Training fighting cocks, selling for "thousands of dollars"

Many farmers in Quang Nam have used "tricks" to train unique fighting chickens with prices up to tens of millions of dong, some even sell for thousands of dollars.

Cockfighting (called by the Central or Southern people) or cockfighting (called by the Northern people) is a hobby that is often enjoyed by kings and mandarins. Nowadays, not only stopping at a hobby, raising fighting cocks is considered one of the quite effective economic development directions of many farmers in Quang region.

A good fighting cock can sell for tens of millions of dong, some can sell for thousands of dollars. Thanks to raising fighting cocks, many farming households have changed their lives quickly, some earning up to 100 million dong per year.

Currently in Quang Nam, there are many hamlets and households that choose to raise fighting cocks both for entertainment and to develop the family economy. We can mention the fighting cock hamlet located in My Nam village, Dai Tan commune (Dai Loc) with dozens of households raising them, or in the villages of Nong Son district, there are up to 30 - 40 households raising fighting cocks with the scale ranging from a few to a few dozen cocks/household.

Old farmer Truong Van Man (60 years old - living in Trung Ha village, Que Trung commune, Nong Son) shared that since he was a child, he was very passionate about raising fighting cocks, so he followed his father all day to watch cockfights and went to neighboring houses to research and learn how to raise chickens. In the blink of an eye, more than 40 years have passed since he started his career, and raising fighting cocks has now become ingrained in his blood.

According to Mr. Man, to have a good fighting cock requires the breeder to have passion, diligence and experience, from choosing the parent chickens, then breeding them to raising, caring for and training them to become good chickens...

On the other hand, when choosing a breed, you must choose a mother hen (hen) that comes from a line of chickens that can withstand blows well and are brave... The father hen (rooster) is often chosen to be a fighting chicken (a large, strong local chicken breed) from a line with big legs and many good kicks. If you choose a breed that combines the above factors, the chicks born will definitely have at least a few talented fighting chickens.

“Even if you choose a satisfactory chicken, if you do not raise it properly or train it properly, it will not be a good fighting chicken. Many chicken players in Quang Nam often say that taking care of a fighting chicken is no different than taking care of a child…” – Mr. Man added.

According to the experience of many farmers raising fighting cocks, chickens must be fed with natural foods such as: rice, grains, bean sprouts, worms, crickets, aquatic animals, insects, even eel, beef... Feed chickens two meals at 9-10 am and 4-5 pm every day.

When the chickens are 1.8 - 2kg, we start choosing good chickens with advantages such as short neck, long thighs, agile face, not heavy, bright eyes. Usually the chicken colors to choose are pure black chicken (black chicken), black and red or black and yellow (black and purple chicken), gray chicken, purple honey chicken, purple apricot chicken, swallow chicken.

The process of training fighting cocks is also quite elaborate, because usually when the cocks hatch, they are raised for about 2-3 months and then start training with simple exercises to the most difficult moves. When the cocks are old enough to fight, they must be trained to fight from 1-5 matches, to see which ones have the ability to fight well and then keep them for further training.

In addition, during the training process, it is often necessary to use crushed turmeric mixed with alcohol, tea, and children's urine on the skin area where the feathers have been cut (head, ankles, belly, etc.) for 3 months to thicken the skin to increase the ability to withstand blows and reduce injuries during competition. Each good fighting chicken is usually raised and trained for 1.5 - 2 years, some are trained for up to 3 years.

“Currently, my family has raised and trained 7-8 fighting cocks. Many professional cockfighters have come to buy them and offered 20-22 million VND/cock, but I have not sold them yet. Every year, in addition to the main job of farming, raising and training fighting cocks also brings my family hundreds of millions of VND in income…” – Mr. Man said excitedly.

According to Dan Viet