Random Barred Rock Question

[black_cat]

I just thought of this, as I know nothing about barred rocks- are show quality barred rocks meant to have the wider white barring on the males, and the more even barring on the females, or is it meant to be balanced on both hens and roosters? I'm not, and most likely never will be, breeding barred rocks, but I thought of it and I was very curious.

 

[arwoon]

No nothing about showing them, though I do have a couple. So sorry. I can't be any help

Maybe they are so posed to look like that

 

[chickentrains]

somebody else will chime in, Im sure.. but, it looks like the higher quality ones have much less white, both hens and roosters


https://www.poultryshowcentral.com/ks-very-high-quality-barred-rocks.html

https://wildacres.ca/barred-rock/

 

[NatJ]

I just thought of this, as I know nothing about barred rocks- are show quality barred rocks meant to have the wider white barring on the males, and the more even barring on the females, or is it meant to be balanced on both hens and roosters? I'm not, and most likely never will be, breeding barred rocks, but I thought of it and I was very curious.

You can somewhat select for differences in the width of the barring.
At some point in the early 1900s, they would breed separate lines for males and females, to try to have show birds with matching barring in both sexes.

The standard was eventually changed to have the males with more white than the females, so it's more possible to get showable birds of both genders from one line of breeding.

Source:
Genetics of the Fowl by F.B. Hutt
http://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=chla2837819#page/214/mode/2up
page 203-204


Also, I found an older thread with some photos of show quality Barred Rocks (at least in the opinion of the people posting or discussing them--I don't know enough to judge that.)
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-this-barred-rock-bantam-show-quality.303534/

 

[Amer]

They are supposed to have even barring on both sexes, but the males typically appear lighter since they have more white barring since they have two copies of the gene while females only ever have one.

 

[Mosey2003]

In the US, the standard allows the males to have wider white than the females. This is fairly straightforward breeding wise.

In Australia and England, they have what they call dark barred and light barred. You accomplish that by using black and white "sports" and you breed basically aiming for lighter females and darker males, as far as I can tell.

It seems like everyone in the US that's looking into breeding Barred Rocks comes across a British page dedicated to it explaining the sports and then gets very confused, as we don't do that here. I know I was initially.