Item: The Scientific Breeding of Gamefowl: SKU: 828. Price: $38.50: The Scientific Breeding of Gamefowl By: Floyd Gurley With the Coliaboration of: John J. Unlike most chicken breeds, the American Gamefowl is further named by lineage strains such as Marsh Butchers, Sweaters, Kelsos, and so on. These names hearken back to the historical owners of notable pit cocks whose stamina, strength, or particular moves were prized and thus used to breed similar fighters. Pictures Of American Game Fowl Chickens.

1. Gamefowl Breeding Method
2. The Scientific Breeding Of Gamefowl
3. Different Types Of Guinea Fowl
4. The Scientific Breeding Of Gamefowl (floyd Gurley)
5. The Scientific Breeding Of Gamefowl
6. Scientific Breeding Of Gamefowl

Gamefowl101 – Information about gamefowls, specially breeding programs/methods, keeping and conditioning, treatment for some gamefowl’s sickness and diseases, gamefowl management and etc.

The Clarets Gamefowl History

The making of Claret

In a recent article in one of the magazines, the theory was presented that the White Dominique was infused into the Clarets.

The best way to check white fowl is to mate one with a strain that produces black females. If Dominique is in the blood, it will show quickly. In fact I have had fowl shipped me; the shipper stating he had Clarets which did not have the proper appearance for other than white color, it being not the regular color for a Claret, which is different from any other white. I have tested them in single matings and never found one of them to be a true Claret.

The first chicks to appear showed Dominique characteristics when crossed on a Shuffler hen. It is amusing to note how many think they have Clarets, conscientiously believing they have the real stuff, for they don’t know that they don’t know. Any one who knows the fowl can test, in a few moments’ sparring whether it is real or not. Clarets fight differently. They fly into a cock with no beak hold, their heels pointed as an expert swordsman points a rapier. They don’t want to bite their opponent, just want to measure the distance and kill him.

A Claret cannot be produced synthetically. Many honestly believe they have created the Madigin fowl by crossing darked-colored red fowl in some manner to get wine red chickens but they do not produce the true fighting qualities of the Claret at all. Clippers originally were 50 per cent Claret. Even Clippers, from true Clarets, will produce an occasional white.

In my opinion, there are few Clarets now extant and less than half a dozen breeders who own a pure Claret, unless they have recently procured them from one of the few breeders of the true stock.

An expert has almost the feel of the true fowl. As one prominent breeder used to say: “They go together like an accordion.” They down have hard bodies; have lot of feathers, are frail chickens except in leg and wing power; but have more kick than anything their weight; are intelligent, realizing their killing prowess is in that kick and that their beaks are primarily to feed themselves. They watch and feint to get their opponent out of position, then fly into him to tear him all to pieces without getting a scratch themselves, if possible.

There are extenuating circumstances often even caused by their handlers if they do not understand their handling. Their intelligence goes to the brood yard. They are aristocrats of the chicken specie. Rarely ever will you have one that will fight females. They chatter, talk and are perfect feathered gentlemen. If you have loose hens running around the coops, the outside hens will stay around the yard with a Claret cock in it. Some of the old fashioned strains are the bourgeois of the feathered tribe.

For four generations the family of the writer of this article has owed and admired spirited horses, dogs, and fowl. As far as one hundred years back, one ancestor kept game fowl at his slave cabins on his plantation. We were a family of attorneys and politicians and law makers, but the obsession for spirited chickens seemed to be perpetuated traditionally.

From the deepest research, experience and association with this strain of aristocrats of all game fowl, in this writer’s opinion, which of course may have little value, the Clarets, while thought to have been produced accidentally, were amply prepared to produce the greatest of all modern fowl.

It is a matter of common knowledge that a pair of fowl were casually thrown into a barn, the female stole her nest, raised nine stags and three pullets, they coming very regular, all deep claret-wine color, hence the name.

It was not entirely accidental that they were endowed with superior fighting ability, for on both sides, particularly on the female side, a pedigree of superior fowl existed. Her blood came from the best on both sides of the globe, carefully and intelligently produced by men who were past masters. The mother was a Herman B. Duryea Whitehackle whose sire won 19 battles, 14 of them in hands of Michael Kearney and 5 in England and Ireland for the Earl of Cromwell.

