The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Silver Rock]

I admire your modesty.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Hi all

Here are pics that I took today of my silver pencilled plymouth rocks. (These are the PEI Chicken ones that are being complimented by Silver Rock in the Plymouth Rock Thread; but really, these are just chickens - and no better than anyone else's chickens.) I lucked into them in 2010. I was looking for barred plymouth rocks and someone directed me to an old gent in Nova Scotia who no longer keeps chickens. When I first talked to him on the phone and asked for heritage barred rocks, he said he had something better. I had never heard of silver pencilled rocks before, so I did look them up and found out that there really were such as thing as silver pencilled PRs. He wanted to sell me 3 breeding pairs. I only had a small chicken coop that I had built (a City Biddy coop) so I knew that 6 chickens (with 3 cocks) wouldn't be for me. I indicated that I would buy 3 pullets and 1 cockerel for the same price as the 3 breeding pairs and he did reluctantly agree. In hindsight, and with what I know now, it was a shame that I didn't take them all. When I picked them up they were about three months old and had been closely penned up and all were missing their tail feathers because of feather picking. I had a happy year with them, but one day (in broad daylight) a fox got all but one hen early in 2011. Poor hen was terrified; but she did have a few fertile eggs which I was able to successfully hatch, and these are her offspring. I feel that the fact that I have any spprs at all is a blessing! They are very friendly and taking care of them is a great hobby for me.

Laying hens looking ragged. They are starting to moult and I removed 3 saddles from bare backs this week. The cock is now penned up in the woodshed.


3 pics of 2013 pullets hatched in mid March and mid April; noted that they are not holding their tails up yet, but I expect that their tails will be beautifully tented by the end of the year.




3 pics of the 2013 cockerels; I will be choosing one of these to keep, as well as keeping the mature cock




Pic of my original hen, Big Bertha and she is happily looking after some chicks.


I'm still looking in the Maritimes for other silver pencilled plymouth rock breeders.

VERY pretty and BIG birds. Do you have any idea if Dark Brahmas were crossed into this line? Reason I ask is that my Columbian Rocks came in via Canada and had been crossed into Lt Brahmas about 5 generations back when I got them. Tails look very "brahma-ish" and the feathers are loose like mine were when I first got them. I think that crossing to Brahmas might have been a trend up there in Canada to add size to the Rocks. In my opinion, it has helped the heads on my line as well....I have really nice wide heads

Keep up the good work, I know Wynette is excited about the ones she hatched from your line.

 

[PEI chicken]

Are you keeping that older cock bird that we saw? 

Hi Aoxa. Yes, I'm surely keeping the 2011 cock. There is a double pen on the inside wall of the woodshed and he's on one side and a moulting hen is on the other to keep him company. When I decide which 2013 cockerel to keep, he will take the place of the moulting hen. Then both males will stay in the woodshed til breeding time next year.

Bye for now.

 

[PEI chicken]

VERY pretty and BIG birds.  Do you have any idea if Dark Brahmas were crossed into this line?  Reason I ask is that my Columbian Rocks came in via Canada and had been crossed into Lt Brahmas about 5 generations back when I got them.  Tails look very "brahma-ish" and the feathers are loose like mine were when I first got them.  I think that crossing to Brahmas might have been a trend up there in Canada to add size to the Rocks.  In my opinion, it has helped the heads on my line as well....I have really nice wide heads

Keep up the good work, I know Wynette is excited about the ones she hatched from your line.

Thank you Yard full o' rocks. Sorry,I really have no idea about the background breeding. These are the first birds I have kept as a breeding flock. In the past we raised lots of meat birds, turkeys, geese, and ducks here on the farm, but I just have these few spprs now (plus a black easter egger).

I'm going to visit the poultry show tomorrow at the PEI Provincial Exhibition; I love to look at the birds, but don't intend to branch out to other breeds.

Bye for now.

 

[aoxa]

Hi Aoxa. Yes, I'm surely keeping the 2011 cock. There is a double pen on the inside wall of the woodshed and he's on one side and a moulting hen is on the other to keep him company. When I decide which 2013 cockerel to keep, he will take the place of the moulting hen. Then both males will stay in the woodshed til breeding time next year.

