The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Fred's Hens]

The only way one is going to get started with breeding high quality Rocks is to start with stock from a high quality breeder. These birds cannot be bought at a chicken auction, a feed store or from a mail order hatchery.

Some top breeders of Plymouth Rocks do sell hatching eggs during the late winter-early spring breeding season. Others prefer to sell live chicks. Many top breeders attend poultry shows and often bring excess stock to sell. These are the only ways one is going to started in breeding top quality Plymouth Rocks. Start with the very best birds you can find. Breeding the best is difficult and an uphill climb.

Starting with poor stock is an impossible task, in most cases. Trying to "breed up" low quality birds is an expensive, frustrating, years consuming project that rarely ends well. Most of the birds simply do not have the genes required to "breed them up". What they have instead is a plethora of genes from the deep end of the mixed pool.

There are lots of breeders of the some of the best Rocks who are members here at BYC. Other top breeders can be found at major poultry shows near you. Seek them out. Most folks in this fancy enjoy helping younger people get started on the right foot.

 

[Fred's Hens]

One of the many challenges in breeding these old time, old line Rocks is how long you have to grow out cockerels in order to judge them. This takes space, time, lots of chores, and lots of feed, of course. Here's some of last year's cockerels.




That fellow on the right? He's looking really good. This is a 4 month photo, give or take. We really like his chest, even at a young age, barring was good, wing carriage was correct, his legs were far apart. His head was only OK, but otherwise he had alot going on. The biggest fellow was the cockerel in the center. While not as bad as this photo shows, as he was just shifting his weight, he had a knock knee look that I didn't care for. He was eventually culled. His body was simply too narrow. The K second from the right had excellent, crisp barring, but his chest looked shallow, even as a youngster. Would he fill in as he matured?

Eventually this all meant growing them out and feeding them for 10 months. That is one of the toughest things. I just don't think you can judge these cockerels until closer to their blowing out the candle on their first birthday cake.

 

[Fred's Hens]

See the little cockerel on the left of center? He's only half the size of his bigger brothers and slower to mature. His comb and wattles aren't nearly so distinct at that age. He looked like a runt. But, since his barring was so incredible and his type was excellent, we waited and waited and waited. Well, wouldn't you know it, at 10 months he exploded.

He ended up being the biggest bird of them all. You never can tell and if we'd culled too early, we'd never have found this out.

 

[aoxa]

I'm going out to take pictures and will be back to join in

 

[cbnovick]

LF Buff Rocks at 3 weeks.






here they are at 6 weeks...with an SOP Buff Orp in background...great for color comparison!!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

This!!!

 

[aoxa]

This!!!

That is insane this chick is 3 weeks old! How?! Not even my Cornish X were this large at 3 weeks!

 

[cbnovick]

This!!!

Yup...8 have with killer frames and fleshing already....2 super nice males thus far in development...about 3 super nice females
3 look like badd 'ugly ducklings' at this juncture....need to get some pics today of those for you guys to see...those are ones I considered culling...

 

[Fred's Hens]

Well, we had some ugly duckling too. Some runts as well. Check this little guy out in lower left at almost 7 weeks. Gawd awful neked and gangly.





Here's the funny thing. They often turn out just fine. Here's our runt at 9 weeks:




Still not completely feathered in and half the size of his mates. At 10 months he exploded and turned out to be the "pick of the litter". You just never can tell, at least I can't until the pullets are 8 months and the cockerels are 10 months.




Sucker is 13 lbs if he's an ounce.

 

[aoxa]

Sadly my girls are in poor condition right now. The boys are mating them quite a bit, so they have some rooster damage..



Here is one of the younger girls. She is not as nice in the barring as the older girls (who were laying when I just went out to take pictures).







Here they all are though at the beginning of the summer before molting has kicked in and roosters have had their way with them.