Ray Alexander

I was raised the poorest that can be raised but you can’t give up, you got to keep going. I didn’t I was poor, we didn’t have no running water. There’s nothing in our house when I was senior highschool and I wouldn’t quit. That’s how you gotta be in life, you got to not quit. The best information I ever got, my daddy told me. He said, I wan’t you to watch T.V. tonight son, barbara walters is gonna interview the richest man in the world, Jay Paul getty from England. He said, you might learn something. So I listened and she was popping questions to him and he was answering. Finally, he got enough of her, he said, Babara, I don’t know anything, but I’d make a phone call and tell you all you wanna know. That let me know the richest man in the world don’t know everything either, but he know who did though, that’s all you got to know in life. Nobody knows everything. I was about 12 or something like that and Harold Brown was outting the woods  and I was watching the woods fight, then someone said, that’s Harold Brown one of best cockfighters there are, so I said, I got to introduce myself to him and I did, and he said well do you wanna go to a fight? I’ll take you to the fights with me. And so I starded, and he was one of the laziest people on earth but he was smart. I listened to everything he taught me, I listened and he taught me how to train the roosters, how to hold the roosters, how to do everything. Everything he done was perfect. But he wouldn’t have no mercy on you. You better do it right, or he’ll snatch your head in two. Every breed I’d ever seen was an accident and the ones, roosters I ever bred in my life too was an accident. The butchers is one, Edgar was a terrific rooster man and he would cross it here and back. Curtis had it walk in his barn and his cow had stepped on it’s foot. It had bumble foot, so he gave the rooster to Curtis. Curtis bred him and whooped everybody with him, that made bumble foots and that was a famous breed back then. And every famous breed I got to see them chickens were crossed up. None of them had no pure nothing. And the clarets were an accidental mating. I had this claret rooster when Mr. Griffin died, and he would keep sparring good, and I said, I’m gonna fight him and ‘til I fight him in Lousiana, we bet a lot of money ‘cause he knew the claret was good too. That claret whooped him easy so when I came back home, I had told my wife that the roundheads goes to sett’n to put him out in some pens out there and to the sale so I was thinking where I can breed this rooster to. I got to breed it to somebody, to some chickens and so I kept watching them clarets. They were all in them pen with them roundheads. My wife had put them in a pen. So I said, well they’re cleaan and it’s late in the year. I’ll just put in the pen everyday and move it and that was the best chicken I ever raised. And another thing, people say you got to have high altitudes for chickens well that’s wrong. Wow, why? Mr. Griffin was right in the ocean, he lived in mobile, alabama. Ocean … and also Mr. Kelso, he lived right around the ocean too. That’s what I’m talking about. And also the guy who had the japs, he lived down the ocean too. So there ain’t nothing wrong or good about that height, ‘cause I tell you, the three best chicken people I know of all lived the ocean. So you gotta go by results. Never quit trying and always listen to sound advice and never quit learning. If you quit learning, you’re all through with. Somebody says something that makes sense, I listen, I don’t think that and most of them chick fighter know everything and them’s are the ones that don’t know nothing. You got to learn everyday of your life and you got to improve. Things improve and you got to say up with that. That’s all I can tell anybody.

FOWL TALK

By Floyd Gurley - The Gamecock 3-1985. Vol. 47, No. 11


By Floyd Gurley - The Gamecock 3-1985. Vol. 47, No. 11

FOWL TALK

By Floyd Gurley - The Gamecock 3-1985. Vol. 47, No. 11

THE PURPOSE OF BREEDING IS TO produce the best possible pit cocks and brood stock that you are capable of. This is not necessarily a game of chance as a lot of breeders would have us think. With lots of hard work and planning, the scales can be tipped in the breeder’s favor. You can get much satisfaction and pride out of a breeding pen well managed. The following is a brief outline of a proven method that I have put together back when I was breeding and fighting a lot of cocks. This method is for a breeder who is able to spend lots of time with his chickens. I can guarantee you a certain amount of success if it is followed. Any successful breeder must have a system that will prove the true value of his brood stock and at the same time be able to improve them year after year.

