The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[desertmarcy]

They are both mine. The bantam cockerel is my daughters. The lf cockerel is a very young cockerel also hatched in late July 13. The hen is three years old and usually gets best of variety.

Well you have done a good job with them

Mine just look like someone cut their tails short.

 

[dreamofglory]

Well you have done a good job with them   Mine just look like someone cut their tails short.

thank you very much.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

This weekend was nice here in the deep south...Saturday afternoon in the upper 60s, today in the upper 50s (but windy)

I let my first 2 hatches out for a little "supervised" time on the grass both afternoons. Here is the group eating oats late today

I'm noticing a SIGNIFICANT growth curve difference in the birds hatched with Jack as sire and #23 as the dam....all of these birds are hatched within 1 week of each other. The oldest group is 6 weeks old, the younger is 5 weeks

 

[Fred's Hens]

My up north partner, normanack, and I are fighting this nasty winter to the bitter end, I'm afraid. Our plan is to swap out our males in a few weeks. Normanack's cockerel got named Neptune, King of the Seas. Apparently, a whole nautical theme is happening over there. LOL

I started with a big tailed, wide tailed male I couldn't help but call Bruce. Big Butt Bruce. I feel so sorry for the guy. These sub zero nights are really putting the hurt on him. I had so hoped that bringing him north in March would have spared him this harsh weather, but alas, not this year.



I won't post a photo of him today. My goodness, he's been bitten hard. Poor guy.
Bruce has been effected and fertility has been hit and miss. I candle eggs around day 12 or 14. Some are good, but many are not. I've decided to just go ahead and keep on setting eggs. It ties up space in the incubator, but if a few of the eggs are fertile, it will be alright. That he is a pure GSBR bird doesn't help.

I said that for Marcy's benefit. hahahaha

 

[Lacy Blues]

My up north partner, normanack, and I are fighting this nasty winter to the bitter end, I'm afraid. Our plan is to swap out our males in a few weeks. Normanack's cockerel got named Neptune, King of the Seas. Apparently, a whole nautical theme is happening over there. LOL

I started with a big tailed, wide tailed male I couldn't help but call Bruce. Big Butt Bruce. I feel so sorry for the guy. These sub zero nights are really putting the hurt on him. I had so hoped that bringing him north in March would have spared him this harsh weather, but alas, not this year.



I won't post a photo of him today. My goodness, he's been bitten hard. Poor guy.
Bruce has been effected and fertility has been hit and miss. I candle eggs around day 12 or 14. Some are good, but many are not. I've decided to just go ahead and keep on setting eggs. It ties up space in the incubator, but if a few of the eggs are fertile, it will be alright. That he is a pure GSBR bird doesn't help.

I said that for Marcy's benefit. hahahaha

Don't you have a basement or somewhere you could put him for the nights it gets so darn cold? Poor guy. I feel for him.

 

[Fred's Hens]

All birds up here must endure our climate. We can't do much about where we live.

Put him in the basement you say? Obviously, you've never met my wife.

In all seriousness, Rocks have been kept in the northern midwest for 150 years. The breed itself was born in New England, not exactly a balmy place. I don't believe for a minute that winters back then were one bit milder than ours today.

I've some theories though. The birds born and raised here? Not a speck of frost bite under the same conditions. I remember Bob Blosl mentioning this stuff over and over. Bob was convinced it takes a line 3-5 years to adjust to a certain climate. In other words, Bob would recommend a certain line to people who lived in the torturous heat/humidity of the deep south and another line of the same birds to someone living in the northern climes because Bob knew they had been moved north or south and now enough generations had passed for acclimation.

Bob used to recommend Nelson Reds for people in the North, because in Bob's words, "they are used to it". Call it old timers tales, but I've got Nelson RIR cockerels and indeed, they don't have any noticeable frostbite.

 

[maryhysong]

Anybody interested in Buff Rocks? I am hatching chicks for sale, here is the link to the ad
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...rocks-barred-and-buff-rhode-island-red-marans


I quoted #desertmarcy's post so we could see these two boys together. This is her cockerel

This one is mine. They are from the same hatch by #cbnovick Jack just had a bath and got his comb oiled up. He's slightly darker than this pic in real life, the flash washed him out a little. I'm getting ready to start collecting eggs; probably this week.

 

[Lacy Blues]

All birds up here must endure our climate. We can't do much about where we live.

Put him in the basement you say? Obviously, you've never met my wife.

In all seriousness, Rocks have been kept in the northern midwest for 150 years. The breed itself was born in New England, not exactly a balmy place. I don't believe for a minute that winters back then were one bit milder than ours today.

I've some theories though. The birds born and raised here? Not a speck of frost bite under the same conditions. I remember Bob Blosl mentioning this stuff over and over. Bob was convinced it takes a line 3-5 years to adjust to a certain climate. In other words, Bob would recommend a certain line to people who lived in the torturous heat/humidity of the deep south and another line of the same birds to someone living in the northern climes because Bob knew they had been moved north or south and now enough generations had passed for acclimation.

Bob used to recommend Nelson Reds for people in the North, because in Bob's words, "they are used to it". Call it old timers tales, but I've got Nelson RIR cockerels and indeed, they don't have any noticeable frostbite.

I only meant because he just got there and only on the very coldest of nights to give him a chance to acclimate. I don't bring my birds inside either but they've been here a few years already.

 

[DMRippy]

My DH finally cleaned all my runs for me while I was down with my back. I had one empty pen so I moved ALL my new laying pullet in that pen. SOON I can start breeding my SPPR and PR..... YEAH! I can get some projects going too. Soon I can start selling some hens to make room for pullets. Got to get BUSY.... ER.......

 

[uphilljill]

New England weather: Nope, not much warmer here. 6 degrees this morning, and more snow expected mid-week. But hey, at least they're calling for 50 and rain this weekend! Lol

We've had a bit of frostbite, but as cold as it got here this winter (negative teens a few times) it mostly came this "spring." It got warmish (30-40) and wet a few afternoons, but still dropped down to single digits at night. Bad combo.