Movie Review and More

Well it has been a hectic week. I now have 6 hens broody on eggs, Incubator is 2/3 full. I am on my way to being a chicken tycoon. Well at least somebody with lots of chickens. Spent one night in the ER at Alva. Doc couldn't do much for me, but he did give me a wicked pain shot. Went to bed at 2:30 in the AM and slept till noon, got up, ate a bite and slept the rest of the afternoon, and went to bed about 10 and slept all night. Doctor at the VA did some blood work and told me to go home and keep my leg propped up. He don't seem to understand I am running a chicken ranch here. LOL
I ordered the 1974 classic "Cockfighter" starring Warren Oates, Richard Shull, Harry Stanton. From the Internet "

Storyline

Frank Mansfield has wanted to win the Cockfighter of the Year medal for ages. Frank never speaks. After shooting his mouth off one too many times then losing a champion rooster in a casual hotel room cockfight, he swore never to speak again until he's won that award... He makes a bet with old crony Jack to be settled at the upcoming meet. Frank puts his car and his trailer on the line; he loses. Jack gets the trailer, and Frank's part-time girlfriend who goes with it. Frank's long-time girlfriend Mary Elizabeth wants him to get serious and settle down. But Frank has to raise some money for a new cock - $500 - then he can form a partnership with fellow cocksman Omar Baradansky and make another try for that medal... "
I enjoyed the movie if for no other reason you don't find many movies on this sport. I have always been a Warren Oates fan from the days of long ago when he co-starred on the series "Stoney Burk" I know all you young people out there are asking who the heck is Stoney Burk. It was a series about a rodeo performer back in the early 60's. Stoney Burk was played by Jack Lord who also played Steve Garrett in the original Hawaii 5-0. Again all the young people are saying, this was a series before. Come on keep up. Anyway for content alone I give the movie "Cockfighter" two thumbs up. There was some good footage of some fights in the movie. It was a very  good movie to watch when you have your feet propped up.

Production

Well it is finally here. I ordered a custom made incubator from http://www.customincubators.com/  and it came in the mail today. Yep big huge box delivered by the USPS. Later in the day I received a book "Oriental Gamefowl" by Horst W. Schmudde from Amazon.com and it was delivered UPS. Am I the only one who saw this as backwards. Got everything in place, played with the thermostat to get it to that 99.5 temp. I know before anyone says anything the temp in the picture is 93. I just loaded right at 100 eggs into it, and just shut the door before taking the picture. The eggs consisted of Modern Game, American Game, Asil, Asil grade, and Cornish bantam. I will candle them in a few days and keep everyone posted on how they are doing. I also have 2 hens setting on 12 eggs each outside. Wont be long and I will have lots of young chickens running around my place.

ESPN should stick to what they know

Hey guys my son watches ESPN a lot and showed this clip to me today. It is a very long clip that they aired on TV about the sport of cockfighting in Texas. HSUS was featured pretty good on it with all their wisdom (fancy name for Bullsh##) HSUS even went so far as to say you could rent a prostitute at some of the fights. I don't think there is much truth in that statement, but even if there is, check out some of the big ball parks in this nation. We went to watch the Atlanta Braves a few years ago and I guarantee you could buy dope, get laid and watch the game in the same area. But we don't mention that on ESPN because after all baseball is Americas sport and brings in tons of money. PLEASE. ESPN went to great lengths to show the sport of cockfighting as cruel, and couldn't seem to take pictures of anything other than bloody stuff. I get so tired of one sided so called news cast. It sickens me to think that so much of what we do or cant do any more is decided because of lame, one sided news cast that have their own agenda. So all you sports fans kicking back chugging down a beer and rooting for you favorite team on ESPN think about this http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6529326 Myself after watching this clip, It will be a cold day in Hell when I watch or support ESPN in any fashion.

