One of the most successful breeds of all times is the radio rooster fighting. Nowadays, this family is very used by breeders in the U.S. and Mexico with high success. Now, I want to share with you two alternate versions of the history of this animals.
History of the Radio Rooster Fighting
First history
Their origin is unknown due to the fact that the very first breeder of the Radio Cocks, Mr. Johnnie Jumper, said that little was known about the cock that initiated the family.
It was a colorful, small cock with yellow legs and arched eyes, an ugly cock actually. The name “Radio” comes from their particular cackling; very talkative, his family are are quick legged cocks, aggressive, with tendency to cut and a great courage. Their fighting style for some breeders is more of a defect than anything else, their combat way is “to you for you” without any kind of sign of further intelligence, that’s why it preferable to cross them with a more centered family, with a more strategic game, like the roosters Kelso, Sweater, Albany, and other more families, although these are weaker families than the Radios gamefowl themselves. This can be considered a big disadvantage because, once your try to reproduce them, their blood (by means of consanguinity) tends to deform itself very quickly even in the first rounds.
For the offspring to be successful, they aren’t united with just any blood, that’s why many breeders take them out of their breeding pens because it is extremely difficult to perpetuate and successfully cross this family.
In an American magazine, Gamecook, in an issue from 1992, there’s an article where Martin Ducher says that an American breeder named Mrs. Sheenen had this cocks since 20 years earlier and that these were the ones that started the radio rooster fighting.
Second history
Another version is that Bill Hafets, from Texas, gave Johnnie Jumper a large headed and short tailed rooster for him to cross it with some eastern race, possibly with the WhiteHackle. That for, Jumper cross it with the roosters Sweater, Hatch Yellow Leg and then he continued working with the consanguinity until he reached the prototype that we know as Radio. With light colored feathers and yellow legs. Not very feathery itself, neither it had a prominent tail. It did have a squared head and a saw crest with an average height.
The future of this breed was unsure because it was a weak family and hard to cross, but even been such a flawed breed, it was a huge asset for the new breeders. People like Roy Bready kept outstanding families of roosters with the slight difference that they are a little yellower in color but that they still kept their incredibly defined fighting style, the one that is so characteristic of this line. It’s important to say that this family has excellently adapted to the Mexican razor more than to other weapons since then, (that’s why here in Mexico the roosters radio had become so popular).
This makes then to have a higher importance and weight in the constitution of families or own lines for our weapon, the inch knife.
The U.S. breeder Martin Duchet also talked about another version of the origin of the radio rooster fighting, one that told how he had been the person that had created the Radio’s. He talks about the genetic variation that the Radio’s possess, claiming that he had a family of recessive origin of blue-footed
Radio’s and that he put under constant and repetitive mating until the seventh subsidiary, which has not taken higher importance because it hadn’t outstand at all.
The rosters radios are another modern, nowadays family of cocks, being a real alternative for the breed
since the offspring tend to be excellent when it is from a good crossing.
Radio gamefowl characteristics
One of the principal characteristics of the Radio rooster that makes him outstand is that they are animals of saw crest and squared head, of mid to short legs and their color is normally yellowish.
They are very cheerful and singing animals, of strong and broad back, their eye color goes from red to mid-term orange most of the times. Their feather color is rather dark and most of the times of yellowish tones although there are clearer ones that reach bright yellow instead. Their tale is short. Phenotypically talking, they are considered ugly by many. Their fighting style is aggressive. It’s a cuddly and sometimes committed rooster that looks forward to crash, but it’s always looking for a fight, either it be by flying or in the floor. They’re mostly pretty fast.
My experience
I want to give my humble opinion about the Radio fighting cocks. I have seen 3 stallions, 2 of which were acquired from Randy Jumper in Piedras Negras Coahulia, one was bought by a friend of mine and the other by myself. The third rooster came from Roy Bready and was brought by another friend.
My radio gamefowl fighting style was typically classic, a rooster Radio with saw crest, mid length legs, with not so reddish eyes and with a rather orange color instead. But it had a very broad back and its weight was about 2.200 kg. A very cheerful animal, in the henhouse was a fast and liberal rooster, it went for the crash almost all the time. I crossed him with Kelso chickens and from their offspring, 2 of their sons came out slightly yellowish for the Kelso heritage, but all the rest were quite similar to the radio gamefowl. Overall I got 7 males and 3 females of their crossing.
My friend’s cock was very similar to mine but it was heavier in weight, with a total of 2.500 kg. He crossed it with Kelso and Brown Red chickens. With the Kelso there were more males but with the Brown Red there were better offspring and were all winners. They got about 15 cocks that started fighting about 18 months later, and they got more than the 70% of the victories.
The third cock that was from Bready was more crossed. It was united with Kelso and with Hatch chickens. You can read the explanation I made in the article about Roy Brady.
With Jumper’s roosters, it was very difficult for the chicks to survive the first weeks after they were born, this is because they are a very consanguineous family. And with Bready’s it wasn’t much difficult from normal basis to achieve the offspring.
You want to know more about the roosters I invite you to visit the following articles_
- The best gamefowl farms in usa
- Characteristics of individual bloodlines gamefowl
- Gamefowl vitamins and supplements
- How to start gamefowl breeding techniques
Conclusion
In my personal opinion, the radio gamefowl are very well crossed with the Kelso and Brown Red, although they are considered by many as a problematic family in terms of health and they have quite a clumsy fighting style. I think they are good animals, we just need to find the right way toraise them, I hope to acquire more Radio roosters in the future, since I really liked them. Remember: “The small details make the great breeders”.