Gamefowl History ~ Rooster Village

There have been many theories on where our beloved modern day gamefowl originated from or when we started keeping them for sport. The exact time when the gamefowl was first kept in domestication is unknown.

The first mentions of cockfighting were in the reign of Croesus, king of Lydia ( 595 BC – 547 BC) and in India, it is mentioned in the "Codes of Manu" written a thousand years before Christ. There are also ancient hindu texts mentioning the use of a "fighting fowl" in as early as 1500 BC.

The Greeks and Athenians also fought cocks. Themistocles, the Athenian General, encouraged his soldiers' valor by pointing out to them two cocks fighting, saying, "These birds fight not for their

gods, nor for their children, nor for glory, nor for freedom, but for the sake of victory, that one may not yield to the other ; " the example of the cocks having such an effect on the flagging spirits of the soldiers that he led them once more to victory. Afterwards Themistocles instituted a public festival, held annually in the theater, where the young men were compelled to attend to learn a lesson in courage from witnessing the fighting of cocks.

During the time of the Phoenicians, Canaanites and Hebrews, cockfighting was popular. Like breeders today, they considered breeding gamecocks for pit fighting an art. In Egypt, during the time of Moses, cockfighting was a very popular pastime. With this, it is clear that cockfighting has been present since the early times of human civilization.

The exact make up of the modern day gamefowl may be lost to time as the gamefowl has evolved into an extremely sophisticated warrior from many decades of domestication and fine-tuning. It is believed that the modern day gamecock came from several jungle fowl species, namely the Red jungle fowl, Green jungle fowl, Grey jungle fowl, Ceylon fowl and Sumatra fowl. These fowl can still be located in the dense jungles of asia. These jungle fowls are said to be part of the bloodlines that form the orientals Nowadays, when we say orientals, we think of big, heavy fightingcocks like the Shamo, Asil, Sumatra, Hainan fowl, Ga Noi and Thai fowl. The Asil for example is considered the oldest bloodline that is still in existence today. Very early Hindu texts describe a fighting fowl that resembles the Asil.

In England, it is said that their Old English strains descended from an ancient wild variety of gamefowls:

1. Black breasted reds, with fawn partridge hens.

2. Brown breasted reds, with dark brown hens.

3. Red breasted ginger reds, with yellow legs and light partridge hens.

The current bloodlines we have today are said to be a mix of Irish Game, Old English Game and Orientals. Some bloodlines also carry Spanish Game blood in them. It took many centuries of breeding to get to the modern day gamecock that we have today and we aren't done yet. We are still refining and tweaking our bloodlines in search for the perfect gamecock.