First, you must determine exactly what a particular pen is going to produce for you. We will go for battle cock in this article as it is less complicated than producing brood cock. I would put from 6 to 10 hens in a brood pen, all of one family, preferably sisters. Each one should be wing and leg banded. Use a cock from a different family so that the offsprings will have hybrid vigor. This system requires trap nesting and recordkeeping of every  individual in the brood pen. Each hen must have recordsheet. You must now the coefficiency of all hens as soon as possible. This was determined by me, in my case by using the following method:

When a hen goes into the nest to lay she is trapped. Take the hen out of the nest after she has laid the egg. Using a felt tip marking pen, record the hen’s legband on the large end of the egg. Then underline the number to put the cock’s number underneath. Example, 36/5 the legband, 36 representing this particular hen and the 5 the brood cock. If you are going to use a setting hen, save the eggs from the breeding hen until you have a full setting, then put them under the setting hen. After they have set 4 or 5 days, check the nest to make sure no unmarked egg has been added by a yard bird or the setting hen. If you are going to use an incubator to hatch them they can all be set together from all of your hens until 18 days of incubation. Then each individual hen’s eggs must be put in a bag made of suitable netting. The bag should be large enough that the eggs are not crowded and the chicks after hatching, have room to move. When you remove them from the incubator hey must be banded and recorded immedately before opening the next bag of another hen's eggs. This way when you fight the offsprings you will know the true breeding value of their mother and their father. I usually try to fight at least 10 birds from particular hen before I pass judgment as to whether she remains in the brood pen next year or is destroyed. Divide the number of birds fought into the number that win. This gives you the true coeffciency of the mother. In other words, say woo fight 10 fights from hen number 36. say 6 will win out of the 10. Divide 10 into 6. this gives the hen a coefficiency of 60%. If this is satisfactory to you, continue to breed this particular hen, keeping a running life-time record of her coefficiency until she is no longer of value to you as a breeder.

The cock’s coefficiency is found by dividing a combination of all the fights of this particular pen into all the wins, thus he may have, say, a coefficiency of 65%. Needless to say, when you figure the coefficiency of all the hens in the pen and you remove the ones with the lower coefficiency, the winning percentage of this particular hen will certainly rise. I like to replace the hens that have been removed with pullets from the hens that have a high coefficiency rating. I have found that they will not necessarily be good proited from the cock and hen do not make the perfect fighting cock, environment does The genes are the blue print mother nature has to work with. Environment can only produce what the parents have passed on to their offsprings. Both environment and breeding must are producing, say 60% winners n this means out of 100 cocks you’ 60 winners and 40 losers. If you enough to look them over close and hatchet on maybe 20 of the losers, you will raise the pens percentage from 60% to 76% one hell of an improvement. A often on in this manner should improve after year. This is a proven method; i used it for years in short heel fighting and it sure worked for me. 

The coefficiency of the entire pen is the yardstick as to which hens remain in. Still using 60% as the one combined percentage of all the hens, it is quickly seen that any hen with a record of less than the 60% should replaced.

This method can used in any form of breeding. By this, i mean inbreeding or cross breeding. I like inbreeding in brood stock and cross breeding for hybrid vigor in pit cocks. 

go hand in hand High grade pit cocks are a combination of first, intelligent breeding, then feeding rearing, conditioning and last but not least, handling in the pit. The pit is always the end product.


, (nrgot to mention if 2 hens are in the mark the eggs F which stands for egg Also mark eggs when hen lays and ge’s out without being trapped F and eas that are laid on the floor F. I have fwnd out by this method of breeding that full sisters from a very intensely inbred family, one would produce 80% winners, the other 20% winners. Therefore giving the breeder 50% wins.

If you are breeding a pen like this for battle cocks using an inbred cock of one family over inbred hens of a different family and run across an individual with a very high coefficiency take her out of the pen and breed her into the inbred family she came from if she has all the other qualifications that you are using in the in- bred family. Never use a poor producer for inbreeding regardless of blood lines. Under no circumstances use an inferior individual for inbreeding but if the individual has a good breeding record you can use it in cross breeding. With this method you will find out all sorts of in-teresting things about your birds such as each hen has a laying patterns. Some will 1 day then skip a day, some will lay 2 consecutive days then skip a day, some 3 consecutive days before a skip. You will ind eggs are laid by an individual hen say for a 4 cycle hen 1st day, 10 a.m.

