barred rock imperfection?

i have a few barred rock hens with some white splashes on their face and a whiter chest, is this a blemish to breed out of my flock or could that possibly be a characteristic that is desirable in barred rocks?

Pictures would help a lot. It doesn't sound as if you have purebred Barred Rocks.

they are supposed to be heritage breed br, i got them from cackle hatchery along with my reds. i hope i didnt get some mutts from them. i will take some picks. and one question, fred, is there any reason my br roo is very slow on his tail coming out. ive almost lost the red because it seemed like his tail sprouted overnight

elevatedruby said:

they are supposed to be heritage breed br, i got them from cackle hatchery along with my reds. i hope i didnt get some mutts from them.

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Hatcheries breed for quantity, not quality. They are in the business to sell as many chicks as they can, they are not out to breed show birds. If you really want birds of the same caliber as the ones Fred's Hens posted you wll have to find a private breeder. Same is true for the Rhode Island Reds.

If you are truly interested in breeding then you may want to invest in the APA's Standard of Perfection. Not only does it contain the breed standards, there is invaluable information in the first 40 or so pages that pertain to all breeds.

elevatedruby said:

they are supposed to be heritage breed br, i got them from cackle hatchery along with my reds. i hope i didnt get some mutts from them. i will take some picks. and one question, fred, is there any reason my br roo is very slow on his tail coming out. ive almost lost the red because it seemed like his tail sprouted overnight

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You don't get "heritage" birds from hatcheries. You get hatchey quality birds. The whole use of the term "heritage" is grossly overblown and abused.

True heritage birds are nothing but a fancy way of saying true bred, or pure bred or better said? Bred to Standard birds. Cackle doesn't have them.

I do. In both Barred Rock and Reds. I don't raise "roos" and don't know anything about them, so I cannot help you with that. I raise cocks, hens, pullets and cockerels.

I showed a photo of my Barred Rocks above. Believe me. No hatchery anywhere has these. Here's some photos of my Reds. Again, no hatchery anywhere has truebred Reds. Believe you me.

ok my bad. lol i used the forbidden word and i used it wrong. i am new to this so im still learning. i was watching youtube videos and there was one where they said they raise heritage. i dont know exactly what bloodline so i have mystery barred rocks and red



s. all i have is their npip number. but heres the pics of the defected looking ones. bad thing is they are pretty large ones in the flock.

When you don't have birds bred to the standard, in the case of Barred Rocks, you get smutty, smeared looking "barring". It really isn't crisp enough to be considered barring, but a messy cuckoo.

Again, true bred, standard bred birds can really only be procured from passionate breeders, fanciers and preservers of these old lines of birds. It is a basic reality that is hard to grasp when one starts out with birds. How would one know this? Hatcheries show these wonderful photos of high quality birds in their catalogs and on their websites and people are led to believe that chickens are chickens and they'll get good birds. What they'll get is healthy birds, typically and birds that often lay eggs well enough. But, what you won't get is truebred birds. Cannot happen. Hatcheries are similar to McDonalds cranking out hamburgers for fast food. It's edible but hardly a chef prepared, gourmet meal.

Hatcheries serve a purpose. Being a source of birds bred to the breed Standard? Oh no. Nope.

Well this was a learning experience, dont buy from mcdonalds hatcheries who are in it for the money, i need to go to a preserver or someone of the many things you named off there. thank you for telling me this. even though it kind of screws up my plans for what i will be breeding, i needed to learn. maybe i should have joined the forum before i bought. but just for giggles, if i were to buy say 2 BR roos and 8 BR hens, and the same in reds, how much would it cost me to get them shipped and overall. id rather raise them from day olds so that i know exactly what they have from the moment the eat and drink for the first time. and grown birds are a little out of my price range. lol

i like the look of your barred rocks and your reds. they are beautiful, do you have any pictures of when both breeds were 5 weeks old. i would really like to see pictures of them