Plymouth Rock thread!

[Yard full o' rocks]

In my "humble" opinion, birds are like dogs, cats, horses, etc, etc

Starting with birds from a good lineage is great, BUT, its what YOU do with them after you get them that counts.

I have and/or have had BRs from the following lines:
Jeremy's (Reece)
Duckworth
Wheeler
Shafer
Hardy
hatchery

If I recall correctly, Kraig Shafer had BV in BR LF at Crossroads and Jeremy received RV. This was at the National Plymouth Rock meet for this year, so obviously there is at least one breeder who the judges feel has birds superior to Jeremy's.

I currently have a couple of Jeremys birds and a Hardy line bird. The Hardy line cockerel is far superior in type (at least right now) to my Jeremy bird. BUT....with time that too could change. I don't show my birds so it doesn't matter to me anyway....I simply enjoy the hobby and the people I meet associated with the hobby.

I personally think that there are several "breeders" with great lines of BRs in LF(Stukel, Shafer, Duckworth, Wheeler, Horstman, Gilman to name a few). However, I don't think we can "assume" that the OFFSPRING of any one line can trump the OFFSPRING of another line. We are all entitled to our opinions, but sometimes we need to refer to the facts

Enough said on my part. I am taking NO SIDES on this issue since my Columbian Rocks ARE the best in the US....LOL

 

[punky rooster]

Hi Scott,

I agree with you. Nice post.
Mitch

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Thanks Mitch

Good to see you back, hope you're well!!

 

[speckledhen]

You know, also, Scott, a breeder doesn't hit a home run with every single bird, of course. I had two cockerels from Jeremy's line plus the Stukel male, Rex, to choose from out of that hatch. I could keep only one of them because of space constraints and not enough pullets for them. One of the Good Shepherd cockerels was half the size of the other one for some reason, not a dwarf, just very small. His new owner, who took him to see how he'd develop, says he slowly caught up over time. The other GS male and Rex were even as far as size. Rex had a better comb and sharper barring at the time I had to make my choice so I went with Rex and haven't regretted it, but if I had more room and more females for them, I'd have kept them both.

Both come from excellent lines, but even from the best lines, there can be "clunkers", LOL! I personally am not into "lines", though everyone kept asking me where mine came from and eventually, I had to tell them.

As far as production goes, I'll have to get back to you on that. Of the three Stukel pullets, only one is laying at over 30 weeks old. She is laying regularly now, but then, she just started two weeks ago. I've always been happy with my hatchery and descended-from-hatchery stock Rocks, though. My splash Rock lays every day that the BR pullet does.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Quote:
Some breeders are doing exactly as you mentioned. Many are involved in the ALBC's recovery projects.
(I'm not disagreeing with you, but I don't think it's quite as bad as you think)
Mitch

The standards have been found, over and over, by poultry breeders to be completely irrelevant to production values. The standards were written based on the appearance of a few birds - and even in the early 20th C. it was noticed that production and appearance were diverging. Dryden noted how several breeds that had been good in the late 1880s had disappeared from the farm because of hatchery and breeder emphasis on "fancy points" and how this had been done at the expense of utility.

In any event, the expected production of 1874 tended to be minimal by even the standards of 1920. Note that even after barring was found to be sex-linked, the standard called for equal barring on both genders, leading to the nonsense of dark and light lines bred for fancy points in order to produce the even barring - one line for cockerels, one line for pullets, and no lines for eggs or meat.

So breeding to the standard has no relevance at all to productivity - and has contributed to breeds becoming "heritage" instead of useful.

 

[punky rooster]

Hi Scott,

I'm fine, just have not been posting as much, been busy.

Yakima kid,
I still disagree. I've already posted my facts, and I'm done there.
G'night
Mitch
Here's my best Rock pullet,

 

[speckledhen]

She's a pretty one!

 

[gjensen]

That is a good looking pullet.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Here is a link to a Frank Reese Jr. Barred Plymouth Rock. http://reeseturkeys.net/product.sc?productId=32&categoryId=2

It is priced at $30.99 + shipping.

Frank's line is very productive, yet meets the Standard.

One of the issues we have failed on in the Fancy is that our exhibition lines have moved away from production. Its said that one Orpington line only produces about 25 eggs per year. Since Frank not only shows and sells exhibition stock, he also produces eggs and meat from these same breeders. We must all work towards a more productive bird. The SOP states on page 41:

Overlarge specimens are not to be desired, they become clumsy and poor producers. They are not the active useful fowl desired for this dual purpose breed.​

 

[risingstarpoultry]

I agree there does need to be work for all lines to be more productive. After all thats what every one should strive for, or we will hit a dead end road. Just my opinion.