The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[weavers rocks]

feb 2012

 

[cbnovick]

feb 2012

looks like you are doing well with them....another few generations and they'll be stamped as yours

 

[cbnovick]

Any hatchability issues like some of those with Ringlets??

 

[weavers rocks]

not sure what issues are with the ringlets. I haven't had any problems with these this year they hatched out quickly after pipping

 

[cbnovick]

not sure what issues are with the ringlets. I haven't had any problems with these this year they hatched out quickly after pipping

that's good to hear...with some of the ringlet strains, it's been said that they need to hatch upright in cartons etc...whether they've been on auto turner or not...others have not had this issue some definitely have. I have not hatched ringlets yet so not from my personal experience. hatched many others, just not ringlets.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Cindy, I don't think it is a secret that the Ringlets do have hatchability issues, in some people's experience, with the birds they have. Trying to be careful here and say it with precision and caution, but yes.

Some folks point toward fertility, but most are pointing to outright lack of hatching vigor. Getting them to come out of the shells after after 18 days. There are many reports that upright hatching helped them with a better hatch rate. This is all stories we hear from posts here. We've no way of knowing how accurate these reports are or how wide spread the situation really is.

But with this much smoke, there's likely some fire. I can only share our experience.

Under the exact same incubating conditions, our other line of Barred Rocks will out hatch the Ringlets three to one. Again, just our experience but it validates the concerns, at least in my mind.

I share my thoughts on this later, as I've been reflecting on it for almost a year.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Weaver, the solid color Rocks, such as the Whites you have and Cindy's Buffs do seem to feather up much more quickly and your physical maturity in size also seems faster.

The Ringlets are a genuinely slooooooow maturing bunch. They take forever to feather. It is indeed the sharp barring, On/Off gene. It's gotta be. But they also take forever to point of lay on the females. 36 weeks is our average. The males take almost a year to mature and judge them at your own risk if you do before 10 months. These are truly old time birds.

I hope we can ask Scott to discuss these issues with his Colonial Rocks. Fertility, hatching vigor, feather rate, maturity rate of both males and females. It would be very informative to know and to compare.

 

[mpgo4th]

eggs available in 2014

How much do they sell for shipped to VA?

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Weaver, the solid color Rocks, such as the Whites you have and Cindy's Buffs do seem to feather up much more quickly and your physical maturity in size also seems faster.

The Ringlets are a genuinely slooooooow maturing bunch. They take forever to feather. It is indeed the sharp barring, On/Off gene. It's gotta be. But they also take forever to point of lay on the females. 36 weeks is our average. The males take almost a year to mature and judge them at your own risk if you do before 10 months. These are truly old time birds.

I hope we can ask Scott to discuss these issues with his Colonial Rocks. Fertility, hatching vigor, feather rate, maturity rate of both males and females. It would be very informative to know and to compare.

Good morning yall (just catching up before church so I don't have too much time)....but

On my Columbians (Fred, if you know of a Colonial Rock strain please lemme know, LOL, you must need a coffee!!),

Fertility - NO ISSUES. Over the past 3 hatching seasons I can say that I've tossed 1% or less due to fertility. Keep in mind that I've been using almost exclusively an older cockerel or a 1 yr old cock bird, so I have had "youth" on my side. This year was the first year that I used more than 1 male and I still had no issues

Hatching rate - thus far has always been good. First 2 seasons I was worried about getting large numbers on the ground so I did not keep very good records, but this season I hatched 94% of every egg I put into the incubator and that made it to day 18. Very rarely did an egg not hatch. Broody hatches this year have been 100%. Have had 4 girls sit a total of 6 times and they hatched every single egg each time (unfortunately these hatches were later than I like)

Feather rate - since I have also had GS and Stukel rocks, I have a point of comparison here and I'd say mine are a bit faster feathering than the barreds, but not quite as fast as the solid colored birds. My males seem to feather more slowly than the females, especially along the hackle/back area.

Maturity - WOW, not this is a "can o' worms"....gonna address this 2 ways, sexual and size. On my Females, they seem to reach POL around 32 weeks (+/- 7 months), a lot slower than hatchery birds. As far as size, I can tell my keepers from my culls around the time they lay their first egg, but they do continue to fill out until they are around 15 months old. On my Males, the seem to begin feeling their oats around 4-5 months and I have to keep the young males penned away from the young females so that the females are not constantly harassed. In similar fashion to my females, I can normally pick the "cull" males by around 7 months (those that are lagging behind, poor color, high tails, etc). However it is very hard to select from amongst my potential keepers until they are over a year old and they seem to continue filling out until they reach about 18 months.

Vigor - keeping in mind that my original trio came from Canada to "the deep south", and my first year I experienced some loss of chicks/young birds due to the heat and likely due to the strain adjusting to such a climate change. Plus, it was one of the hottest summers ever on record here. The second year, I lost a couple, but very few. This year, NO issues at all. Now, one thing that I have found is that the early I hatch chicks, the fewer issues I have come summer AND the birds are also larger. My philosophy is that the cold causes them to eat like little pigs and they grow quickly. By the time the worst of the summer heat arrives, they are 6+ months old and better prepared for it. Its very hard to put weight on a bird in the summer time. Last season I hatch at the end of December. This next year I am going to try hatching around Thanksgiving, just to see if there is any noticeable differences. A friend in SC recommended that I hatch early than Dec, so I'm gonna give it a try

Off to church....will be back after 12

 

[Fred's Hens]

Not nearly enough coffee. I don't drink much before church because, uh, well.... you know.

Colonial Rocks, eh? who knew?

Off the church myself. Hopefully I'll pay better attention to homily than I did to the name of those Rocks.