Origins of McLean, Gilmore, and Sweater Blueface Hatch By Ray Alexander

 Ted McLean was a protege or Mr. Sanford Hatch and had access to anything he wanted from him. Ted sent me a letter in 1988 and told me what they called "the good kind of Hatch" made of a four way cross. 1/4 Herman Duyrea (Boston Roundhead which had a little Asil), 1/4 Thompson Blood (which is where the green legged side came from), 1/2 Kearney Whitehackle, which was two different types Of Whitehackle ( 1/4 Brown breasted whitehackle and 1 4 what they called regular whitehackle). That is what they called the "good kind" Of Hatch.

Harry Parr and Ted McLean were day deciding which yard to make up, Thev had hatch chickens they wanted to breed, one was straight comb and one was pea comb brothers) "Well, we just heel them up and fight them and the one that is the the one we will breed."So they heeled them up and after about a minute the combed one the pea combed down. broke his wing, and blinded him, so Ted McLean said "Stop it, I have seen all I need to see". So they decided they would the straight comb. But, Harry Parr said the pea comb blinded would run around the Pit, and every time he would that pit, he would just explode-- so Harry said I will Just take this pea combed one home and save him. He took him home and made him well.

Gilmore called Ted McLean and asked him for a brood cock At that time, all they had was the blind rooster, but his eye had come back and he could see. McLean said, that is the only one we’ve got, but he sent the rooster anyway. So Gilmore bred him to some hens that had come green legged and he sent one of his friends a McLean Hatch out in Texas or Oklahoma. Gilmore got one of those hens back from his friends that was 1/2 McLean and whatever they bred it to, and put this rooster over it. That is what the Gilmore Hatchs were made of.

Sweater got this chicken from Gilmore that he had raised out of this bunch of chickens, Gilmore had a rooster over there that turned pale every time they sparred him and Sweater got this rooster from Gilmore and he bred in some Ginger Hatch blood that he had and that is where the blueface came from.

  When the green legged gene came out, and you breed green leg to green leg, all the offspring come green legged, That is why you see so many green legged chickens today; These chickens were game and strong, real strong Chickens. Those were the gamest chickens there was, because Ted McLean and Sandy Hatch, they were fanatics on gameness. If one acted bad in any which way, they would cull them all, in that family. They had the gamest chickens there was, That is why you see they are still good today on account of their gameness. If chickens are not game they are going to play out, but, still that gameness will withstand the test of timer You have got to have gameness in a chicken and that is what these chickens are made up of—dead game chickens.

Through centuries they have been bred to be game, they were not game originally, man bred them to be game. Anything in the wild would not be game, because they would kill each other off. Mostly they started making them dead game from those Irish and Welsh mains that they fought in Ireland, back then one rooster had to whip five. They would pair them off (five pound roosters) and they would fight them against each other until there were two one had to beat five and you had to be game to fight for five days. They would breed that rooster, and that's how they bred chickens up to be game.

Chickens were not game originally in the wild. They were like quail or pheasants, or anything in the wild that would quit. Because if one does’nt quit they would kill

Other Off If vou turn out all your game chickens in your yard, and set them loose, Come hack in a week and there would not be anything left. they would kill each other off.

It's like a bird dog. a bird dog has been bred to point birds, and when it sees a bird, the bird dog will freeze. he can’t help it, it is in his genes. You can breed it out, but the way the bird dog bred, say for instance a farmer in the 1920s or 30’s who had an Irish Setter and she was a female, and exceptional bird dog, the farmer might travel to 5 or 6 states to find whoever had a male that was a really good bird dog and he would breed them. So, the offspring would be good bird dogs. Today's Irish Setter is worthless as a hunting dog because they have breeding them for looks and confirmatton for the last 70-80 years, and not for their hunting ability, so they bred their hunting ability out of them.