The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[BGMatt]

Thank you for this explanation. Joe told me how to do the feather check, but I did not understand why it worked. I think I now understand the difference! Maybe I'll try to introduce the pattern gene... partridge rock maybe?????

I'd use Silver Pencilled if you were gonna go that way, you don't want to introduce red into your blues. Not sure how long this would take.

 

[Silver Rock]

Hi Stan, you may want to think about going the same route Joe Emenheiser did with some of his Blue Plymouth Rocks and reintroduce the Blue Andalusian blood "Lacing" back into your Blue Plymouth Rocks.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Thanks Matt, TigerCreek, Egghead Jr and all of you for this great learning conversation.

My thoughts at this point in the discussion goes to Bob Blosl, God rest his soul, who would, if he could, give one of his patented mini rants against "folks wanting all these fru fru colors when the accepted ones are in such bad shape in so many cases. Bob would go off urging people not to dilute the manpower of dedicated folks any further.

Got a sniff of this in a post by Walt Leonard on the Buckeye thread the other day that the new president of the APA and the whole team is "going to clean house" and has put a freeze, or similar, on all new breed/variety applications.

Old timers get really nervous when they see so many breeds near extinction and all people want to do is make new, faddish (in their view) varieties.

Couldn't help but think of Bob's rants of this kind of talk. hahahahaha It's all good.

 

[tigercreek]

Hi Stan, you may want to think about going the same route Joe Emenheiser went with some of his Blue Plymouth Rocks and reintroduce the Blue Andalusian blood "Lacing" back into your Blue Plymouth Rocks.

Talked with Joe about this, and his point was that this is the way they were made originally. Not sure how long it will take to get type back after that outcross though.....

 

[tigercreek]

Thanks Matt, TigerCreek, Egghead Jr and all of you for this great learning conversation.

My thoughts at this point in the discussion goes to Bob Blosl, God rest his soul, who would, if he could, give one of his patented mini rants against "folks wanting all these fru fru colors when the accepted ones are in such bad shape in so many cases. Bob would go off urging people not to dilute the manpower of dedicated folks any further.

Got a sniff of this in a post by Walt Leonard on the Buckeye thread the other day that the new president of the APA and the whole team is "going to clean house" and has put a freeze, or similar, on all new breed/variety applications.

Old timers get really nervous when they see so many breeds near extinction and all people want to do is make new, faddish (in their view) varieties.

Couldn't help but think of Bob's rants of this kind of talk. hahahahaha It's all good.

Blue is an accepted color, and might be the one that is most in need of recovery help.....I think that Joe might be the only serious breeder trying to bring them back....

 

[Silver Rock]

Hi Stan, you may want to think about going the same route Joe Emenheiser went with some of his Blue Plymouth Rocks and reintroduce the Blue Andalusian blood "Lacing" back into your Blue Plymouth Rocks.

Talked with Joe about this, and his point was that this is the way they were made originally. Not sure how long it will take to get type back after that outcross though..... 

Yes Stan, if I'm correct the origins of the Blue Plymouth Rocks were the result of crossing Blue Andalusians on Barred Plymouth Rocks back in the very early 1900's.

 

[speckledhen]

I personally would prefer a resurgence and improvement of the oldest color varieties rather than creation of new ones.

It's been such a pleasure just having the Stukel line Barreds after the hatchery lines I originally had, though the hatchery hens are the ones I did fall in love with and still have some. Lost two of the hatchery hens this winter, sadly, but still have two 7 year old daughters of McMurray stock. Good old girls, both of them. Wouldn't trade them for the world, but there's nothing like watching a group of those crisply barred huge hens roaming the property.

I do love the Blue, Black and Splash Rocks but they are nowhere near the size and quality of the Stukel Rocks. Now, imagine if you could get the blues to that standard, you'd have quite an impressive bird, wouldn't you?

 

[Fentress]

Just wanted to introduce myself and say "hi." I have been a lurker for awhile now. BYC is addicting even if you don't have chickens yet. Finally bought a nice piece of land and hatching eggs from Fred's hens should arrive next week. I'm very excited to see the results. All of my neighbors have hatchery stock so they are excited to see the difference. The previous owner raised horses and Beagles so there are a lot of options for breeding pens and runs. Just going to start small...

Melissa

Congratulations. Lot's of time demands with new property. You are fortunate to already have some pens.

 

[Silver Rock]

Hi All, I got my Plymouth Rock Quarterly in the mail today. I want to thank the Officers and Directors for all the great articles. I would also like to invite others to join the Plymouth Rock Fanciers Club of America.

 

[tigercreek]

I do love the Blue, Black and Splash Rocks but they are nowhere near the size and quality of the Stukel Rocks. Now, imagine if you could get the blues to that standard, you'd have quite an impressive bird, wouldn't you?

That is exactly my goal and the reason I introduced the Good Shepherd line onto 'Halo's' line of blue. Got a very good size improvement in the first generation with pretty good type. They are pretty impressive, but have a ways to go before they are SOP quality. I just don't want to abandon the old accepted colors if they can be brought back. If we are going to do that, we could just all raise whites and give up on the partridge, buff , silver penciled and the other accepted colors that are out of favor right now. .....