my barred rocks ?

okiehen

Songster
12 Years
Oct 25, 2007
1,778
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Oklahoma
Are my barred rocks pure barred rocks?
I got my hatching eggs from a breeder she got hers from sandhill preservation. (I just talked to her)
This is the link to my post with pictures of my birds.
Help me out here I don't want to miss lead any one as I shouldn't have been. I think they are pure .
Please tell me what you think.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=172402
 
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I'm not really a barred rock breeder--I have one and have had others in my laying flock, and know a bit about the breed.

Show plymouth rocks should have yellow legs--your birds look like they are pink/white. The shade will lighten as a laying cycle goes on, but only in the hens.

One of your roos does appear to have two copies of barring; at least one other looks to have only one copy.

I would not say that they are not pure, but rather that the quality of their barring and of their leg colour isn't as good as what I've seen in show birds. On the other hand, I think it's far better than production quality. Hopefully you'll get some commets from those who are more familiar with the intricasies of their standard.
 
They look like production Marans to me. Since they do not have the dark egg color of the Maran...

The legs are white, including the male so I would simply assume they were production Maran who were sold as Barred Rocks.

An exhibition Barred Rock looks nothing like those.

5 month old Barred Rock Pullet:
PoultryShows004.jpg
 
Okie, though Halo says she got BRs that have whitish legs from McMurray (and I would never doubt her at all!), I have never seen white legs on any BRs. My Hawkeye was a McMurray bird, I was told, and helmstead has provided me many BR hatching eggs from her McMurray stock, none of them having white legs. To me, that would be an indication of some impure blood somewhere. If you just want to have layers, they're fine. If you want to sell hatching eggs to others, show them or just breed to the standard, I would never use a white legged BR. To me that is an indication that they are either production Marans, as was stated before, or they are a cross of the two.
 
I talked to her the breeder she said they were pure.
I have to believe her. So the line is production type.
Thanks for the input and information.
 
Sandhill has a rep for sometimes trying to offset inbreeding by using other breeds. They did it with Blue Orps when they added Blue Rock blood in there sometime in the past. The result was the same thing you found--wrong leg color in some of the progeny down the line. So, though the lady you got them from probably did buy them as pure BRs, they are certainly not coming out as they should.
 
This brings up some interesting points. At what point is a breed not a breed? Obviously, barred rocks with white legs havent been bred to standard, and probably havent been for a while. Its a disqualification, according to the SOP. So are they barred rocks? I have been following some of the marans discussion, and some people think that a marans hen that doesnt lay at least a 4 egg isnt a marans, just due to the definition.

I would think Orpington breeders would be horrified to end up with chicks with yellow legs; hopefully they wouldnt be used as breeders, but would they still be Orpingtons?

If a breeder is breeding dalmations, and has a pup with no spots, is that pup still a dalmation?

Is breed definition defined by the animal standing in front of you, or does it depend on his genetic heritage?
 

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