Does fighting ability come from Pa or Ma?
There are experienced breeders who believe that fighting ability of a stag will likely come from the mother. This hen factor is based on observations that fighting style is being passed by the cock onto the daughters and by the hen onto the sons. This theory is called criss-cross inheritance and which is often credited for the so-called generation skip wherein the traits of a cock are more often seen in the grandsons rather than in the sons. (This has been established when it comes to some sex linked traits like color of leg or plumage, but not yet with regards to fighting style.)
Based on our own experiences at RB Sugbo GT, it appeared that there is some grain of truth to the theory that fighting style of the stag is inherited from the mother.
This hen factor is one of the aspects we at RB Sugbo Gamefowl Technology consider in our methods of creating our triple crosses. Almost all the time we triple cross, we use a pure brood cock over two-way hens. The first, although not the compelling, reason for this is the theory that fighting style is inherited from the mother. We know that mostly crosses are better all-around fighters than pures so we hope that these ability would be inherited by the stags.
Then there are practical reasons. Usually there are more crosses than pures in a game fowl farm and in breeding we need more hens than brood cocks because a single cock may have as many as ten hens.
Thus, since in breeding we need many hens it is just natural that we use crossed hens because there are more of them than pures. Another practical reason is that, except for a few exceptions, as a rule crossed hens are better layers than pures. More eggs means more chicks and subsequently more stags to harvest. However, the factor that we gave the most important consideration is that because we can spar cocks we can choose a brood cock based on fighting style, something we could not do with hens. We are aware that pure individuals may either be very good or very bad in many aspects, including skills in fighting. If we use pure hens in triple crossing there is no way of telling which of the hens are skilled and which are bum when it comes to fighting ability.
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