The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[racertomtom]

I know where Jamie got the first 2 lines he used to start his line and I know he is not breeding inherently aggressive birds. Sometimes a young cockerel is simply ambitious to be top cock or eager to do a good job when he’s not even sure what that job is yet.

If an attitude adjustment from me doesn’t work, I’ve put aggressive Ks in an older cock’s pen and he’ll quickly realize he’s not the top cock. Be careful though, you don’t have to let them fight, a young bird will usually run when out matched. That’s also backfired and I once turned a good k into a coward.

I also had a very gentle white rock flog me when I went to the back of his pen. I kind of lost my temper and adjusted his attitude. When leaving the pen I realized he was guarding a single chick that wondered in from free range. I then felt bad as he was just doing his job. It sometime pays to figure out the situation.

 

[LindaB220]

+1

The hatcheries all use large pen or flock breeding and I’m not too impressed with their results. The goal is to improve your flock towards the description in the Standard. To do this you use the strengths of one bird to offset the weaknesses of its mate. For example, if I notice the backs on the males getting shorter and the tail feathers bending down and starting that awful bunny tail, both too common in Rocks, I’ll look for a female with an extra long back and wide tail feathers. Unfortunately, this also creates culls. For every male we improved there’s probably a female with narrow feathers and a short back. We’ll name these Nugget, Dumpling and Dinner. Seldom will you breed show birds by breeding show birds. (yes I meant to say that)
If you’re looking to greatly increase the size of your flock, breed longer. I’ve put nearly 200 birds on the ground in 8 weeks using only 2 trios. Choose wisely.

Racertomtom. Nice.

 

[speckledhen]

I know where Jamie got the first 2 lines he used to start his line and I know he is not breeding inherently aggressive birds. Sometimes a young cockerel is simply ambitious to be top cock or eager to do a good job when he’s not even sure what that job is yet.

If an attitude adjustment from me doesn’t work, I’ve put aggressive Ks in an older cock’s pen and he’ll quickly realize he’s not the top cock. Be careful though, you don’t have to let them fight, a young bird will usually run when out matched. That’s also backfired and I once turned a good k into a coward.

I also had a very gentle white rock flog me when I went to the back of his pen. I kind of lost my temper and adjusted his attitude. When leaving the pen I realized he was guarding a single chick that wondered in from free range. I then felt bad as he was just doing his job. It sometime pays to figure out the situation.

The last line I loved. I agree. Sometimes, it's just hard to know what that is, but I've had a 3 year old formerly sweet-as-pie rooster start targeting only me after we began removing from the flock at roost time every night for two weeks because he had some hens who were literally eating his poor wattles while he sat on the roost. One day when I went to get him to put him back with his hens, he whirled around and bit the fire out of my hand. Never had done that before. Then he would rush me while on range, and it did progress to full out flogging. It seemed like he blamed me for separating him from his hens, if I can anthromorphize (sp? spellcheck was no help, ack) a bit. This was completely situational with his behavior and he went to live with a friend's flock to give him a second chance.

+1

The hatcheries all use large pen or flock breeding and I’m not too impressed with their results. The goal is to improve your flock towards the description in the Standard. To do this you use the strengths of one bird to offset the weaknesses of its mate. For example, if I notice the backs on the males getting shorter and the tail feathers bending down and starting that awful bunny tail, both too common in Rocks, I’ll look for a female with an extra long back and wide tail feathers. Unfortunately, this also creates culls. For every male we improved there’s probably a female with narrow feathers and a short back. We’ll name these Nugget, Dumpling and Dinner. Seldom will you breed show birds by breeding show birds. (yes I meant to say that)
If you’re looking to greatly increase the size of your flock, breed longer. I’ve put nearly 200 birds on the ground in 8 weeks using only 2 trios. Choose wisely.

Amen. I keep telling people that you must hatch a lot of chicks to get a couple of great ones from decent ones and even two near perfect birds can produce a bunch of culls.

 

[Fentress]

I appreciate the discussion re: aggressive cocks. It was premature of me to imply that Jamie Duckworth may have an aggressive line of birds and on refection I now remember him saying that his males were "gentle giants." Obviously, it appears that cock aggression can appear within any breed/line of birds. I had a cockerel this year that was just plain crazy with over the top psychotic episodes. After all they are individuals capable of many different behaviors.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

+1

The hatcheries all use large pen or flock breeding and I’m not too impressed with their results. The goal is to improve your flock towards the description in the Standard. To do this you use the strengths of one bird to offset the weaknesses of its mate. For example, if I notice the backs on the males getting shorter and the tail feathers bending down and starting that awful bunny tail, both too common in Rocks, I’ll look for a female with an extra long back and wide tail feathers. Unfortunately, this also creates culls. For every male we improved there’s probably a female with narrow feathers and a short back. We’ll name these Nugget, Dumpling and Dinner. Seldom will you breed show birds by breeding show birds. (yes I meant to say that)
If you’re looking to greatly increase the size of your flock, breed longer. I’ve put nearly 200 birds on the ground in 8 weeks using only 2 trios. Choose wisely.

