The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Fred's Hens]

I can only say that on the Barred Rocks, the males take a full year to know what you've really got. The females are bit quicker, but those cockerels simply take time.

Of course, if I note a defect of some kind, I won't feed it for long either. Noted a bad wing on a cockerel early on last year and culled him.

 

[racertomtom]

My line of Barreds takes 13 months almost to the day to be in top condition. That’s the target date for shows. Last month I set up my pens, I picked the best of seven cockerels that were 12 months old for the hen pen. I used cocks in the other pens. Today I was looking at the cockerel run and saw 3 that I swear weren’t there last month. I may have to shuffle the deck and pick again. I’ll wait until after their molt before deciding which 2 or 3 get to stay. That should be the final line up.

 

[maryhysong]

Ok, who begins culling for TYPE early. Was sitting with the birds tonight and in my first two hatches noticed a male with "pinkish legs" AND what we might call a cushion in the pullets. He is 14 weeks old and is headed for the stew pot. Saddles developing way undercolored and he is a tad knock kneed. Don't see the need to feed this one any longer Time to get WAY serious

My new Rocks are still just babies, but I have a lot of Black Copper Marans; my first year hatching them, but I watched my original 22 chicks grow out last year and have read two Marans threads here from the beginning, along with the threads on the club forum and the Yahoo group. I posted a lot of pictures as those grew out and got great feed back. It really helped me understand what I needed to be looking for in my birds.

So where am I now? I hatched 31 chicks from 4 pullets and 1 cockerel. I have pulled out almost half those because they have poor leg feathering and/or were mossy, as soon as they were feathered in. Turns out most of them were cockerels and showing too much copper on the breast too. Of the ones left, from 6-12 weeks old I've already spotted at least 4 more cull males. By the time they are six months old I will probably be down to the four or five pullets that are in there and three or four males, *maybe* there will be that many in the final round and maybe not. That is OK because I am really thinking I will only pick a pair or trio to keep to breed from.

So now to the Rocks. I am still learning about them. I will probably grow out this group of chicks a lot longer so I can get familiar with what I"m looking for, then next year I will have the confidence to cull hard and early like I am the BCM this year.

 

[Wynette]

My line of Barreds takes 13 months almost to the day to be in top condition. That’s the target date for shows. Last month I set up my pens, I picked the best of seven cockerels that were 12 months old for the hen pen. I used cocks in the other pens. Today I was looking at the cockerel run and saw 3 that I swear weren’t there last month. I may have to shuffle the deck and pick again. I’ll wait until after their molt before deciding which 2 or 3 get to stay. That should be the final line up.

LOVE to see this - it really makes me escited about an SP male that I held back. Something just tickled at my brain and said, "keep him...you never know..." He's now 11 months, and has changed so darn much in the last couple of months; I'm super happy that I didn't eat him! I absolutely can't WAIT to see how he's looking in another couple of months.

 

[maryhysong]

I can only say that on the Barred Rocks, the males take a full year to know what you've really got. The females are bit quicker, but those cockerels simply take time.

Of course, if I note a defect of some kind, I won't feed it for long either. Noted a bad wing on a cockerel early on last year and culled him.

Fred do you think that is because of the barring and slow feathering? Do you think it takes that long on the solid colors like the white and buff?

 

[racertomtom]

Quote: Finished up his molt? How old is this guy?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Fred do you think that is because of the barring and slow feathering? Do you think it takes that long on the solid colors like the white and buff?

The nature of this line, mostly. They simply are slow growing, slow developing birds. Everything about them is pretty slow. The pullets show themselves earlier, although I had one fool me a bit this year. She blossomed late, but I had "saved" her based on her intelligence and temperament. I'm hatching from her now. Big Head we call her. Not a glamorous name, but she's a keeper.

I'd honestly prefer it didn't take quite as long as it does. Not looking for hatchery type speed, but a month or two off the wait wouldn't hurt my feelings.

