The Plymouth Rock Breeders Thread- Part Deux

[Egghead_Jr]

OK let's see how I did-

Shape Male

"Back: Rather long, broad it's entire length, flat at shoulders: nearly horizontal from neck to saddle, then showing a slight concave sweep to tail.
Saddle feathers-- moderately long, abundant, filling in well at juncture to tail."

Shape Female

"Back: Rather long, broad it's entire length, flat at shoulders; extending with a slightly concave incline to the tail; feather, moderately broad."

 

[Mosey2003]

Lookin' good, @Egghead_Jr !

I just culled some of my males last night. The biggest looking one was 5.8lbs, and they're a bit less than a week shy of 16 weeks. I feel like that's pretty good, size-wise. That's weight before I dressed them, I won't weigh the carcasses until Weds when I clean them up and package them.

My plan for next spring is to single mate that outside pullet with my cock, she's looking pretty good. If I have any pullets in the bad comb camp that look really good, I may breed them just to see if it's going to keep passing on or if one outcross will take care of it.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

@Mosey2003 , what do you have for stock? Was there suppose to be a photo last post of "outside" pullet?

Shaffer Cock, your own hens, F1's and stock you hatched from local breeder this summer.

 

[Mosey2003]

@Mosey2003 , what do you have for stock? Was there suppose to be a photo last post of "outside" pullet?

Shaffer Cock, your own hens, F1's and stock you hatched from local breeder this summer.

There wasn't a photo, no.

I have the Shafer cock, F1's from the local "Good Shepherd" stock, and one outside pullet from a highly-recommended fellow in Arizona.

I was supposed to get a pullet from Shafer, but I ended up not being able to drive to the show(s) so that didn't work out. Perhaps next year. Otherwise, I'll just keep working what I have, I'm not in a huge rush. With some single-mating and wing bands, I can keep everyone identified, and I have no problem eating them, so no biggie if the F2's don't turn out well.

I must say, apart from the combs, the Shafer x Good Shepherd kids actually look really good, which is kind of bittersweet. The pullets especially, the cockerels take much longer to really judge (for me, anyway).

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Gotcha, I didn't know about the pullet from Arizona. The Shaffer/Good Shepherd should definitely be given another try. I like your plan of single mate and another go at this years work.

Were any of the Good Shepherd birds without comb issue to try for more F1's? Any of the current F1 pullets have clean combs?

Next spring you'll have A1 (arizona F1), F1BC, and F1's hatching out. If any clean combs in pullets/ hens that is. That's a lot of hatching. I'm thinking of toe punching to keep the incubator batches separate, maybe an idea for you to think on too. The bandette come off too often for sole identification purpose I'm finding out. Great for color coding and jotting down notes on a numbered bird now and then but 10-20% did come off.

 

[Mosey2003]

I have two of the Good Shepherd hens that don't appear to have the comb defect, but I haven't gotten to truly isolate them in order to see if I can get any clean combed F1's yet. I have one more hen to cull from there and then I can try. I did try a hatch on them that hatched about 3 weeks ago, miserable fertility and of the 4 chicks hatched, all have the bad combs. They've moved on to my friend's house for her daughter to play with.

I do have a toe punch and may implement that as well, but I'm not talking about bandettes, I have actual wing bands that you punch through. So far I've been happy with those, haven't lost any yet. I also have enough incubators that I could fully separate eggs if I felt it necessary, or it's easy enough to mark them and simply hatch in separate units.

So yeah, we're thinking along the same lines. I'll get a few good pics of some of the pullets come spring, it's too cold and dark for me to bother right now. Plus, they're in a group and don't feel like posing for pics

 

[Dr.Dale]

look at the second from last pic of pullet in profile

Perfect! I have some of mine this year with good width, but the back is not that straight nor that smooth. I have quite some work to do.

 

[Dr.Dale]

I have actual wing bands that you punch through. So far I've been happy with those, haven't lost any yet.

I used wing bands and only lost one. That was my fault. I nicked the tendon when I put it in, so it was weaker and pulled off later. Luckily it pulled off while they were still in the brooder, but I felt bad about the injury. My mistake.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I'm too scared to try wing bands. I'd rather just leg band them. Of course I don't have so many I can't tell them all visually apart right now anyway.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I cleared off all images from my full SD card and thought I'd start to fill it up again.

First pic is the pullet with nice legs I'd tried to get a photo of before. Not as wide as I'd like but a nice girl and want these legs to continue. Quite certain she'll be in the breeder pen.

Pics 2 and 3 are of a pullet I just like and she was not having a good time in the snow. Note the dark wash on legs and feet. Good type, not so great legs. I've got better but hard to get decent photos when they are all in the winter run. The cross of lines did fix cushion issues. Some bunny tail which I had before but cushions are all in check on every pullet.