by The Connecticut Yankee
The method that I am going to write about is perhaps the most revolutionary ever introduced to cocking. I have been using it for three seasons now, and I find it to be the best thing going for a small time cocker and breeder, who for one reason or another, cannot spend the time required morning and night to go through a regular two week keep. I have to leave for work very early in the morning, and the regular two week routine, really made it hard on me, and I am sure that many of you are faced with the same problem.
A very good friend of mine, who for years conditioned and trained some great Harness Horses, gave me this method and assured me that it would work, as he had used it himself for years. When he started in the chicken business many years ago, he knew nothing of how the conditioners of that time fed their stags. So he figured to himself that he would use the same methods used to train horses, especially colts, and I know full well the fine condition he used to get on his stags. Everyone that ever saw him fight always remarked on how his stags would really go on the go-off, and if the need arose, they could really bang in the drag pit.
It wasn't until all these years have rolled by that anyone knew that his method was entirely different than anything ever used before, as fast as getting stags in shape to fight through a whole season. I thought that I would pass it on to the fraternity, and perhaps it would benefit someone like myself, who cannot stick to a morning and night routine every day for two weeks.
The secret of this method, if you want to call it that, is in laying a solid foundation of wind and endurance, that will last you through the whole fighting season.
After you have laid the foundation, you can get in on a meet anytime in the season, with only one week's notice. To do this, you simply put your stags through a one week "FIGHT TRAINING SCHEDULE" and you can fight in any pit in the country, and not worry about condition, or whether your stags will be off at the end of a regular two week method, or if you have to add weight, or take off, etc; and you won't worry if they are stiff or sore either, because you have brought them along nice and easy, slowly building wind and endurance, not flinging them on a bench for the first time in their lives, and working them up to a hundred flies and runs in two weeks, and then turning them loose. I have stags, and so has everyone else that took two weeks just to learn how to run properly. I find that with this method, they have learned every trick at least two months before they have their first fight.
You will notice that the work involved is always done at night. In my case it is a matter of convenience. If you work other than first shift, you can do the work in the morning. You only work them three days a week. You work every other day, that is, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This also gives you, as well as the stags the whole week-end off. Now up here, we start fighting stags about the middle of April. That means that I will lay my foundation in the months of February and March. If you fight earlier than that, you simply back up your foundation months. And remember this, after the foundation work is completed, you never touch your stags again only to put them through the "FIGHT TRAINING SCHEDULE." Even as late as the end of June, stags scratching in straw in your runs will be in perfect condition, only they have to be sharpened up with the "FIGHT TRAINING SCHEDULE."
I assume that almost everyone has their favorite food for chickens, so I will not cover any feeding instructions here, except to say that I feed my stags a very high quality pigeon feed. I would also like to mention here, that I am talking about people who like me raise only 15 or so stags a year, as far as this method is concerned. I don't think it would work for those people who raise a lot and have them on walks, etc. I have a cock house with 15 stalls in it, and when I lock my stags up in October or November, they don't get into their outside runs again until March sometime. The exception to this is if we have a nice week during the winter, or if I know that it is going to be a nice day, I will put them out in their runs. So you can see that I am always in close contact with my stags, and I know everyone of them by heart. I also try to raise only 10 stags a year. I figure this is enough, and if they are pretty good fowl they will win a lot more than ten fights. Last year I only raised 5 stags, and these 5 won 17 fights. And in these 17 fights I won first and split first, in two derbies. I don't mention this to brag on my fowl, only to point up that you don't need a lot of stags, if they are good ones, and are in proper condition. You know, I have to laugh when someone tells me of some big time cocker who is getting ready for a big derby or main, and he will gather together 80 or so stags off their walks, and then cull them down to 20 to get enough to fight. If a man has a strain of fowl that only produces one fourth good enough to fight, I don't think he has much at all. Well, that is another story, an we won't go into that here.
Here is the "FOUNDATION METHOD" as I use it, and if it can benefit one person, I will feel that my efforts have not been in vain.
The following schedule is based on an eight week period. I am using the months February and March, although eight weeks doesn't always fall right into these months, I will use them as an example:
FEBRUARY
1st week; 20 runs and fly's
2nd week; 25 runs and fly's
3rd week; 35 runs and fly's
4th week; 45 runs and fly's
MARCH
1st week; 60 runs and fly's
2nd week; 60 runs and fly's
3rd week; 75 runs and fly's
4th week; 75 runs and fly's
FIGHT TRAINING SCHEDULE: If the fight is on Saturday night, you work the stags Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday twice a day morning and night.
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