The sire of the Clarets, according to this writer’s research, was produced from a gray cock that fought at about 4.02. This particular cock belonged to a comparatively unknown boy at that time (in cocking circles) who I understand brought the cock to Mr. Deans to fight for him. Deans fought the cocks in good company several times. He won in such a creditable manner that Mr. Deans procured the cock for his own and then bred him to one of his good red hens, heavy in Mahoney blood. Mahoney lived with Mr. Deans for some time and died at his home. This produced the red cock that became the “daddy of the Clarets.”

Any of you have bred a light gray cock on fowl with white undercolor such as Whitehackle may have had the same experience as I; that a gray crossed on that sort of fowl might produce white birds, the gray being so near the white in color.

The father of the sire of the Clarets was a gray cock, the daddy of the Clarets being the only red out of a clutch containing six stags, the remaining five being gray. The white did not present itself immediately. The wine color was first, then gray, then some whites. The gray, I understandwere among the first grays that Mr. Madigin ever owned. The grays fought like Clarets, which of course they were. Then came the whites which went back to the combination of Whitehackle blood and the blood of the Deans gray cock, which cock contained blood of Gilman Grey-Mansell pyle with other combinations.

Mr. Madigin liked the white color which was a beautiful ( what I call) , magnolia or pinkish white. The stags invariably showed a buffbrassback, which never occurs in any other color of white fowl. In fact, some of the chicks when hatched come almost pink.

In later years, I have heard that Mr. Madigin crosses some other white blood into his Clarets as the pure ones were getting small and inbred. If he did so it was entirely his own business as he was obligated to no one to perpetuate any fowl or color. He wanted a winner and liked those that looked well.

So far as runners were concerned, the Claret is one of the most sensitive and high-strung fowl. Coming from a long line of sensitive ancestry, particularly on the mother’s side they have definite characteristics. Just as a peacock, when he losses his feathers, will hide from his own females because he is so completely distressed, so will a game cock. The higher-strung the more sensitive and rightly so. It is sex and pride that makes him fight and he is at a disadvantage. Some of the gamest of bull dogs will carry their tails between their legs a good part of the time. A fight for them is serious for it means victory or death; a situation of which they are constantly aware. One who does not recognize the high spirit of the Claret fowl should never own one.

There is a story in circulation that Mr. Madigin bred a yard of fowl intentionally “dunghilled.” He trusted most of his friends with whom he was associated in horse breeding and let them have some of his good fowl as they were not competitors in cockfighting. On the other hand, he felt that some of his chicken friends were not as loyal as they could have been in keeping his fowl as his property and origination. It is told that he distributed some of his synthetic fowl to certain individuals to cure them of the practice of bothering him for cocks, breeding them back and selling them later as “pure Clarets.”

To scatter his best fowl promiscuously to those who would breed them back would have destroyed his opportunity to win as he would have been in competion with his own ability as a breeder. Although the general opinion, is that the hen produced the greater percentage of fighting prowess, it depends on the stamina of bother parents. As unusually strong cock on a weak female with predominantly produce more of the male progeny’s qualifications.

My theory is that the white fowl were first produced naturally from the blood of the gray cock owned by Mr. Deans and that the mother of the Clarets with the white under color of the Duryea Whitehackle.

To this day, in breeding straight white Clarets, (which cannot be continued long as the feathers get too brittle and they get somewhat weakened; it is better to breed back to the dark colors) one will get an occasional gray feather and the first Clarets were bred 40 years ago. In my opinion, no outside blood was put in the Clarets except from two cocks from Mr. Marsh, strong in Lowman Whitehackle blood until 1935. The original white Clarets were a natural production.

Genetic Purity and the Importance of a Good Foundation Bloodline

By Kenny Troiano

For many years, American Gamefowl Breeders thoughts, regarding “gamefowl breeding” have been largely dominated by the pit game philosophy. The general substance of the theory is that although there are obvious differences between purebreds and crossbreds, the purebred, by virtue of being a purebred, are overall weaker than crossbreds.

The theory goes even further by stating that gamefowl cannot be bred pure at all, and be successful in today’s tough competition.

The truth is, purebreds are much more superior to crossbreds. In fact, it is better to replace most modern-day hybrids by using purebreds or by using grades. Most of these purebreds or grades are developed for an essential function for the benefit of gamefowl breeders, for the chief pur­pose of breeding a much more superior breed of gamefowl. This can only be accomplished by breeding pure bloodlines.

