The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Yard full o' rocks]

http://www.nutrenaworld.com/products/poultry/naturewise-poultry/feather-fixer/

Read all about it on their site.  There have been a few threads here on it and the feedback is a bit mixed. Some people like it well enough. By studying the contents list, most of the "ingredient gurus" here on BYC feel the secret sauce is likely DE.   

I doubt NatureWise is into animal protein.  

Much to the dismay of many, I do NOT see DE as an effective product for mites. Sorry

 

[speckledhen]

DE used in feed will do absolutely NOTHING to prevent a lice or mites or even worms, in my opinion. I do use it and always have in the nest bottoms and on occasion in heavy wet under the roost area during extended damp weather periods, as well as putting a cup or so inside a feed bag to kill whatever might be in it.

I've never had to treat any bird here for lice or mites the entire time I've had chickens. Hawkeye came to me with rampant lice and I did kill them by using only DE, but he was in quarantine and I removed all his shavings, dusted the new shavings and him with DE and that did it. If there was an entire coop infestation, I would bring out the big guns, though, and not mess around.

Tried some pics of Rex's progeny with the Blue Rock hens today (he's no longer with those hens, though).
Ice blue cockerel, yup, with yellow legs.


Blue pullet and black pullet.


Black pullet, ice blue cockerel, blue pullet in back and blue barred cockerel in front. Makes me want to put the blue hens back in with Rex again. I love blues.

 

[BGMatt]

there is only one person that I know of that is breeding blue laced rocks. I'll see if I can find a pic of his. He hatched some of mine that were bred from Good Shepherd pullets with a splash cock from a long time BYC 'blue rock' seller. He told me they were edged and not laced. He sent me pics of his birds that are bred from a white rock and a blue Andalusian. Looked liike a very nice bird but I am not knowledegable enough to see the difference in edging and lacing. I was under the impression that all blue came from Andalusian except the self blue (lavender). Anyway, here is a pic of a blue with edging, I'll try to get his permission to show his pullet pic...........stan

Pretty. Dang pretty. The second post, showing that pullet? Nice Rock shape coming along there. However, like most of these specialty varieties, I'll call them, look at the legs. That won't work. Gotta be yella. That's a major struggle it seems to me.

When looking at the Glossary of Technical Terms out of the American Standard of Perfection the only difference I see between Edging & Lacing is Enging is more narrow and in my opinion the proper term when describing the Blue varieties up to the Standard is Lacing and should be used as this is what has been set by the Standard.

The difference between edging and lacing can be plainly seen if you pluck a feather and hold it against a light surface. A laced bird will still have it's dark outer marking. An edged bird will not. A bird with edging can look laced because the edges of the feather are thinner so you see it as darker due to also seeing the feather underneath. The difference is in the presence of Pg, the pattern gene. Many breeds that come in blue do not have this gene, or it has been lost over the years. A side note on yellow legs from my experience with the bantam Blue and bantam Black Rocks, yellow legs on a male bird is easy, to get it on a female is nearly impossible. On some breeds, but not all, that are dark with yellow legs they allow for a bit of dusky-ness on the females for this reason. Usually if you do get the yellow legs on females the under color will be light colored and sometimes even get light coloring in the visible parts of the feather.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

there is only one person that I know of that is breeding blue laced rocks. I'll see if I can find a pic of his. He hatched some of mine that were bred from Good Shepherd pullets with a splash cock from a long time BYC 'blue rock' seller. He told me they were edged and not laced. He sent me pics of his birds that are bred from a white rock and a blue Andalusian. Looked liike a very nice bird but I am not knowledegable enough to see the difference in edging and lacing. I was under the impression that all blue came from Andalusian except the self blue (lavender). Anyway, here is a pic of a blue with edging, I'll try to get his permission to show his pullet pic...........stan

I know these birds. Joe lives about 2.5 hours from me now. When he get a farm and set up there I plan to take a visit. These are his side blue project and the photo of good rock shape pullet posted later is from his other blues which are Plymouth Rocks. He said there was a promising pullet with fair lacing from that group in a fall hatch.

