Long Cords for Game Fowls

Upon entering the game farm of Rene "Boy" Diaz in Brgy. Sampaloc, Tanay, Rizal, one could not help but notice his sparsely situated teepees. But this is not without purpose, for Boy uses long cords for his cord area.

A seasoned game fowl breeder who is no stranger amongst the farms of famed American breeders, Boy knows his business. Before venturing into breeding, Boy was first a game fowl trader, importing breeding stock from the United States and selling them in the local market. Eventually though, he got tired of a life of constant travel that he decided to put up his own game farm here in the country.

Boy had the privilege of meeting the late Marion Rose of Redhouse, West Virginia, who was the breeder of the famous McLean Hatch. Boy recounted that Marion used long cords for his corded cocks and each fighting cock outpost is complete with a scratch pad and wet feeder. This complete fighting cock station saves the breeder some work on transferring the birds to the scratch pens during conditioning. While they are corded, they are already being conditioned. At the same time, the long cords allow the birds to move around more freely, as they cover a lot of ground.

Inspired by Marion's success, Boy came back to the country and applied Filipino ingenuity by modifying the American's system. Boy also used the long cords on his corded birds, but this time, he used affordable materials. The birdhouses are situated at least 20 feet from each other to avoid fights. Beside each teepee is a long nylon cord about 6mm in diameter and tied twice to two steel pegs. Attached to it is a swivel that connects the bird's cord to the nylon line. The swivel allows the bird to move back and forth a longer distance. The long cords, however, work well only in big areas.

Aside from this feature, Boy's game farm depicts practicality and good sense in every aspect. He produces up to 350 birds per breeding season so that he can fight some of his birds and market the rest to get some good returns. Additionally, his facilities all serve multiple functions so that he doesn't have to build several structures for different purposes. "My breeding yards are not fixed on the ground so that I can move them around and use them for other purposes, such as fly pens," Boy says.

For his conditioning pens, Boy has made them using coco lumber and galvanized iron sheets. The roof is insulated from heat. Because of the strong winds in the area, the farm needs strong structures that will withstand the weather. However, the costs are still minimal.

Many people say that those who stay long in the game fowl business are those who breed, play a little on the side, and do the selling most of the time. But those who are resourceful and who know how to cut back on their expenses stay longer.