I don't cull much for color. To me, it's type, type, type. I think this may be something the younger novice breeder needs to consider. The Reds have really re-inforced this. Go color blind. The hatcheries are successful in part because 90% of their customers think breeds are just different colored birds. Breeds are about shape or type. Just my world view.

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[Fred's Hens]

The solid color varieties of breeds are where most young folks, young in the poultry fancy, need to start perhaps. Blosl always said this and I couldn't agree more. Once you stop worrying about color and a solid color bird doesn't have lacing or barring or a pattern to worry about, you work on your eye. Pretend they're just those all black silhouette birds and see them that way.

This may explain why I have Reds and this year, I'm back in the White Rock game. LOL I just need something else to work on without these darn barring all the time.

 

[maryhysong]

The nature of this line, mostly. They simply are slow growing, slow developing birds. Everything about them is pretty slow. The pullets show themselves earlier, although I had one fool me a bit this year. She blossomed late, but I had "saved" her based on her intelligence and temperament. I'm hatching from her now. Big Head we call her. Not a glamorous name, but she's a keeper.

I'd honestly prefer it didn't take quite as long as it does. Not looking for hatchery type speed, but a month or two off the wait wouldn't hurt my feelings.

I don't cull much for color. To me, it's type, type, type. I think this may be something the younger novice breeder needs to consider. The Reds have really re-inforced this. Go color blind. The hatcheries are successful in part because 90% of their customers think breeds are just different colored birds. Breeds are about shape or type. Just my world view.

.

The solid color varieties of breeds are where most young folks, young in the poultry fancy, need to start perhaps. Blosl always said this and I couldn't agree more. Once you stop worrying about color and a solid color bird doesn't have lacing or barring or a pattern to worry about, you work on your eye. Pretend they're just those all black silhouette birds and see them that way.

This may explain why I have Reds and this year, I'm back in the White Rock game. LOL I just need something else to work on without these darn barring all the time.

I am working on learning to translate the SOP descriptions into flesh and blood in front of me. I think I have a handle on some parts, others I"m not always sure about, especially if the written description seems vague. And of course I am still learning chicken description terminology. I think I have the main Rock points down tho; 'gravy bowl' shape with a flat back and big head. Wings up tight and horizontal, yellow skin/ legs, nice five point comb and medium wattles. Nice and wide all the back, good tents. Tight feathering, no cushion or loose fluff. Legs wide apart. Did I miss anything important?

I do think the buffs, for their imperfections may be easier to work on than your barreds. Time will tell. In the ones I grew out from Cindy last year I pretty much knew which cockerel was the better bird by six months; with more experience I'll probably be able to cut that to three. One was smaller, narrower and lighter colored than the other. To clinch the deal he had white feathers in his wings and white underfluff. Neither molted out when he got his adult plumage and he became dinner. Very tasty too.

 

[racertomtom]

I don't cull much for color. To me, it's type, type, type. I think this may be something the younger novice breeder needs to consider. The Reds have really re-inforced this. Go color blind. The hatcheries are successful in part because 90% of their customers think breeds are just different colored birds. Breeds are about shape or type. Just my world view.

.

The solid color varieties of breeds are where most young folks, young in the poultry fancy, need to start perhaps. Blosl always said this and I couldn't agree more. Once you stop worrying about color and a solid color bird doesn't have lacing or barring or a pattern to worry about, you work on your eye. Pretend they're just those all black silhouette birds and see them that way.

This may explain why I have Reds and this year, I'm back in the White Rock game. LOL I just need something else to work on without these darn barring all the time.

I couldn't agree more. I chose my avatar instead of a picture as a reminder that it’s about type. I have always kept a good line of White Rocks on the farm so I would always have a reminder of what a Plymouth Rock looked like while I was breeding Barreds. The Barreds should look just like a White.



I have to admit, I have a little trouble seeing the type on the Silver Penciled in this thread because the pattern kind of mesmerizes me and I’m just not use to seeing them, and I’ve been looking at Rocks for quite a while.