T00™ day. 12 noon, third day. 2 p.m. 4th °3y» then skip 5th day and start back at 8 •m and start the cycle all over again. You J . S0?r recognize some hens’ eggs by eir shape They will very seldom lay late

Iran Grn00n- D° ,e3Ve 3 heR *n

a Lday- You must check traps several es during the day — too long in trap

March 1985

SV™ ~ - •» -

chicken? for^^rs *^2 3 ,o,lows There must b? thousand?15 Hatch- called pure Hatch Most a™ S ° families breeder takes a fam.it3 ? puFe Bul1 ,f 3 breeds

them according ?lckens and tens after a few geneml h specrtica- to call them anyth,ng t£ wan^n"^

?orr yXr r:gu'

chickens came

you start breeding them\h£ a™

Warn1?0 3T ®n,rtled, the credit blame, whichever it may be . Most breeders change the bloodlines as soon as they obtain them anyway. The first thing they do is add new blood to try to improve them. When they do this they are not pure so and so’s anymore. Mr. Sandy Hatch could no more recognize the chickens called Hatch today than I can fly. Mr. Harry Kearney, when he was living, gave a friend of mine a pair of yellow-legged, dark red. single-comb chickens. A couple of weeks later he told my friend they were probably as pure a Hatch as there is in the country today. My friend was shocked and remarked. “Hatch, I thought they were Kearney Whitehackles." Mr. Kearney answered saying, after all, Hatch are nothing but Kearney Whitehackles. Who the hell knows anything about any chickens of today as to what they were years ago and what difference does it make anyway? I received these chickens from my friend and have bred them ever since. Should i call them hatch or Kearney Whitehackles or neither? At one time I bred them extensively when I was very active in fighting, I now have only a few seed. The old original cock was yellow-legged and the hen was yellow-legged, both single comb. The cock dark mahogany shewing a lot of white under he hackle feathers. The hen wheaten colored with dark neck feathers. In the first breeding we got some green legged pullets and all yellow-legged stags which shows what Mr. Kearney called probably the purest Hatch in the country today were not pure if the cock produced both green and yellow legged pullets and got some green-legged stags which looked different from their pure. I bred the cock back over his green-legged pullets. Of course, in my opinion, if they don't breed uniform, they cannot be pure. I bred the cock back over his green-legged pullets and got some green-legged stags which looked different from their yellow-legged brothers both in leg color, eye color and feather color. Needless to say, they also fought different. Would you call the original brood stock pure? Ask my friend Hugh Norman. At any rate they now, for better or worse, breed and fight uniformly due to my selective breeding.

As I said before, the end results are found in the pit and only you have any control as to what your chickens do. You could even call them by a mean sounding name but it won't help. The name may scare the other handler but it won’t the other cock.

I hope this helps someone wanting to improve his Hatch. Did I say Hatch? I

meant hatch from the incubator '

GAMENESS VS BOTTOM

I am in the midst of a cross-county debate with a good buddy who maintains that bottom and gameness are just about the same thing.

Our disagreement centers on a family of long inbred Whitehackles that will die fighting with their heads in the right dir-ection. However, it doesn’t take much cutting to kill them.

If, as I understand him to say, my friend maintains that a fighting cock must have bottom to be game. My contention is if a gamecock fights aggressively to his dead, he is game and that bottom and toughness are something else entirely. 

My husband is no help at all; he says it is a question with no answer - everything is intertwined. 

Will you readers of Gamecock please comment

How I maintain my Sweater gamefowl

I have a simple way on how I maintain my sweater bloodline so that I can preserve it in long time. I called my way of maintaining gamefowl bloodline “in and in”. In this method of maintaining bloodline I have my sweater brood cock and I want to maintain and preserve this bloodline what I did is first I selected two brood hens of different bloodline a lemon and Gilmore hatch hen. Then I breed my sweater bloodline to lemon hen (single mating). I mark the offspring of sweater lemon crosses so that I can recognize and identify then easily and record it in my breeding notes. Their offspring is composed of a 50% sweater and 50% lemon. Then I also cross-breed the sweater brood cock to Gilmore hatch hen (single mate). I also make a different mark to their offspring so that I can recognize them easily. Their offspring is composed of a 50% sweater and 50% Gilmore hatch. Finally when their offspring become matured and ready to breed, I choose the best offspring (stag) from 50% sweater and 50% lemon and I also choose the best offspring (pullets) from 50% sweater and 50% Gilmore hate and breed them. The result is that their offspring become more or less a 100% sweater and it really looks like the original sweater brood cock in terms of looks and characteristics. That is my way on how I maintain my sweater gamefowl bloodline.
My own method of breeding fighting cocks
The breeding of fighting cocks is very challenging because you need more time doing trial and error, money and effort. In order to become a fighting cocks or game fowl breeder it is important that you have a knowledge on genetics in order for you to produce the best fighting cocks that can compete in big time derbies. 
Breeding concepts like inbreeding, cross-breeding, line- breeding and others are also need to be understand by the fighting cocks or game fowl breeding. The concept of in-breeding is that you are going to breed brothers and sisters, the purpose of this type of breeding is to preserve the bloodline. Cross-breeding is the type of breeding were game fowl bloodline is cross-breed to other bloodline like the cross breeding of lemon to sweater. This type of breeding is used to produce a battle crosses. Another type of breeding is the line breeding was offspring is breed back to his mother or her father. The purpose of this is to retain the good qualities of a parent.


