Plymouth Rock thread!

[speckledhen]

Do you free range your birds? With the dangers of free ranging, I have yet to lose one to a predator *knock on wood*.

I thank the plentiful cover my birds have. We did have a close scare with a goshawk. It went for creamy coloured frizzle rooster. We actually saw it and ran out. The Goshawk dropped it! Never came back.

Yes, always have free ranged the flocks. I credit my wonderful rooster brigade for no losses, as well as the perimeter livestock fencing over about half of our property for making it just a tad harder for roaming dogs to easily run across and grab chickens as they go.

Like I mentioned, I'm down to only one LF rooster who is aging and am growing out several of his sons to take up the slack. If you have followed any of my threads, you know that Zane and Suede have gone on to the Great Roost in the Sky, but I do have big old Isaac and two bantam roosters, who, although they are penned up with their tiny hens, are super alert, as most bantam roosters tend to be, probably knowing their vulnerability. A good rooster is worth his weight in gold! Isaac is a Delaware but as you read, his sons are 1/2 Stukel line Barred Rock. It appears they'll be big boys and I'm anxious to see how they mature.

 

[Bleenie]

Thank you guys for the compliments on the girls.

Speckled, I actually was a bit against keeping them because of them being solid white, I LOVE white animals but was worried they'd be easily picked off.

Fred, is it the solid white hen that's the better Rock of the two? The 'smut' is actually an oil stain from running under the truck, lol.

We started with about 14 chicks and just weeded out to the two biggest girls in the bunch. I think we got 1 roo in the batch but I wasn't interested in keeping him since we've never had good luck with Rock Roosters being very nice. I wouldn't even know where to get a white Roo for her & I suppose breeding to a Barred roo would just be a pain in the but as far as breeding the chicks later on?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Fred, is it the solid white hen that's the better Rock of the two? The 'smut' is actually an oil stain from running under the truck, lol.

Yes, the pullet on the right of the first, side by side photos. Head and shoulder a stunning example of a good Rock. Actually, if what you have is a Barred Rock rooster, there'd no problems using him over her. None at all.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Last month, we had a horrible incident with a pitbull attack on our juvenile pen while we were at church. For roughly a week, this farm did not have a Rock on it, if you don't count my old white, 1/2 rock trainer hen. Those were 7 or 8 of the roughest days of my life. I grieved the loss of our chicks, but also of having any Rocks. It's hard to explain unless you connect, as I do, Plymouth Rocks to your sense of identity, heritage and personal history.

I had tremors, irritability, sleep disorders and night sweats. No appetite and no zest for life.

OK, no, it wasn't that bad.

But darn close!!! LOL

Thank goodness, I had a hatch of 11 little chicks pop out in the hatcher. Whew. I could breathe again. Now, I just check on them every five minutes in paranoia, but hey, at least that uncontrolled twitch is gone.

How much do I love Rocks? Not much.

 

[speckledhen]

Oil stain? How funny! One of the hens definitely seems to be of different build than the other, but pictures can really confuse things sometimes; light, angles, etc.

Hey, Fred, I'd become twitchy myself if suddenly I was missing all my Rocks! Some say my marbles are missing, sure, but have to have my Rocks!

 

[hayleyschickens]

these are some of my barred rocks laying eggs!

 

[hayleyschickens]

. My rooster, Rocky, crowing!

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Here are pix from this morning of the 4 cockerels that have made the first 4 rounds of "cuts"....will keep the best 2 out of these. They are 7 months old and range from exactly 8lbs to 9lbs 2 oz

 

[lynzee63]

My barred hen hasn't started laying yet. She is the same age as my RIR girls and they have been laying now for about a month. Does anyone know when the barred's start laying and are they late starters?

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

My barred hen hasn't started laying yet. She is the same age as my RIR girls and they have been laying now for about a month. Does anyone know when the barred's start laying and are they late starters?

It will depend upon the line your birds came from. Hatchery stock should be laying between 22-24 weeks of age (based on my experience), however, my heritage line of Rocks are nearly 7 months old before they begin to lay

So....it all depends