History and Origins

Another fact many breeders of domestic chickens (which includes ornamental, general purpose breeds, as well as the commercial breeds and strains) don’t know is that all chickens that exist today owe their very existence to the Gamecock. All chickens today have a percentage, be it very small in most cases, of gamefowl blood running through their veins.

Today, there are many breeds of fowl that are in danger of genetic implosion, where the gene pools are losing their genetic variation. Many ornamental and commercial strains are heavily inbred. Because of this, they have become less resistant to disease, and lack the constitutional vigor needed to survive a serious outbreak, such as an unknown virus.