Kelso: The Smartest Fighting Rooster AND the Magic of Crossbreeding

June 29, 2014

Gamefowl Circuit

Kelso: The Smartest Fighting Rooster

Smartest Fighters
Kelsos are very smart fighters. Unlike other gamefowl, Kelsos don't jump into the
opponents knives in the air, but shuffle and weave, or side-step before launching
their own air attack. If a Kelso is first in the air, chances are, the stupid opponent
will be jumping into his knives if sasabay siya sa talon. One-two hit and then it's
over. As experienced by Robie Yu Panis, herself (farm manager and in-house lady
gamefowl gaffer) of the Firebird Gamefarm fame, fighting with white Kelsos.

Johnny Jumper, Out & Out Kelsos have been known to be really smart fighters on top
of power, speed and multiple shuffle or evasion tactics.

Some pundits will say the pure breed ones lack cutting ability, but this is from the
old days. Most Kelsos today have already been crossed with good cutters, sothey
are something to watch out for! The new Kelsos still got the speed and gameness of
the purebreed Kelsos, but are now deadlier with the cutting and plumage of your
preferred cross from whatever gamefowl, from Brown Reds to Roundheads or even
the Sweater.

Walter Kelsos' originals themselves break high, are multiple shufflers but weak
cutters when bred pure from those days when cockers were adamant about
bloodline purity. The Kelsos did not gain these amazing gamefowl traits themselves
from pure line breeding but from crosses with winning gamefowl that Mr. Kelso
would purchase on the spot, during his days breeding fighters.

Look for really good cutting gamefowl like roundheads and brown reds or greys
which are also game to the core. Kelsos may be both yellow and white legged but
the white legged ones are preferred by some buyers.
Bloodline History
The late Walter Kelso ( 1964, bless his soul ), from Galveston Island, Texas. ( a part
of the lone star state with a semi-tropical climate ), was a champion for
crossbreeding.

To improve strains, in a time when most breeder folks fixated on the tradition of
keeping their bloodlines as pure as possible, Kelso handpicked winning gamefowl to
breed with his stock, something unheard of during his time.

Kelso entered gamefowl derbies under the name: Oleander, a flower shrub, and his
fighters were ALL a series of battlecock crossbreeds. When his good friend John
Madigin died in 1942, Kelso and breeder colleague Bill Japhet inherited all of
Madigin's fowl, which included some of the finest Clarets, Madigin Grays, and Texas
Rangers.

Kelso improved his fighters by getting winning stocks to breed with his own. After
watching another rooster win, Kelso would buy the winning fighter to breed with his.

While other breeders believed that the Holy Grail of gamefowl strains lay in pure
stocks, Kelso had different ideas. He wrote, "I immediately began infusing new
blood in the Madigin hens."

About 1940, during the Orlando Tournament, Judge Ed Wilkins of San Antonio, Texas,
fought a beautiful light blue Typewriter cock that won his first fight easily and was
repeated to win a second fight on the same day. Kelso asked for and received this
cock. The Typewriters are a strain of gamefowl created from the cross of a Marsh
Butcher cock with two Irish Blue hens from James G.Oakley of Alabama. The
Butcher family is a cross of Grove Whitehackle (Lawman and Gilkerson) and the
Marsh Gray Speeders, which are a combination of the old Santo Domingo Grays
from the West Indies island of that name and Burnell Shelton's old Knob comb Blues.

Kelso was more focused on getting new traits to improve performance of any breed
he owned than keeping a strain as pure as possible. He mated a new fighter to the
sister of his best fighting gamefowl. If the cross produced winning fighters, Kelso
would add other sisters to the pen.

Duke Hulsey offered to let Kelso have any of the Clipper cocks he liked. Kelso with
Sweater McGinnis handling had met Schlesigner in his deciding fight at 1942
Orlando Tournament. Kelso won the fight and the Tournament but had been
impressed with the quality of the Schlesinger cocks.

E.W. Law started these Yankee Clippers by crossing his Clarets with Dan O'Connell's
Albany fowl. This Albany family was made by mating some hens that were Hatch,
Foley's Ginger, Roundhead, and maybe some Pine Whitehackle (Stryker, mostly),
with a Hardy Mahogany cock (Jim Thompson Mahogany and Kearney cross).

The Yankee Clipper cock was mated to two of the Left-Out Kelso hens to produce the
original Out-and-Out cocks that won 85 percent of their fights in major competition
over a six-year period (1947 to 1953). These cocks were 1/2 Yankee Clipper, 1/4
Murphy, 1/8 Typewriter, 1/8 McClanahan.

In Manila, the Firebird Kelso

In Manila, the Firebird Kelso is one of the most prized breeds for infusing red rooster
traits into your breeding program. As broodfowl, Firebird Farms owned by Sir Biboy
Enriquez has proven to be the best local provider of birds with a winning heritage
and strong track record at big time competitions. Sir Biboy himself is known as 'The
Kelso Man of the Philippines' and that says a lot about his farm and his consistent
winning percentage at big derby competitions.

The Out and Out Kelso

Duke Hulsey offered to let Kelso have any of the Clipper cocks he liked. Kelso with
Sweater McGinnis handling had met Schlesigner in his deciding fight at 1942
Orlando Tournament. Kelso won the fight and the Tournament but had been
impressed with the quality of the Schlesinger cocks. E.W. Law started these Yankee
Clippers by crossing his Clarets with Dan O'Connell's Albany fowl. This Albany family
was made by mating some hens that were Hatch, Foley's Ginger, Roundhead, The
Yankee Clipper cock was mated to two of the Left-Out Kelso hens to produce the
original Out-and-Out cocks that won 85 percent of their fights in major competition

over a six-year period (1947 to 1953). These cocks were 1/2 Yankee Clipper, 1/4
Murphy, 1/8 Typewriter, 1/8 McClanahan.

More often than not, the matches produced worthless offspring and the cock was
discarded. Despite the high rate of attrition, this method of infusing new blood was
the primary way of creating the Out-and-Out Kelso family which still stands as the
best core bloodline or stock for crossing into better fighters. It has also created
many of the winners in the world's gamefowl circuit. The Out-and-Out Kelso family
has this monicker because the cocks were marked in the outside web of both feet.
The Out-and-Out Kelsos are black breasted reds ( a deep mahogany to light red )
with their white or yellow legs and pea or straight comb.

If you are looking for a good base for your own gamefowl, get a good broodstock
Kelso and make magic with other distinguished gamefowl stock for starting your
own line of smart and deadly fighting roosters.
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