game dog or race horse. Why ? Because the horse and the dog are from recent crosses and tend to drift quickly.
The 1st cross is a tactic to avoid the trouble coming from poor choices of the inbred families.Hang a blanket on a line and see the light come through the holes in the inbred blankets. hang another blanket from another inbred family over the first and possibly you will sense you have the whole cloth. inbreed it and see your troubles come to light.
The sex link chrom of birds are the reverse of mammals.put that in you 'no value hen theory' pipe and smoke it.

 

yes to the o.p. but not always the rule.
maybe just my opinion or maybe for other reasons?...................................................

 

I know little to nothing about chickens but I observed that unlike in the dogs, the hens are rarely tested and the breeder relies on genetics almost entirely. In the dogs I try to match up traits that are alike and I don't think that's done generally with chickens. However, the part of breeding chickens that involves the testing and selection I believe is very similar to dogs.
I don't know about any chicken theories and never did I state that there is no value in the hens. It's just that the selection of them is different than the dogs and their traits do not play as important a role in their selection as they are rarely, if ever, tested unlike the dogs.
I know some dogmen don't test the bitches, Heinzl used to say it was his dad that taught him to fight, not his mom. I do not agree with not testing bitches, I choose to test all my dogs regardless of sex as I think the majority do now.

 

When I asked Mr. Morfin about chickens he told me all they did for him was to empty his pockets and fill his house full of shit. LOL

 

I know this is the old post but couldn’t help to reply to say the hen isn’t important is not right because if you take a green leg hatch cock and Breed to a pearl leg round head hen all the pullets will have green legs or blue and all the stags we have pearl legs the stags get their genetics from the mama that goes with body structure also tall hens throw tall stags