Barred Rocks Good Shepard Poulty Ranch

[Justuschicks]

I am going to mix this guy with a standard but nice looking barred rock hen to see if I can get good barring but also better egg laying. If he ever starts showing interest in girls.

 

[mountainvieworchards]

put him in with some hens and he will get the idea.

 

[dragonfly130]

Some nice looking birds have been shown,thank,s for sharing the pics guys/gals.

Now I've got a question!
Some of my pullet's are showing an occasional solid black feather. I'm not sure if all are showing this as I only noticed it after I started looking at some of the pic's I took. What's causing this and is it something I should be breeding away from or worry about it later or not a concern? I'm most interested in getting a bunch on the ground in the spring and would hate to not use all 7 of the pullet's I have have now. I could use only pullet's not showing this black feathering if I have any (will be checking today)but, it could take a while to fill the incubator that way.None of the cockerels are showing this and I assume it's because they have two set''s of barring genes as opposed to a hen's one? Should I cover these hen's showing the ocassional black feather with my lightest roo. He is not of as good a type I feel as my darker roo's are. I'll let you decide.



The black feather's can be seen clearly I hope on the hen on the left and also on the hen in the back. That's also my favorite roo in the pic. Nice wide leg set broad back and good size. These birds do have good yellow leg color but it is diet dependant. They have lightened up since not being allowed to free range.



This is my lighter roo, not as good a leg set narrower back and a slightly lighter build. He also some goofy feathering at the base of his wing's following pic.



Upturned feathers at wing base, defect and cull in my opinion unless I need him to cover hen's with occasional black feather. Not sure if a lighter roo will lighten up the hen's and eliminate the occasional black feather I'm seeing.

What do you think cull because of this or does his lighter color give him some breeding value?

Background I've got three young rooster's and seven pullet's all from good shepard line.

I'm deffinitley looking for opinion's here!

1. Should I use the best roo (first pic) to cover all the hen's.(he's meatier and I intend my cull's for the freezer)
2. Use the best 2 roo's both darker and cull the lighter roo because of the upturned wing base feather's and poorer type.
3. Let the three rooster's and and seven pullet's breed willy nilly on their own and just cull hard later.
4. Pick and choose which roo's to which hen's? Gonna get pic intensive for opinion's on that one.

I'd like to put about a hundred on the ground in the spring which will give me a lot more to work with as far as future breeding's and help fill the freezer. Opinion's welcome!!!!!!!
Thanks for your consideration!

 

[tigercreek]

I'm not an expert, so take my opinion for the 2 cents it's worth! I would make 2 breeding pens, trios or quads, from the best birds I have without being worrying about the black feathers. Most if not all of my hens and the hens I've seen pics of on here have an occasional black feather. They are easy to pull if you intend to show. Use the 2 best roosters and keep the hens and all the pullets from their eggs in the same pen. Rotate roosters from pen to pen, never breeding them to the pen they were hatched from. I do not think you need to put 100 birds on the ground either. You are starting with very good stock, from a very well established line. I hatched a bunch last year, and it is hard to cull! They are just that consistantly good! With 2 pens of decet layers, you can put a lot of chicks on the ground in a month. Easily 50 eggs per pen, 4 eggs per hen per week, X 2 = 100 in a month. That is if you have 7 or 8 nice pullets to start with. Cull any that are not up to SOP and you still have a good start and Personally, I don't like the lighter cockerel nearly as well. If the other dark one is as nice as the one in the first pic, I'd use him and cull the lighter one. ......stan

 

[Dirt Farmer]

My GSBR pullets have a few black feathers. I think it may go hand in hand with birds of better color and barring. Don't recall having seen it with my hatchery BR, but they had broad barring and the black bars were lighter.

I also like the darker boy.

 

[Fred's Hens]

We got GSBR stock from KathyinMo last spring. We recently made our breeding matchups for late winter and had to make similar choices. Yes, some of the pullets have a few black feathers. We're not concerned. We're going to breed purely for type and let color issues sort themselves out in future generations. First, we want to hatch out 40-50 chicks, grow them out, and make decisions at that point. We have chosen 3 pullets (out of 7) and two cockerels, which we will rotate, giving them each a chance. We break up the breeding pens in May.

Of course, during the summer, given this line's penchant for broodiness, it seems likely they themselves will make some of their own choices and hatch what they will. The birds make end up making better choices than we did. LOL

 

[Justuschicks]

I am not an expert on this breed either but I know that with other breeds, some of the faults can molt out. You could pluck the feather and see how it grows back. That's my 2 cents.

 

[mountainvieworchards]

Anyone in Oregon interested in a nice GSBR Cockerel? I have one that I want to re-home. He was the best of the four I hatched last April. Please contact me offline.

Andy

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Here are some of my BRs!!!










I love Barred Rocks, they are so pretty!!!

 

[Justuschicks]

Wow, that's a lot of BR's.