Plymouth Rock thread!

[Mr MKK FARMS]

my buff plymouth chirpy!

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Keep us posted!

 

[aoxa]

Hi PEI chicken, yeah there aren't too many of us on here lol and yes the place I got my heritage breeds from does have them
http://www.circlepondfarm.com/chickens.htm
They have a great variety..only straight run though. I have two mille fleur d'uccle cockerels I'm trying to re-home from them now lol..

Hi there this is where my first BRs came from. I found them too tightly feathered and the males were very small.

There is this guy named Derek Fulton in Shebenacadie (sorry for spelling) that has the best in the Maritimes. He is a super nice guy too. You can find him on www.nsppa.ca

 

[strick]

Barred Rock question: I've been browsing through all of the posts on Plymouth Rocks on this forum, and a couple others on the web. Seem unanimous that they are outgoing, friendly, birds. But this is not my experience. So, I thought I'd ask if anyone else has my experience with them:

I have one barred rock pullet, about 12 weeks old now. She is in a coop with similar sized chicks, a combo of 1 adult silkie, and 2 youngsters (same age as the barred rock).

She behaves very differently than all of my silkies, and my other full-sized hens, which are housed separately. (Brahma, Rhode Island Red, Wyandotte).

She is very skittish, although I've handled her since hatching. She flies, rather than running, when feels threatened (everyone else runs when I come walking). I catch her up in trees quite often...she'd rather roost in the tree at night, rather than going back into a coop, and every night I have to bring her down. She isn't picked on in her coop, nor does she pick on anyone else.

The flying strikes me as the most unusual, as I"ve had chickens for about 8 years now, with new chicks each year, and never had 'fliers'.

So...is this also 'typical' for the breed, or is mine just unusual?
Thanks

 

[Fred's Hens]

So...is this also 'typical' for the breed, or is mine just unusual?
Thanks

It's an individual thing. What stock is she from? I find hatchery stock more likely to be wound up. Also, give her some time, it is possible she'll calm as she ages, although her temperament seems too excitable to calm a whole lot.

 

[DMRippy]

So...is this also 'typical' for the breed, or is mine just unusual?
Thanks

It's an individual thing.  What stock is she from?  I find hatchery stock more likely to be wound up.  Also, give her some time, it is possible she'll calm as she ages, although her temperament seems too excitable to calm a whole lot.

my hatchery barred rocks were more aggressive. don't think I will have anymore hatchery barred rocks. I have white leghorn for high production and I have my GSBR for eye candy.

 

[Chickens Naturally]

Quote: Hard to say for sure. Are you sure of her breeding? Is it possible she could be a mix with a more flighty breed and have barred coloration? A lot of breeds, for example game fowl, and mixes are more likely to fly and roost in trees. Even harder to say since she is so young. A picture might help if unsure.

 

[Fred's Hens]

If you have a Rhode Island Red or a Barred Rock that is mean tempered, it could just be an individual flake or quirk, but since it happens so often with hatchery stock, there's something more afoot here. It happens so often because these birds have been pushed to places never imagined by the originators of these fine, historic, American Class birds that are such a huge part of our heritage in this country. It's a shame. The Leghorn was snuck into these fine, venerable old breeds in order to cheat and win egg laying contents, way back when. Further, the push of the huge, modern hatchery with huge breeding pens and no individual selection of breeding stock than is even possible creates generation after generation of flock breeding. 100 or 200 rooster in a pen with 1000 hens. This style of mass production breeding pushed these birds into being something they never were meant to be and the most aggressive rooster wins and passes on those genetics to the next and to next generations. Forgetting for a moment that these birds barely even look like the breeds they said to be, but what about performance and temperament?

Both the hatcheries and the consumer benefit from higher and higher egg yields and lower costs, but at what cost to the type, temperament and integrity of the breed?

 

[catdaddyfro]

If you have a Rhode Island Red or a Barred Rock that is mean tempered, it could just be an individual flake or quirk, but since it happens so often with hatchery stock, there's something more afoot here. It happens so often because these birds have been pushed to places never imagined by the originators of these fine, historic, American Class birds that are such a huge part of our heritage in this country. It's a shame. The Leghorn was snuck into these fine, venerable old breeds in order to cheat and win egg laying contents, way back when. Further, the push of the huge, modern hatchery with huge breeding pens and no individual selection of breeding stock than is even possible creates generation after generation of flock breeding. 100 or 200 rooster in a pen with 1000 hens. This style of mass production breeding pushed these birds into being something they never were meant to be and the most aggressive rooster wins and passes on those genetics to the next and to next generations. Forgetting for a moment that these birds barely even look like the breeds they said to be, but what about performance and temperament?

Both the hatcheries and the consumer benefit from higher and higher egg yields and lower costs, but at what cost to the type, temperament and integrity of the breed?

But you have to hand it to them(hatcheries/industrial) producers. They for sure will/or have gone far and beyond to pay and get the geneticist to put pretty close to all the proper plumage colors and patterns + brown egg genes(which to me is the best accomplishment) all of this on a Leghorn body type and attitude bird. LOL

Amazing breeders for sure if we could lure a couple of the smartie britches into helping on something as worth while as our heritage and rare breeds then it would certainly be something to mention as accomplishment.

OK back to the regular scheduled programming. Had to blow it off before it popped a gasket. LOL

Jeff

 

[speckledhen]

I honestly think it's individual for the most part, though you'll never hear me defend hatchery stock in general. You just can't be sure what you're going to get when you order from a big hatchery. (Just read that one of the big ones had salmonella traced to them, another story you just would rather not hear).

I have had excellent experiences with hatchery BRs, RIRs, Buff Orpingtons and Wyandottes as far as temperament, including the first BR rooster I ever owned. Those same birds had TERRIBLE health genetics. All but three of those original hatchery hens died from internal laying, two from cancer, and only one from what I'd say was just old age at 6 1/2. A later Wyandotte hen died at a year old with egg yolk peritonitis. Sold two Wyandotte hens later on, but I suspect they met the same fate as the other four I had. Had better luck with hatchery Brahmas, though they are not what you'd get as an egg layer, generally, not the usual big three or four the feed stores get in on Chick Days, so maybe their longevity is a tad better. I adored my hatchery hens, but until you've been through one after the other dying slowly from these reproductive malfunctions, unable to do a thing for them, you really have no idea what it's like or why I say I can no longer be a hatchery customer for my laying hens.

Breeder/heritage hens are not 100% immune to all reproductive health issues, but they sure do not experience them to the degree that hatchery stock does, at least in my experience with both types over the years.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The Barred Rock is a composite Breed. Think a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. The originators spent a lot of time and effort putting that jig saw puzzle together. Unless you're reasonably selective in breeding a composite breed, the birds can go backward. Our chickens are not sparrows or robins or bald eagles, those are species, our birds are merely "breeds" a human invention, an artistic rendering of various pieces and parts of several foundation strains that were crafted purposefully together 130 years ago.

There is a law in this universe called entropy. In layman's language it simply refers to the tendency of all ordered things to move toward disorder, from design to disarray. In short? You cannot just toss a few thousand Barred Rocks into a hatchery breeding barn and breed them and their offspring for a decade of two without much selection and expect the puzzle pieces that are the Barred Rock to remain in place. The bird will recompose itself genetically and result may be step by step, year by year, farther and farther from the Barred Rock ideal of its original composers.