Poultry Chicken
Poultry and Gamefowl - Concepts to Better Breeding
Gamefowl breeding is a tedious and lengthy undertaking that requires full time attention. If you don’t have the heart for it, don’t do it. The good thing about gamefowl breeding as a business though is that, locally nowadays, there exist a big and lucrative market for fighting cocks. Many beginners get their initiation into cockfighting and gamefowl breeding usually through family or friends.
When asked what they like most about breeding, majority of rooster-raisers would say it’s the joy of coming out with a winner by their own design. Acquire as much information as you can about gamefowl breeding before even buying a single rooster.
Start by visiting some experienced cockers and observing methods of raising gamefowl. You can also learn so much from readily available reading materials and videos on the subject. If you’re an internet user, a number of good websites about cockfighting can provide some of the information that you need and you can also meet cockers and friends from all parts of the world who could be more than willing to share their knowledge and experiences.
Start within your budget and with the right planning.
Plan your breeding within the limits of your time and budget. As time goes on, you can keep your numbers down through selective breeding and hatching. And you must be willing to cull any defective or inferior birds. Huge farm is not a must to raise quality gamefowls. Quality is more important than quantity. Prepare your yard and have some housing ready for them.
Start with the right broodstocks.
It is said that “the end justify the meansâ€, but, although this may be true at some extent, in gamefowl breeding the end result comes a little bit longer than others that you can not just try any means for a shooting-an-arrow-in-the-dark end. Veteran rooster-raisers always say that gamefowl breeding becomes very expensive and wasteful when you start with cheap brood stocks. That is cheap in every sense of the word.
The first rule is to make sure that what you are breeding is the right stuff or close to it. In choosing a good brood stock, one must take into consideration the following steps:
a) Scout for winning bloodlines of breeders who have established names in the field or breeders who are on a winning streak;
b) Choose which bloodline do you intend to produce;
c) If possible, find out the family tree of your preferred bloodline;
d) Try to seek the best source of the brood stocks that you need;
e) When you have identified the best source try to get from him the best that he got, even if you have to pay more;
One thing in common among those who became successful in gamefowl breeding is the fact that they all placed considerable investment on their brood stocks.
Partners Peter Uy & Joseph Choa never leave any stone unturned when they are buying seed fowls in the United States. Tukaan producer-host Emoy Gorgonia revealed that if Peter & Joseph are offered a broodcock priced at $1,500, they would simply offer back $2,000 for a better one or an ever higher amount for a rooster that is supposedly not for sale. They look not for the physical features, but for a rooster’s potential to produce winners. Today, the partner’s farm in Antipolo City is one of most preferred source of brood stocks locally.
A good example of someone who started it right, although, he admits that he had to spend more than a million peso as “tuition fee†before he learned his lessons is Sonny Lagon. With only four years of serious breeding behind him, Lagon has earned his place among the country’s finest game fowl breeders. When he found out the right source of the brood stocks that he needed, Bruce Barnette of Alabama, Sonny immediately made his move. During one of his early visits to Barnette’s farm, Lagon wanted to buy a particular rooster, but, was told that it was not for sale. When Sonny insisted, Barnette jokingly told him that he would only let go of the rooster for $5,000. Right there and then, Sonny handed Bruce $5,000. The rooster may not be worth that much, however, Sonny was able to earn Barnette’s attention, trust and later on, friendship.
There are those who had been in the breeding business for years, but never got off the ground. Why? Because they started with the wrong or untested brood stocks. They probably got bargain seed fowls in the beginning, but ended up spending more and losing their investments in the long run. And in game fowl breeding or in any endeavor, something that is started wrong can never be made right.
Important things that you should know
a) Strain – a strain is a family of gamebirds that have the same physical characteristics and easily recognizable traits that make them different from the others and they must also have the ability to reproduce themselves to be considered a strain. Basically, all gamefowl breeds are man made designs that first stem from the Wild Red Jungle Fowl of Southeast Asia (the local labuyo perhaps). Through selective breeding, we now have the birds we see today. Creating a strain is the result of one man’s vision. It is developed through selective breeding, for many generations with a single family.
b) Single breeding – a cock bred with a single hen or rotating that cock with three or four hens that are individually penned.
c) Group breeding – is breeding a cock with a group of hens. It is similar to flock breeding except a smaller amount of hens are bred to only oen cock at a time.
Specialize in only one or two breeds at the most.
The first thing to consider when you aim to be a breeder of fine quality gamefowl is to specialize in one or two breeds at the most. This could be done through line breeding, inbreeding, out-crossing, semi-outcrossing and infusion.
a) Line Breeding – is the most common form of maintaining a strain. This is when a cock is bred to his mother, grand-mother or even his great-grandmother or if a pullet is bred to her father, grandfather or her great-grandfather. Breeding to their aunts, uncles or even to their cousins will also work.
b) Inbreeding – is the breeding of brother to sister. It is important when you need to accentuate or lock in the good genes or traits of your strain.
c) Out-crossing – is when you bring in new blood. The main purpose of out-crossing is to produce battlecocks. These are the ones that you’re going to fight or sell.
d) Hybrid vigor –the main reason for out-crossing is to establish a high degree of Hybrid vigor. To breed an individual that is better, faster, stronger, smarter and gamer than his parents is the result of hybrid vigor.
Sex of a chick is not a cocks’ fault.
