Barred Rocks Good Shepard Poulty Ranch

[Robert Blosl]

City Chicker: What you remember from the old days is what I am trying to bring back on this board.

So many of us want to get back to Hobby Farming or Back Yark Chickens and we just want a small flock. Some of us want to have the same breed or LOOK as we had when our Grand Mothers had chickens. Why it brings back good memories from the past. You can still have a nice pretty flock of Barred Plymouth Rocks and get enough eggs to keep your family in with them or eat the left over birds out of your frezzer when you want to eat one. This idea we have to have a breed just becasue they lay tons of eggs makes no sense to me. If I want that benifit I would have a flock of white leghorns.

I saw the picture of Blue Rocks they are very pretty. If I had them I would just breed them for standard type and then when I got in the area of good type and higer egg production I would work on color. Trouble is I dont know what the color requirements are for this color pattern. I have so much going on trying to get people into Columbian, Silver Penciled and Buff that just never thought of Blues. They are the colors we got to fouus on befor its to late.

I have a pictuer of the Breeder male bird in Dicks breeding pen in Canada this past year. He is a nice one.
bob

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

After seeing all these Barred rocks I couldn't pass up the chance to show off My big boy Stripe (so named because of a stripe he had acrossed his beak when I got him he was the only one that had it) Let me know what you think of him.....

 

[Robert Blosl]

Your Barred Rock Male is true to his type and his orgin. He has better type for most production barred rocks. He looks very healty and I am sure he is the pride of your yard. When I was a young boy 12 years old this is the kind of barred rock I started with from my uncle. Thanks for posting your rooster on this thread. bob

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
*passing the nitro*

I just reread this thread, and have to ask a question about this .... you said NO, that the old Heritage or Vintage Rocks are not bred to the SOP. Can you elaborate on that? What is different about them, different than the SOP? You said there are articles to teach us how to breed them. Can you tell us a little about that.

 

[Jared77]

I just reread this thread, and have to ask a question about this .... you said NO, that the old Heritage or Vintage Rocks are not bred to the SOP. Can you elaborate on that? What is different about them, different than the SOP? You said there are articles to teach us how to breed them. Can you tell us a little about that.

Why isn't the SOP written for the old Heritage Rocks?​

 

[Robert Blosl]

These are some pictures of Heritage White Plymouth Rock Large fowl that is about 60 years old. This is the old Oliver Bowen strain that started in California many years ago. I got 13 started chicks 10 days old shipped to me 21 years ago from a friend in Centralia Washington my original home town as a young boy. They have done well in this hot climate however it took about five years to adapt to this heat and humidity. The pictures above I took two days ago when I went to Anthony’s place to help him cull down 50% of the birds.

All the young birds hatched from the male in picture in the middle where good birds we culled for lack of yellow in the legs or they had dropping tails or bunny tails or the females had dropping feathers below the vents or they are dropping their skirts syndrome. I like a Plymouth Rock with tight feathers firm and when you hold them they are solid as a Rock.

One female in the top to the right is my favorite. She looks like her mother when she was a pullet 7 years ago. She is lean and mean looking female and to me this is the franchise female to home to reproduce in years to come. Look at the female in the front of her she has a bump in her back or a cushion a Cochin trait you do not want in your plymouth Rocks and she had very excess fluff under her legs or vent area for a pullets again a cochin type trait. Pretty chicken but not what the standard calls for in a true to type plymouth rock. Got to obey the Standard of Perfetion or you will just have some pretty white chickens.

The sire had one fault his top line was not as high in degrees to the standard as I would like. He had a lift very low almost like a Rhode Island White. However, he had the best tail section I ever saw on a white rock male I ever hatched. So we must mate him to the best females with the correct lift in the back and tail and then work on improving it over the next three years.

We have three people who I have shared chicks with over the last five years and they are sending me 5 four week old started chicks to me to raise this spring and then I should find one or two of these to re-cross back into our old line for fresh blood and to help on the lift problem. Hope you enjoy these very young birds they were hatched in February and March of this year. Some still have two more months to go to reach full development. I am pleased with Anthony’s Poultry Husbandry skills, but most of all his eye for the correct Plymouth Rock Type in his selections of his young birds.

