New Breed in Four Generations

A New Breed in Four Generations and Other Quick Fixes 

People breed game chickens for many reasons. I like breeding them because I felt like I was creating something, and that feeling felt good. Breeds or strains of chickens, are one and the same for the purpose of this paper, and we are going to explore ONE way to breed a new strain. Most successful breeders can almost tell you what a certain mating will produce and they have a goal for that mating. We will set a few goals for our new strain. 

1. All the fowl will have the same style of fighting, and for me, I want gamecocks that will meet the other rooster in the air and climb to the ceiling, to top the other rooster. He will be a cutter of course and there will be no question as to his gameness. 

2. My chickens will be pure greys bred from ½ red and ½ grey parents. 

3. They will all look identical (males will be silver-back greys with yellow legs and straight combs. The hens will look like full sisters, and their eyes will be parallel to their middle toe. 

Step 1. I will buy two broodcocks from watching several big meets and watching as many full brothers to my broodcocks fight. I will buy a rooster and hen from one breeder and a rooster and hen from another breeder. I will have seen these gamecocks and their brother fight and win at the top level of competition.

Step 2. I will breed the gamecocks to the other gamecock’s sister and these matings will produce reds, greys, and colors in between. (If I had enough money, I would breed a parallel strain of reds, or have a friend do so for me. I would bring this blood back latter.) I would cull all the reds and reddish greys, after fighting them to determine what styles of fighting I had. If they are as good as they should be, they will strill bring a good price. Hopefully, I would have had some of my mostly grey colored roosters fight the required style and win in top company.

Step 3. I would breed all of these to their mostly grey colored cousins from the other pen.

Step 4. These second matings are going to give us too many chickens, but from this generation will begin to have the needed material to make our selections to establish our new breed. These chickens should be silver grey with light red tint. There will be differences in fighting styles, but most should meet our goal. We will be very selective and pick four pens for our next brood pens. Only the very best according to our goals will be bred. We will want to breed up close and as far away from relations as possible, diversity in pedigree, but sameness in fighting style and looks. The gamecocks from this set of matings should look alike and fight alike for the most part. We will need to cull all the rest of the fowl once we make our choices.

Step 5. We should have fowl that look alike and fight alike by now, but we also should have some pens or individuals that are far superior to the rest. We will select from these matings only three pens of the very best. These fowl will not be know as Roger’s Rockets.

Step 6. The maintenance of our new breed will depend on maintaining hybrid vigor by breeding close one generation, and far away the next. I think I would call Mark Marsh, or someone like him, and seek his advice on maintaining a strain. Culling fowl even if they are very good is necessary. We will need to cull the entire previous generation or we will fall into some traps and forget our goal. It is good to keep up with the good ones and maybe bring their blood back down the road. 

OTHER QUICK FIXES: 

STAG YARDS help grow better stags because there is less competition for feed and attention. Green grass and a light for insects will make the yard better. A tall tree for a roost is great.

HEN YARDS are just as important as stag yards

BIDDIES needs a MOTHER hen to teach them early life skills.

FAT is important in a chicken’s diet, (most people will not agree)

EGG YOLK is a complete chicken feed.