The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Beekissed]

He's VERY beautiful! I love how tall he is and the width of his back.

New hatch of farmer's choice chicks(eggs collected under a broody while I was away on a trout fishing trip) today and all the chicks are HUGE. They are bigger than those hatched from the pure WR pullets and those are 10 days old. Those hatched from pullet eggs, so not sure if they will stay small or will catch up to these whoppers in the nest right now. Some XW/Weaver in that batch, Weaver/BA hatchery stock, and Weaver/WR Ol' Mama genes as well....just a grab bag, really, so culling ought to be fun this fall. All chicks from this hatch are extremely vigorous and just BIG. So far have 12 in the nests and 4 eggs yet to hatch...stuck those under another broody.

Am currently dealing with no less than 4 broodies right now and it's been a broody shuffle to find space and equipment for them all. Next year I'll be more prepared....never had this many at once. I've only got 3 hens left in the coop to lay eggs, that's how small this flock is right now. Soon it will have many more....broody and 7 on the range right now, broodies and 12 in the nests right now, broody and 4 left to hatch tomorrow or the next day.

What a day. So glad to have these fat, healthy chicks, though...should be fun sorting them out this fall and canning up those that don't make the cut.

 

[chicken pickin]

I took a few pictures of my chicks today. They are nearly 3weeks old.

These are just a couple of the chicks

 

[uphilljill]

Strong, healthy looking chicks! Glad they're doing well for you.

My first batch are 4 weeks old now. Feathers are really starting to come in fast. At least on the females. Lol. But the males are crisper.

 

[uphilljill]

 

[chicken pickin]

How are you liking your pure Roy chicks compared to the others?

I notice my Roy chicks are just a bit smaller and their barring, maybe its their wing shape is a little different than the others. I only have 2 Roy chicks. Of course they are still very young and I know they will change a lot still.

 

[uphilljill]

I had a poor hatch rate with the first batch (only 3 of 7 hatched) but the chicks that hatched are keeping up with the crosses in the brooder. The second batch of 7 eggs I set under a broody and she hatched 5 chicks 2 days ago. They're looking just fine.

Looks like you have 2 cockerels there.

 

[chicken pickin]

I had a poor hatch rate with the first batch (only 3 of 7 hatched) but the chicks that hatched are keeping up with the crosses in the brooder. The second batch of 7 eggs I set under a broody and she hatched 5 chicks 2 days ago. They're looking just fine.

Looks like you have 2 cockerels there.

Glad you got a better hatch with them

I figured they were cockerels, I could kind of tell when they had hatched. I think I have a lot of little cockerels, at least 50% of them though I think a little more. They are all growing so well and they are big chicks with such laid back personalities. I am realy enjoying them all.

 

[Beekissed]

Those are some sturdy, long bodied and long legged chicks there! I like the looks of them.

It will be interesting to see them as adults.

I am done hatching this year, all done under a broody except one egg and that chick went right back out under a broody as soon as she got her legs under her well. I have 14 WRs and 6 WR/BA utility chicks out of these broody hatches, all thriving and vigorous birds. Some of the WRs are just BIG and for that I'm most pleased. All of them but one had a really good silver blush on them, some deeper than others.

7 of the breeder's choice chicks hatched first are out on the range and growing very quickly, catching up quickly on mostly foraged feeds. They get fed some chick starter twice a day but soon that will go down to once a day. Their mama is an excellent mother and will run the legs clean off them but they are getting some good food out there somewhere because those chests are already showing muscle and weight and these chicks are only 15 days old.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with the results of this year's efforts, though they were fraught with difficulty here and there. Below is the broody that's raising the breeder's choice chicks and she's doing an excellent job. Thank you, Kathy, for a wonderful Del broody to do all my hard work for me!

 

[Beekissed]

The last WR chick hatched this year was a big ol' chick, came out strong and kicking. All the WR chicks in this last hatch were big, fat and fluffy....I'm very tickled with that.








The first hatch seemed pretty small for WRs and I was thinking it was the pullet eggs, as they all had great nutrition before and during the breeding time. The only difference between the nutrition of the eggs in both hatches was the second hatch had mostly foraged foods as the primary source of nutrients and the first hatch were from confined birds, eating grain based feeds. I'm wondering if that wasn't the deciding factor....free range forage nutrition being superior to what I could provide from beefed up layer mash.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Some say a chick will overcome the small size due to pullet eggs. I'm not one of those people. I think it a travesty to have excellent genetics stymied by using small eggs. I currently have a runt of the hatch and it was all due to the size of egg. Perhaps if I kept her separate from the larger birds and gave a diet of more than 20% protein and perhaps held and petted her more she'd grow to be the hen I always wanted. A part of being a good bird is the ability to thrive and to have that taken from a bird right from the get go by using pullet eggs is criminal.

I purchased eggs this spring and a good number were pullet eggs. I put the three smallest sunny side on toast but there were more and of the smallest egg left came a hen. Unless I intervene or use measures of pamper I really don't see this bird growing to it's potential. Three weeks of growth and she's still behind. In my mind I hatched a layer and not a potential breeder. I never would use pullet eggs for anything other than toast garnish but we sometimes have to work with what we have.