Will work on the Partridge Plymouth Rock pictures latter if I have time. Its was a very enjoyable visit for me to see my old strain of White Plymouth Rocks. If you want some latter in the spring, Anthony will share a few with you in Started chicks. Bob

 

[Robert Blosl]

The standard of Perfection and the pictures that are in the Standard of perfection are for the old fashion clean white and clean black color of a barred plymouth rocks. The picture in the article where a flock of black and white prouduction barred rocks. More black than white, dirty in color not true to the gravy bowl type like the white chickens above that I wrote about. If you are a judge or a old time flock inspector you know the difference between a prouduction rock and a STANDARD Plymouth Rock. Its very simple if these are the kind of plymouth rocks you like then by all means raise them and keep them and enjoy them.

If you are happy with your chickens that is all this hobby is about. There is just 1% of the chicken people who want to step it up a notch and try to breed the birds to a ideal look and color and then want to try to protect these rare breeds so they will be avialable many years to come. There is a movement with livestock cattle people and preservation groups that are saving the semen and eggs of rare cattle and are frezzing them and saving them just in case we as collectors of rare animals screw up and loose the gene pool of these rare catttle. They can then go back in time 50 or 100 years from now and place these eggs and semen into a saraget cow and reproduce the old fashion heritage cattle and start over again. We dont want the Plmouth Rock chicken to go the way of the once very popular passinger pigeon.

You have to have rules or laws in breeding and you must obey them. Thats what seperates a breeder of facncy standard fowl from a collector of chickens. Anyone can be a colletor but to be a breeder worth your stuff to your others in this hobby is rare maybe one in 500 can do it and it takes 20 years of hard work to reach your goal. I can see with the vistors on this thread we have at least 5 people who will fit this mold. Its or duty as fanciers of standard fowl to help these kind souls reach their goals and provide them with all the tools they need to reach thier goals. Hope this helps on your question.

I ask this question from the Book Start where your are with what your got.

Many are Called but few are Chosen.

Are you One of the CHOSSEN FEW????

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
I believe Scott (Yard Full O' Rocks) is hoping to get some whites.

 

[Robert Blosl]

The Articles are on the Plymouth Rock Fanciers of America web site. The old heritage barred rocks are the ones that are in the standard of perfection. The pictures in this artilce of those barred rocks are not in the standard of perfection. Those are not standard breed barred plymouth rocks. I hope that clears up this issue. You can not have a standard of perfection for dogs and have a picture of a German Shepard and then look at your dog that is half German Shepard and Half Chow or Beagle and say how close is my dog to the standard breed picture. You have it or you dont. However, if you think you have it and you dont want to conform the standard of perfection and you are happy with your birds that is all that counts. I have a dog that is half German Shepard and half Beagle. I love him to death and he is my best friend but I am no fool. I dont have a Rin Tin Tin. I will list the thread to the articles on the web site. If you need help getting on there let me know. You can regester on this site and you do not have to be a member to get to these articles. These are classic artilces and we have a article for ever color pattern that the Plymouth Rock has if you can not find it. bob

http://www.showbirdbid.com/joomla/rockclub/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=1&Itemid=21

 

[bburn]

I have one Barred Rock rooster and am looking for two girls for him. I love the look of the Barred Rocks you posted. I like the shape of them and their straight backs into their tailfeathers. How beautiful they are.

My chickens are all at the 23 week age and my hens just now started laying. Well one is anyway. I have just started to separate them and the Barred Rock rooster was the first I pulled and am in the process of building his run and putting together a small coop big enough for three or four chickens. So I am on the hunt for girls for him.

I am so new at this that all I want at this time is really healthy chickens. But I love the look of my Barred Rock, and he may simply be a production barred rock....but he is a fine looking bird with a broad chest and good feathering and very healthy. However, his tailfeathers pop up and are not straight out like your birds. The black and white bird that he is was what I have always wanted and liked the look of.

Thank you so much for posting on this site. I have enjoyed reading all you have written and what others have posted. It will help me keep in mind what I should be looking for in my quest for the Lone Rooster's girls.

Beth