My own method of breeding in order to produce a breeding material is I choose a brood cock for example dink fair sweater, then choose two brood hens example lemon and the other one is roundhead. In order to produce a brood stag to be use as breeding material I breed my sweater brrod cock to a lemon brood hen to produce a 50% sweater and 50% lemon offspring and called it as output A. Then I cross breed my sweater brood cock to my roundhead brood hen to produce a 50% sweater and 50% roundhead offspring and called it as output B. Then finally I cross-breed output A to output B, then the offspring that produced by cross-breeding output A and output B is the one I use as my breeding material. It is likely the same characteristics with my original sweater brood cock. Now I can produce battle crosses out of the output from cross-breeding output A and output B.

THE MIKE KEARNEY FOWL

Without a question or a doubt the fowl fought by Mike Kearney of New York beginning back in the 1870's and ending with his death in 1916 were the gamest fowl ever in this country. Everyone seems agreed on that part of the Kearney story but there the agreement stops with a snap. For the past 15 years or more we have devoted no end of time trying to find out for sure what the Kearney fowl are or were and we have arrived exactly nowhere.

No two people we have ever talked to have the same story on them and we have talked to and questioned at least a hundred if not more. Many of these men who were alive and active in the game not only at that time but were well acquainted with Kearney and some of them fought against him. Probably old A.P. O'Conor did more to mess up the story of the Kearneys than any other 50 men in the country. He just wrote or told what he wanted to tell without the slightest regard for the truth at any time. Its a damn shame but there is nothing can be done about it now.

For years it seemed generally agreed that Kearney came over from Ireland in 1870 and brought with him both Brown Reds and Whitehackles. But there are many who right today insist Kearney brought with him nothing but some very poor Brown Reds. Others claim the Brown Reds he brought were the gamest and stoutest fowl ever to land in America. "Quills in their wings as big as pencils, no end to their gameness" etc. etc. Several we have talked to agree that Kearney did not bring any Whitehackles with him or get any from Ireland after he got here. Still others contend he sent his uncle Mike Quinn to Ireland several times to bring back specimens of both families.

One man who knew Kearney very well tells us he never had ANY good fowl, either Brown Reds or Whitehackles until after he fought Denny Mahoney a main near N.Y. years and years ago. After he got fowl from Mahoney and those were the famous Kearney Whitehackles? One thing seems certain he did have good Whitehackles but where they came from no one seems to know but everyone is ready and willing to argue until hell freezes over that he knows without any question marks. A departed friend of ours stopped to see Mike Kearney many years ago and asked him this question. "Mr. Kearney would you show me one of your pure Kearney Whitehackles?" Kearney told him he would, reached in a feeding coop and brought out a PEACOMB cock and handed him to him. "That's one he said." Well, if there is one thing all the students of Kearney history agree on it is that the Kearney Whitehackles were a strictly straight comb family of fowl. Yet Kearney himself shows one as a pure Kearney and he has a pea comb or what we call a roundhead. With such contradictions as that to contend with, how in the world is anyone to get the straight dope on any fowl?

Kearney as far as we can learn ran a saloon and had no where to raise or care for fowl on his own property but in back of his saloon. He went to work for Duryea at Red Bank, N.J. and was in almost complete charge of the Duryea fowl due to the fact Duryea was often gone for a year or more at a time - in Europe. The story goes that Duryea had a family of Boston Roundheads he got from a Mr. Coolidge of Boston where they were well known. When Kearney went with Duryea he took his Whitehackles or some of them, with him and raised them on the Duryea estate. He bred them straight and he also crossed them with the Boston Roundheads and these were named by A.P. O'Conor and NO ONE ELSE - Duryea Whitehackles. It is claimed Kearney did not take any of his Brown Reds chickens of any kind and forbade him to bring any of them on the place. So -- Kearney turned most of the Brown Reds over to John Madden of Hamburg Place in Ky. From time to time Kearney would get some of them back from there to fight or breed, But Madden was said to have maintained the bulk of the family on his stud farm in Ky, until his death not so many years ago.

