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| Red King line |
In 1956 Ted Mclean decided to quit cocking, why? Because he was losing
more in his Mclean Hatches than winning, he put all his chicken to axe. Luckily
before that happened he was able to channel some of his chicken to his friend
Marion Rose and developed this breed or re- invented this breed to become a better version of
the Mclean Hatches. Often times patience and creativity can transform a losing line
to become a winning line, and that holds true until today. But the decision to
make your own winning line versus to buy an already winning line is an economic
or perhaps a personal question to each one of us, money, time, patience and the
level of competition makes a cocker to search for more.
These are the things I
gathered about this topic. These are statements and questions:
1. Who would breed a dead broodcock? Most breeders would continue the
breed from using the winners of that line, partly true but still not a
guarantee. The point is the losers cannot breed and the one who keeps on
winning will pass on the winning traits.
2. You cannot breed luck but you can breed the good traits, in this
statement they emphasized that the breeder should after the good basic traits
of the material not the number of wins of the broodcock, wins will follow if
your breed carries the good trait but not always, luck or the absence of luck
can spell the difference.
3. Lucky line.
Winner hen- this hen no
matter what you pair them, these kind of hen will produce winners or it can
also be a winner broodcock.
Winner breed, winner
cross: sometimes 2 losing lines can be bred to produce a winning mix. I have an
experience with Oakgrove Hatch before and all the offspring lost in their
fights, they are flyers but not good in close range fighting, powerful but slow. And I have also
a Velcro line which is losing because they only knew how to shuffle and they
don’t break higher. I was so frustrated about the two breeds and almost decide
to let them go away from my life until I experimented in mixing the two and to
my amazement the traits complimented each other and their offspring are winning
90 percent.
I also had a winning
line before that is a package of good traits, intelligence, cutting, gameness,
speed. For many generations, they continued their winning record, and to my
amazement even I did inbreeding, the very dull headed individual can still win because they
strike very hard and some even if they are not strong, they still posses the
good timing and intelligence. I conclude that winning line is a package of many
good traits and they are pure or at least prepotent.
These are my question:
is a winning line a breed, a family a cross or just a line? Or how many generation
should they keep on winning? What winning percentage? What level of
competition? Well, your winning line could be a losing line if you participate in big-time
competitions, and if two winning lines meet, one is destined to lose. Your
winning line could be a winning line in 1960s but not anymore, (outmodeled
lines).
I have 6 fighting cocks
before and they are all brothers, the 5 won already and the last one and the
best one I bred first. The time came and it’s his turn to fight and that one I
bred lose. He was the only loser among the brothers and felt not secure about the offspring of
this loser. I had 4 cocks, out of that breeding and luckily the four have all
won. I concluded that the winning line is not always linear. Although he loses,
he is still a representative of that winning line. He was just unlucky to lose
in that battle, but his winning line is still there and it was manifested again
in his offspring.
(Submitted by Dr. Cliff Canton a.k.a. Red King on Facebook)
