REY K. BAJENTING

Rey Bajenting is a professional roosterman, having been a handler, conditioner in his younger days, he is now a breeder.

He is also a writer. He had been a newspaperman, PR practitioner and Public Affairs Consultant. He had worked as Legislative Staff Chief in Congress, Consultant to the Governor of Cebu, and Executive Assistant at the |Office of the Executive Secretary in Malacanang.

Bloodline names are just brands

Bloodline names such as RB Sugbo’s Blakliz or Midnight Grey ; Garces Dirty Dom; the Dink Fair, Mel Sims, Rubles or Hulsey are just brands. Yes, bloodline names are just brands. What is really important in a bloodline is not the name, but the traits.

Names are to distinguish a bloodline from the others. Breeds, strains or bloodlines of chicken are sometimes named after the originator as mostly the case in gamefowl --Madigin, Hulsey, Ruble, Dink Fair. Or place of origin with some descriptions, as mostly the case in heritage chicken breeds. Examples are Jersey Giants, Rhode Island Reds, Andalusian Blue and many others.

Sometimes it is a description of the phenotype. Examples are RB Sugbo’s Midnight Grey, Jayson Garces’ Dirty Dom, likewise, the toppy or the muff. In few cases it is tag of affections as in the RB Sugbo Blakliz which was named after the originator’s wife Liz.

But bloodline names are not important. It is just being abused commercially. In order to sell chickens. Propagators just buy some bloodlines with known names then propagate them and resell under the same name. However, in many instances, just the names have been retained, the good traits are gone.

So our advice to would be breeders, forget bloodline names. Look for stability of traits. Look for homozygosity of simple preferred traits, and preponderance of good genes in polygenic traits and quantitative inheritance.

A good rooster is worth its weight in gold, regardless how it is called. A bum is a bum, no matter the brand.