PRODUCING CROSSBRED FOWL HAS BECOME A VERY LUCRATIVE ENTERPRISE: Some believe that the Old English Games are the only purebred fowl, and that the American Gamefowl are the same as the American people, carrying the blood of many nationalities. And that pure gamefowl are a thing of the past.

Gamefowl Breeding Method

I can understand why they think that way. Look at strains such as Hatch, Kelso, and even Sweaters, they are far from pure. In fact, they were never pure, even when Sandy Hatch and Walter Kelso bred and raised them. It wasn’t until other breeders got their hands on them that they came even close to being bred pure.

This is also true when we look at older strains that were in fact bred pure, they simply don’t exist today, just their names. Good examples of this are the Whitehackles. Pure Whitehackle strains today are uncommon to extremely rare. At the time, they were distinct and highly distinguishable from other strains, but today they are rare, and pure ones are almost impossible to find. Gamefowl that are said to have some relation to the Whitehackle strains, usually due to excessive crossing, are as common as dirt. There is little doubt that these breeders bred their fowl long enough or well enough that their characteristics have become locked and fixed. But we may never know for sure since the breeders who first originated them are no longer around to show us.

This brings up a good point, are pure gamefowl a thing of the past?Are we to assume that the creation and maintaining of a strain is impossible? What is the truth of the matter? The truth is that nearly all of the present-day strains of American Games rest on crossbred foundations, there is no getting around that. And if we are going the break the trend, we are all going to have to become breeders again, and learn to breed them pure. Yes! It is indeed possible.

Gamefowl of the past are nothing more than a fortunate accident:We have many accounts of various, so-called, gamefowl strains that contain numerous records of great brood cocks and brood hens that gained recognition by an accidental cross that happen to nick well. However, their successes (gamefowl farms) and popularity were only gained by mere chance, or better yet, by a fortunate accident. They benefited from the success of a handful of birds that happen to work out for the time, rather than by their own, individual recognition as a skillful and knowledgeably breeder. Their continued success is only guaranteed if the original pair (brood fowl) is still around and can reproduce the same kind of offspring as they did before. And that is if the breeder even remembers which cock was bred to which hen. Most keep no records of any kind, and have no idea who was bred to whom.

Hybrid crosses have no future:The downside is that crossbreds are usually bred haphazardly. There is nothing systematic in the way most crosses are bred. Most have no idea as to what they are really made of, or the breeds that they carry within their DNA.

For the average breeder, their gamefowl are a mixture of many varieties and strains. In most cases, the crossing is continued over prolonged periods of time. Every year new birds are acquired for breeding with no idea as to the quality and substance of their genetic pool. They go more by the bird’s name and phenotype, while disregarding, completely, their genotype and true ancestry. The potential for variation is extremely high. Since no inbreeding is practiced the amount of selective breeding is nil to none, and so is their eventual improvement.

The peddler is born:These days’ many become breeders in order to make a sizable profit. After all, breeding gamefowl, for the purpose of selling has become a big business.

How does it work? Well, following a few notable successes, they eventually make their performance records available for the reading pleasure of the many gamefowl enthusi­ast, who subscribe to various gamefowl jour­nals. These records, which are usually bogus, are carefully studied in an attempt to learn how they were bred, selected, and conditioned. They are looking for the secret to success. But if you dig deep enough, you will find that this is usually accomplished by breeding nothing but crosses. Let me tell you something, you will never be able to replicate their fowl the way they did, heck, they are lucky if they can.

It is for this reason that the gamefowl enterprise does not really differ significantly from other livestock enterprises, where the breeding and selling of hybrids is a big business, where the breeding and maintaining of pure families and strains is more work than most are willing to carry out or attempt, and that’s the rub.

USING HYBRIDS FOR BROOD FOWL: Many breeders, beginners and veterans alike, have never given any thought to the importance of keeping pure lines. More and more, I see brood pens that are full of multiple winners that in reality are nothing more than “hybrids,” which are again bred to create more hybrids. /florida-heat-pump-serial-number.html. In fact, those who practice this form of breeding finish up at the end of the breeding season with a hundred or so brood pens only to select 5 or 6 really good stags. This is due to the fact that, seldom will they get a hybrid cock that will consistently produce fowl with good performance abilities. The reality is simple: The more strains or crosses you have going into any particu­lar mating, the more variation you will en­counter in the progeny.

My advice to you is – get away from breeding birds that you do not know anything about, save your money and buy a pair or trio from a reputable breeder. Do your own crosses and don’t use any of the hybrid hens or cocks for breeding.

