RADIOS

By Johnny Jumper

“Cecil brought me a rooster to train one time…and this rooster was very noisy. He was happy, happy all the time. So, I trained him and uh I’d exercise him and he was just so noisy. He had a great mental attitude. So, I named him Radio. I gave him the name Radio cause he talked all the time. And that…that name has stuck with those chickens since 1962. And course people call “you the man that invented uh come up with the radios?” and I say well I come up with this one rooster you know and so I bred him to 1 kelso hen then I bred him back to 7/8 of him and that’s how the…and I still have that family to this day. We call them Radios but they are red chickens with yellow legs. Their basic bloodline was 1/2 whitehackle I was telling you about and 1/2 murphy. They come from Mr. Murphy up in New   York. That’s what the rooster was made up out of, but we still have them today and they have such a great mental attitude. That’s so important…the mental attitude.”

Blue Legged Radio

by Marty Dutcher

The origin I’m about to tell you is from the originator direct so any disagreements with this should be written to me direct, as they did to the Marsh Butchers. I’m not writing a story about what someone else told me. You are getting it from the horse’s mouth as it was originated here on my two farms, one farm for breeding the other for experimenting.

It all started out back in the early 80’s when I was living in the Philippines. I saw Jumper Radios being fought in the biggest and toughest pits on all the islands, (Leyte, Luzon, and Negros Oriental) and I wondered where they came from because only the Chinese and rich Filipinos could afford them, not the so called back yard breeders – and they (Radios) were winning much more than their share so if you had money enough to bet on them you would win nearly 75% of the time. But if in a Bacolod City Pit be careful, because in this area thye had 90% Greys and the Greys by the rich cockers were hard to beat and they cuold of been Jumper Greys, maybe bought from Ray Al;exander because Ray came yearly to the Philippines at that time and was a personal friend of Jorge Araneta who owned the largest pit in Manila, which I lived only a short distance from. Many of the best birds in the Philippines came from the USA as well as Richard Bates, an American cocker, living in Cavite and tough to beat.

I decided when I returned to the USA during the molt season I’d try to buy a Radio trio. I inquired where these Radios came from and everybody told me they were Jumper Radios. So what diid I do as soon as I returned to the USA, I called Jumper and made an appointment to meet him at his farm on a Sunday afternoon. I was not only impressed with him and his set up but his birds also, so I made an offer to buy. Well, fortunately he refused to sell me any in the USA unless I payed him up front and only take delivery to my farm in the Philippines. Well this a no-no for any American cocker because my import permit cost thousands and he knew I would not accept such a ridiculous offer so I left without any Radios. My intent was to take only the so called pure Radio eggs to the Philippines and hatch them in the very hot country they were going to fight in.

I inquired at Clear Creek II Pit and Pumpkin Valley and was told that a cocker named Dennis Oakley was beating every one with his strain of Radios. So the following Sunday I went to Dennis’ yard and was really impressed with his Radios that he sparred for me. It boiled down to two pure Bull stags, so he knowing his fowl, I asked him to pick the one he thought would make the best brood cock. It ended up dark red and white legged. It had large diameter legs and the upper part of the leg was really muscled and right away I knew he had plenty of lower power. His eyes were big, his wings tough in back and the spurs were very low on his legs. I asked him to show me his pure hens and pullets and I picked out two of the smallest pullets he had, as in the Philippines many of the Radio hens were geting entirely too big with age, something that I refised to breed to.

This was two years before Dennis became cocker of the Year at Cooper State. Thank goodnes Jumper didn’t sell to me because every bit of my foundation Radios have turned out to be superior – which I accept as pure luck. God was on my side that Sunday.

Well, as the years passed Dennis Oakley became Cocker of the Year at Clear Creek II, our local pit, which is tough and if you don’t believe me try it or ask Oscar, Ray Alexander, Carol NeSmith and the top cockers in Alabama and Tennessee. Well to face the facts, here is the same blood that I’m sitting on that Dennis beat the big boys with so I was smart enough to ask the genetic experts how to breed them. I had already asked Harry Parr, after reading his book on “The Breeding of Game Fowl” and I asked Dr. Cocker as well as Dr. Goan of the University of Tennessee and also M.L. Fernando a genetic expert in the Philippines, and Gerald Ware of Arkansas. I knew how to maintain the pure family but I wanted to set a family from a cross because I had so called pure families of Wm McRae Hatch and YLH, GLH, which I understand from Carol NeSmith of Black Water Farms were Sweater McGinnis Hatch and I bred both of Carol’s YLH and green legged Hatch to my Radio cock. I have plenty of tyson single mate pens so I put a pure Radio hen in pen number one and in pen number two I put my Wm McRae Hatch hen, and in pen number three I put a Ray Alexander pure LRH hen, in pen number four I put a pure Carol NeSmith GLH hen, in pen number five I put a pure Carol NeSmith GLH hen, in pen number six I put a pure Oakley Kelso hen. So I bred pure to pure on six hens hoping that if I did get the “nick” I could get repeats. I moved my Radio cock everyday.