Very true words Tom!! Sometimes less is more and Bob B used to preach that to me over and over when I first got the Columbians. Paraphrasing here, but he'd say to me "do you want a dozen really good birds you can be proud of, or do you want to feed 100 for months and still only get 10-12 that your proud of?"....and then he'd remind me that by selectively breeding you KNOW where your good birds came from as opposed to flock breeding where you don't have any idea of the parentage nor a means to reproduce your results

"Less is more" in some cases....this year I only put 5 dozen Columbians (excluding project birds) on the ground out of 3 females and 2 males

 

[Wynette]

... If you've gotten used to picking up little light laying birds, it can catch you off guard just how much these birds weigh, even those they may not look it.

Fred, this is exactly how I feel about my Giants. When I pick a hen up, it takes me a bit by surprise each and every time. They're solid, wide, HEAVY birds.

I am so looking forward to the day I'll be able to feel that same feeling when picking up a Rock hen. It'll happen. If poultry teaches you nothing else, it sure teaches patience.

 

[speckledhen]

Fred, this is exactly how I feel about my Giants. When I pick a hen up, it takes me a bit by surprise each and every time. They're solid, wide, HEAVY birds.

I am so looking forward to the day I'll be able to feel that same feeling when picking up a Rock hen. It'll happen. If poultry teaches you nothing else, it sure teaches patience.

Oh, my goodness, that is SO true of my Stukel Rock hens! Ida is positively a tank! Wynette and Dottie are almost as heavy. I remember when they were growing out, while Rex, the cockerel, was lanky and gawky, Ida was much broader across her back than he was, which amazed me the first time I noticed that. And you'd better lift weights to build some muscle if you want to carry one around with you for any length of time, LOL. My Delawares are the same-they do not appear as heavy and densely muscled as they are, but if you pick one of those hens up, oh boy...shocker. I wish I had something to weight them with that was accurate. My bath scales are so old, you can't rely on them to register anything under 20 lbs at all or I'd use those.

To be fair, I do have one hatchery descended hen who almost rivaled those heritage hens in weight. Amanda was quite hefty herself, but now with terrible arthritis and losing some of her appetite at 7 years old, I feel it's best she doesn't weigh as much on her bad hock joint. The other hatchery hens were average to even small bodied, as low as 5 lbs or so. The Stukel hens sure are beautiful and I'm grateful to have them.

Can't wait until the chicks Dottie is raising feather out so I can see if they have promise.

 

[Wynette]

...And you'd better lift weights to build some muscle if you want to carry one around with you for any length of time, LOL.

Who says raising poultry doesn't build muscle? Clearly, they've never been to Cyn or Wyn's farms.

 

[speckledhen]

Who says raising poultry doesn't build muscle? Clearly, they've never been to Cyn or Wyn's farms.

No kidding! I lift hand weights every night to build up my arms and shoulders just to be able do this stuff, LOL. Not too many average women my age can hoist a 50 lb bag of feed from a car seat up over their shoulder and carry it across the place to store it, I bet. Have to be able to do that for myself since my DH's back is not always in good working order. But, I'm happy I can. Didn't used to be as easy as it is now.

 

[Wynette]

No kidding! I lift hand weights every night to build up my arms and shoulders just to be able do this stuff, LOL. Not too many average women my age can hoist a 50 lb bag of feed from a car seat up over their shoulder and carry it across the place to store it, I bet. Have to be able to do that for myself since my DH's back is not always in good working order. But, I'm happy I can. Didn't used to be as easy as it is now.

That's good stuff. My barn is about 300' from my house, and every spring around this time, the ground it much too soft to drive feed back, so I've got to carry it back by the 50# bag as well. If I balance it just right, I can actually just let my arms drop to my sides and balance it across my shoulder. Once I was carrying a bag back and didn't know hubby had a friend back at the barn. When I got there and plopped the bag on the ground, the guy said, "I hope I never run into you in a dark alley when you're angry..." Hmm.... not the thing every woman wants to hear, but what the heck.