Did you know that there's a day in the Philippines where based on statistics, has less crime and less traffic especially in the city? That's every single boxing match of Manny Pacquiao. Since he had started fighting internationally, every Filipino would watch the match either with Pay Per View or even the replays.

But if boxing is famous, there are a much more famous sports that every town in the country has and that's gamefowl or locally referred as "sabong".

Image source: www.wheninmanila.com

My husband James and his brother are both enthusiasts in the said sport. They have been influenced by their grandfather and had rekindled this hobby when they had their own earning. As soon as they were able to fund this hobby, they then started working on improving their gamefowl hobby right in their home area, their backyard!

Today, let me share with you some information regarding the gamefowl business and how the backyard gamefowl works.

One of the stags at the backyard cord area.

First, gamefowl or "sabong" has become a culture in the country. While many had stated that this sport was brought by the Spaniards, it was already in the country ever before they arrive based on the writings of those who first arrived in the country.

Currently, Sabong is a huge industry in the Philippines, from breeding to conditioning to the fight day, there are lots of things to consider and products involved to make your own roosters as deadly as possible. Every single year, there are millions of chickens killed inside the ring as well as chickens being bred to produce the specific fighter each breeder would like to have.

My husband and his brother are part of this industry. How did they manage this? Read on.

PRE-BREEDING

A pretty broodhen ready for breeding.

This is the start of the creation of fighters they wanted to bring inside the ring. Way before the breeding starts, they will have to select the specific gamefowl bloodlines they wanted to cross. Through years of experimentation, many breeders had created their own kind of bloodline with the goal of keeping the traits and characteristics of every ideal chicken. That includes the fighting style, the appearances and even their performance in terms of breeding.

Once they determine the said pair, they'll go through a certain pre-breeding process of letting the brood cock and brooder take in vitamins and minerals that help them during the breeding. There are tablets and food that they need to eat and maintain for a month.

BREEDING

Sweater Boston mating.

Once the pair is ready, they'll be placed in a breeding pen. The broodcock and hen would then start to mate. Some breeders would also go through a certain natural selection type of breeding where a hen will be placed in an area full of brood cocks and she'll select whoever she wanted to mate with. Still, the option depends on the breeder.

The eggs are always laid daily, the breeders will think of the options on either they want to go through natural incubation or they'll use synthetic machines. There are advantages and disadvantages to this but it boils down to the selected option by the breeder.

EGG INCUBATION

As soon as the breeder feels the need to do so, they'll bring all the eggs into the incubator. It takes around 21 days for the eggs to hatch, but before that, the incubator would simulate how the natural incubation happens.

Image source: incubatorwarehouse.com

The incubator has its own hatcher too and the chicks will slowly peak into its shell once they are ready to get out of their shell.

The chicks will then be placed in a specific container which they'll have their unlimited food and water supply, ad-libitum in short terminology. This is required to ensure that the chicks grow accordingly. A specific marking process will also be done to mark what the bloodline of the said chick. Marking includes slicing or breaking of their feet or beak.

CHICKS DEVELOPMENT UNTIL BABY STAG

An unlimited supply would be given to the chicks until they are big enough that they'll start fighting with each other. The females are then separated from the males, proper documentation is really needed at this stage.

They also go through a series of immunization to ensure that they won't be affected by diseases and health issues.

While females are important, males or stags are far more important as they are the required ones needed for fighting. Stags are those roosters which are less than a year old.

In the Philippines, stags are already used for fighting. It was practiced when the demand for fights have increased and the breeders had a slow supply of matured roosters.

So, as soon as they enter the stag stage, they'll go through the selection and then proper conditioning if intended for a fight.

CONDITIONING

This is a crucial part of the life of a breeder. Some breeders don't do conditioning while others do so because it is a bit of a hectic and complicated series of activities. It demands that the assigned crew wakes up early, gets the roosters into a training mode by letting them fly at a certain height to strengthen their wings, then place them into a scratching pen to improve their legs and would monitor their weight too.

Photo taken at the backyard cord area.

Just like in boxing, there's a specific criterion before the fighters could even go into a match. There's the weight, every single rooster has to attain a certain weight which was already laid out before the fight day. If the rooster won't reach that point, there's no fight at all.

Fierce stag at the cord area.

Conditioning also includes having the chickens eat different types of food to maintain their body moisture and muscle development. Fatty chickens are not good fighters thus, breeders or the farm crew needs to train them so they lose all those body fat.

A stag Blackliz.

Certain food supplements and medicines to improve their body state are also being injected into these chickens. There are thousands of products available in the market which have been commercialized for these fighters. Thus it has been advised that these chickens shouldn't be eaten when they are killed during the fight due to the medicines that their bodies have received.

FIGHT DAY

This is the day that each breeder had been waiting for. The fight day had been set way before and so every single participant has already a knowledge of the requirements and the needed number of chickens to fight.

This is a spar fight only.

Aside from that, there is also money involved here, and I am referring to huge money just like in boxing. There's a registration process where each participant would be paying a certain amount to join. Aside from that, there's a pot money involved and a minimum amount of betting.

On the fight day, the roosters are given a little amount of food to heat them up and make them eager to fight. This state is maintained and prolonged until they are brought to the ring.

Fights are really quick, while it took months and months of breeding and conditioning the birds, the fight happens only in seconds. Because of this, there's no right and proper way of breeding, it all depends on the person involved.

Each year, different breeders win as champions and thus "sabong" had increasingly become top of the most in-demand animal sport in the country.

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