BREEDING PUREBREDS IS ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESS OF OUR FUTURE: When breeding fowl that are pure, there is more reliability in their breeding. A purebred family, no matter the breed, having been purely bred for many generations, will reproduce their kind with an unfailing certainty. The reason why this is true? There is no alien blood to bring out objectionable characteristics and traits. In this case, the breeder has a much greater opportunity of knowing what to expect from a given mating. This is not the case when it comes to the breeding of hybrid crosses or mongrel blood.

Once a very high quality is reached, good quality can be kept up without any real selection at all, but only when the potential for variation in the strain is reduced to almost nothing.

The Scientific Breeding Of Gamefowl

In most cases, we only need to stop introducing outside blood to keep the quality at the high level of purity, which has been reached.

Breeders who breed pure fowl are ones who are normally backyard breederswho specialize in one or two breeds. These are breeders who know their fowl inside and out, such as:

• They know what characters to select for and what to cull out
• They know the breeding characteristics of their fowl
• They can usually predict the outcome of the offspring every year. In other words, they know, every time they mate a cock and hen, what the offspring will look, act and perform like. There are no surprises
• They know the purpose for which their fowl are bred and breed to a specific form and function
• They know the characteristics of the ability and style of their fowl and the best method for conditioning them
• And their fowl are the pride and joys of their lives

Different Types Of Guinea Fowl

The misperception of out-crossing:Out-crossing can mean different things to different breeders. For instance, if you were to talk to a breeder who raises and breeds Rhode Island Reds or Plymouth Rocks, or an ornamental breed of some kind, out-crossing is considered the breeding of a male bird of unrelated blood with females of the same “breed.” For instance, one breeder of Plymouth Rocks my breed one of his roosters with a Plymouth Rock hen from another breeder. In this case, they are of the same breed and variety, but not the same family. For most, this is considered out-crossing.

However, when it comes to American Games, it has a whole other meaning. American Games are different than other fowl. A Plymouth Rock from one breeder may be the same Plymouth Rock bred and raised by another breeder. They do carry genes that are very close, and are as close to being pure than anything that is out there today. But when we are talking about breeds such as Hatch, Kelso, Sweaters, etc., from one breeder to another, their bloodlines are not even close to being related. They carry the same name but their genetic pool couldn’t be more different. In this case, the name means nothing.

For American Games, it does not mean the introduction of outside blood, such as the blood of a different breed, variety or strain, or in other words, Hatch blood from one breeder to Hatch blood of another. In means the infusion of blood from one line to another of the “same” family or strain. In a nut shell, “same family, just different lines.”

In either case, whether domestic, commercial, ornamental or sport, it does not mean the introduction of blood as in crossbreeding (the breeding of two different and distinct breeds).

Line-crossing is usually done with three objects in mind:

• To correct some defect, which it is apparently impos­sible to correct within the line, which has been fully established
• Or to introduce some desirable feature, which the estab­lished line does not possess
• Or to improve vigor and vitality in the line (this is probably the most common one).

ONE LAST THOUGHT: To be successful as a breeder of high-quality American Games you must develop a Tenacity of Purpose. You must be endowed with a rather generous amount of what would ordinarily be termed hard headedness. You must not be of a too plastic nature.

A man who is easily influenced is naturally very changeable. He may be put on the right track today by some experienced and knowledgeable mentor, but tomorrow he may again be led astray by some unsound advice.

A man, who is so indecisive as to take all advice, is just as hopeless as one who is so inflexible as to take no advice.

one more thing. become a scientific breeder, not a haphazard one. Practice the art of scientific breeding. Use proven Gamefowl Breeding Programs.

Hope you enjoyed the article, and thanks again for reading.

Join us at the BREEDERS ACADEMY, and learn how to create a true strain, one that you can be proud of. I will help you to increase your knowledge of breeding, advance your skills as a breeder, and help you to improve the quality and performance of your fowl. I’m confident that if you follow my advice, your fowl will improve. So, check it out – https://americangamefowlbreedersacademy.com

The Scientific Breeding Of Gamefowl (floyd Gurley)

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The Scientific Breeding Of Gamefowl

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Yours truly, Kenny Troiano

Author of the Gamefowl Breeders Manuals

Scientific Breeding Of Gamefowl

Owner of the Breeders Academy Membership Website

And, Host of the Bred to Perfection Podcast

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