Friday, March 13, 2009

more of the "champ"

























































































































the "champ" jesus salud and my mentor, little joe nanez, holding some double&twisted black and spangle cocks. the black cocks are from me, the blues.....you know their joe's, simply... some of the best cutting cock alive!!!!!!!!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

"the champ comes to town"



















































































































































































































well after lots of waitin, i finally got to meet my new best buddy....face to face, that's right, jesus salud, former superbantam weight champion of the world. the old "hawaiian punch" himself, showed up right here at the double&twisted farm for 5 day's of nonstop chicken action.
first of all let me say this, jesus salud is a class act, a gentleman, and a rollmodel any of us would be proud for our kids to take after. he brought the "world title belt" with him, and no matter how tired he got of me wantin to show it off to this one or that one, he never said no, and showed nothing but gracioucness. when the belt would come out the crowds gathered quick, and jesus was nothing but polite to whoever wanted to get their picture taken with it.(i think i got mine taken at least 5 times). i couldn't resist, i had to get the gloves out, not for me mind ya, but i wanted my boy's picture taken with the gloves on!!! jesus did me one better, and actually spared with max for about a minute while i recorded it all. you know we see all these big time pro basketball, baseball,football player's etc., well let me say this again, if their interested in being rollmodels, 999 out of every 1,000 of them could take a lesson from mr.jesus salud.
we spent the better part of one evening with my mentor,best friend, and padner,"little joe nanez". any body who's anybody, knows little joe, he's been at the forefront for the last 30+ years, in my opinon he's one of the top chicken men in the world!!!!!! we looked, felt, and admired all the cocks on his yard. the next evening jesus and my son, max and i, met joe and his family at el chico's for dinner. joe's daughter,annette, who works as an attorney from dallas, her son and husband were with them. just so happens, annette's husband is a big fight fan, what'da ya know, perfect oppertunity,....(good thing i remembered to bring the belt) out the "world tittle belt" comes again, more pictures, autographs, handshakes......i tell ya jesus, stick with me baby...and i'll make a star out of ya!!!!!!!!!!!
the next morning me and jesus are up at 4am and off on a 5 hour drive to a little texas town, to see none other than the man behind the world famous "hatch chicken's, mr "gavilan club" himself." well to say that we weren't disappointed would be a huge understatement. i may be know for my roundheads, but all my friends know i'm a hatch man!!!!!!! and let me tell you people we were in the center of what surely was hatch and grey rooster heaven...now this is me talkin, but i promise you, nowhere on this earth does there live any prettier or better hatch or grey cocks. creme de la creme, and you talk about gracious, the hatch man treated us like family. we felt of everything we wanted to feel of, and looked, and looked, and looked some more. the "hatch man" took us and bought our lunch and then we came back and looked some more. we saw the cockhouse and fly pens where all those champions had been trained.as we toured the brood pens, we saw the mamma's&daddies, grandmamma's&granddaddies, and so on, and so on, of all those champions. it was a day that the average chicken man like myself might only experence, once in a lifetime...truily "chicken heaven on earth".
then i saw what was the best of the best for me!!!!!!!!! earlier in the year the "hatch man" had told me that a buddy of his from alabama had sent him a roundhead cock, and that he knew i had the good roundheads, so would i send him a couple pullets to go with the cock. i jumped at the chance to send the "hatch man" a chicken. the whole time we'd been there that day i kept seein hens runnin here and there, and down deep i kept expecting to see my pullets runnin loose somewhere.we'd just finished lookin at one of his beautiful hatch brood yards when we came to a huge brood pen just like the previous one ,but in this one was a beatuiful roundhead cock and there in the shadows were my two roundhead pullets, you talk about swellin with pride, the high point of my chicken career, my chickens in the "hatch mans" brood pen. i could've died right then and i'd went happy, but as if that weren't enough, he took me back to some special single mating pens where he had 2 pullets readying to be mated to a special hatch cock and told me to pick one.....a gift. thank you brother, i only hope i'm worthy. on the long trip home me and jesus had plenty to talk about, finer chickens we decided we had never seen.the next day we just relaxed, jesus took my son and one of his buddies to see a movie and out to eat at the finest steak house in the city, we knew that the next morning and time for our new friend to leave were only to close!!!morning's here, so i had jesus go to my brood pens and gather all the eggs he could carry on board with him, and believe me this guy knows his chickens, cause he sure picked out my best with ease.......
lastly i want to thank you, jesus, for being so patient with this simple country boy, and for being so kind to my son, and my friends, like i said to start this, your a "class act", and in our hearts my friend, you will remain our one and only "champ". we love you brother!!!! our home is you home anytime.
signed,
floyd richard earl merriman and max