Bye for now.

Glad to hear that He was a very good looking boy.

I am going to need to separate my cockerels soon. Thankfully they are too young to bother the girls just yet, but I have some others that are... They seem to start younger and younger.. I hope my baby barn is big enough to handle growing out all the boys. It's 10 x 12. I should be able to fit quite a few in there... I have a run on it as well, but need to fix it up so they can't get out of it.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Good morning, Rock heads. LOL

Was away for most of the weekend and I did chores this morning, I noticed how nice the growth rate in our Barred Rock F1 group. I'm extremely pleased to see that. Growth vigor, as well as hatching vigor, were primary motivations in doing the project. Will we see the females come into lay any earlier? We shall see. I'll be very curious to find out.

Having your most mature pullet still wait until 37 or 38 weeks is tough. I'm hoping for a full month's advance on that. I'd be happy with 30 weeks, but don't know if we'll get that much improvement. As you Barred Folks know, the tightness of the barring and sloooooooow feathering and maturity seem bound together. I'm gonna have to do some readying, if I ever get a quiet few hours, and research what old E. B. Thompson and Ralph Sturgeon recorded for point of lay on their pullets.

Anyone remember, off the top of their heads?

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Good morning, Rock heads. LOL

Was away for most of the weekend and I did chores this morning, I noticed how nice the growth rate in our Barred Rock F1 group. I'm extremely pleased to see that. Growth vigor, as well as hatching vigor, were primary motivations in doing the project. Will we see the females come into lay any earlier? We shall see. I'll be very curious to find out.

Having your most mature pullet still wait until 37 or 38 weeks is tough. I'm hoping for a full month's advance on that. I'd be happy with 30 weeks, but don't know if we'll get that much improvement. As you Barred Folks know, the tightness of the barring and sloooooooow feathering and maturity seem bound together. I'm gonna have to do some readying, if I ever get a quiet few hours, and research what old E. B. Thompson and Ralph Sturgeon recorded for point of lay on their pullets.

Anyone remember, off the top of their heads?

Mornin' Fred

I don't recall EB Thompsons POL data, but I can tell you my CRs aren't johnny on the spot either. My girls are all right at 7 months (30-31 weeks) and 9 or 18 are laying....3 are still very pale combed so it'll be a while for them, the other 6, could be any day. Seems I'm right at this point every season but was hoping hatching EARLIER this season would have sped it up a bit. Gotta go back to LY records, but it seems I began getting eggs late Sept/early Oct, so it was probably right at the 7 month mark too

Oh well.....still getting more than we can eat!

 

[aoxa]

Having your most mature pullet still wait until 37 or 38 weeks is tough. I'm hoping for a full month's advance on that. I'd be happy with 30 weeks, but don't know if we'll get that much improvement. As you Barred

Do you think if you hatched this F1 in January you may see earlier POL ages?

I am okay waiting until 30 weeks. I've done it many times with Silkies (yes no place for talk about them here!) but they are notoriously late layers... unless I hatch December or January. This year I had quite a few start as early as 20 weeks. I have never hatched them that early before. Could the same prove true with the Rocks if hatched this early?

I know that with Standards if you show, you should hatch December or January to have them ready for the fall show anyway.

One of the older girls from my Maine line was threatening broodiness yesterday. Until I kicked her out. It was not a good place to start a brood. She was not happy, and did not return.

 

[Fred's Hens]

We were full up, as they say, in January. We were so busy hatching our the Ringlets and the Reds there wasn't even much time to think about this outcross project, to be frank. If by chance, these pullets are laying well by November or December, I will commit at least one of the incubators to doing so.

We only had 3 Brinsea 24 models so we had limited "room at the inn". I hope to rectify that with some timely Christmas gifts this year. LOL

But no matter when you hatch a Ringlet, you are going to wait 36-38 weeks, even with lighting them, to get to POL.

 

[cbnovick]

Mornin' everyone....here's the Buff Rocks at 7 weeks...had a gal friend come take some pullets and a few cockerels to grow out and breed next year...she lives a few hours from me. I picked my favs to keep...2 males and 3 females. here they are...