Plymouth Rock thread!

[Wynette]

Oh no, this is when they were just eggs! They haven't started laying yet.


by the looks of their faces, we still have a few weeks to wait at least. They are 27 weeks here. Two look exactly the same.. can't tell them apart.

I love the head on this one. Her legs are well spaced. It's the angling of her stepping.




This one.. I am not going to use her for breeding. Just eggs. The chest has a lot of white in it, and her size is much smaller than the other two girls.

Gotcha. I have the same issue in some of my original line females - incomplete pattern at the top of the breast. I had some longtime breeders advise me to breed to some ginormous White Rocks to improve the size...but this is a perfect example of what my worry was in using a White. I totally get and agree that type is #1 - but, you just can't throw pattern issues to the wind, either. Such a conundrum, on what to work on first, what to keep in mind, etc.

 

[aoxa]

It's a good question; I'd also wonder about the thinking behind keeping the cockerels...if the pullets aren't what you'd want to keep, why would the cockerels be keepers? Just curious. I usually wait a month after lay begins to hatch off pullets; by the time that first hatch is old enough to begin hard culling, I look at the parent stock at that same time & do a final cull then, based on the offspring. That's just how I do it.

I would have thought the initial problems lie with the chicks being able to hatch at all, but if they do hatch and thrive - why not use them? I would.

I just hatched 20 chicks out of 22 eggs from my newly laying silkies. I culled one for splay leg. That's it. They all are perfectly healthy. Once the eggs are sufficiently big - not reason to wait until they are older.

Gotcha. I have the same issue in some of my original line females - incomplete pattern at the top of the breast. I had some longtime breeders advise me to breed to some ginormous White Rocks to improve the size...but this is a perfect example of what my worry was in using a White. I totally get and agree that type is #1 - but, you just can't throw pattern issues to the wind, either. Such a conundrum, on what to work on first, what to keep in mind, etc.

Thankfully she is the only one with that. My males all have perfect black chests. I'm having a tad of trouble with brassiness in a few of them, but I'm going to go with the best type with the least brassiness.

 

[Wynette]

I would have thought the initial problems lie with the chicks being able to hatch at all, but if they do hatch and thrive - why not use them? I would.

I just hatched 20 chicks out of 22 eggs from my newly laying silkies. I culled one for splay leg. That's it. They all are perfectly healthy. Once the eggs are sufficiently big - not reason to wait until they are older.

Thankfully she is the only one with that. My males all have perfect black chests. I'm having a tad of trouble with brassiness in a few of them, but I'm going to go with the best type with the least brassiness.

One of the issues with SPR, though, is that they're small. It's well known that hatching pullet eggs often leads to small offspring. So, if you're hatching off a breed that there's no issues with size, it isn't a problem. Silkies being banties...wouldn't be much of an issue hatching small ones.

And from what I know of the Canadian Silkies, they're on the large size anyway, aren't they (most anyway)? I could be misinformed.

I had several with brassiness - unfortunately, it was the largest ones of the bunch. I recall wondering why that would be, and then got to wondering if they were all from one hen or something (Janet had told me that not all of her hens were laying when she collected for me, so it could be that the 3 males I culled for brassiness came from the same mother). I culled them all, keeping only the males without the brassiness. I have 4 now...I need to cull again very soon, hoping to keep the best two.

 

[catdaddyfro]

One of the issues with SPR, though, is that they're small. It's well known that hatching pullet eggs often leads to small offspring. So, if you're hatching off a breed that there's no issues with size, it isn't a problem. Silkies being banties...wouldn't be much of an issue hatching small ones.

And from what I know of the Canadian Silkies, they're on the large size anyway, aren't they (most anyway)? I could be misinformed.

I had several with brassiness - unfortunately, it was the largest ones of the bunch. I recall wondering why that would be, and then got to wondering if they were all from one hen or something (Janet had told me that not all of her hens were laying when she collected for me, so it could be that the 3 males I culled for brassiness came from the same mother). I culled them all, keeping only the males without the brassiness. I have 4 now...I need to cull again very soon, hoping to keep the best two.