A cock has thirty-nine pairs of chromosomes composed of one pair of sex chromosome and thirty-eight pairs of autonomic chromosomes, while, a hen has one sex chromosome instead of a pair. A cock gives a sex chromosome to every fertilized egg, but a hen gives her sex chromosome to maybe 50% of the fertilized eggs she lay. If the fertilized egg receives sex chromosomes from both the cock and the hen, it will hatch to be a stag (male), but if the egg only has a sex chromosome from the cock, it will hatch out to be a pullet (female).
Remember that as much as possible, always keep youth to one side of the breeding. Breed a proven hen, which is at least two years old, to a young brood cock and vice-versa.
With this information, I guess you can now start in gamefowl breeding. Of course, be sure to provide your birds with the best nutrition and health care available. A comprehensive vaccination program is a must considering that game birds are very susceptible to a wide range of avian pests and poultry diseases.
Lastly, keep track of each chick’s ancestry by keeping good records, giving each brood cock or brood hen its own identification code and marking each of their chicks with the identity off the breeding that produced it. This can be done with toe punching and nose marking, then later with wing and legbands. Through, this you’ll be able to identify which pair of breeding to continue with or to stop.
Does anyone have a recipe for chicken kebabs like the ones at lenards poultry shop?
Any flavour is fine (satay, bbq, portugese, mango, etc). Cheers!
i have absolutely no idea where or what that poultry shop is but i found some recipes for you.
SPICY CHICKEN KEBABS
Ingredients3 garlic cloves , roughly chopped
knob of fresh ginger , roughly chopped, plus extra to serve
1 orange , grated zest and juice
3 spring onions , roughly chopped
2 tbsp clear honey
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 small skinless boneless chicken breast fillets , cut into cubes
20 button mushrooms
20 cherry tomatoes
2 large red peppers , seeded and each cut into 10
Grind the garlic, ginger, orange zest and spring onions to a paste in a food processor. Add the honey, orange juice, soy sauce and oil, then blend again. Pour the mixture over the cubed chicken and leave to marinate for at least 1 hr, but preferably overnight. Toss in the mushrooms for the last half an hour so they take on some of the flavour, too.
Thread the chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers onto 20 wooden skewers, then cook on a griddle pan for 7-8 mins each side or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked and golden brown. Turn the kebabs frequently and baste with the marinade from time to time until evenly cooked. Arrange on a platter, scatter with chopped spring onion and eat with your fingers.
GENERAL CHICKEN KEBABS
Ingredients
2 pounds skinless and boneless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
2 medium onions, cut into sections for the kebab skewers
2 sweet green peppers, seeded and cut into squares
12 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup Romeu extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove minced
Juice of 2 lemons
1 and 1/2 tablespoons dried rigani (Greek oregano)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Method
To make the marinade, combine the minced garlic, lemon juice, rigani and sugar in a bowl. Whisk together the ingredients while slowly pouring the olive oil in a thin stream into the bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
In a separate bowl, combine the chicken cubes and enough of the marinade to completely coat the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for at least six hours. Reserve the remaining marinade to baste the vegetables and chicken on the grill.
Prepare the barbecue grill.
Soak long wooden skewers in water for about 20 minutes. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and allow it to return to room temperature. Alternately thread the chicken cubes, peppers, onions and tomatoes on the skewers. Brush the grill rack with olive oil before placing the kebabs on the grill. Cook the kebabs basting and turning frequently until done. Serve immediately.
Bon appetit!
MARINATED CHICKEN KEBABS
Ingredients
4 boneless chicken breasts weighing about 6 oz (175 g) each, skin on
4 bay leaves, cut in half
½ red onion, peeled, halved through the root and separated into layers
8 fresh green chillies, halved and deseeded
a little olive oil
salt and freshly milled black pepper
For the marinade:
1 level teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1½ level teaspoons whole coriander seeds
12 cardamom pods
1 rounded tablespoon peeled and grated root ginger
1 rounded tablespoon turmeric
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
½ level teaspoon Maldon sea salt or rock salt
1 tablespoon groundnut or other flavourless oil
10 fl oz (275 ml) natural yoghurt
For the fresh coriander chutney:
1 oz (25 g) fresh coriander leaves
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 fresh green chilli, halved and deseeded
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon natural yoghurt
½ level teaspoon golden caster sugar
salt and freshly milled black pepper
To garnish:
2 limes, quartered
You will also need four wooden skewers about 10 inches (25.5 cm) long.
Begin by dry-roasting the cumin and coriander seeds and the cardamom pods over a medium heat for 1 minute, until the seeds begin to jump. Remove from the heat and, once cool, remove the seeds from the cardamom pods and crush them with the cumin and coriander seeds using a pestle and mortar. Next add the ginger, turmeric, garlic and salt and mix everything well.
Now cut each chicken breast into 5 pieces, place them in a bowl and toss them first in the groundnut or flavourless oil, then in the spice mixture, mixing everything around so they get an even coating. Next add the yoghurt, give everything a good stir and press the chicken down well into the marinade. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for a few hours or, preferably, overnight.
To make the chutney, simply whiz everything together in a blender, then pour into a bowl and leave aside for 2-3 hours so the flavours develop.
When you are almost ready to serve, soak the skewers in water for 20 minutes to stop them from burning, then light the barbecue or pre-heat the grill to its highest setting. Next, thread half a bay leaf on to each skewer, then a piece of chicken, a piece of onion and half a chilli. Carry on alternating the chicken, onion and
