BRAVEHEART BREEDS ICONIC AMERICAN POULTRY LINES

By Manny Piñol

My childhood memories include the picture of my grandmother, the late Azucena Malasador Magbanua and my older brother, retired police colonel Patricio, feeding a flock of New Hampshires in the backyard of our old house in Bialong, M’lang, North Cotabato.

The New Hampshires were among the iconic American backyard chicken lines which were brought to the Philippines by the Americans after the turn of the century.

The other breeds were the Plymouth Barred Rocks, the Rhode Islands and the White Leghorns, the last is actually an Italian breed which was perpetuated in the US by American breeders.

All of these breeds are dual-purpose poultry, meaning they produce eggs, brown mostly, and also provide good meat for the farmers.

Characteristic of the lack of interest by government in backyard poultry, these breeds were slowly lost through the years.

A few years ago, an American friend based in Oregon, Jim Clem, sent me a clutch of young Rhode Islands and Barred Rocks which I bred and perpetuated.

Today, Braveheart Farms in Barangay Paco, Kidapawan City has successfully bred three major lines – the Barred Rock, the New Hampshire and the Rhode Islands.

I am also starting to propagate a new line which originally came from Australia but was perpetuated and improved by Ameriocan breeders, the Black Australorp, and the rare Ameraucana which produces blue eggs.

My program now is to infuse these lines into the Philippine native chicken to improve their meat mass and egg laying.

I have already actually succeeded in developing a new line of Philippine backyard chicken, the Manok Pinoy, which I believe will help Filipino backyard chicken raisers earn more money as they have more meat with the firmness of the muscle which is the main feature of the kind of poultry meat Filipinos love.

(Photos show the original breeding materials of Plymouth Barred Rocks I brought in from the US and the cockerels and pullets I produced out of them.)