Plymouth Rock thread!

[Silver Rock]

She is 23 weeks, 1 day.

Hatched June 22nd.

She looks of good size for only 5 months old. Have you got the weight on her?

 

[aoxa]

She looks of good size for only 5 months old.

Have you got the weight on her?

I don't have a proper scale. Only a food scale that is very small. It would be a struggle to get an accurate weight on a live chicken I think.

 

[Bluetick340]

So how should we be working on breeding the barring on our us birds Fred?

 

[Fred's Hens]

So how should we be working on breeding the barring on our us birds Fred?

If I understand your question correctly, improving the barring is challenging. If you have Barred Rocks that have excellent type, feathering and other physical features but you want to tighten up the barring, it is going to take a few generations.

The genetics for that tight barring means it has to come from somewhere. I prefer to use the male to "bring" that tight barring. So, that's what I will do this year. But, and this is huge; a Barred Rock must also have body type. Just as Rhode Island Red isn't just a generic bird with nifty, deep mahogany color. There's more to a Red than just color.

Anyhow, I have a young male in my avatar that has that super tight barring. We hatched over 40 cockerels this year and he's my present choice. I've another equally as good and I'll likely use them both alternately and see who throws what.

This is my mentality. It stems from the fact that the males carries two barring genes. I wouldn't want to use a "muddy" male over a spectacular female. Others may wish to, but I stick to what I believe in. I dunno.

 

[Bluetick340]

I know we used to have the light and dark birds...how are we breeding different in the US now, compared to the 20s and 30s when we saw the big discussions on light and dark barreds. Didn't think so much about the muddy males messing up good females.

 

[Silver Rock]

Here is a picture of the kitchen scales I have used over the last few months to get the weights on my Horstman line Silver Penciled Plymouth Rocks. It was very easy for me to get the weights on them as juveniles at ages 2 to 4 months old. But now at 7 months old and of a larger size it is a challenge. On December 5 I plan to start getting weekly weights posted on my Padgett line SPPRs as they will be 11 weeks old that day. It will be two weeks later than I planned as I started getting the weights on my Horstman line at 9 weeks old. :/

 

[Fred's Hens]

I know we used to have the light and dark birds...how are we breeding different in the US now, compared to the 20s and 30s when we saw the big discussions on light and dark barreds. Didn't think so much about the muddy males messing up good females.

I've got some old photos (wish I knew who to credit them) and I enjoy reading the old poultry journals, on line, from that era and earlier. I adore those "light" birds as they were bred then. I just don't see them anymore. Too bad.

We don't see crisp barring where the white bars are large or wide, so to speak. In my mind's eye, that's what gives the "light" birds we once had in the US their spectacular appearance.

 

[rancher hicks]

Will anyone here be selling hatching eggs this year?

 

[aoxa]

Will anyone here be selling hatching eggs this year?

I will be.

Question for those in the US who ship hatching eggs: if you are shipping say... all the way across the country, what is a baseline cost to do so? I just did an estimate with Canada Post to ship to Saskatchewan, and it was INSANITY!

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I will be.

Question for those in the US who ship hatching eggs: if you are shipping say... all the way across the country, what is a baseline cost to do so? I just did an estimate with Canada Post to ship to Saskatchewan, and it was INSANITY!

I use the USPS "flat rate shipping", medium sized box and it runs about $15 anywhere in the continental US. Takes 2-3 days normally