The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Fred's Hens]

Scott, this isn't said in a picky or offensive way, but your pullets look better than your cockerels at this point. Me? I'd take that as good news.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Scott, this isn't said in a picky or offensive way, but your pullets look better than your cockerels at this point. Me? I'd take that as good news.

Thanks Fred and no offense taken as I say the same thing all the time. It was part of the reason for double-mating this past year to TRY (obviously not too successfully) to work on the cockerels. Oh well....as Bill Cosby used to say "just gotta keep running the same play until it works".

Sooner or later a good cockerel has got to pop out of these girls!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

That's my take as well. If I wasn't getting good pullets, I'd be deeply concerned. If I'm getting good pullets/hens then all will be well. Your pullets are gorgeous, thus, no worries.

Have you thought more about Mike Michaels article that Bob posted? I do believe Mike is on to something helpful for your birds. I just have no real experience with Light Sussex, Columbian Rocks, Delaware or other of the pretty marked birds, but Mike's article rang the bell with me. I found myself nodding and inwardly Amen-ing him.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

That's my take as well. If I wasn't getting good pullets, I'd be deeply concerned. If I'm getting good pullets/hens then all will be well. Your pullets are gorgeous, thus, no worries.

Have you thought more about Mike Michaels article that Bob posted? I do believe Mike is on to something helpful for your birds. I just have no real experience with Light Sussex, Columbian Rocks, Delaware or other of the pretty marked birds, but Mike's article rang the bell with me. I found myself nodding and inwardly Amen-ing him.

I have Mike's article "bookmarked" in my favorites and refer to it frequently....and have tried to follow a lot of that advise already and I think part of that is why the pullets look the way they do. Perhaps the males just take a bit longer to "fix", I don't know. At least I'm still seeing improvements yr to yr so that keeps me going!

 

[Fred's Hens]

I don't believe you have very far to go. FWIW, put the lightest, whitest, most faded out females you have in an A pen and see if you can hatch out cockerels with a more faded hackles. That's the take-a-way I got from Mike. Got to fade these birds like an old pair of blue jeans.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

I don't believe you have very far to go. FWIW, put the lightest, whitest, most faded out females you have in an A pen and see if you can hatch out cockerels with a more faded hackles. That's the take-a-way I got from Mike. Got to fade these birds like an old pair of blue jeans.

Gotcha.....but from the comments I got last night (a judge friend via email), he said my males LACKED striping in the hackles/saddles. I see plenty of "white" and "white edging" on hackles and saddles but limited "black stripes".....wondering if he means I need to darken them up??

Wouldn't you think "fading" them would make the black striping less noticeable?

Certainly open to any/all opinions here as I might be reading this article TOTALLY wrong (and as a Pollack, it wouldn't surprise me, LOL)

Time for more

then gotta pack for a trip to Nashville then Richmond....uugghhh

 

[weavers rocks]

nice pullets , man that one has a nice tail spread

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

nice pullets , man that one has a nice tail spread

Thanks Ken

Only 1 problem with that girl with great tail spread.....her undercolor is MUCH too light. SO, I think #2 son is going to use her to show this fall/winter as she has really nice features, but she won't be of any use in the breeding pen unfortunately (maybe a short, single mating just to see what she throws) but nothing major

 

[Fred's Hens]

Gotcha.....but from the comments I got last night (a judge friend via email), he said my males LACKED striping in the hackles/saddles. I see plenty of "white" and "white edging" on hackles and saddles but limited "black stripes".....wondering if he means I need to darken them up??

Wouldn't you think "fading" them would make the black striping less noticeable?

Certainly open to any/all opinions here as I might be reading this article TOTALLY wrong (and as a Pollack, it wouldn't surprise me, LOL)

Time for more

then gotta pack for a trip to Nashville then Richmond....uugghhh

I'd have to ask him for more details and critique. He just lost me, but that's easier to do with each passing year. LOL

 

[Wynette]

Well the only way to fix this is to out-cross back(however many times it takes) to birds pure for silver then is all I know. If one keeps breeding the birds that have had the gold gene(autosomal red) added it will always be there(two recessives always equals a positive trait to keep showing up).

Jeff

Hey, Jeff - thanks for the feedaback; the problem I found, and I'm guessing PEI Chickens has found this as well, is that there are plain & simply NO silver penciled rock lines out there without the smutty issue. Believe me....if there was a line out there without it, I SURELY would have found it by now. I've been looking for 7+ years, via judge friends, longtime breeders (such as Bob Blosl), "friends of friends" with Plymouth Rocks, even into Canada (I have some lovely PEI chicks & juveniles on my farm now - MANY MANY thanks, Janet!)

I'll have to get some updated pics of my little ones from Janet. I haven't noted the smutty issue as of yet, but honestly, I hatch them & grow them for a few months before I begin looking awfully closely at them.