CSU - Chicken State University- Large Fowl SOP

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Dick Nieuwland did very well with his White Rocks at the Canadian National last October. I don't know if his are the ones in your picture. I will contact you via PM with his contact information. (Pay more attention to the Rock threads on BYC. You will see his name mentioned.)

 

[aoccl]

I think i will be getting some Barred Rocks from Reese now!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

If I look up his name and with rocks in it, I find nothing. Frank Reese, I find tons and tons of pictures of drool worthy rocks. Same with Stukel.

Try a Google search with "Dick Nieuwland Barred Rocks" or simply "Dick Nieuwland poultry".

 

[fowlman01]

Isn't it barred when it's a straight line and cuckoo when it's shaped like a V?

Yes, but many barreds have V shape barring as well....just not as jagged as cuckoo.

Walt

 

[DMRippy]

OK... I will jump in for the Rocks. I acquired this roo via hatching eggs from a fellow BYC'er at Newnan last year. She got her stock from Dick Horstman. I am new to all this, I don't show. I am not as well read in the SOP as I should be but SOON I hope I will have the eye that long time breeders have.

My roo is a Partridge Rock he is about 10 months old. I know the white at the tail is bad, not sure how to correct it. His color is VERY Dark Mahogany and has a nice green sheen. No purple. He is broad but maybe a little too narrow (not the same as the shoulders) at the tail. His eye color is ok his comb looks ok. I don't find any huge faults in him. I don't have any others to compare him to. He was the only partridge to hatch. He did not want to pose so pardon the poor pics. I didn't get a pic of his tail, but is nice and v shaped.









There are 2 hens hiding behind him LOL.











I also have a GSBR roo, but I wanted to use the Partridge since we don't see many. Fire AWAY!

Sorry had to redo my pics for some reason.

 

[Fred's Hens]

 

[Fred's Hens]

So let's begin to break it down. The Rock has that nice gravy bowl body shape. How do we get there? We have to take the pieces of the puzzle, examine them, so that we can see the over all artist's painting, when it is all put back together again. My wife does Jig-saw puzzles, and while not the best analogy, we have to begin somewhere.

The tail. Tails, rear end, backs are all related. This contributes greatly to the look of the bird and is immediately noticeable to the eye. When folks post pictures of their birds here on BYC, sometimes, there are no traits, virtually no traits that make the bird shown to be a Rock. Yet? If is a dark bird with some cuckoo mottling, everyone pipes in and assures the poster, "OH, that's a Barred Rock!!" Often this is followed by by comforting words such as "She's beautiful". Is she really? Nah. But who wants to be unkind? LOL

• A squirrel holds it's tail upright when chattering in a seated position. This is an ugly look on a chicken, but woefully common. It's a frightful sight.
• A Rock needs a good tail, but 80% of more the birds we see just have a feathery finger sticking out the back. See # 6 illustrated above.
• Some have a fuller tail, but the feathers are kind of rounded over on top and it's look is unattractive. We all see this on our own birds. # 5 above.
• Rocks often get a convex back because of roaching, but also because there is excess fluff on back, near the tail # 7 above

• In the males, having an excessively large, showy tail is becoming somewhat rarer, but is represented by # 1 above.
• Males too often display just a feather finger hanging out the back, and the back end narrows badly. # 2 above.
• Cobby tail is this mess of fluff and puff on the back, but isn't really a proper tail. # 3 above.
• The males also can suffer from an almost upright tail, ie, squirrel tail and this is as unsightly on a male as it is on a female.

 

[aoxa]

Fred,

Wonder why there is no illustration above of squirrel tail. It is so very common.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Probably because those tails are so scary to look at?

 

[Yellow House Farm]

If I think about it, I seem to see 2/6 most commonly with hatchery birds, and 3/7 with faulty show birds. From a breeders perspective, would the latter be the fault of birds that are "over-done"?