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Nice looking females on that fence, Jules. Really nice heads and they look to be very heavy bodied.

I did get a bit sloppy in working through the whole breed, variety, strain, line continuum. apologies. But, You got that marketing part right!!!

Yes, history is sketchy on the beginning of the Rock. The Barred was first. There's still debate as to which foundation breeds were blended to produce the Barred Plymouth Rock, but Cochin, American Dominque, Black Java, etc were likely blended into the mix. It is claimed that the Whites were...

You're spider senses are correct here, Bee. Barred Rock folks commonly reach out to get White blood for tails on males, size in birds, and so forth. Columbian Rocks breeders have done the same. Mostly folks just lust after the freakin' ginormous size of the White rocks. While it may be...

Breeding for "the show" doesn't necessarily force you into breeding birds with no utility or no productivity. Not at all. It's all about the priorities of the breder. There are terrific Rock breeders or various varieties that breed breath-taking examples of the breed and when they coop in with...

Actually being bred to the Standard for the breed is the whole point of this section on BYC. APA type, Standard bred White Rocks dwarf the hatchery stock I've had, and I've had more than a few over the past 50 years, plus. I raised and bred three distinct heritage strains of WR last year and...

A couple of suggestions, perhaps? If you don't mind? 1. Focus. Don't be scatter gunned, but focus on a single breed. If your resources and space is limited, don't fragment it further by being scattered in your approach, ie, having two or three breeds. Your contribution would be diluted to...

The "disconnect", the term you used, likely occurred when classic Large Fowl birds gave way to the commercial hybrids in the late 1950's and early 1960's. The egg producers shifted to those high powered commercial layer hybrids and the broiler industry became dominated completely by the CX type...

Reputations are powerful information. When folks buy certain strains of birds from certain breeders the productivity of those birds is not a secret, or not a secret for long, especially in the instantaneous nature of the information age. Again, I only do large fowl Rocks 'n Reds and focus...

In my own personal view, a breeder that says they are breeding to the Standard and advertising them as such, a potential buyer for that breeders birds/eggs/meat have the right ask about egg laying, from point of lay right through number of eggs in pullet year and first hen year. The buyer...

Great post. A HUGE, HUGE portion of the folks at Knoxville are deeply concerned about productivity. It is a growing and influential portion of the APA membership. Walt Leonard, aka fowlman01 and Sam Brush were kind enough to take the time to discuss this with me. The economic and production...

This past weekend, at the Knoxville Nationals, I spent a lot of time with Steven Gribble, sgribble, and Steven's New Hampshires were stunning. His 3rd cockerel and his second female both won big. I handled that female. Marvelous bird. But here's the deal. The K's reach a nice processing...

Joseph, this post ought to be into a billboard somewhere. Truly.

This is the Standard of Perfection, It not only contains the "standard" or detailed description for each breed, but the first 40-50 pages are absolutely the encyclopedia of the chicken and these pages alone are worth the price of the Standard. This is the hardcopy version, because I prefer...

If you start with a dynamite quad, trio or pair? It makes a world of difference. Start with some less-than-good birds and you've got to hatch out 100 and hope to improve them over the next 4 years. But, hatch out of your birds, Bee? I'd not be too concerned. Since I know what you have for...

That is correct. Reds bred to the Standard and an old line with great heritage.

Everyone finds "their" breed and their variety of that breed. Some shift gears as they go along and there's no shame in doing so. Sometimes, one finds a strain of a breed that so stinkin' pleases them that they wouldn't trade anything for them. Sometimes it is just a matter of their...

Just my $.02 but different strains, even of the same variety, may vary greatly. Some have been pushed to be good, solid layers, while others? Not so much. They all bear the breed name Rock. But, their composites are so very, very different in their foundational makeup.

I think someone, maybe Laura, used the term "tolerance level". Just my own view of things, but some folks have zero tolerance for anything and out comes of the array of pharmacy drugs, antibiotics, vaccines and such. Others? Perhaps some Corid, poultry powder (or homeopathic equivalents) and...