It has been said that around N.Y. city when Kearney was active some cockers would literally have given their right arm to get hold of a Kearney Whitehacle but very few of them ever got one or saw one unless a main Kearney was fighting. They say he actually didn't even want people to see them, let alone get hold of any. While Kearney was a famous cocker and had as game fowl as ever lived the truth is he was not such a successful cocker as many now imagine him to have been. One man we know contend Kearney lost more mains that any man who ever lived. Whether that is true or not we are not prepared to say. Old O'Conor used to say all the mains Kearney fought and lost were Kearneys and that the ones Duryea fought, with the assistance of Kearney were Duryeas and he won them all for thirty years. That of course is just more O'Conor hooey. They tell the story around Albany, N.Y. of Kearney fighting John Hoy a main which as we know now recall was won by Hoy 6-1. After it was over Kearney is said to have told Hoy his cocks were sick. "Your damn right they are sick now" said Hoy "but they looked OK to me before the main started." And from what they say Hoy was the kind of man who would have replied in about that manner.

Our own opinions is that Kearney fought chickens and lots of them long before he ever met Duryea. After they became associated they fought them together and at times when Duryea was away he fought some for both of them and at other times he fought them for himself. And in them they used straight ones of both the Bostons and the Kearneys and crosses of the two families. And probably Kearney used some of the Brown Reds in his own fighting, that is if its true that Duryea wanted nothing to do with that family. Of course O'Conor claims the Duryea were part Kearney Brown Reds but the less attention paid to ANYTHING O'Conr ever said or wrote the better off and more on the beam anyone would be. O'Conor would lie when the truth would answer better and that is not an exaggeration. In fact its doubtful if he ever saw Mike Kearney or his fowl. He told a long story of discussing the breeding of his fowl with Kearney and the general opinion is that Kearney discussed breeding of his own fowl with only a handful of intimates. And we believe that. At the time O'Conor tells of his conversation with him O'Conor would have been a punk of 18 and Mike his usual crabby self so we can just laugh that one off.

Still another man we know and one who was active in the Kearney era for many years claims Kearney did not bring any Brown Reds over from Ireland that he got them from a man named McCann of Albany, N.Y. So you can take your choice of what he brought with him and what he got after he was here. Certain it is that he was noted for the gameness of his fowl, whatever they were and wherever they came from. And at that time or rather the time Kearney was active and it covered a wide span of years, his vicinity (N.Y.); as noted for the gameness of their fowl. And it has been stated by many who SHOULD know that 90% of the game ones around thereat that time either were straight Kearney stuff or crosses of them.

Judge Wells story of these fowl is well written and considered by many to be absolutely authentic. Others claim its ALL wrong, none of it right! Take your choice. Back in those days cockers around N.Y. and in and around Boston considered they were very smart if they could keep the breeding of their fowl to themselves. Everything was a secret!

Many claim today that the breeding of the Hatch fowl were nothing more or less that a Kearney Whitehackle-Kearney Brown Red cross. Mr. Hatch without being asked, the year before his death and while attending the Claymore tournament in N.Y. state had this to say to this writer - Fulldrop "You have said some very nice things about me in your paper and I appreciate it. I am going to tell you how my fowl were started. I got some green legged fowl from a man on Long Island named (as we now recall) Lynch. I suppose you have heard of the Genet Pyle owned by Genet a member of the Tweed gang years ago. His Pyles were well known but few people seemed to know he also had a strain of Black Reds. I got one of the Black Red cocks, crossed him on the green legged fowl and those were my foundation stock. Of course I have added lots of new blood since then. Hatch told us that personally and with our asking him for any information at all. And yet I can name you 25 men who will claim its a lie. So how can one gather any accurate data on the fowl of others. Its fun to try but it simply can't be done. Ed.

(taken from Cocker's Gazette, Issue No: 46, 1988).

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!

Hulsey Fowl

The E.H. Hulsey Fowl

Their start began prior to J.W.’s employment with Mr. E.H. Hulsey, Mr. Pipes was breeding and fighting the Barnett Wonders fowl and was very successful with them. In fact he stated that these were the best cutting fowls he owned.

