Barred Rock

I'll start by saying I only have experience with one Barred Rock, and maybe all the others are fantastic, but this one bird has been so awful she's completely ruined the entire breed for me. She is merciless about setting the pecking order, to the point where it becomes pointless bullying. I have my 10 week old d'Anvers in a sectioned off pen for introduction, and I can't even set up a little perch for them because she will attack it and knock them all down. She scoops food out onto the ground then digs it into the dirt, wasting it. She eats double what the other standard chicken does. If I've given them all treats she'll alternate between stuffing her face and prowling around the d'Anvers' pen, trying to attack them through the wire for daring to eat. She's disgusting, always pooping all over herself and generally just having extremely poor hygiene. She doesn't even like human attention. She'll come running if she sees me, but her interest is purely food motivated and if I try to pet her she will "bwwak" angrily and side-step away. Then to top it all off, if I crouch down in the chicken pen she will come over and peck at me.

I have heard great things about Barred Rocks, so we decided to get one. He was a rooster named Brooks. He was so good looking, but wow, he was SO aggressive! He mounted those poor hens 100 times a day and whenever one of my kids went into the chicken free-range area to get the eggs, feed them treats, give them food or water, just play with the hens, etc. Brooks would attack them. He would attack my husband and me as well. Not to mention the fact that he crowed every minute! And I am NOT exaggerating! He crowed so much he lost his voice, but he STILL tried to crow! It's a shame because I have heard such great things about this breed, so I guess we really got horrible luck.

This is Louise, she is 7.5 months now. I got my first flock of 4 chickens in April. I have a BA, SS,EE and BR. She started "laying" at about 20 weeks but there have been many problems with her eggs. I wold say 50% of the time she lays soft shelled eggs, maybe 2-3 times per week. So.....I don't get many eggs.

Besides the egg laying she is extremely loud, she is always walking around the yard like she's looking for something or someone whinning the whole time. She is also the bully of the bunch and has tried dominating me, which i showed her was not an option!

If I knew then what I know now I would have made other choices for chickens. I will not get another one of this breed. My fault though, I read the reviews that they can be bossy but I love the classic look of these so really wanted one. If she continues to have problems laying I may re-home her

November 11th, 2018: UPDATE..

Had to re-home mine, very aggressive to my other chickens. The straw for me was when I found her cornering bottom chicken in the nest box and pecking at her head pretty savagely....

Always use to peck me when I was little. Hated them. I just wanted to pet them on the roost and they would peck me.

We got these birds to introduce our neighbor to chickens. These are the worse birds I have ever had. I won't even allow my children near them. I will never get them again.

My BRs are aggressive and loud. I had to re-home one after trying to quell her pecking tendencies for three months. I finally caught her pinning one of my Ameraucanas to the ground and pecking her (would have been to death, had I not checked on them before going to bed). It wasn't even a pecking order battle, just a vicious beat down by the top bird onto the lowest and smallest chicken on the rung. I was glad to see it go and my flock is all the better without her in it.

My BRs lay about 3-4 smaller eggs per week. My RIR, Australorps, and Ameraucanas lay almost every day, and their eggs are 20% bigger.

BRs are weather hardy. I bought them because they're supposedly docile, but that just hasn't been my experience. Stay away from this breed.

I love this breed, they are so sweet!! I recommend getting one!!

I cant say a whole lot about this breed since the chicks only arrived yesterday but I got 3 Barred Rock, 3 Amberlink and 3 Rhode Island Reds. All yesterday and so far today two of the three Barred Rocks are aggressive to the other chicks, pecking and grabbing their downy feathers then shaking their heads like angry dogs while the victims screech out in pain and panic I had to put those two by themselves today to give the others a break. I'm only used to my sweet Speckled Sussex so this behavior is new to me. The Barred Rocks were straight run...does this indicate that the two meanies might be cockerels? So far I'm not loving them, but I hope that changes.

I will likely not be getting this breed again. Right now I have three, and they are all feather pickers. Their favorite thing to do is sneak up on their molting comrades and eat their pin feathers. Also they aren't as great layers or as friendly as we had heard. Personally the best/coolest thing about them is that they "sing." Aspen's nickname is "soprano" because she has the highest pitched peep of all my 40+ chickens.

