Plymouth Rock thread!

[DMRippy]

Dear DMRippey,
Yes, i am positive she is not laying! Her and a White Rock Rooster are in a 10' x 10' pen with a cover over it. There has never been an egg in the pen. My other White Rocks are kept in a similar pen, I have checked at various times of the day for eggs, NO EGG from my Columbian hen. She was hatched Easter of 2012 and when my other birds were laying she was not, and has not laid an egg. Do you have any suggestions of how to get her to lay? I feed her Nutrena 16% lay mash, augment that with soaked whole oats and calf manna daily.
In the grand scheme of things I have not spent a fortune on this hen, but it is frustrating to not even get one egg!
Randy Bullard

I don't really. Could she be egg bound? I just don't know what to tell you... it happens sometimes I guess. Might want to up the protein. I feed 22% layer feed and my birds do great on it... just a though. ALSO is that soy based? If so I don't like those kinds of feeds. Chickens need MEAT... it is part of their natural diet.

 

[catdaddyfro]

Some hens never lay, could be born barren or likely that a respiratory disease could cause such, This in not strain related nor breed all are susceptible to such, theres no one farvorite here, could happen to anyone. Having just one hen put you at the greatest odds of having a non producer is all. These and other Plymouth rock varieties are well known for taking there own sweet time getting the ball bouncing. This is typical of "heritage" types as they simply mature slower. Sorta like some varieties of oak trees take fifty years to start producing acorns, some only 10-15 but the latter die off quicker at 50 to 75(used up) the former live for multi hundreds of years. Its the same but different. LOL

Jeff

 

[Fred's Hens]

Out of 90 or 100 pullets we put on the ground every year there always seems to be at least one of these. Just never do lay sometimes. I seriously doubt changing feed would have much to do with it.

Too bad. It's a bummer given the long time it takes to bring these birds to maturity, only to get such a dud. It happens, it happens, it happens, in people, dogs, cows, etc.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

My Barred rock cockerel is just too mean, I tried everything but nothing worked. So, I'm just going to sell him and try and get a buck from him. It just doesn't work. I really like Barred rocks, I really do, but the rooster just don't work.

 

[catdaddyfro]

Yeah its a gamble for sure I had just posted this up before I came to this thread

• catdaddyfro
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• Location: Vernon Parish
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Nice looking chicks Mumsy !!! I have some that looks just like them, maybe just a little bit younger. Mine are also from Ron and doing great. I have been watching this thread for some time and am enjoying it. Keep up the good conversations, people like me really enjoy it. I thought I was going to have to ask if one lone chick could survive on its own. I had ordered some eggs mailed to me (RIR) and it looked like only one was going to hatch but just a few minutes ago another one made it out. I am pretty sure that will be it. This is my last hatch for the year and did not have any more chicks to put in with that one so am glad another one hatched. One of these days I am going to learn not to order eggs because of the poor hatch rate. Would be better off getting them chicks from Mr Blosi's friend.
Scott

BOY mee too Scott I now have 2 WR chicks worth $ 27.50 ea. not including feed for the past week and the future LOL I sure hope to goodness that one is a male the other one is not so I can try to breed them to make me some more to even up the tally a bit. LOL Can't handle too many of those types of gambles it gets into mad moneys.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

Well I lost one of my SPR hens she had went broody and did not fair well, I don't think she was eating well, Right after her chick hatched she died, I don't know if I could have done anything to help her or not. My other hen quit laying when this one went broody, luckily I have 5 good looking pullets in grow out that we got from DIEFLY ranch, three of them are gorgeous, with very nice penciling.

 

[Silver Rock]

The Silver Penciled Plymouth Rock chicks I got from Dick Horstman are close to 5 weeks old and I can easily tell the males from the females now. I have 7 that are male and 5 that are female. From the start there were around half that were lighter and half that were darker. The lighter chicks are the male chicks and the darker chicks are the female chicks. I am very happy in the health & look of the chicks I received from Mr Horstman.

 

[cybercat]

Well I lost one of my SPR hens she had went broody and did not fair well, I don't think she was eating well, Right after her chick hatched she died, I don't know if I could have done anything to help her or not. My other hen quit laying when this one went broody, luckily I have 5 good looking pullets in grow out that we got from DIEFLY ranch, three of them are gorgeous, with very nice penciling.

So sorry to hear this. I tend to kick my broodies of the nest once a day to prevent this from happening. Never had a problem with any stopping due to this either.

We have our first broody this year. But I have chicks hatched out already and moved them to chick coop since we had another batch hatch this past week. So far we have 35 total with more coming. Not selling any since we are building flock. We are also building more coops this year. :0

 

[BlackPanther]

and that's another dilemma, i don't want any roo's, we live in a neighborhood and i want my neighbors to still like me, but i have no idea how to tell the difference between the two as chicks. is there a rule to go by? or is it the luck of the draw?

If you can get chicks that have started to feather, I've found the barred rock males are lighter than the females. Of course, steer away from bigger combs if you're not sure on the darkness.
Hope this helps.

 

[lilchick88]

My chicks are around 5 weeks I do believe. Im hoping they are all hens as im not sure how to care for roos this is our first time with chickens. We have 6 barred plymouth rocks and 1 bantam.