How Do We Breed

HOW DO WE BREED? by Mr. Vasco Sibert, Lookout Farm. 

The large commercial breeders of meat and egg producers, I believe, know more about breeding their type fowl than I know about breeding gamefowl. However, I will pass along some of the things I do know. FOUNDATION. I believe to be most important. That is what we start with. To begin with anything I think would eliminate us for the very best fowl. About 35 years ago, from now (1978), I had many breeds including Roundheads. When I realized our Roundheads exceeded all our other fine fowl completely, I discarded all others and have kept only the Roundheads in their purity. Mr. Will Allen discovered the invincibility of the Roundheads, and his brother-in- law Burnell Shelton, C.C. Lundy and others joined him. All told Mr. Allen used Roundheads for about 50 years defeating all comers. He used the Dr. Fred Saunders- Allen Roundheads for 30 years losing only two mains and winning more than 300 mains. (see Allen's papers attached) We admire Col. Madigan and his fowl and it was harder for us to give us his Clarets than any of our other fowl. However, Mr. Madigan never understood or would not accept the invincibility of the Roundhead. Although Mr. Madigan defeated Mr. Allen and company once in San Antonio in a main, Mr. Allen and his Roundheads defeated the Madigan fowl in many, many mains and right up until this day. For this and our own observations we chose the most important thing; that is, FOUNDATION from the Old Southern Roundheads. SELECTIVE INBREEDING. From here on out until today we used selective inbreeding in the following manner: Take a cock that has won several quick fights without getting cut (do not breed fowl who get hurt). With all the disappointments, it is surprising the results obtained after about three generations of breeding proper parents. Take this same cock and breed him over his mother. Then breed one of this offspring to his mother-grandmother-great grandmother. If the foundation is right it is surprising at the quality fowl you get so quickly. Now take another pure bred Ace Cock, who hasn't been cut and breed him over his pure mother, then a son, a grandson, etc. over her as with the first hen. This also brings the same results, quick and surprisingly favorable results as both are bred the same way. But first have the proper foundation. We selected Roundheads because they excelled the conventional fowl. Further we bred the $1,000,000 bargain Cock, the Great Spangle, (who Mr. Allen would call Old Speck) and Bamboo the son of a cock called "Col. Allen" and bred them and others over their daughters, grand daughters and great grand daughters, the hens used we call "Mother Hens" and the cocks used we call the "Sire Cocks." This is a very intensive way of inbreeding. This way we had several families within the pure breed of roundheads. The mass way of breeding is to breed the different families to one another. This is called line breeding and since all the families are already closely related and one breed, this would also be inbreeding, we hoped for good results but the product exceeded our expectations so greatly and so quickly, it was astounding, I might add and emphasize also that this type breeding would only succeed with the proper foundation to begin with. All the above is our way of breeding and the results are surprising, but must be of the right foundation. There are other ways as follows: Infusing or Infusion is another manner of breeding whose purpose is to displace our breeds weak points by infusing a breed strong in our weak point. For example if we desired to add 1/8 new blood this could be done by first crossing our fowl with the other strain, then breeding back to our side until we have a strain with bloodlines 7/8 our original breed. This was the master breeders way of making an unbeatable roundhead strain of his own and they usually succeeded in a remarkable way by using the Col. Allen fowl to make the Lundys, Sheltons, Judge Lacy's, W.T.Johnson's and many, many other Roundheads who were simply supreme. But, except to identify your own breed or strain, why infuse at all? 

