Barred Rocks Good Shepard Poulty Ranch

[cbnovick]

Here is a male that was raised from the male above last spring

IMAO--looks like a nice young male ..good, clean color pattern...looks like he already has some 'stiff' tail coming in too...nice yellow legs and good type thus far...would love to see his wing carriage a bit tighter...hard to say though on that since it's a photo in motion etc. from this pic it's difficult to see his comb and head width real well..looks like he's got some back width and good depth to body...especially once he's finished filling out.

 

[catdaddyfro]

Is it widely held that once a poultry breeder has bred a line for 3+ generations that it could then be considered their 'line' ?
Even though there may be plenty of breeders that started with GSBR's, they still will have been bred according to the breeder's selection/cull process an short/long term goals toward the SOP... And it depending on where they got their original GSBR breeders from, that adds a little more variation/diversity???

Eh something like that Cindy, But still all in all one would have to add a completely off gene in the mix something to the nature of Emu or Grouse to be so far off into outer space with something that it couldn't be brought back down to earth with a little creative effort and dilligence in devoted time to fix (traits) that is.(its how different breeds and varieties came into existence) I just don't buy into the whole thing of not crossing a like bird up with another of the same general type breed/variety. If you are working with a line that has something awry like not producing a decent tail and you keep on breeding them and breeding them together expecting to get a different result well that is to me, flirting on the borderline of insanity of doing the same thing over and over again and again and expecting a different outcome/result from the previous. IMO

I'll say it once again if you want to TRY to improve your tails on the GS line and you want to use a Stukel male that has a good tail on him to do so, then go for it, you surely can't mess the dammed tails up "any worser" one might have a chance in improving them and the Stukel male will be fine to use for breeding back to his kind too as it for sure won't ruin him either.

Hope I got that across good enough this time. Now lets see what the one or two on here that like to reword my post and correct what I say in their own words even though most of the time they still mean/say the same thing generally. LOL

Jeff

 

[fowlman01]

The barred Rock males have had tail problems for a 100 years, so I wouldn't do anything to add to that problem. It is not an easy fix....if it was we wouldn't be seeing it today.

Walt

 

[Robert Blosl]

I agree with Walt don't mix Marvin's work he and Gene Helton have been putting breeding pens together for many years. I have seen these bird as they brought a trio in about four years ago to compete against my birds. Marvin has a closed strain of over thirty years and has done something to keep the vigor and color going. The males have good tails which is worth $1,000 or more to a breeder in feed costs.
Now Good Shepard birds have nice females nice color but the tails blow up as they get older. I often wonder if Frank crossed white rocks into this line years ago. Normally if you do the tails improve but remember when I met Frank about three and half years ago and he asked me to push this H word I had no idea other than he got these birds from Ralph Sturgeon fifty years ago. I know Jamie Duckworth's line has pretty good tails on his sixth year project. I know Craig Shafer has the best consistent males for tails I have seen other than Marvin's. It would be nice to get four good males from Marvin's line and four from Kraigs line and four from Duckworth's lines and put them side by side at a show to compare maybe that will happen some day. None the less they are good birds If you crossed a Marvin bird onto a Good Shepard pair of females you could always mate the best male with the nicest fully furnished tail back to this line for say three years and improve this fault. Don't screw up what Marvin has done its seemed to be a fixed trait and you don't want to loose that.

Somewhere in this computer I got a picture of a nice Duckworth Ckl from four years ago a friend of mine bought as a chick. I will post his picture and one of the Franks birds I likes as a ckl.

Maybe as time goes on during the year you can post pictures of your males so we can see and especially at 11 months of age which they should be in full bloom by then. They are a very slow maturing chicken because of the barring. Thanks for getting this tread back on track. Look forward to more good posts.

 

[kathyinmo]

I have Stukel birds and I have Jeremy Woeppel XW Poultry Ranch Birds.
I prefer the XW birds. I have good tails on some of my males, too. I think this is due to Jeremy's excellent breeding efforts.... (rather than Frank's birds). The only thing "better" on the Stukel birds is the barring being a bit crisper. There is a noticeable size difference. IMO. However, I did only have 4 Stukel birds to compare to. I did hatch 100% Stukel chicks this past spring and will see how they turn out.

I confess though, I do love my XW Ranch Barred Rocks.... alot!

 

[cbnovick]

Kathy, I agree

...the XW's are a real nice BR line...actually all of Jeremy's lines are nice--white and barreds, dorkings and NH's ...I do not own Stukel's though, so can't compare those first hand.

Are the Stukel birds smaller?

 

[shmccarthy]

Wow there are some really beautiful birds on here. I have a question about my barred rock rooster.

This is him, he isn't nearly as impressive as the ones I've sen here, but I still think he is very pretty. Usually the ones I see have a lot more white on them, why does he (Titan) have so much black? I'm assuming he's mixed but would that affect the quality of the barring if I bred him? I wanted to breed him with my white leghorn hens.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Wow there are some really beautiful birds on here. I have a question about my barred rock rooster.

This is him, he isn't nearly as impressive as the ones I've sen here, but I still think he is very pretty. Usually the ones I see have a lot more white on them, why does he (Titan) have so much black? I'm assuming he's mixed but would that affect the quality of the barring if I bred him? I wanted to breed him with my white leghorn hens.

Well, you answered your own question, in a way. This thread is dedicated to discussing Barred Rocks from Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch, which is one of the finer pure bred lines of Barred Rocks in existence. I'm assuming your got this male from a hatchery or hatchery stock from a feed store? If so, you can see that while he has some nice features, his barring is weak and has gold bleeding through. He is a bit short bodied, just looking at the photo and lacks the depth of a bird bred true to the standard.

As for breeding him to a white leghorn, you will just be making a barnyard mix, so it really doesn't matter what the quality of his barring his. He and the white leghorn will make chicks, if all goes well.

 

[shmccarthy]

Well, you answered your own question, in a way.  This thread is dedicated to discussing Barred Rocks from Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch, which is one of the finer pure bred lines of Barred Rocks in existence.  I'm assuming your got this male from a hatchery or hatchery stock from a feed store?  If so, you can see that while he has some nice features, his barring is weak and has gold bleeding through.  He is a bit short bodied, just looking at the photo and lacks the depth of a bird bred true to the standard.

As for breeding him to a white leghorn, you will just be making a barnyard mix, so it really doesn't matter what the quality of his barring his.  He and the white leghorn will make chicks, if all goes well.  

Thank you for answering. I am not sure where he came from, I received him from a nearby farm whose kids hatched 6 eggs for a school project. They ended up with 6 roosters. I bet you are right though.
I assume it's not particularly easy to get barred rocks like the ones from Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch? Not anytime soon but eventually I would like to get good breeding stock, and barred rocks were on my list. Once I have more room for a large number of birds and get experience with hatching of course..

 

[Robert Blosl]

With breeding pressure on the males tails in time it can be improved. Frank breed these for taste so I hope when you eat these birds they are good to eat. I like the females they have nice color. The Arizona birds to me are a little thick in shape. I like a Rock that is built like a gravy bowl a little racey in appearance not like a Red but not like a Orpington either. Glad so many have this line. Kathy so glad to read your posts. bob