This is Aspen Fluffy Soprano

In my flock of 10 I have 7 Buff Orpingtons and 3 Barred Rocks... my rocks are silly, sweet, outgoing chickens but they are beating up my very docile orpingtons. How do I know this? well lets just say that my Orpingtons are all having issues with ratty looking feathers but my barred Rocks are in absolutely perfect feather. While I love my rocks to bits, I am going to have to rehome them as it is just not fair to the other chickens in the flock. I had done my research but did not realize how bossy the Barred Rocks could be. If you have a flock with very docile girls in it, I would not recommend Rocks.

From my personal experiences, I dislike this breed. They aren't really very good layers and are flighty. I'm not sure if it's just the hatchery we've gotten birds from in the past or what. I've mostly read that they are pretty friendly birds but ours aren't. They do they beautiful, dark brown eggs that are very thick-shelled.

I have 2 barred rock pullets. One is very skittish bottom of the order and the other is very friendly. Very friendly and inquisitive to what I might feed them next.

to soon to say much they are fairly new

I don't know if it is a common trait with these chicks, but the pullets I recently purchased from a hatchey are very aggressive. They go after me when I am trying to move them to and from their outdoor pen. I have some very sweet black australorps from the same hatchery, and they are wonderful. It could be a growth stage with them, but they have been handled daily since I got them, and they are tough. Will not get the breed again. Edited to say that they are not aggressive now, they coming running up to me for food, etc. Must have been their teenage rebellious stage, lol.

I've found that barred rocks are nice chickens to have. My hen Downey is really cute and a little on the plump side but that just adds to it. Though she is very aggressive to my bantam Popcorn and chases her almost everyday. My rooster Buckey I found to be much nicer towards the other chickens and myself, even my other rooster. Nothing that they do is a deal breaker no matter how bossy they can be and if your looking for a friendly, attractive looking chicken I'd go with a barred rock.

We added three 8 week old Barred Rock gals to our flock of 6 GL Wyandottes (12 weeks old, 5 hens and one roo); took our time and introduced them slowly over the course of a month. The Barred Rocks are still very cautious of the older birds and spend a fair amount of time on perches above the Wyandottes in the run unless we let them out to free range, in which case the three of them hang out together near the house while the Wyandottes wander to several places in a separate group. When they are in the run I make sure there is a feeder near the perches they can access without the Wyandottes running them off (and yes, we call that the Barred Rock Cafe....). Despite the fact that the Wyandottes were raised by me from day one, the BR's are much tamer and more docile, and the Wyandottes are thugs in a group and rather shy of being handled individually. The BR's are just starting to lay now and we're still getting tiny eggs (compared to the Wyandottes HUGE creations), but overall I like the BR's very much. Glad to have added them to the group. Nice color contrast to the Wyandottes as well. Happy to report that overall I'm happy with the whole flock and they are doing well.

I've had several of these over the years, but only ONE was friendly towards me. The others bit/pecked me as chicks and turned into grumpy adults.

It's a bit unfair of me to write a review on my 1 BR since she's disabled. However, despite being very poorly sighted, she lays well and is very personable. I hand feed her treats since she gets pushed to the side, but she is able to eat/drink normally like the other girls. I will likely get more in the future since they are robust ladies!

I have 3 Plymouth rock barred, one with almost 6 months (Isolda), another about 3 months (Isadora) and another with nearly 1 month (Flora). When chicks are extremely gum, do not let you do anything without being on his shoulder or in your head. The Isolda with about 4 months was shy, do not know whether because I had to let homemade to care for almost twenty days due to a surgical procedure that did.
But I notice on this age several of my chickens get a bit shy not liking his lap and pet back to ask for lap and perching on me as are close to adults (in lay). But are amazing poultry, heavy, large and gentle.
I realize that soon the chick stage "adopt" some chicken or chick that become attached and become increasingly dependent, always of being around them and tolerate other birds, but do not form a bond with these as it does with first. And take longer to accept other members in the henhouse, attacking especially at feeding time, after a while starts to tolerate these. Since this behavior seen in both Isolda often as the Isadora, for Flora, so that it is still not staying together to them because of the pecking.
As for the posture have not yet begun to lay, but I hope will be good layers, for here I create chickens for eggs, pet and not kill anything, here the chickens die of old age. Isolda Isadora Flora
Pictures of the day 03.23.2015

I have a barred rock hen named Beetee in my small flock. She was good for a while, about a year, before the other chickens injured her and we had to separate her for a while. When she was put back she adjusted quickly, but whenever I would try to touch her she would peck my hard. 5+ minutes and a few peck wounds later the chicken would run away. She could be worse though.