I hatched out three NH's from Chris Herzogs pullet eggs last year 2 pullets one cockerel they grew up just fine and dandy matter of fact the male is one of my best here on the place. Those eggs Clayton posted look big enough to hatch from,IMO. The issue with hatching from the Plymouth rock type(and others) pullets is you don't know what they look like yet as they aren't fully grown usually till a year or so would be the main thing I see with that.

Jeff

 

[Wynette]

I hatched out three NH's from Chris Herzogs pullet eggs last year 2 pullets one cockerel they grew up just fine and dandy matter of fact the male is one of my best here on the place. Those eggs Clayton posted look big enough to hatch from,IMO. The issue with hatching from the Plymouth rock type(and others) pullets is you don't know what they look like yet as they aren't fully grown usually till a year or so would be the main thing I see with that.

Jeff

Probably tough to make a definite determination based on 3 hatchlings, but thanks for the post. Out of curiosity, do you have adult weights on the offspring as compared to the parent stock? For sure, the PR finish out a bit more slowly than some other breeds.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I hatched out three NH's from Chris Herzogs pullet eggs last year 2 pullets one cockerel they grew up just fine and dandy matter of fact the male is one of my best here on the place. Those eggs Clayton posted look big enough to hatch from,IMO. The issue with hatching from the Plymouth rock type(and others) pullets is you don't know what they look like yet as they aren't fully grown usually till a year or so would be the main thing I see with that.

Jeff

Jeff

I think the biggest problem with pullet eggs is those that are set "shortly after" a pullet first begins laying.....eggs tend to be a bit smaller and I found that those tend to have hatchability issues. After a pullet has laid for a month or so, that issue doesn't seem to be as bad IF the egg size has gotten larger

 

[catdaddyfro]

Probably tough to make a definite determination based on 3 hatchlings, but thanks for the post. Out of curiosity, do you have adult weights on the offspring as compared to the parent stock? For sure, the PR finish out a bit more slowly than some other breeds.

Your right on the meager numbers thing but they were all good, there just seems to be a phobia about hatching from pullets eggs that should not always be there(probly some more of that intuition stuff could come into play here along with the most thing one should use when judging or comparing is using common sense too) I believe.

I don't have any weights to compare them with Chris got out of the LF NH business but compared to all my others here all are in a respected average of each n'other and standard weights. Yes here the 3 varieties of PR and my Reds grow some what way slower than my NHs do but they are supposed to and tis one of the reasons for the NH to been developed to do too.

Jeff

 

[aoxa]

One of the issues with SPR, though, is that they're small. It's well known that hatching pullet eggs often leads to small offspring. So, if you're hatching off a breed that there's no issues with size, it isn't a problem. Silkies being banties...wouldn't be much of an issue hatching small ones.

And from what I know of the Canadian Silkies, they're on the large size anyway, aren't they (most anyway)? I could be misinformed.

I had several with brassiness - unfortunately, it was the largest ones of the bunch. I recall wondering why that would be, and then got to wondering if they were all from one hen or something (Janet had told me that not all of her hens were laying when she collected for me, so it could be that the 3 males I culled for brassiness came from the same mother). I culled them all, keeping only the males without the brassiness. I have 4 now...I need to cull again very soon, hoping to keep the best two.

Well once the eggs were regular silkie egg size I started hatching. I can't comment on ours being larger, because they all appear the same size to me. Never actually saw an American one in person.


This one may do...



Do you see the brassiness in this one?

 

[catdaddyfro]

Jeff

I think the biggest problem with pullet eggs is those that are set "shortly after" a pullet first begins laying.....eggs tend to be a bit smaller and I found that those tend to have hatchability issues. After a pullet has laid for a month or so, that issue doesn't seem to be as bad IF the egg size has gotten larger

yeah Scott I agree I just posted above as you posted this is where that intuition and common sense could come into play too LOL right,

Jeff

 

[catdaddyfro]

Not directing all that towards wynette and scott but there are folks that just don't know these things (egg size)/ or pullet egg issues or where they are good to go yet or not is where I'm headed if I got anybody off track sorry I stay off more than on mostly. LOL

Jeff