Barred Rocks Good Shepard Poulty Ranch

[cbnovick]

Does anyone ship hatching eggs? I'm asking for a friend. She has tried Frank Reese himself with no response. Hoping she can find some of either the GS or Stukel line..

Shipping would be to NY. Anyone know where to direct me?

For Good Shepherd strain BR's you could try these breeders:

xwpoultryranch.com website - jeremy (jwhip on here) [email protected]
Or
desertmarcy on here for pm'ing her---- her email is [email protected].

 

[ihavecompassion]

Hello I am new to BYC not sure if this is the correct way to post however I am in pursuit of Quality Barred Rock hatching eggs can anyone point me in the right direction? Possibly the Duckworth Line! I have several breeds of Chickens and my favorite are the Barred! I would like to help preserve this beautiful line.

 

[desertmarcy]

Gene Helton in AZ has some very good barred Rock large fowl. I have seen them in a few shows.

Walt

I talked with Gene recently. He helps Marvin go through his birds, figuring out which to cull. Gene said if I can wait until January, then they'd be down to the better ones and he'd get me a male. I was thinking to cross into the Good Shepard Barred Rocks I have, to improve those. What do you think of that idea?

 

[Robert Blosl]

I think you could cross them as I think they are the same line. However, if you want to improve the tails on the males it may take five to eight years. If you went with the pure Marvin Stain you don't have to improve anything. Its already got good tails.

It just depends what your goals are.

The Reese line males just seem to blow up in the tails as they age to maturity.

This is normal on Barred Rock large fowl and the better the barring the slower they mature.

 

[desertmarcy]

I think you could cross them as I think they are the same line. However, if you want to improve the tails on the males it may take five to eight years. If you went with the pure Marvin Stain you don't have to improve anything. Its already got good tails.

It just depends what your goals are.

The Reese line males just seem to blow up in the tails as they age to maturity.

This is normal on Barred Rock large fowl and the better the barring the slower they mature.

If they descended from the same line, why would it take so long to improve the tails by crossing? I can understand if they were two totally different lines. I have seen photos of Good Shepard BRs with nice tails, so I know it is possible. I might go broke growing all these out, though. I have 56 chicks on the ground, of varying ages, from my first male. Now hatching some from my other male. After the hens were laying infertile eggs from the first male, I put the second male in. That was on May 8. Three days later, on May 11, I got an egg from each of the 5 hens. I thought, good day for a test. Incubated those 5 eggs and 4 of 5 were fertile. I had already started collecting. On May 23, I set 41 eggs. That was 12 day's worth. Just candled them yesterday, and only 2 were infertile. That male is doing a good job!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Does anyone ship hatching eggs? I'm asking for a friend. She has tried Frank Reese himself with no response. Hoping she can find some of either the GS or Stukel line..

Shipping would be to NY. Anyone know where to direct me?

aoxa,

If your friend is Nina, I believe we took care that for you.

She put the eggs in the incubator on Friday.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I think you could cross them as I think they are the same line. However, if you want to improve the tails on the males it may take five to eight years. If you went with the pure Marvin Stain you don't have to improve anything. Its already got good tails.

It just depends what your goals are.

The Reese line males just seem to blow up in the tails as they age to maturity.

This is normal on Barred Rock large fowl and the better the barring the slower they mature.

Bob, would you, or anyone else, know where Guy Roy got his foundational stock for his Barred Rocks?

 

[aoxa]

aoxa,

If your friend is Nina, I believe we took care that for you.

She put the eggs in the incubator on Friday.

Yes it was Nina So glad she got some of your birds Fred. I know she will be very impressed!

I just received some SPPR eggs from PEI Chicken. Wow her birds were impressive. Her boy was HUGE. and I mean HUGE. Very good looking birds.

 

[Robert Blosl]

Guy Roy got his barred rocks from someone in the New England area and then crossed I think so the story goes with White Rocks. You can tell the color is not as rich as some of the pure barred strains. Its a good strain of birds and I am sure the tails on the males are good from the white rock cross. I did this once and got the greatest line of barred rock you ever saw but I got a messy dirty barring and I gave up the project. It would have taken five years or more to clean up the dirty white in the barring.

In regards to crossing the Arizona strain and the Reese strain they are from say Ralph's Sturgeon but they have not been crossed in maybe 50 years.

I have no idea what the cross would be. This is one way to make a cross. Take a male with a great tail or over all type and color. Mate him to two of the best Reese females. Take the best two females with type and color and mate them back to the Arizona male and inbreed them back to him for maybe three years. Then start your new strain in line breeding mode. You could also take the Reese females and take the best male and cross them on the two females to see if you get better tails on the sons. Then inbreed the best males back to the female Reese line.

All you are trying to do is improve the tails on the birds. You may see some of Marvin's birds females and males compare them to the Reese line and then just go totally towards this line and not make a cross. Anytime you introduce new blood even this old line sparks will fly. You also have a complicated color pattern. It is worth the time and effort.

The only other line I would get involved with and I think is the top total type line in the USA is the Kraig Shaffer line. It is also a pure Sturegeon line. that he has been working on for 15 years. His male tails have good form and are fully furnished with no holes in the tails.

I am going to a fellows house this Friday in Florida who has a bunch of this line out in chicks. I look forward to seeing them.

 

[cbnovick]

Agree that Shaffer indeed has some real nice Barred Rocks with some tail to them too...only seen lots of photos but they are NICE