A Guide to Practical Breeding A Guide to Practical Breeding First edition, 2012 | Page 21

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method, in flock – single mating, we could still correctly identify the
eggs of the hens individually.
Controlled natural
selection mating
This is a system we devised for practical and innovative
reasons. It is said that when chickens are left alone in the wild,
the male will pick from among the flock a few favorite hens to
mate. Likewise, hens, when allowed to roam freely in a yard of
corded roosters, will also have preferences. Meaning, chickens,
when left on their own, rely on instinct to choose their own mates which they believe are best to insure the continuity and improvement of their genetic line. This is part of what is called natural selection process.
When it is man who picked which brood cock to mate
with which hen, it is called controlled selection process in forming, improving and/or propagating a bloodline.
Naturalists believe that nature endowed cocks with the
instinct to determine which hens, and vice versa, possessed the
right genes to combine with their own in order to produce better
offspring in the succeeding generations. In short, they believe in
the theory that nature knows best.
On the other hand, others believe that man can always
improve on nature. They maintain that human intervention is
paramount to improving breeds and producing superior individuals, as
science proved true, time and again, through the years.
We, at RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology, believe in both. We
recognized the evidence of remarkable progress that abound in the various fields of breeding as result of man’s intervention. At the same time,
we acknowledged that nature might have endowed chickens with deeper
instinct that man might never be able to fathom.
Thus, we experimented with what we called ―controlled natural
selection‖ mating method. The process involves putting a number of
brood cocks, say three or four, in the same yard along with a number of
hens, say a ratio of five hens or more per brood cock. The brood cocks
are corded far apart from one another. The hens are let loose in the yard.
The hens will now have the choice of which brood cock to go for mating.
The brood cocks may also have the pick of which hen to mate among
those who came nearby. In this sense, it is natural selection process at
work. However, we see to it that the brood cocks are full brothers coming
from one family. And that all the hens belong to another particular line
that is as far related to the brood cocks as possible in order to avoid inbreeding. Therefore whichever brood cock mates with whichever hen,
the outcome or the genetic composition of the offspring, at least by
bloodline, is the same. In this sense, it is controlled.
We only apply this method to produce some of our battle fowl,

Controlled
natural selection
mating is a system
devised by RB Sugbo
Gamefowl Technology
for practical and
innovative reasons.
This method, however,
was never applied to
the creation and
development of the
blakliz as we took
extra care when it
involved our favorite
bloodline.