Mr. Pipes had contracted to walk some cocks for John Madigin. One of these cock must have been exceptional as Mr. Madigin urged or suggested that Mr. Pipes breed the cock if he desired. Mr. Pipes bred the cock to a Barnett Wonders hen and raised six stags and six pullets. Note – These were all marked “out and out”. Mr. Pipes later was employed by Mr. E.H. Hulsey to feed and manage the Seven Acre Farm, bringing along the stags and pullets of the Barnett Wonders -Claret cross.

Mr. Hulsey at this stage of his cocking career was sold on the P. Dixon Travelers fowl. It was with these same fowl that Mr. Pipes fed and conditioned in his first main, and won for Mr. Hulsey.

The following season the six Claret-Barnett, as cocks were used in a main. In fact the P. Dixon Travelers were down 5-0. When Pipes started bringing in the Claret Barnett cocks and they won the main by winning six straight fights.

Liking their style and cutting ability, Mr. Pipes bred their hen sisters to a Roundhead cock from Vincent Hotines. This cock was the “Newell” yard of the Allen Roundheads cock and a many time winner. These were of the “Cripple Tony” infusion that Burnell Shelton made and stated that these were the best of the Allen Roundheads. Mr. Pipes stated that the offsprings from this mating were also marked “out and out”, like thier mothers.

These were the basic bloodlines of the E.H. Hulsey fowls when Henry Wortham came on the scene. That is, half (1/2) Roundhead, quarter (1/4) Claret, quarter (1/4) Barnett Wonders. At this time the fowl came both pea comb and straight comb and one could breed to which ever trait they liked.

When Henry Wortham came under the employment of Mr. Hulsey, the “Hulsey” were beginning to come on the small side and as a result their top weights were being borrowed from friends to complete their tournaments.

Henry saw a great need to raise his own top weights as this was the big weakness in the show of cocks, so it was natural that he was always on the lookout for a broodcock large enough to improve the size of the “Hulseys”. One such cock was a large pumpkin – colored straight comb that he secured from his days in Memphis Charlie Babb. Henry said that he never did know the breeding of this cock and didn’t really care as the cock was everything he wanted in a brood-cock to improve the size of the “Hulseys”. This yard was referred to as the “Babb” yard or family, and many came pumpkin colored.

Henry also made other families of the Hulsey’s, he obtained and bred a cock from Sam Bingham. This was called the “Bonehead” Family which was heavy in Marsh Butcher blood.

Another yard was from a Dark Mahogany red cock from Beaumont, Texas. This cock was heavy in Claret blood and was used by Henry in several important events. It was later used as a broodcock giving rise to what was known as the “Beaumont Yard.”

Another Sub-Family was made from the R.E. Doyle Reds. These were made by Mr. Doyle and not Henry, although Henry furnished Mr. Doyle with brood cocks on several occasions. A good number of this family was used in Florida tournaments after the Walton-Wortham forces joined together after the World War II.

In the later year of the combination of Walton-Wortham forces, Hatch blood was infused.

Today there are very few people as Transplanted Okie says who might have like them like they were in the 1930’s and 1940’s, but at one time the breeders of this grand old strain were men like Maurice White, R.E. Doyle, B.L. Saunders, Al Jacobs and last but not least Norman Paine of Oxford Mississippi. Most are all gone.

well friends, to give credit to transplanted Okies efforts on this article, satisfaction is his to have shared an insight on the history of the grand old strain of the E.H. Hulsey Fowl.

Hennies

Irish Hennies

History of the Irish Hennies!

History of the Hennies i got from Rick Bohn of California Gamefarm: In about the year 1890, there was a strain of Hen Feathered Games, in the hands of cockers in & around Jackson, Michigan. They attracted attention from the fact that they were apparently invincible.

While in the hands of John Neil & the Robson Brothers, they defeated all new comers & most of the old strains, that were represented at that time. In fact, when a well conditioned Hen Cock was theown into the pit, it was almost impossible to get a bet on him.

As to their breeding or origin, they came from a William Blair of Pontiac, Michigan, about 1880. Mr. Blair’s fowl were believed to be descendants of a trio of Hennies, from an old Irishman. This old Irishman brought them over to Quebec in a wicker basket some years prior to this. Old Jack Neil kept Hennies from this stain until his death in 1921.

About twenty-five percent of the Hennie stags will be long feathered until they molt out as cocks, nearly all then become hen feathered. Colors run from brown to black, with generally a few lighter colored feathers in hackle.

