The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Fred's Hens]

Another promising 75 cockerel. Wish I had some pullets to go with them, but for some reason I'm hatching about 80% boys this year. I'm done incubating for the season (more of a space issue than heat) but I just had a hen go broody so gave her 5 more eggs. Happy to let them do the work!

Jill, you're doing great with these birds. He's very handsome. I like his under line and you gotta love those yellow legs!!! LOL We sound like broken records, but got to keep saying it. These K's take a full year to 14 months to finally judge them. I see no reason to cull this one. No reason at all.

For some reason, this is indeed the year of the cockerel. All of us working on these birds have expressed that. But, the quality of the pullets is very good. Thank God, cause perhaps we didn't get enough of them. But, I'm likely to keep my best two 50/50 females as backup. They're dynamic egg layers, so there's no crime in holding them and using again next year. Breeding them as mature hens next year? It's all good.

 

[uphilljill]

He's only 11-12 weeks. Still time to grow.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Jill and Anne, this is a 50/50 female. She is only 15 months old now. She's was/is far from perfect, but it isn't that hard to see why she brings certain things to the equation. I was looking for something on my computer and found this fuzzy photo from last year when she was 6 months old, give or take. She'll moult out this fall and I'll have a good idea what she looks like as a mature hen.

In any case, it may be encouraging to remember that our 75 pullets from this year aren't our only females in next year's plans.

 

[uphilljill]

She looks familiar

 

[uphilljill]

So my 50/50 hen has nice type, no cushion, good wing set, and is fast maturing, but her barring is a smudgey and she's a bit short legged. My 100% GS cock has nice, crisp barring and is really tall and wide, but his wing is a bit loose and his saddle and hackles are *still* coming in (at 14-15 months old.)

So in this next generation I'm looking for chicks that inherited the best of both: Mama's type, wing, and early maturing with papa's longer leg and improved barring. My original goal was to increase the size of my flock from a single breeding pair by adding another quad or trio. With heavy culling I think I'll find a handful out of the 30 hatched that I can move forward with.

I will probably keep my original hen to hatch more 75s next year (possibly replacing the cock for a better winged 100% if I can find one.)

Sounds reasonable?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Reasonable. However, first we have to grow out these chicks and see what we have. Would you have access to another male in the GS/XW and would this add anything to what you're doing, even if you did?

You might rather see how this young male finishes after his moult that's coming. You can/could also watch your large crop of male chicks and see what comes of all them. Pondering is always good. There's plenty enough time to see how this year finishes up and make the evaluations. There's an awful lot unknowns at this juncture, at least for me.

 

[racertomtom]

You might rather see how this young male finishes after his moult that's coming. You can/could also watch your large crop of male chicks and see what comes of all them. Pondering is always good. There's plenty enough time to see how this year finishes up and make the evaluations. There's an awful lot unknowns at this juncture, at least for me.

This is very steadfast advice. Being a breeder is a challenge of patients. Remember that even though an adequate table fowl at 6-7 months is important, and many cockerels may pass him by then, the goal is a nice fully grown cockerel which will take 12-13 months. I’ll take it a step farther and hold all the cockerels making the cut and see who the best cock is also. That will be the breeder that gets to stay on the farm.

 

[Fred's Hens]

You know, Jill, your photos prompted me to spend some time with the older females and take a good, hard, critical look at them. I loosed them from their pen and tossed some scratch so I could take a good look.

All three of them lay a large to almost extra-large egg of superior quality. All of them lay 5-6 eggs a week, as this is the premier egg laying season. So, egg laying isn't an issue and I don't have to consider that.

Two are less in the tail, and one of those two is low stationed and if it wouldn't be that she''s just good old flock bird with a huge front end, she'd probably not still be around. She won't be used next year.

The 50/50 pullet I showed above still looks like a million bucks, to be straight about it. She's grown taller, if anything, and her type has held up well. Beautiful head, even if her comb is more prominent than I prefer. She's now 15 months old so in my book, she's mature. She's been with males virtually steady since the end of February and her feathers have held up the best of all the breeders. This is a good sign to me. Checking the records, I like virtually every chick that's been hatched from her. No complaints.

I'll put her in a quiet place now, with grass and fresh water and feed her well. Let her prepare for her fall moult. She's just a keeper.

 

[Skfla]

I'm looking to add white & Columbian rocks to our collection. Does anyone have knowledge of or access to a list of quality breeders? I will travel some for quality stock & can pick up in Fl, GA & SC (maybe NC). Otherwise they would have to be willing to ship. I imagine the info is probably here in this thread but I've read SO many posts that you'll have to excuse my impatience. Tks,Sam K

PS: Either breeder trio's (POL or mature) or chicks (if I can get some idea of parents) are fine.

 

[ronniewayne]

I'm looking to add white & Columbian rocks to our collection. Does anyone have knowledge of or access to a list of quality breeders? I will travel some for quality stock & can pick up in Fl, GA & SC (maybe NC). Otherwise they would have to be willing to ship. I imagine the info is probably here in this thread but I've read SO many posts that you'll have to excuse my impatience. Tks,Sam K

PS: Either breeder trio's (POL or mature) or chicks (if I can get some idea of parents) are fine.

yard full of rocks on here if you go back some post in this thread you will find him the best Columbian rocks you will find in Ga in my humble but most accurate opinion..