Ukroosterman 548 Posted February 22, 2014 Report Share Posted February 22, 2014 HENNIE GAME FOWL by Paul Dawson (1976) I have been asked many times how the Hennies were made up - what crosses were used. A Hennie is one of the very few Strains of pure Game Fowls. They were first seen in India and they must have come out of the Jungles as did the Bankiva, and when you cross them they are no longer a Hennie. I believe they are just as the Maker made them. Their traits, their fighting style, their speed and cutting make them as different from their long feathered cousins as daylight and dark. I have bred, fought and sold them for sixty five years so I feel I am qualified to write their history. They came into England in the early fifteenth century and the good British breeders bred them to perfection and at one time they challenged all of England with their Hennies. From the Sports and Mutations they bred them in many different colors, including the beautiful Grouse bred by John Harris. They soon found their way into Spain where the Spanish bred them over their Brown and Grey Spanish. My good friend, the late John Thrasher, bred the Spanish just as they came from Spain and many of them came he-feathered. The first Hennies were brought inot this country by a party named Story and they proved to be great fighters in short heels as used along the East Coast. Mr. Chester A. Lamb imported the Black Thorne, also the brown Hennies in the early eighties. He bred them for fifty years and sold most all of the old time breeders, Hennie brood cocks. Mr. Lamb also imported the Kikilia from Ceylon. These he gave to me about a year after he imported them. My first Black Hennies came from Mr. Lamb and I also imported some great fighting Brown Hennies from England. Re: Hennies I never aspired to be a big shot, I bred my Hennies because I love them. I fought a few each year but never enough to make a nuisance out of it. They won for me and for my customers all over the world and after 65 years my Hennies are just as fast, just as rugged as in years gone by and they are bred and fought all over this country. Not in large numbers but by men like me who like them and they win for them. A good Texas cocker has a Black Hennie cock that has won seven derby fights. Another Texas cocker who went to Copper State last season saw one of my Black Hennies win his tenth fight in one short pitting. In the early 30's I helped W.R. Hudlow run a pit south of Chickasha, Oklahoma. I only had nine Hennie stags and cocks but I won thirty-four fights without a single loss. This was reported to Grit & Steel. These Hennies were fought with any one that could match the weight, the great Sweater McGinnis included. I married in 1935 and my wife informed me that she didn't like game chickens. I have five stags ready to fight so I told her if she would go with me and see them fight I would dispose of them. (A man will do funny things when he is in love.) We were having a brush fight with about a dozen of the local cockers. I matched Sweater with a 4-8 Black Hennie stag; Sweater had a hot Grey Toppie that coupled and wry necked my stag in the first buckle. When I set my stag down for the second pitting he just rolled over on his back but when the Grey reached for a bill hold it sounded like a snaer drum and the fight was over. While I was cutting off the heels my wife asked me for some money to bet on our stags. I won all five fights and the best Pal a man ever had, my wonderful wife Opal. So as long as I live I will always breed a few of what I believe to be the greatest fighting cocks on earth, Dawson's Black Hennies. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ukroosterman 548 Posted February 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 The least common variety of Old English Game are the Hennies. How it arrived in England and Wales nobody can tell. The late Cornishman, John Harris, who died February 26, 1910 believed that the Phoenicians brought them to Cornwall and Pembroke when they traded them for tin. Other breeders believed them to be natives of Cornwall and Pembroke. It is on record that the South Wales Country of Pembroke challenged all England to a main, any amount of money, any number of birds, any place, for five years without reply as nobody would fight against the “Black Hennies” of Pembroke. Noble men of Pembroke gave these Hennies as special presents to English princes. The Hennies have never been very popular with the cockers. Tales of the Hennies’ ability in the pit have been told right up to modern times. For example: John Stobart (nicknamed Auckland Jack), cocker for over sixty years, when asked by J. Fairfax Blakeborough what breed was the best, named the Hennies as the fastest fighters and able to take most punishment (1926). John Harris valued Hennies above all other gamecocks and he exported many to the United States where they, in his words, “Played the Devil with the Yankees.” When John Harris fought the Hennies he never lose a main. He even sold Hennies to a Russian nobleman. His Hennies, “Cornish Jack”, a five-time winner was sold to this Russian for a record price. The great English cocker, Charles Faultless, received his first Hennies from John Harris. William Gulliver also received Hennies from Harris and he sold them to America. When English cockers took birds to France to fight in an 11-Cock Main in 1897, they lose eight fights, won three, and also lose over two thousand pounds. In 1899, Herbert Atkinson and Major Selwyn, using Hennies bred by Atkinson out of John Harris strain beat the French in France, in the largest money main ever fought there-English pride being restored by the Hennies. In its prime time, the Hennies is a very fast fighting bird, in fact, the fastest hitting gamefowl of all. When bred pure, that is Hennie to Hennie, the bird is an accurate hitter of hard blows, particularly to the head and neck. It is a difficult fowl to condition being at times somewhat soft in feathers. Probably, this is due to inbreeding. I think that Hennies carefully bred for a few years as it were 102 years ago would be the ideal ***** fighter-speed, hitting power,, plus the fact that most cocks are uncertain when it meet a Hennie. Barley Mullan of Ireland has some good Hennies but crosses them for the pit. In the U.S., not so long ago, the Hennies won most of its battles in the main, and believe it or not, Hennies are not ordinary fowl. It can hit as hard as the famous Kearney’s Brown Reds and can accurately hit its target like the original Sandy Hatch. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
willie thorn 102 Posted February 23, 2014 Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 Good read UK,I enjoy the stuff you put up for us all keep it up mate!. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budharley 945 Posted February 23, 2014 Report Share Posted February 23, 2014 Thanks for posting that uk good reading from you as per mate atb bud 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gamerooster 1,179 Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 All hail the copy and paste king Quote Link to post Share on other sites
leegreen 2,244 Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 All hail the copy and paste king I think you'll find the man put "by Paul Dawson (1976)" 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dusk til dawn 169 Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 little bit of jealosey creeping in 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gamerooster 1,179 Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 All hail the copy and paste king I think you'll find the man put "by Paul Dawson (1976)" think you find thats what it states already in the article 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ukroosterman 548 Posted February 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 All hail the copy and paste king I think you'll find the man put "by Paul Dawson (1976)" think you find thats what it states already in the article . You silly man..... Are you seriously up set cos I shared this peice of history on here for the members to see....... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gamerooster 1,179 Posted February 25, 2014 Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 All hail the copy and paste king I think you'll find the man put "by Paul Dawson (1976)" think you find thats what it states already in the article . You silly man..... Are you seriously up set cos I shared this peice of history on here for the members to see....... not at all, all for it, but you have the cheek to call me a anti and a dodgy one, when its like you are trying to impress, anyone on here can search the web for knowledge, why dont you actually share some of your own knowledge straight from your mouth..... if you have any Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ukroosterman 548 Posted February 25, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2014 So what are getting you at G.R? Do realy think pepoel on here think I write this my self....... Grow up mate.... Uk Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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