The Plymouth Rock Breeders Thread- Part Deux

[AngieMaesChix]

Yeah I’m just thinking I can’t see in their real well as of yet..gonna hold off candling anymore till day ten and see what I can see then..I just don’t want any end up all over my incubator I hear that can be pretty nasty..

 

[Mosey2003]

That's why I always sanitize. Never had one explode yet. Get a better candler and darken the room. If they're in a turner, leave them in there and just hold the light on top and look, less handling is better in the early days. I picked up a candler for something like $8 on Amazon and it works really well.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

@AngieMaesChix
All the Plymouth Rock varieties I've had have a tendency to be porous shell. It does make seeing fine detail a bit tedious. One thing to note if you do have a lot of porous shells is keep track of air cell growth. You may need to run a bit higher humidity as those shells loose moisture faster. I run around 35% incubation, closer to 30% RH. If a large portion of eggs are porous I'm closer to 40% first 18 days.

We all had our first bouts of hatching jitters. It's fine to over candle just be sure to wash your hands prior. Once you've many hatches under belt you'll only candle day 10 and again day 14-16. It's just to take out quitters and monitor the air cell for any RH adjustments you may need to make.

Good luck with your hatch! Any help or support for it the Incubation thread has a bunch of knowledgeable folks. Look out for those with OCD's. Posts that say you must turn eggs three times per day or in sets of three per day are not likely telling you the facts. LOL.

 

[nicalandia]

Is anyone here working with Blacks?

Here a few samples from Germany(notice the yellow shanks)

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Drooling on the yellow. Big issue with my birds. Will be the heaviest cull this year. I intend to hatch many...

Note that cockerels will show yellow that will wash out after 20 weeks of age. I've come to see the difference in the true caritone, near orange when young, deep color that stays with them.

Are these birds bantam? The K is far too thin for my liking and am inclined to think they are Bantam size. They both have great profile.

 

[AngieMaesChix]

@Egghead_Jr
Yes I’m in on the March hatch along..and yeah some are porous air cells seem to be where should be from pics I’ve seen...I been running humidity at 40/45% seems to be okay...been turning either three or five times a day at least three...just gonna leave em be and wait see what I see on day 14 now...patience I’ll be happy with four or five for this hatch but lord please let me get at least two..a lot more money starting this way lol..but I want good quality and have plans so I ain’t stopping that’s for sure lol

 

[Mosey2003]

I really like that black pullet!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Wide Backs-

What we strive for is wide backs that follow from shoulder to tail. The black cockerel brings this to mind and awesome profile can be misleading. I'll show an example of an F1 pullet I had hopes of breeding, actually still am kicking myself for getting rid of her. She was nice but you'll see why-

See what I mean. Photos can't tell the whole story. You need several angles to get a minds eye of what's going on. Sure this girl had one heck of a chest but she was postured to really push it in first photo. The tail tells the rest of the Back story.

Just a reminder that if obtaining stock from a breeder ask for the back shot too. It gives a better full picture of the birds. You can't always be there for hands on evaluation but can be a bit nit picky in photo request to determine what parent stock you want to start with.

Here is a bird that has a bit of a short body length, tail set is low and no need to go on with other problems. It's to illustrate the wide body and what a photo can tell you even though it's not a majestic pose it tells the Back story of a bird.

Food for thought. Always look at a birds Back story.

 

[Mosey2003]

The width is so important, it affects more than appearance. I have two others that I would have added to the breeding pen, but they lacked the width I want. I don't have anything terribly pinched, but when I have these birds in front of me together I can clearly see who is truly wide all the way back and who isn't.

My main criteria are deep/round frontline - width - cushion/feather stiffness - weight/size.

I want to see if I can do a thorough job of tracking eggs through chicks through growouts and really nail down who passes what. I'm also going to try to track feed consumption.

And I want to keep an eye towards carcass weight and quality when I butcher the spare cockerels, if I can have them up over 4lbs at 16 weeks I'd be really happy. Last year's that I processed were right at 4lbs at 18 weeks, and I didn't raise those myself from the very start, I picked them up at roughly 2-3 weeks old. I'm using 28% turkey starter for the first 8 weeks now, so will be interesting to see how they turn out.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Long males will aid in the cushion of females. Wide bodies goes without saying but if you can lend length to the pullets the cushion will lay down more. Cushion is a big issue with a lot of the varieties. Some more so than others, cushion, excess fluff and yellow legs. Biggest issues I've seen are those three.