The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[LindaB220]

Fred, I do have a quandry for you. I'm getting my Blosl cock on Saturday. And the fellow that I thought would LOVE to have the XW one is side stepping me. It could just be the time of the year, but I have a nice coop for the new one to go in with his 6 ladies. One is a Coronation Sussex and 2 are smaller blue egg layers. Will he be too much for them.? Should I separate them? I have a 3 x 12 growout pen I can put the XW for a while with maybe a couple of the girls.

I have another 12' x 12' pen with the rescue Cobb 500 hens and cock. I think I will process them sooner than later. Get the pen ready. I'm going to start hatching in Feb. if I can get the ladies to ever START to lay.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Linda

In my humble opinion, you ought to make some separate space for both your cockerels because you're going a) have to have some choices in matings and b) breeding BOTH is ideal. Tag the chicks, toe punch or use whatever system you wish, but have chicks from two different sires? THAT is what this is about. You may really, really like the chicks from one male better than the other. That is why we do this. To please ourselves. These are our birds, on our farm and we and we alone pay the feed bill. If you like one match up better than the other? What I or the King of Siam thinks about them is irrelevant.


(Unless you ask us)

 

[Fred's Hens]

The XW birds and the Blosl birds are very, very different Whites. I have had them both and can say this without fear of contradiction. Worth taking a year or two of breeding and see what you like and do some test matings.

 

[LindaB220]

The XW birds and the Blosl birds are very, very different Whites. I have had them both and can say this without fear of contradiction. Worth taking a year or two of breeding and see what you like and do some test matings.

Maybe I should just keep both of them. I only have one Blosl pullet and 2 XW's. I need some more pullets just to keep them company until breeding time.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Well, breeding time is very specific, of course, and single mating is still the best way to make the most progress in the shortest amount of time.

I agree. T'were me, I keep them both and use them both. You've got what is essentially a pair and a trio. That's how I'd use them. Hatch a straight batch and then cross them over. The X makes very fine birds. Very fine indeed. Just keep the offspring straight with toe punches, bands, whatever.

The rest of the time, the cockerels and/or cockbirds can busy themselves, if need be, being around whatever. Any old birds will do for that. Cockerels don't need to always be jumping females either. They can live a weeks here and a few weeks there without the females too. This gives the females needed rest and gives the male time to re-charge.

 

[SilverRockFarm]

Headed to the APA National in Knoxville, TN. Looking forward to seeing all the very nice Plymouth Rocks today!

 

[maryhysong]

Nothing that would be something for anyone to take note of, that's for sure. I just keep the best birds, cull the rest~ then breed the best. That's the total of my breeding experience. This is my first real experience with breeding quality stock in all my chickening years, so this is a little more refined than that and I want to do it well. I've been blessed/given some stellar stock that has had all the work done on it and I only need to keep those going, improve where I can? but just not let them go down in quality. I'm blessed in that regard, as all the hard work has been done.

I'm just a hillbilly coming to the big town who can't stop looking at the tall buildings and going, "Daaaaaannnnnngggggg!".

Really Bee that's just what all of us do! A lot of the rest is just record keeping. The line breeding charts are just to show you how you can keep a couple of blood lines going with a small number. You could actually end up with three lines; one that is mostly from the original sire, one mostly from the original dam and one that is about equal from both parents. At the moment I don't have enough good birds to worry about following one. I'm just trying to put the best looking ones together and hope I get better birds in the next generation.

I second learning to toe punch tho. Way too easy for bands to get broken or fall off, I've even had birds break zip ties. I have a notebook with my hatching records in it. I have several breeds so each one has a toe punch page, there I list the pairs, trios or breeding pens and show the toe punch of the chicks from those matings. Then I know which ones I have used for that breed and which are still available for use. On the page where I keep my hatch record and show how many hatched I also put on there what toe punch I put on the chicks. For easy ID in the brooder and grow out pens I do put zip ties on them, a different color for each hen's chicks.I add that to my hatch record also. When it's time to pick the keepers I put the numbered bands on them, also color coded to the mothers color and record that on my hatch record also.

I keep track of my families by the female line, each hen being assigned a color, so her chicks all get the same color zip ties and leg bands, even if they have different fathers. But if they have different fathers, their toe punch is different.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Way, way too young to take, but my grandson loves this bird, so I obliged. Had her double registered in the Open and up in Juniors for him. Decided to just go ahead and coop her into the open show. Frankly, it just made it "somewhat" easier for me to keep on eye on him and his comings and goings.

 

[DuckBoy]

I got some new barreds today.

 

[SilverRockFarm]

Had a great time in Knoxville enjoying a very nice show of poultry today. Was only there for a couple hours but was very happy to have been there if it was only a couple hours that I was there. Want to congratulate Matt Ulrich on "Best of Breed" with a awesome White Plymouth Rock hen!