The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[dreamofglory]

 

[dreamofglory]

 

[dreamofglory]

 

[dreamofglory]

 

[speckledhen]

I couldn't get in contact with my friend to get eggs to put under Dottie so I decided to do a small experiment. I collected eggs from my Stukel BR hens-two from Dottie, one from Wynette, one from a BR hen I'm not sure which but could be Dru or Ida, and I added one from a 5 year old Delaware hen from the other coop to see if Isaac is even breeding his hens now, or is fertile, just to check it. So, 4 BR eggs and 1 Delaware.

The BR eggs should be fertilized by Rex in my avatar, who is 1/2 Stukel BR and 1/2 Delaware. There is a Del/EE cockerel in that coop, but he gets nowhere with the big Stukel hens, who wipe up the floor with him. The reason I decided to do this was something that Bob Blosl told me not long before we sadly lost him, though his remark was about Rex's larger, better barred brother, Indy, who we also lost just after Bob said it (killed by his sire, just my luck). Let's hope anyway that Rex#2 is the sire. And that the chicks are not all males, sheesh.

Bob told me to put Indy over his mother or the original Rex's daughter (who I do have, Druscilla, but not sure she's laying right now) and start trying to get back toward the Stukel standard and those awesome tails that way. I have so many extra chicks right now that I really do not want or need more, but I've already broken Dottie up twice since she raised her chicks last time and wanted to let her sit. Spring is close enough now that there will be no chicks in the snow. Wish me and Dottie luck! These will be 3/4 Stukel BR so hoping for some good looking birds, maybe that look at least as pure as Indy did, being 1/2 Delaware.

For those who don't remember, this was Indy. Wasn't fond of his tail set, of course, but he was humongous. And he had his late Uncle Rex's head/eyes, too, as you can see from the photo of the original Rex I'm adding.





And, Rex #2 who is over the Stukel BR hens, his aunts, obviously not as well barred, not quite as huge, but stocky for sure. Rex does have a better tail angle than Indy did, to his credit.

 

[TwinCedarFarm]

I also love this breed, and we live only a few miles from Plymouth!
Here is a picture of our 1 year old barred, Shakespeare (whose nickname was The Bard).

 

[Fred's Hens]

Minus 4 this morning. Supposed to hit zero or slightly below most every night until Thursday. Beside the fact that this is the most ungodly winter in recent memory, for those in the far north, it just seems it will never exit. The calendar says Spring, but none of us have seen hide nor hair of it yet. Nothing even hopeful in the near forecast.

All of which to repeat what I mentioned a month or so back. If you're working with breeders in the far north, please, please be patient. NOTHING is happening as quickly as we all hope. If you working to get chicks or eggs, please know that more of our Rock males have taken a real beating.

Fertility is spotty because the old boys are burnt up as bad as I've ever seen in my life, and that's saying something. It's been trying and has tested our patience.

Just ask everyone to be patient. We're all going to be way, way behind a "normal" year, whatever that is.

 

[speckledhen]

Minus 4 this morning. Supposed to hit zero or slightly below most every night until Thursday. Beside the fact that this is the most ungodly winter in recent memory, for those in the far north, it just seems it will never exit. The calendar says Spring, but none of us have seen hide nor hair of it yet. Nothing even hopeful in the near forecast.

All of which to repeat what I mentioned a month or so back. If you're working with breeders in the far north, please, please be patient. NOTHING is happening as quickly as we all hope. If you working to get chicks or eggs, please know that more of our Rock males have taken a real beating.

Fertility is spotty because the old boys are burnt up as bad as I've ever seen in my life, and that's saying something. It's been trying and has tested our patience.

Just ask everyone to be patient. We're all going to be way, way behind a "normal" year, whatever that is.

I can empathize with you, Fred. We lived in Utah (twice), Colorado and Ohio. Ohio was the hardest weather to take, though we did have snow in June while in Utah the first time. This has been a very windy winter here and we're going back toward the teens at night Tuesday. Isaac ended up losing the ends of two toes (well, one is almost off now, other one long gone) to frostbite due to hitting almost zero for several nights and his bad circulation/arthritis. No one else was affected, thankfully. He didn't even get it on his comb and he was inside, but was sleeping on the floor because his hock joints were very painful in the extreme cold.

 

[desertmarcy]

Do you know whose Buff Rocks those are? They look really nice. Better tails than mine, for sure.

 

[dreamofglory]

They are both mine. The bantam cockerel is my daughters. The lf cockerel is a very young cockerel also hatched in late July 13. The hen is three years old and usually gets best of variety.