Selective breeding for gamefowl is a selection skill mastery. It is the ultimate tool that Master Breeders use to improve every subsequent generation of the gamefowl’s desired traits and properties. 

This article will explore and explain the many ways we can well implement selective breeding for our fighting rooster.

Every breeding season, the breeder has the opportunity to choose a cock or a rooster (that is, the male chicken) and a pullet or a hen (that is the female chicken) to be the parents of the next generation of the chicken strain.

Why is Selective Breeding important?

As parents pass their qualities and traits to their offspring, mating is so vital that whatever the outcome of the mating of the parents for the current breeding season will dictate the future of their descendants in future breeding sessions.

Breeding is a natural thing and happens continuously every time a male mates with a female. The next generation of gamefowl can be dictated either by nature or by the current breeding practice set by the breeder.

Proper selection is a skill that a breeder needs to master to improve the quality of their gamefowl descendants toward the next generations to come.

How does Selective Breeding work?

To make the most out of selective breeding, you, as a gamefowl breeder, must have enough fowl offspring to choose from so you can observe the varying traits providing you the particular opportunities.

The group needs to have a so-called “Genetic variation” among your gamefowl population to obtain selective opportunities from offspring.

It is needed to select the best offspring likely to transmit the desired properties to their descendants, eventually representing their next generation.

Advantages of Selective Breeding

Once there are enough chicken offsprings with varying traits for you to choose from, you can now start to select and filter only the best chicken offsprings that have the qualities that you desire for your next generation of gamefowl.

You can eventually improve their traits, behavior, and overall appearance by practicing proper selective breeding, whether you have an existing pair of gamefowls with poor qualities.

Armed with this general information of what selective breeding is all about, let’s break down the details of how to conduct selective breeding by reading further below.

Selective breeding for good Health and Wellness

One practical use of selective breeding is selecting for overall health and wellness.

Many chickens have poor health no matter how you treat them, and it keeps them sick from time to time, especially when exposed to extreme weather conditions and undesirable environments.

Treating a sick chicken is very costly, so it’s best if you can avoid giving medicines to your chickens so you can spend the budget on more important things on the farm, right?

To have a healthy gamefowl that has a natural resistance to diseases, you need to select the best chicken that is healthy.

Suppose you continue to select the fittest and healthiest gamefowl out of your existing gamefowl population; your next generation of gamefowl will undoubtedly be much healthier and more resistant to illnesses.

Selective breeding to improve Station

While some breeders are happy with low to medium stationed gamefowls, others might want medium to high stationed fowls.

Suppose your gamefowl lacks the height, and you want to improve the Station of your next generation of gamefowl. In that case, you can look at your current gamefowl population and select only those with the ideal height or Station you desire.

Selecting the offspring with ideal height is an example of selective breeding. 

As a breeder, you select only the best offspring out of your chicken population that you have that will best represent the height in the next generation of your fowls.

Selective breeding for the desired Color

There are gamefowl enthusiasts that believe in Color.

Especially in fighting competitions where two gamefowls compete and fight for life and death, many believe that the Color of the feathers and the Color of the feet shanks dictate the event’s outcome.

So if you’re that kind of a person who thinks that a light-colored gamefowl is better than a dark-colored fowl, you can use selective breeding to achieve that.

Same thing if you think that a green-legged fowl is more superior to a yellow-legged fowl; for example, you can also use selective breeding to select the right colors out of the existing offsprings you currently have.

You can change the behavior of your next-gen fowls and their appearance or so-called “Phenotype” and dictate the Color you desire through the proper use of selective breeding.

Selective breeding for that perfect Eyes

You don’t want to have a gamefowl that has a deformed eye, don’t you?

I mean, although an eye generally looks normal to ordinary people, a meticulous gamefowl breeder still looks for that eye that has the perfectly round shape of a pupil with bright red eyes surrounding the circle-shaped pupils is a beauty to behold for master breeders.

Therefore, it’s a must that you select the best one out of your existing population of gamefowls that has the best representation of the eyes.

Selecting the right eye shape and eye color is possible by carefully using selective breeding techniques.

Selective breeding for the right Body

Many gamefowl breeders look for the proper structure of the Body.

Some breeders want the Body of their gamefowls shaped like a football or shape like a heart.

Other gamefowl aficionados want the back of their gamefowl to be broad, while some breeders want short keel bone.

So if you are that kind of a breeder looking to have a gamefowl with the correct conformation of the Body, you can use selective breeding for that specific reason.

Selecting for Gameness

Gamefowl is being bred explicitly for competition; therefore, gameness needs to be present if you compete with another gamefowl in a pit.

Therefore, you must use selective breeding and only select a so-called game fowl to achieve your desired purpose.

Selecting for Intelligence

If you use proper selective breeding exclusively for intelligence, your next generation of gamefowls will be undoubtedly intelligent enough to outwit its enemies come a battle time.

Selecting for Ability

A gamefowl without abilities is not suitable for a person engaged in fighting competition.

So, for the next generation of gamefowl to have the right abilities, you can use selective breeding to achieve the abilities you’re looking for in a gamefowl.

Still related to abilities, one critical ability is the so-called “Cutting Ability.”

The cutting ability of a gamefowl is the most sought-after. 

If a gamefowl has the accurate cutting feet, it is almost an assurance of a victory for practically all gamefowl enthusiasts.

Selecting for a good Hen

One cannot produce the best gamefowl that is sought-after without a good hen.

A good hen is a good producer of eggs.

Also, a good hen is a nurturing mother.

Most importantly, a good hen is a producer of winners.

A gamefowl that has a good record in fighting competitions comes from a good hen.

One needs to tap the power of selective breeding to ensure that the next generation of fowls has enough good hens to maintain that winning bloodline.

Just as in nature, there are some laws or principles that govern selective breeding.

These laws or principles are part of Genetics (the study of heredity). 

They are listed below to improve further one’s knowledge and mastery of the art and science of selective breeding.

Law of Segregation

Mendel’s Law of Segregation says that the parent’s cell contains two copies of Chromosomes, and it passes a trait randomly (Allele) such that its offspring receives each Allele from their parents.

Therefore if anyone wants to master the art and science of selective breeding, it’s best to hold a solid understanding of this principle.

If you’re interested in this subject, you can explore more of the details of this particular law by visiting this article link.

Law of Independent Assortment

With the Mendels Law of Independent Assortment, you can probably perform calculations of the outward appearance as well as inward traits and behavior (Genotype and Phenotype ratios) of your next-gen fowl based on the probability of each current fowls gene combinations.

A great law to study and master if you want to create your distinct strains of gamefowl.

You can find more information on this subject by clicking this article link.