I'm going to pick on Ole Willie

Yes you read right. The man who has been my singer/song writer hero for 40 years is now on my list of artist that I will not buy items of, or watch on TV or Movies. Steven Seagal made the list when he pulled the Tank episode on the poor chicken farmer. And of course everyone should know why Jane Fonda is on the list. Well now there is ole Willie. You all may have already known this, but I just found out yesterday in a conversation with a friend that Willie Nelson had bunked down with the the HSUS. I am referring to a few years ago when the Government closed down all the horse slaughter plants in the USA. DON'T GET ME WRONG I love horses as much or more than most people. BUT since the closing of these places more horses have been starved to death, dumped like dogs and cats on back roads etc. You can not hardly drive any distance with out seeing some old horse standing in a lush green pasture with every bone in his body sticking out. Lots of these horses have got to the age that they can not make use of the feed available, or their loving owner cant stand to put them down themselves, but cant afford to to feed them either. In years past they would take them to a horse sale and the horses would be bought by the pound like other livestock. Then they would be transported to one of these plants and humanly be put down and used for something productive like help feed people overseas. I know, no one here in the US wants to think about eating horse meat for whatever their reason. But we aint the only country that has people that like to eat. In Europe horse is used for food as is beef, goat and other red meats. Here in the US some of the meat was used in pet food etc. So now with no buyers at the sale barns, you cant hardly give a horse away. Thus we have an over abundance of old, cripple, wild (those that just didn't pan out in the training pen) and unwanted horses. I read just the other day were some rescue group in Texas got into heap of trouble because they started out with good intentions then went broke trying to feed so many horse and ended up starving several in the process. I for one look at horses as a tool. I made my living on the back of one for awhile. They are a great majestic creature. But I can not in my mind figure they are any different than cattle, goats, sheep, chickens etc. They are livestock. That is to much of a debate to get into on here, but my point is, like so many other times, someone with lots of money (if he would have paid his taxes he might not of had as much LOL) comes along and thinks because they are in the public eye they will do something important. Like so many times Willie you should have stuck to smoking dope and singing cause you and your buddies at HSUS dropped the ball big time on this one. Read the article on Willie and the HSUS here.
http://humanesociety.blogspot.com/2006/08/willie-nelson-joins-protest-against.html

Mighty Mouse

Here he is to save the day, Its mighty mouse. Ok maybe it is strange an old man naming his dang chicken but I use Mighty mouse here as an example to the uneducated people of the world. MM (for short) is a red laced Cornish Bantam cock that stand maybe 9 inches tall. He is almost as wide as he is tall and is solid like a bowling ball. As you can see from the picture his legs, head, everything is built tough. I have MM and his hens (3 nice little Cornish) in a pen roughly 8 by 12 feet, 6 feet tall covered (so something don't crawl in, cause these heavy little suckers aint flying out). His pen is made from chain link fence. Bantam Cornish have been bred from the beginning to nothing but look cute in a show pen. In the pen besides MM is a pair of Brown Red Standard Modern Games. Now remember Modern games were bred in England mid 1800s as a show chicken only. Modern Game roosters stand around 2 foot tall. So we have 2 breeds of chickens that are pet type or show which ever you chose. I am working on some pens and I look over in time to see these 2 roosters fighting through the fence. Sorta. The big tall Modern had some how stuck his head through his chain link fence pen and got it over in MM's side. MM had hold of the big roosters face with his beak and was pulling back for all his might. He had the big roosters neck stretched about a foot it looked like. I have since put a solid partition between them up about 2 foot so they don't have to look at each other. My whole point here is chickens have a natural born instinct to fight and protect their space. There is no training involved. It is the natural order of thing. Darwin called it survival of the fittest.

My Fowl

I raise three kinds of game fowl and have some Cornish bantams also.
I have oriental game fowl, Asils. Asils may very well be the oldest breed of fowl there is today. The name Asil means Thoroughbred (pure). Asils come from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Russia, and Central Asian republics. Asils are used mostly in Naked Heel fighting. (no steel) and Boxing. Here in the USA when it was legal in the past, they were bred into the American Game to add power and brains.
I also raise American Game fowl. They are as the name states American. There are so many different strains of game fowl in the USA I would not venture to name them. The American Game rooster is fast and accurate. Back when it was legal to fight roosters they were used in long knife competition mostly, with some breeders still using short knife and Gaff.
I raise Modern Game fowl also. Modern Games were developed in England in the 1800's after England banned cockfighting. There was still a large group of people that shared the love of the fowl and started showing them in poultry shows. The Modern Game is the result of many years of selective breeding for the show cage. They are tall and slim lined, I think they are a true thing of beauty, but most of the gameness has been bred out of them.

Some historical facts (or at least strong rumors)

Presidents like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln were admirers of the sport of cockfighting and rumor has it that President Lincoln got his nickname "Honest Abe" for his fairness as a judge in cockfights.
The fighting-cock almost became the national emblem of the United States, losing by just one vote to the American eagle.
 It was socially acceptable and encouraged for a gentleman to have a flock of gamecocks and to be an expert on the sport. At one point, the U.S. Became a center for cockfighting activities and events.
 Heres something a little newer in history. I used to like Steven Seagals acting, but after watching this fiasco I will never watch anything of his again.
"Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies used armored vehicles, including a tank, to raid the home of a cockfighting suspect. Actor Steven Seagal was riding atop the tank"
The sad thing is, the guy was home alone, no weapons, no cockfighting paraphernalia. He just was "suspected" of raising roosters to fight. So with no proof or probable cause the law officers killed over 100 roosters on the site.      
http://www.kpho.com/news/27272012/detail.html