As a cross they usually put speed in another strain & produce a large percentage of Hen feathered males. In several instances crosses of Hennie have wiped out strains thought to be invincible.

Hennies

by Paul Dawson (1976)

I have been asked many times how the Hennies were made up – what crosses were used. A Hennie is one of the very few Strains of pure Game Fowls. They were first seen in India and they must have come out of the Jungles as did the Bankiva, and when you cross them they are no longer a Hennie. I believe they are just as the Maker made them. Their traits, their fighting style, their speed and cutting makes them as different from their long feathered cousins as daylight and dark.

I have bred, fought and sold them for sixty five years so I feel I am qualified to write their history.

They came into England in the early fifteenth century and the good British breeders bred them to perfection and at one time they challenged all of England with their Hennies. From the Sports and Mutations they bred them in many different colors, including the beautiful Grouse bred by John Harris. They soon found their way into Spain where the Spanish bred them over their Brown and Grey Spanish. My good friend, the late John Thrasher, bred the Spanish just as they came from Spain and many of them came he-feathered.

The first Hennies were brought inot this country by a party named Story and they proved to be great fighters in short heels as used along the East Coast. Mr. Chester A. Lamb imported the Black Thorne, also the brown Hennies in the early eighties. He bred them for fifty years and sold most all of the old time

breeders, Hennie brood cocks. Mr. Lamb also imported the Kikilia from Ceylon. These he gave to me about a year after he imported them. My first Black Hennies came from Mr. Lamb and I also imported some great fighting Brown Hennies from England.

I never aspired to be a big shot, I bred my Hennies because I love them. I fought a few each year but never enough to make a nuisance out of it. They won for me and for my customers all over the world and after 65 years my Hennies are just as fast, just as rugged as in years gone by and they are bred and fought all over this country. Not in large numbers but by men like me who like them and they win for them.

A good Texas cocker has a Black Hennie cock that has won seven derby fights. Another Texas cocker who went to Copper State last season, saw one of my Black Hennies win his tenth fight in one short pitting.

In the early 30’s I helped W.R. Hudlow run a pit south of Chickasha, Oklahoma. I only had nine Hennie stags and cocks but I won thirty-four fights without a single loss. This was reported to Grit & Steel. These Hennies were fought with any one that could match the weight, the great Sweater McGinnis included.

I married in 1935 and my wife informed me that she didn’t like game chickens. I have five stags ready to fight so I told her if she would go with me and see them fight I would dispose of them. (A man will do funny things when he is in love.)

We were having a brush fight with about a dozen of the local cockers. I matched Sweater with a 4-8 Black Hennie stag; Sweater had a hot Grey Toppie that coupled and wry necked my stag in the first buckle. When I set my stag down for the second pitting he just rolled over on his back but when the Grey reached for a bill hold it sounded like a snaer drum and the fight was over. While I was cutting off the heels my wife asked me for some money to bet on our stags. I won all five fights and the best Pal a man ever had, my wonderful wife Opal.

So as long as I live I will always breed a few of what I believe to be the greatest fighting cocks on earth, Dawson’s Black Hennies.

The gene responsible for the hen feathering is not sex linked and is carried by either the male or female in different strengths. Since this gene is an Incomplete Dominant, Autosomal, about 1/4 of the stags produced from pure Hennies will be long feathered, 1/4 will be hen feathered, and the remainder will be of mixed feathering until their second year when they moult out completely hen feathered.

From an article written in 1891 Hennies were very plentiful in Wales and Cornwall. There is an account of a main fought at Ponterfract (in the country of Yorkshire) in 1670 of hen-cocks v. long feathers. The black hen-cocks of Wales were thought a fit present for a prince, and Pembrokeshire ( a country in Wales) once challenged all England with them.

Hennies are an old-established and well-known variety of British game fowl, from which they differ chiefly in length, form and brilliancy of feather, the plumage of the male resembling that of the hens, hence the name of hen-cocks or hennies, and the more rounded, short and free from sheen or gloss they are in the hackle, cloak, and tail, in short the more hen-feathered they appear in neck, wings, body and tail the more they are entitled to claim purity of breed.

They are generally lighter in bone than other cocks, having light corky bodies that appeared larger than their wieght at the scales, and on that account were never favorite match cocks with the old feeders at the “Cockpit Royal” who preferred cocks with more bone.