Today I want to talk about the gamefowl hatch roosters, since they are a very important race in the inch knife and they have a lot of different lines and families, that’s why I want to comment some of them and how have they been originated over the course of time.
Hatch rooster bloodline
In the beginnings of the 20 th century, Stanford Hatch, also known as “Sandy”, from Long Island, New York, created one of the rooster races that has become famous through the years, the famous Hatch roosters. Maybe one of the most famous races between the fighting cocks. The origin of this line, which is very varied, was due to Sandy Hatch. These are very varied birds with round and yellow heads. The Hatch were originated by the Kerni, Brown Red and Thompson WhiteHacle bloodlines, plenty of people associates the phenotype of the green foot with the Hatch. This was some time later because in the Stanford Hatch corrals, the 90% of the animals were yellow legged.
A rare thing that happened with this was that despite of been one of the most outstanding breeders of his time, he was never a consistent winner in the tournaments to which he attended.
Nowadays, the Hatch are basic bloodlines. It must be mentioned that plenty of experts and modern breeders say that the current breeder can’t afford the luxury of maintaining outside of the corrals some of the varieties of the Hatch lines, such as:
Leiper Hatch roosters
Designed by the standard of the Judge Leiper in the beginnings of the 20 th century, created by the bloodlines of Sandy Hatch, they are birds with a beautiful phenotype of dark colored to brownish feathers, with turkey crests and some of with saw crests, with average height, and all of them are somewhat spiky with green legs. This line possess a combat train based upon the strength and power. In the United States there were popular with breeders such as Oscar Adkins and Rat Graves, the latter is one of the modern breeders that achieved 5 victories as the Breeder of the Year by the American Union with Leiper bloodline. A record that is set for future generations.
The Leiper Hatch roosters are one of the most powerful bloods of the current days, in the vanguard of the modern families for fighting with the gaff, razor and Philippine blade. They are considered of vital importance for the hybrid development and of great versatility since they allow us to cross them with most of the mother bloodlines and they produce high quality birds.
McClean Hatch roosters
Ted McClean developed another family of the Hatch fighting cocks in the north of the United States in the mid times of the 20 th century. This birds possess a yellowish phenotype with light yellow neckties falling into lighter in the borders of the necktie. This can be translated in that they are a little more orange in the upper part and they end in yellow borders, although there are cases when there are also some of the Hatch that are of a darker tone, their backs are dark brown, the neckties are smoking orange and they are heavily feathered, their tails are broader and bigger just like their wings, which also are of superior size, their heads are round and mostly they have turkey crests. Their size is average with a simpler corporal build than the one of the Leiper Hatch. The combat style of these birds is based in the speed, agility, reflects, and they are very violent.
This birds got to the fame by the hands of Ted McClean and it is here when the green legged roosters start their fast race towards the next generations. This birds were acquired by the exceptional breeder Ray Oskins, whom by the means of selective methods returned the family to their origins with the yellow foot. It is here when the controversy starts since a lot of people believes that the McClean is yellow legged when the original ones were green legged.
This birds were created in 2 sheds by Robinson through Ray Oskins in green and yellow legged versions, giving priority to the latter. By Ray, a lot of people had access to these lines in the United States between other breeders: Gene Brown and Carol Nesmith. It must mentioned that McClean’s females were basic for the cross of the yellow legged with the Sweater gamefowl fighting style, Kelso and other bloodlines in the United States. It is a very used family between the black bloods such as the Brown Reds, or the Sid Taylors.
Another virtue that made the McClean Hatch roosters very conditioned birds was their great cutting capacity along with their superior speed. This was a deadly mix and it was what gave them their fame.
Spangle Hatch
Basically, they keep the gen of the McClean roosters with white dots in their necktie and chest, wings and tail. Because they are recessive, they are not very abundant and nowadays just a few breeders have this line. Some breeders like to cross the Spangle Hatch with the Albany, and there’s already a variant of this family that are feather colored.
Yellow Leg Hatch roosters
We must remember that most of the bloodline that originated the Hatch in the first place was yellow legged. Because of this, the Yellow Leg keep the complete phenotype, whit a mid-colored tone and plenty of them with white stripes, broad backs, saw crests and squared, although some of them have turkey crests and round heads. Their height is average and their combat style was based in ruthlessness and overall rage as the primal weapon.
This hatch rooster bloodline is considered one of the most important of the current days and regularly presents different attitudes in the combat style since they have been modified to the standards of the different breeders, winning speed and cut due to the infusion of other lines but keeping their original phenotypes that made them famous.
I invite you to continue meeting other breeds of roosters seen the following articles:
- Kelso gamefowl fighting style
- Albany rooster fighting
- Radio gamefowl characteristics
- Bloodlines of gamefowl
I hope you have liked this article about the Hatch roosters, I’ll be updating it constantly for adding all the different families. Don’t forget the small details make the great breeders.