The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Fred's Hens]

If these are two different birds? These are gorgeous females. I would like to see them up on their legs a bit more. They both could use more thigh and both hold their wings a bit high, but that is a good thing to compensate under a male who does not.

The tail angle is dead on. Right where it needs to be. They would benefit from a bit of body length. They have wonderful freak big heads, which I adore. The front breast depth is particularly good in the second photo. Feathering looks very, very nice.

Keep at it Jill. These are good Barred Rocks and you're doing a fabulous job and they look wonderfully healthy.

 

[uphilljill]

Here's 3 sisters together...



And a "cushioned" pullet...



She'll be tasty.

 

[desertmarcy]

Here's 3 sisters together...



And a "cushioned" pullet...



She'll be tasty.

Thank you for posting the photo of the cushioned female. I find it just as helpful to see what traits to breed away from, as well as photos of more ideal birds. This year, I'm finding a lot of pullets to cull that have their back sloping forward. Will try to take some photos of those soon.

 

[Fred's Hens]

When folks get a small start of a breeding trio or quad, they may put some 25 chicks on the ground and, it seems to me, they often are full of questions what to do the next year. Of course, the time honored Step 2 is to put the best of the pullets back under their sire and the best cockerel back over his mother.

Before anything else, I heartily recommend you survey the birds and find the very, very best bird produced. It may be a male or female, but the very, very best offspring from last year's effort.

Now check your records. How was this Best Bird made? Which male was used over which female to produce this Best Bird?

1. I'd sure like to repeat that, if I could. If it clicked in the past, it may be worth making that same matchup again.
2. If the Best Bird is male, I would want to put him back over his mother and her mother's sisters (if available).
3. If the Best Bird is a female, I want her under her sire, her father, if available or her sire's brothers if available..

I like inter-generational match ups, if at all possible. I would prefer that my entire breeding effort this year NOT be dependent solely upon a bunch of K's and P's. Looking at post moult, true adults is so very important to what these birds truly look like in their second, third and fourth year of life.

 

[Fred's Hens]

It's kind of amazing how many PM's I'm getting from folks who seem to appreciate these little chats. We do what we can and hope it strikes some thoughts, hopes and aspirations.


I've never been a believer is just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping things will stick. Intentionality is a word I stress with those I work with. I see no point in putting lots of stuff into the breeding pens in the vain hope that something really nice will come of it. I would rather hatch off a year's worth of chicks from just two or three birds and know what I'm doing than do a whole bunch of random nonsense that merely produces a bunch of stuff I gotta cull anyhow. You can easily hatch 50 chicks from a good trio.

When we built that Barred Rock line that so many folks are enjoying, here on BYC and elsewhere, we built the whole thing off a great cockbird and two pretty good hens. We just hatched and hatched and hatched. The second year, we followed the plan I described above. The third year, we then had three generations and could make matings from "aunts" and "uncles" as well as line breed through the sire/daughter and K/dam matchups that are typical.

5 miles away from our breeding farm was a friend who was running a dead-on parallel, same blood line, program. After a few years, using a "2nd cousin, twice removed" if need be was done, especially to fine a good cockerel.

I know it's been said many times, and was recently asked of me. Do you avoid sibling matings? As a general rule, I have. I see no point in it if there are other, better matings to be made.

A few years back, we caught a bit of DNA lightening in a bottle with a really good female. Thru breeding this way, Anne, Jill, and three or four other folks, as well as myself, have virtually "cloned" that good hen into dozens and dozens of great looking female Barred Rocks that all look like cookie cutter versions of her. There's a great grand-daughter in my barn pen right now that is one of those. A really solid female line. A male line is tougher with the Barred variety, it seems to me, in my experience.

If I wanted BR males to make a show string, I might would go talk to Jamie or Tom Wheeler or someone for some guidance and a few young birds, I think.

 

[Fred's Hens]

White Rocks


This past year, I was blessed to hatch from shipped eggs and also to recieve live chicks from Ken Weaver. I won't tell you everything about these chicks, as some of it is a bit a 'trade secret' at this point. But, they're White Plymouth Rocks.

The very first thing I did was take a trio of juveniles over to a friend/partner some 20 miles away from me. I may take an extra K over there in a week as well and he can decide amongst his cockerel which he might use this spring for breeding. I've lots of cockerels in that line and don't need them all.

I hatched two good pullets from eggs from another line. Next I got a few chicks from yet another line, shipped in a box from Ken, but only one female was viable. The other pullet was given to a lady for a pet bird or layer, if she wished.

So, having sifted through the 6 or 7 males and the females, I'm committing to a breeding quad. I may yet reduce that down to a breeding trio or even a breeding pair. These females are just now coming into lay and I want to judge both the quantity and quality of the egg laying before making my final judgements.

But as you can see, I'm starting again with a very small number of top notch birds, being very intentional about what I want to mate.




Some of the pullets I am keeping. They vary as much a month in age and development, so account for that.


This K eating on the right, who is thick through the tail is my finalist and will be the only male I will personally be keeping.



The chosen male is lifting his head at the bottom of the photo.
The pullet who jumped up on the box is also a keeper.

In both cases, the male lifting his head to give the camera the eye and that pullet up on the box? Note they both have very wide heads.
There is no context to compare, but let me just say. Yes, These are ginormous birds, make no doubt.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Just registered, via mail. Tomorrow is the last day for mail in registrations to be postmarked. Looking forward to going and to meeting some folks from around the fancy world.

 

[uphilljill]

Very exciting! Are you bringing birds to show? Take some photos for us if you have time.

I've started making plans to go to the Northeast Poultry Congress in January (also the PRFCA National meet this year.) I won't be showing, but hope to meet lots of other fanciers.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Very exciting! Are you bringing birds to show? Take some photos for us if you have time.

I've started making plans to go to the Northeast Poultry Congress in January (also the PRFCA National meet this year.) I won't be showing, but hope to meet lots of other fanciers.

Exactly, the sharing with others and meeting folks, etc. Those are the main reasons, for sure. Yes, I'm gonna take some of the birds seen on the last few pages. My hope is to also take a grand kid along. Lots of planets need to line up in order to travel safely out from the snowy cold North in early December. Frankly, that winter is off to such an early, bitter start isn't encouraging,

Plan right now is to take two Whites and a Barred. We'll see.

Today I hope to put the candidates into some training cages or at least into quarters where I can keep them clean. Need to bathe them and hoping the weather give us a break over the next three weeks.

 

[uphilljill]

I was able to spend some time with the cockerels while cleaning pens today... here are some pics as promised. I'll put each cockerel (5 total) in a seperate post. Since I started with only one breeding pair, all are full brothers but age varies.

In no particular order, here's #104, age 6 mos:

He seems to have slightly more lift to his tail than the others, and the nicest comb.