Well, much to my surprise, out of two of my WmMcRae hens, when her pullets were four months old they had blue legs which I understand now but didn’t at the time until Gerald Ware and Harry Parr explained recessive genes and XX and XY genes. So naturally I bred back all my Blue legged daughters to their father a white legged Radio but much to my surprise still only half my pullets came blue legged. So I did it the years of 1988 thru 1991 and in conjunction with breeding back all the pullets ot their father after the 4th generation, I bred a blue legged Radio stag to a blue legged Radio pullet and I’m now convinced it is from the Genetic trait Blue to Blue that usually produces Blue and has been set as a family as I’m getting repeats and have decided now to produce Hybrids that would be a 3-way cross consisting of 1/2 Radio 1/4 Hatch and 1/4 Kelso. I’ll have 64 single mate pens all breeding hybrids because the best combination could be 1/2 Radio 1/4 Hatch and 1/4 LRH. If I had a Harry Parr Grey stag I’d use him on top of my other breeds including my pure Radio pullets.

I saw a show of cocks fight at Clear Creek I that was only 1/4 Grey and he beat them all going 5-0 and ended up with the por. Ray Alexander did the impossible and went 11-1 in the 12-cock short knife in the toughest pit in the world using Harry Parr’s pure Grey cocks on top of Ray’s pure Democrat hens. I’ll try to catch him some day using Harry Parr’s pure Grey cocks top of my pure Radio hens also on my 1/2 Radio 1/2 LRH hens. I have never had any 4-way crosses on my yard period. That’s what they have in the Philippines and many don’t know it but when American cocker’s imported battle cross fowl into the Philippines for a specific derby, many of them imported a 3-way or 4-way cross, something that I have never ever used for breeding.

If the Lord is willing and the creks don’t go dry, I’ll be in Mexico with my Blue Legged radios and crosses in 1992. So I have a lot of people to thank because it was pure luck on my part and I fel that most the credit goes to the most famous breeders of alltime, the great Wm McRae. He put something in his Hatch blood that was instrumental in getting blue elgs because my pure hens and their daughters had greenish legs with a blue tint. Please do not misunderstand me as it makes no difference to me what color his legs are as I had one coming one leg white and one leg blue and they are barn burners but I really believe by using this Blue Legged Radio cock in producing a two or three way cross, could and should, make the best battle fowl. And once you hit the “nick” be satisfied and make repeats the way.

No way can I tell you with accuracy what went in this excellent Hatch blood and anyone that tries is completely hear say as all Hatch families have so many different bloods in them I doubt anyone knows. But I do know from experience, that whatever Mr. McRae put into his was the right blood. My opinion is for sure Blue face Hatch and McLean Hatch, because a lot of the offspring had greenish blue tint on their legs. So my expectations was to experiment and brred for 3-way battle fowl only, as it was pure luck how I got a true fmily of Radios. I started out only trying to get a battle cross of 1/2 Radio 1/2 Wm McRae and after much experimenting found the right combination. Now after four generations was a 1/2 + 1/2 and I was smart enough to produce this end of it not as a family and have found out that the blood from a 3-way cross is the best for battle fowl. Without the family to begin with you can’t get the 3-way cross. Remember, it’s very dangerous using Hatch blood as a cross, as there are many, many Hatch families that are croses to begin with so don’t give up, try them all. I have never once bred a brother to a sister so Ishould not end up with a bag of worms and many unknowns. Many cockers who think they have a 2-way cross probably have a 3-way cross.

So I will end this true Radio story by admitting it was pure luck and admit it was a team effort not by me alone and hopefully it can be one of the best pure families that you can cross to your best families and end up being some of the best battle folw of the 1990’s. Forget about the 1960’s, as competition today is by far the toughest ever. And hopefully they will not do to this breed what they did to the famous Marsh Butchers and stil call them Marsh Butchers. Come see me and I’ll show you the “proof of the pudding.” Good luck!