 

Most fowl will not stand inbreeding, however. On the subject of Feeding and Heeling, we are not experts. However when we limit our experience and observation to the Roundhead proper there are certain imperative things to know that we are prepared to pass along, as follows. (1) He needs to be 1 1/2 or 2 years old before fighting him, but then may go several seasons without injury. (2) He needs to be fought in good heavy weight. Do not draw him down. He may fight too fast. Remember, he has steel nerves and is game enough to wait. Many fowl rush in because they are scared and if the Roundhead is fought underweight he may also rush in. (3) Heel him comparatively short, low, and straight, so he will not hang. This is a very, very brilliant bird who wants to kill and move. It is no accident when the beginner matches his full weight Roundhead, heeled low and straight with gaffs no longer than 1 1/2", against the Old Pro and beats him in a pitting or two. (4) Feed is important. It is better to take a leaf from the commercial chicken breeder and feed Starter Mash or Starter Crumbles with 20% or 24% protein. In addition give small amounts of protein rich cat food or hamburger. This applies to both males and females of all ages and the cock in the keep also. Try this on any age or sex for a short time. The change will be as quick and amazing as the inbreeding system laid out earlier. (5) If you work the Roundhead in the keep work him lightly. Usually his worst enemy is not the other cock but his own Feeder and Heeler. This experiment may be interesting. The short, low, and nearly straight heel can point much better and will pull and not often hang. We do not want to hang as our cocks are bred over many years not to hang. But this experiment is this: Secure a long high point curved gaff to a stick the size and length of a cocks shank. Do a 1 1/2" straight low heel the same. Then see which goes the deepest into a piece of "sow belly" meat. The most important one thing which I must reiterate is that fowl must be bred not to get cut. To breed sons who come out of a few fights without a scratch to their mother will reproduce the same kind of cocks and it can happen in an amazingly short period of not over two or three generations. This is not to mention the approximately 90 years of Roundhead breeding by us and those before us, in this manner. The common theme that we hear is that, even when out fought, they win consecutively and often never get touched. The whole most important objective is to breed fowl that seldom get cut and this is exactly what happens. The first thing I ever noticed many years ago was that some fowl seldom get hurt, even year after year. Do not use fowl that get hurt. The second most important quality is the ability to cut and kill with one stroke and it does not matter if the heel is 1 1/2" as long as it is straight and low. We would speculate that not more than one cock in a dozen can really cut and practically none can cut except in breeding season. The properly bred fowl does not get cut often, but he can cut and kill quickly for 10 months in the year, (2 months to moult). This information is strictly for your benefit and not for controversy. I run a large business and do not answer controversial letters or read them as they do not reach me. I re-affirm that occasionally our Roundheads come like the picture #1, which is upright, black red, Oriental looking. This is a picture from Mr. Allen of his first roundheads of the late 1800s. Most come black breasted red as Col. Allen and Dr. Fred Saunders bred. Crossing usually terminates in confusion whether it be in animals, plants, or people. The highly civilized Greeks, Romans, and Spanish peoples crossed and became bi-racial and deteriorated. These Spanish mongrelized the highly civilized South American Indians and produced what you see today. Hy-brid plants will not reproduce well either. Consider crossbred corn which produces in excess of 100 bushels per acre but will yield closer to 10 bushels per acre the second generation. Also a male bred from a donkey and mare mother never reproduced but once to my knowledge, and the offspring died prematurely. Crosses upon crosses in any form creates, usually, a confused individual. We do not dwell upon the cross long. Potency means an ability to transmit a likeness of a particular individual to his or her offspring. This would be where selective breeding enters the program. Because all offspring are not equally related to say the four grandparents. To breed Roundheads who resemble the Oriental most usually produces the largest, smartest, quickest killing and otherwise most effective cocks. Right here I may say that the Aseel cock is a Roundhead only more so and has been ever since the Roundheads existence. The other side of the Roundhead is Mediterranean which roughly speaking is the straight comb, though most straight comb fowl today carry Roundhead blood. Now originally the Roundhead was a cross between the Oriental and Mediterranean or straight comb and when bred for a long period become homozygeous or the same or pure as genealogists say. He is now no longer an Aseel or a Mediterranean or say a Spanish. However when bred entirely to the Spanish or Mediterranean or, as historians say who dwell on the origin, a Bankava. It could be possible if selected from this side of the family of Roundheads to turn him into a "Banty." However if left alone or bred to the Aseel side he becomes larger. In favoring the individual or strain. A good loosely bred pit cock could become a good brood cock but not likely. A deeply inbred cock of the run from the right family can usually be depended upon to produce better sons and daughters than a loosely bred Ace cock. The pure bred strain with the right foundation is far superior, based on observation and records, than the individual bred Ace. Unique breeding or unusual breeding is of various kinds and sometimes terminates in astounding results. Actually when Mr. Allen discovered the Roundhead the find was unique or unusual. Other forms of unusual breeding is being practiced in the experiments of the various colleges and universities. A strange story is being unraveled by