Richard Bates: A Different Principle in Chicken Breeding

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                   Do you still remember Richard Bates? He is considered as one of the legends in cockfighting. His name was already marked in the history of our sport. He was very closed to Filipino cockers. As a matter of fact, he lived in the Philippines for 30 years. He worked as a breeder for several cockers here like Paul Estrellado. This was an evidence that many people admired his expertise. Aside from that, he gained many friends; from ordinary cockers up to big time breeders.

            Richard became interested in cockfighting when he was only 9 years old. He always played the chicken of his father who also a cockfighter. From then, he didn’t stop from keeping chicken. Even when became older he didn’t stop from his hobby. Because he loved it so much and he considered this as a part of his life. Without it, he can’t imagine what life could be. He love all the aspect of this sport especially the competition. He was the kind of breeder who always love to win in cockfighting. This was the reason why he dedicated his time to chicken breeding. Even when reached the age of 76 years old, he was still active in breeding.

            When he was still alive, he got a lot of championships in derby. There were many people asking him, what was his secret by doing that. He answered that he has no secret. He only breeds chicken and followed his instinct. If it could not effective, then he tried again other material. For him, bloodline was not an issue. The important was the result would be impressive. But he believed that all the bloodlines were important. The only difference  is how they would play in the arena. If he had a secret, that was having a commitment to his passion. For him, this was very important; without this everything will be useless. He believed that a breeder would be succesful if they didn’t put their heart in a right place. As a cockfighter, you should always sincere in what you’re doing.

            But the irony with Richard, he didn’t knew what were the bloodlines of his chickens. He don’t put his time to know that. He gained almost of his chickens from his friends. He didn’t even ask them what was the bloodlines of their chickens. All he knew that their performance were good, so, it means that the ancestor of chickens were winning lines.  When it comes  from selecting material, Richard like chicken who have a small head, have a long feather and of course, their body should be beautiful. If it was a cock, he make sure that it has a masculine look. He loved chicken with a good characterestics. 

             Richard didn’t believe that there was a pure bloodline. For him, you could not duplicate a particular chicken. Once it was lost, you can never exchange it. It is not like a car that you can produce with the same car. For him, there were no throwback in chicken breeding. He laughed that many people stopped from breeding because they became depressed when they can’t maintain their bloodlines. Maybe his principle was very different, but we can’t ignore his ideas because he was very successful with his system.