The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[weavers rocks]

here's a cockerl I picked out to breed to his aunt in 2016. This is gonna b a good match up this cockerel had a diffrenr look abiit him which I like

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Nice looking bird. Photos can be deceiving as you don't know if the bird is posturing poorly. That said I've noticed via photo many of the birds appear to have little to no tail lift. This one looks very nice; a perfect gravy bowl outline. I'm jealous.

 

[weavers rocks]

Yes he has a good long swooping concave sweep

 

[weavers rocks]

I don't keep em of the start to swoop at the neck

 

[chicken pickin]

Desertmarcy

It can be quite overwhelming sometimes, but I normally go out and here are the most important things (my opinion) I try to compare in my LF Rocks:

1. Leg spacing (must be really wide, or as Fred says, legs you can drive a truck through), and look at leg color also
2. Length of back....Rocks need a long flat back
3. WIDTH of back....they should carry their width from shoulders to tail. Watch for narrowing at the hips (those get tossed aside at my place)
4. Heads...they gotta be big. WIDE skull and the head itself large.
5. Front end.....nice and round. Looking for that deep bowl shape, no "V" shape
6. Tails....well spread on females and well spread and lifting on males

Try really hard to avoid looking at color and pattern

Scrolling back and rereading I cam e across this, I figured I would bring it back up not only for myself but also for those looking to evaluate their birds and start making lists going into Fall.

Im going to use this posted above and make myself a chart and take it out with me while I am sitting with the birds. For me, many notes need to be taken and each bird given a mark or points for each section, pics will only get me so far.

For me personally I only have 3 weeks to make my decisions on the males that will stay and I am fearing 3weeks is too soon, they don't seem near enough mature for me to comfortably decide on the top males.

 

[chicken pickin]

Compensatory match ups.







There two pullets are F1 birds from an outcross, so the excessive fluff and less than sharp barring was expected. As long as it wasn't out of control, it is acceptable for an F1. But…. what if ALL your females had this issue? What if all your females were too loose in feathering? What if all your females were cushioned? What then?

Of course, you could beg, borrow, trade, or buy a tighter female from someone else with your line and forget your's altogether. That's a fairly quick and easy approach, but not always feasible. So, pick through what you have and take the best, even if "best" means the least objectionable as opposed to being particularly good.

Then, you really need to compensate in the matchup. Here's a cock bird with super tight feathering.



(That little grey/white area is just flash). This cock bird (named Alpha One) also just so happens to be the grandsire of these F1 females. His tight feathering and super tight barring is a compensatory matchup for them. This same cockbird was also the sire of Normanack's gorgeous pullet, who has great, tight feathering.





This would represent perhaps the very best tactic. If we line bred back to the grandsire, I would expect some very, very good results. But,... If I made a really bad breeding decision and used a cockerel such as below?



I'd likely stamp the offspring with that fluff and it would put me behind the Eight-Ball for years and years.

Good post on match ups. Though my question is not specifically related to matching up specific pairs to get certain type of feathers. My question is merely about the tight vs loose feathering?

Is tight and loose feathering around the skirt area something we will note early on in a juvenile phase or can they molt the loose feathering during a juvenile molt and get a tighter feather as they become more mature?

I have one male that his feathers are so loose they are constantly floating all over the place, it looks awkwardly crazy, I am uncertain if things like that can still change some.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Off topic but wondering if anyone has Guy Roy's email or contact info? I'm thinking he doesn't have a website as I'm not finding anything.

 

[uphilljill]

I'll PM.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Thanks for that, I'd made a goof. What's odd is I can remember the most trivial details but have problems with names. It was Robert Murphy I was looking for and found him in a facebook group so will be able to chat it up some if I'm accepted.



"I'd never join a club that would have me as a member."

-Groucho Marx

 

[uphilljill]

This years' chicks are now 16 & 19 weeks old, so I spent some time this morning going through them to see who can be culled soon.

I wanted to show a pic of this 16 week old cockerel because he was hatched with a noticeable back defect (the only one I've ever seen like this.) Not sure if I should call it roached because it doesn't hump, but rather it starts off flat then drops steeply off behind the wings. Obviously he's a cull, but thought it notable.



And does anyone have any experience with these kinds of smutty wing feathers? Could they molt out? (This guy is being culled anyway, just interested for future reference.)



thanks!