The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Fred's Hens]

The head spot method is one way. If you search here on BYC or Google head spot sexing of Barred Rocks you'll get more reading material than you can probably absorb in week. LOL

The "sheen" of the fuzz is somewhat distinctive. After you've hatched out a few hundred of these chicks, your eye begins to note the difference. The males will feather in with distinctive, bright white barring, while the females will remain quite dark and their barring is less bright in appearance. This is due to the males possessing two genes while the females only carry one gene for barring. Black staining on the legs is also a clue, but isn't reliable unto 3 or 4 weeks as the males legs will often yellow up much sooner. The females also grow their tails longer, quicker.

At 7 weeks, the feathering comes in enough to check your eye, if you tagged them. You'll be right about 95% of the time.

At 9 weeks, the difference between the males and females is night and day.

 

[Bennett farm]

Ok , thank you for the helpful ways to to the difference.

 

[colburg]

Fred and Scott,
Thanks for taking the time to post pics of your chicks and showing us what y'all look for at these early ages. Also thanks for all of the advice and hints you give to anyone who asks for help.

I've learned a whole lot just from reading this thread and it's one of my favorites since it's not just a cheerleading group, but a learning group.

To everyone else who has contributed advice or questions to the PR Breeders Thread, I appreciate the responses and thoughts.

Also, thanks for stepping us through how to correct the cushion on some of the backs of PR's. I was wondering if y'all could recommend how to tighten up the feathering on PR's? I don't know if the feathering on the rearends of my WR's is loose, but it sure seems that way to me and I would like to know how to correct it.

colburg

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Fred and Scott,
Thanks for taking the time to post pics of your chicks and showing us what y'all look for at these early ages. Also thanks for all of the advice and hints you give to anyone who asks for help.

I've learned a whole lot just from reading this thread and it's one of my favorites since it's not just a cheerleading group, but a learning group.

To everyone else who has contributed advice or questions to the PR Breeders Thread, I appreciate the responses and thoughts.

Also, thanks for stepping us through how to correct the cushion on some of the backs of PR's. I was wondering if y'all could recommend how to tighten up the feathering on PR's? I don't know if the feathering on the rearends of my WR's is loose, but it sure seems that way to me and I would like to know how to correct it.

colburg

Colburg

We are all here to help....not to say that I'm an expert by any means, but all anyone needs to do is ask. As far as tightening feather, all I have been able to do is "apply pressure" in that area. Hatch a bunch, if all else is equal, keep only those with the tightest feather....I had the same issue when I first started and I'm still fighting it to some extent

 

[Fred's Hens]

I talked with a buddy on the phone the other night for 40 minutes or so. He has some very nice White Rocks. He's got two different lines and the feathering is distinctive between them. He mentioned on one line, the females held up perfectly in breeding pens while the other line? The females shredded badly after even a short time with a cock. Why is that?

Well, if for no other reason the former breeders either did, or did not, select heavily for high quality feathering. Maybe, some lines simply don't have the good genetics for it either. Early feathering, high quality feathering and tight feathering are super high on my breeding criteria. These will be a primary focus of this year and in subsequent years when selecting for breeding. You'll have to mark your juvies for early feathering or simply separate them out into different grow pens and keep them straight.

I've three lines of Reds and the feather quality between them is striking. I'm very partial to high quality feathering.

I know Rip did a feather teaching down at the Newman GA show this year and a lot of folks commented on how they found it very, very helpful.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Some other thoughts on feather quality.

Last month, I walked with a partner through his barn pens as we were selecting birds for some breeding pens and making matchups. I kept noticing how nice his older hens had moulted back. He had hens that were so beautiful that they actually looked better, in some cases, than 11 month old pullets. All things being equal, I suggested he use a lot of these old hens. If these hens still looked that good in feathering at 3 years old? I want to breed her if I can, but that's just me.

On another day, I helped a fella and his teen age daughter evaluate a ton of birds. I saw a familiar, great looking male, and when I saw the size of his spurs, I asked, "Is that the alpha cockerel I had gotten you three years ago"? Yes it is, they replied. He was stunning. He'd moulted twice and at 3 years of age he was superior in feather to all the young, year old cockerels running around. His tail had never looked better, to tell you the truth.

Draw from these stories what you will.

At another farm, as we were walking through the juvie pens, I noticed that the young females all had excessive skirts on their thighs. Not attractive. I asked to see their sire. When I was shown the cockbird that had sired those pullets, I could see a modest in size, but very loose feathering on his thighs. That male had passed that on and when it showed on his daughters, it was highly exaggerated. They had that old boy for dinner the very next night.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I talked with a buddy on the phone the other night for 40 minutes or so. He has some very nice White Rocks. He's got two different lines and the feathering is distinctive between them. He mentioned on one line, the females held up perfectly in breeding pens while the other line? The females shredded badly after even a short time with a cock. Why is that?

Well, if for no other reason the former breeders either did, or did not, select heavily for high quality feathering. Maybe, some lines simply don't have the good genetics for it either. Early feathering, high quality feathering and tight feathering are super high on my breeding criteria. These will be a primary focus of this year and in subsequent years when selecting for breeding. You'll have to mark your juvies for early feathering or simply separate them out into different grow pens and keep them straight.

I've three lines of Reds and the feather quality between them is striking. I'm very partial to high quality feathering.

I know Rip did a feather teaching down at the Newman GA show this year and a lot of folks commented on how they found it very, very helpful.

Fred

I had NEVER thought about how a female looked after being with a cockbird for an extended period of time (in terms of her feather)....I'll need to make a serious mental note of that this yr. That one tidbit might help a WHOLE LOT as I have some that tend to look 1/2 naked, and others that look as those they are effected little at all

Thanks

 

[Fred's Hens]

It's not an exact science, because since some cocks simply adore certain favorites or some females are overly submissive they get overbred, so this has to be factored. BUT…..

If you have a cock over a pair or trio of females from one line and they are scalded off in two weeks time, but you put a dual or trio of females from a entirely different line and during their two weeks of breeding you see no damage at all?

THAT is something that grabs your attention. You begin to ponder if this is in some small way a measure of feathering quality on your females. It would be interesting to hear from some on their experiences on this.

 

[beausonge]

My third hatch of the season came off this past weekend. All the chicks in this group were sired by my male (F3) that is being used to remove the brassiness from my male CRs. 18 eggs went into the hatcher and 16 hatched....2 never even pipped for some strange reason. Here is a group shot of the chicks (represents 3 separate pens, single matings)

What kind of lights are those in with the chicks?

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

What kind of lights are those in with the chicks?

Those are actually not lights, but ceramic heat bulbs. Primarily used for reptiles. These units give off heat, but no light. As incandescent light bulbs are getting harder to find, I needed an alternative...plus, I'm hoping it will establish day/night with the chicks and make the transition to the outdoor grow up pens a little easier. We'll see