chemists and poultry investigators. Changing hens to roosters, fattening old cocks to the tenderness of broilers, rubbing hormones on the combs of birds to make them grow larger, are all parts of the story. It isn't so strange that such things are possible when one considers the modern concept of sex in poultry and animals. To look at some of the unusual conditions that exist, it has been found that some birds even have the ability is function both as male and female at the same time. The female called the Free Martin may show characteristic male development. A pullet relieved of her left ovary gradually becomes like a cock, and the right ovary may develop into a testicle and produce sperm. It has been found that the gonads are the principle source of sex hormones, and regulate the size of the comb, shape of feather, spur, voice, etc. Dried cow manure has been known to carry a certain type of hormone, and when fed returns lacking color to comb and wattles. Another way of maintaining a red comb is to rub it with a chemical containing the male hormone. Laboratories of one college have been working along the line of finding a hormone that will give the cock increased sexual activity. The experimenter advised us some time ago that nothing particularly encouraging had been discovered, however. Along entirely different lines, investigators claim to have discovered other helpful theories in breeding. Horse racing, a highly specialized sport, goes deeply and firmly into breed lines, so much so that a horse having not a certain foundation can almost for a certainty be predetermined a poor performer which is also true for fowl. In the hay days of English horse racing there appeared on the turf a horse who bore the name "Eclipse" having been so named due to his accidental birth during an eclipse of the sun. This horse Eclipse, whose record as a breeder is history, was a champion of his own performance. The influence of this one horse on his posterity has been greater than seems possible. No other individual of any breed of animal life has ever been known to influence his strain in any degree comparable to that of Eclipse. Another fact of record on inbreeding may be injected here which concerns the way the Arabian horse, who was able to go for days without food, water, or rest. His production was accomplished by inbreeding to the female line such as son over mother and grandmother etc. Incidentally, these horses were used in raids and robbery and having been so bred could not be overtaken. Astrologers and followers credit the success of Eclipse to his being so expected at birth, the time of birth being during a complete solar eclipse (SUN), and the degree of his potency certainly combine to give no little evidence to this contention. Some people close to nature advocate planting and breeding in the signs. A friend of ours, educated in one of our best agricultural universities and later through extension, advised us that extensive research scientifically had proven that certain spherical phases did influence plant and animal production to a limited degree. Perhaps more of this type breeding is done than is generally known, and I must admit a personal minor indulgence. One of our breeders and cockers of the 1940's permitted an article to appear in a gamefowl publication stating in detail his method of breeding by astrology. The success of some of his great cocks, one of the most famous being Black Shotgun, is attributed to favorable aspects at birth. The scientific changing of fowls sexual existence, the story of the race horse Eclipse, and the cock named Black Shotgun all may seem strange and rather fantastic, but they are known truths in their own circle. Stranger still but probably true through a freak of nature, is the contention that mammals sometimes have an unbelievable period of gestation. There is the case of a hen who along with her chicks was separated from all other fowl. After weaning her brood, She laid and hatched off another clutch of chicks, all of which grew up to look like the cock who sired the first batch. Another case that is even more remarkable was experienced by a great breeder. The fowl used were pure but of different type. A hen was mated to a cock, then to another of a different breed. Some of the stags of this double reversed mating when at maturity showed the markings of two fathers. Charles Darwin, the most famous expert on evolution, relates the peculiar story of the woman who had two children by a first husband, who then died. Sometime later she married again, and after a few years bore two other children. The second husband became so poor that the family of the first husband decided to take his two children to rear and influence. But, upon seeing the two children of the later marriage they noticed they looked strikingly like their kin, the first husband. So they took all four children. As there was such a great difference in the looks of the two husbands, it was held by some that all the children contained the blood of the first husband. Many interesting facts have appeared on the scene over the millions of years concerning genealogy. We have studied Genealogy and Anthropology for many years and the mathematical facts we have encountered are unbelievable. It would take many years to catalog them and put them into publication. Here are a few things that may be interesting to most readers. (A) Each of us has about one million ancestors and if any one of this number had been missing neither or any of us would have ever been born though others would. This may be a message concerning competition here. (B) It is determined that a male has over 70,000,000,000 genes and the human female has over 8,000,000 ovum and any of these could have displaced you(?) in one generation. To put the subject another way, as far as the odds are concerned none of us could have ever been born. Yet you are here and maybe that is what it is all about. Any way it personally should be most complimentary to you, the reader, whoever or wherever right now comma as you read these lines. We expect to change no one and our message is simple: (1) you must have the right foundation, and (2) to maintain it you must inbreed.