The Plymouth Rock Breeders Thread- Part Deux

[Chelliance]

2 and 3 are male. 1 is female. They are your CCL x Olive Egger crosses. Definitely not Barred Rocks. They're barely barred.

Thank you so much for responding and confirming what we suspected!

 

[Mosey2003]

Well, batch 1 are hatching now. Should say are mostly hatched, they started pipping Monday night like they were scheduled. Looks like a really good hatch rate so far, will have to see what all I have when I get home from work. I think there were 20-ish eggs in this batch. Glad to see that much vigor in the ones that made it to lockdown.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

First batch of cross must be 12 or 13 weeks old now. One already shows side sprigs. So happy. Hope there is one keeper to breed next year. The anticipation is killing me.

The K with desired red to move forward on Partridge line has side sprigs already. Murphy blood and Ennis Partridge niched together perfectly to express this in high percentage. K in bush is larger but doesn't have the desired red to backcross to partridge dam. Knock on wood his comb stays side sprig free as he's one of the hopefuls to breed back into Silver birds.

But, the good news is this one pullet from this first batch. So far she is looking like a nice bird, still young and yet to check her comb closely. The pic of her in lilac is attempting to show she's a fair tail tent going on already and the two profiles of her is to show top line and tail lift. No bunny tail! I've got high hopes for this one.

Just noticing the hen's head looks like it's attached to pullet. Two birds in that bush shot.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I hate to invite people to my pity party but I just let the 2nd batch of young birds out of coop and watched them as they were drinking water. Every single K has side sprigs

What's odd is it usually takes over twenty weeks to express in the Murphy birds and these wee ones are maybe 9 or 10 weeks now. Every last one...my god those two blood lines niched perfectly. Ennis told me his line had it decade ago when he got rid of them and it seems all it needed was my cock that is not expressing it from Murphy's line that carries side sprigs to strike back with vengence!

I may have to go on a search for a decent K so I have a Silver breeder next year. Murphy may have pity on me. My cock is all but spent. Had one chick hatch two batches ago and set another hoping it was my incubating fault to have none be fertile.....it's my party and I'll cry if I want to....

 

[Mosey2003]

That's really disappointing!

 

[Mosey2003]

Well, my 2019 hatch is officially over.

I ended up with:
1 pullet from shipped eggs.
2 pullets and one cockerel from the broody nest I raided, just slightly younger than my shipped pullet.
30 chicks from my three weeks staggered hatch. 17 in batch one, 5 in batch two, and 8 in batch three. On a quick glance, looks like more pullets than cockerels, which pleases me.

I had hoped for 60, but considering how busy I continue being, 30 will work out better for my life at this point. I'll start culling males probably in late October, and anything else with any obvious serious issues. I plan to keep about 3 males to finish out some more, and I'll sort through the pullets really well come spring and sell the culls.

They look really good so far, to my eye. Lots of beefy chicks, wide stance, not bad heads.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

30 ain't bad at all. Norm Ennis only hatches out around 40 per year. I fell well below that so far. Girls are starting back up in lay so will see if the tired old cock has a few left in him. Without spring hormones it's doubtful. I am in desperate need of a side sprig free young Silver cockerel. I do have one cross that so far is not expressing, He's good size and some potential.

Was helping a new member locate Silver Penciled stock recently. @Bruce315 might be obtaining a trio from Bob Murphy. He said he'd post some pics if he goes that route. Wynette is inactive here anymore it seems but her website is up and running so he had option of getting eggs from her too. I may have to get eggs this fall so it's good to know those two lines are still available. Wouldn't it be something to get Murphy line from Maine eggs from Alabama? It's a crazy world. I sent a message to Wynette, very curious as to outcome of out cross. It's at least two generations, maybe three, since she obtained a Columbian from Scott, yardfullOrocks- previous member. I want to know if she had an appreciable gain in size from that.

 

[Mosey2003]

I still see Scott posting in the FB groups occasionally. That would be something!

An old timer recommends giving cocks some sardines every day for a week to jazz them up for breeding, couldn't hurt to try?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Jesus, I'd try about anything at this point. I'm attempting to create a line and it would be back tracking to obtain new stock. Well, I'd just throw in the towel and maintain that stock if forced to go that route.

Good news is I cracked open the four eggs laid. All are from same girl, she's the last of the F1 hens. The one laid today is FERTILE! Oh boy, I'm back in business! The cock is F1, this pairing makes for some big boys! The last two years every keeper expressed side sprigs at 20 weeks. This could be the year! Will start collecting tomorrow for the hail mary late season hatch.

 

[Mosey2003]

WooHoo!!!