Partridge Rock Thread

[cybercat]

Thank You all are from MT Healthy except chick. I feel sorry for Beta he tries so hard to care for hens and get some and ALpha will not let him be. He will have a happy home with his own mix flock at neibors. They will be switching over to mine later this year after I am done hatching for me. I will probably give them my culls since they are not showing. Good news is that incubator came today and is set up.

 

[Up-the-Creek]

CC,...are you going to breed the PR's to show? I have heard they are hard to breed because of their color,...Have you heard that? They are great chickens,..I have two left of my last flock,..they are the best layers and do make great mothers.

 

[birdbrain5]

happy to have found this thread. i currently have 30 PR eggs in the bator, im hoping half of them do well. i got them from someone with a flock local. im new with all of this so im not positive if these are of great quality or not but im hoping so. time will tell! im going to candle tomorrow or sunday so i will post back with results!

 

[cybercat]

Happy Mother's Day all.

I have 12 eggs right now in incubator. Just set them yesterday evening.

Up-The-Creek I am not breeding for show BUT I am breeding with SOP. I personally have no desire to show but these chickens will be of show quality once I get a few breeding done. Around here most shows are for bantams anyway. I will let you know how hard they are for color/pattern breeding after this year. When I joined the Plymouth Rock Club they had started a bunch of articles about breeding this color. So I have some execellent guidelines. I also have the 1918 Plymouth Rock Breed Book that has great pictures of feathers of the breed and how to breed this variation. Most now days do not do the male and female breeding lines that they did way back. Reason the chickens are better stock in color without males with red breasts. I think main problem these days is the female size and color. Males it is usually tail set as well as correct weight.

In hatchery lines I have seen it all. MM has been selling some non pattern hens. Which makes me think they are throwing in Welsummers into order of PR's. Both are close except for pattern on hens and overall size. Of course egg color is way different too. I know many hatcheries use leghorn to increase egg production. Even MT Healthy has a line like that, Beta being a good example of that line. I can clearly see the two line in my flock in hens as well as roosters.. My goal is to breed out the production line. I do have connections to some old show lines threw the club. I will be using them down the road but at this time I am trying to clean up what I have, 2 increase flock ,3 increase size and 4 just find out how these chickens carry in them before I get the old show lines in them.

Since I am not worried about showing I have all that presure off of me. This is my hobby for I love animal breeding and gentics. I have bred tropical fish and top world class dogs. This time around I am working on preserving this color in this breed. Since we need chickens here on our place ayways, why not perserve a breed.

 

[Cold Canadian]

Glad to see all the pictures , I have some coming in from Meyers in about two weeks and I'm sure hopeing for some good birds from them .........................no one has commented on Meyers yet ? I had seen some pictures of other breeds from them and that is why I choose them , they seem to have good stock ??

 

[Stevenson]

I just wanted to jump into this conversation.

I have 4 partridge rock chicks from Paul Harter in Missouri. They are 4 weeks old today and it looks like I have 2 pullets and 2 roos. Looking forward to seeing how they turn out!

 

[Up-the-Creek]

Cybercat sounds like you know what you are doing. I do not know much about breeding or genetics, but would love to be able to breed these I have obtained and work on making better stock later on.

Out of the 28 Mt. Healthy sent me, I have lost one. I believe it basically failed to thrive,.. It would not eat or drink on its own. The other 27 seem to be growing and are looking very well. As I said, I am impressed with Mt. Healthy hatchery and will do business with them again in the future. My first partridge rocks came from MM,...they also were nice looking chicks, but in time I learned the roosters were a force to be reckoned with. I assumed it was just the type of chicken,..but I learned in time from others that MM's line was aggresive. I would say they were aggresive,...one of the roosters I tryed to keep flogged my then 5 yr. old daughter and had her on the ground on her back repeatedly flogging her. Needless to say, he was removed

. The hens have always been quite docile and friendly, I still have two of them left in my flock. One I am going to keep because she is a very good broody hen.,..she has raised quite a few chicks for me. The other one, not so much. She is quite big and has never been a good layer,..she will be sold later on. I am very excited for my new PR flock to grow and to see how they do. I have had MANY types and breeds of chickens and the PR's are my favorite,...outside my EE's. As they grow and mature I will post more photos.

 

[cybercat]

Welcome Stevenson glad you can join us. Would love to see picks of your 4.

Yes, MM has a aggressive line of these chickens. I have heard from many folks on that one. Both females and males too. Neibor up the road had some tough hens would always peck at her collecting eggs. Roosters I have heard every one has turn aggressive. Alpha my male tried me a few time from the back but never got far. He just ran up and bumped me. I turned and chased him like he does Beta. He has been good since. My new problem with him is going into coop to eat chick feed. I only have one coop for right now so moms and chicks are in it with main flock. Luckily chicks are big enough now I do not have to fed in coop anymore.

 

[starina]

Hi, I have a question about PR's. I have two pullets, about 5-6 weeks old. At what age do a cockerel's feathers and colors change? One of the 'pullets,' (our favorite chick), has more comb/wattle than the other, and I'm not knowledgeable enough about chickens to tell.
Another question; is anyone breeding these chickens? Not a hatchery, but individuals. At this point, they are DH's favorites (especially the one in question, sigh).

 

[Gallusfarm]

Here's a pair around 10 weeks, where they are starting to look different. You should see a difference in comb growth by about 4 weeks.
Enjoy your birds!