I've got a few of the birds from the project photo above. Mutts though they are the pullet on the left has nice full body lacing. He got into blues from getting a bird with blue down when crossing Barred Plymouth Rock and Cobb broiler. Was trying to get size into a persons line with that and ended up with one pullet carrying blue. The birds above are product of Andalusian sire and that Barred/Cobb dam. If you look close you'll see the ears on pullets are not full red and of course the blue legs and egg color is tinted. What's nice is these birds don't have any brassiness which is common in many blues and no Orpington fluff. Huge, solid birds.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I think that the closer you get to yellow legs, the less lacing you will see on the birds' feathers.

 

[rancher hicks]

Tim, what's in in? Animal protein based??

I don't see animal protein in the ingredients.

As a rule I feed either Dumor layer pellets or Agway layer pellets or Agway egg producer 18% protein.

I'm to far from a Mill to buy feed there.

 

[rancher hicks]

http://www.nutrenaworld.com/products/poultry/naturewise-poultry/feather-fixer/

Read all about it on their site. There have been a few threads here on it and the feedback is a bit mixed. Some people like it well enough. By studying the contents list, most of the "ingredient gurus" here on BYC feel the secret sauce is likely DE.

I doubt NatureWise is into animal protein.

I do dust with DE and may toss some in the feed from time to time, but my main concern was some unwanted chemical that would make Norm (my friend) sick. I've never noticed mites so it didn't matter to me. As a rule I run a closed flock.

I dust all next boxes are cleaning time and rotate leaving one vacant of hay or shavings. I dust all corners and birds on occasion too.
If they did put DE in the feed it wouldn't concern me, whether it helped or not.

When I do buy it I mix it with the other feed. Like I said I got the coupons and figured I'd save a couple of bucks. Though if it isn't wise to do so I wouldn't be saving anything would I?

Thanks for the advice and input.

 

[tigercreek]

I know these birds. Joe lives about 2.5 hours from me now. When he get a farm and set up there I plan to take a visit. These are his side blue project and the photo of good rock shape pullet posted later is from his other blues which are Plymouth Rocks. He said there was a promising pullet with fair lacing from that group in a fall hatch.

I've got a few of the birds from the project photo above. Mutts though they are the pullet on the left has nice full body lacing. He got into blues from getting a bird with blue down when crossing Barred Plymouth Rock and Cobb broiler. Was trying to get size into a persons line with that and ended up with one pullet carrying blue. The birds above are product of Andalusian sire and that Barred/Cobb dam. If you look close you'll see the ears on pullets are not full red and of course the blue legs and egg color is tinted. What's nice is these birds don't have any brassiness which is common in many blues and no Orpington fluff. Huge, solid birds.

This is a picture of my birds, not Joe's. The picture of the single pullet is from Joe's white rock. ........stan

 

[Fred's Hens]

Tim, feed it. I don't think it would hurt a thing and I seriously doubt your friend/customer would have any issues with the eggs.

 

[tigercreek]

The difference between edging and lacing can be plainly seen if you pluck a feather and hold it against a light surface. A laced bird will still have it's dark outer marking. An edged bird will not. A bird with edging can look laced because the edges of the feather are thinner so you see it as darker due to also seeing the feather underneath.

The difference is in the presence of Pg, the pattern gene. Many breeds that come in blue do not have this gene, or it has been lost over the years.

A side note on yellow legs from my experience with the bantam Blue and bantam Black Rocks, yellow legs on a male bird is easy, to get it on a female is nearly impossible. On some breeds, but not all, that are dark with yellow legs they allow for a bit of dusky-ness on the females for this reason. Usually if you do get the yellow legs on females the under color will be light colored and sometimes even get light coloring in the visible parts of the feather.

Thank you for this explanation. Joe told me how to do the feather check, but I did not understand why it worked. I think I now understand the difference! Maybe I'll try to introduce the pattern gene... partridge rock maybe?????