The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Fred's Hens]

Fred, do they stay overnight in those pens?

Yes, once they're fully feathered and "hardened off" they'll be just fine. Those little units can serve as lot of purposes. Breeding, holding, separating, bachelor pads, grow out, etc. Handy to have a few.

Let's see, the oldest chicks right now are two + weeks old, so it will be the middle of May. Yup, just about right, even for up here. I'll also set up a couple of grow out pens in the barn. Scratchin' my head a little over which groups to combine. Staggered hatching over a month and a half. Hmmmm….

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Yes, once they're fully feathered and "hardened off" they'll be just fine. Those little units can serve as lot of purposes. Breeding, holding, separating, bachelor pads, grow out, etc. Handy to have a few.

Let's see, the oldest chicks right now are two + weeks old, so it will be the middle of May. Yup, just about right, even for up here. I'll also set up a couple of grow out pens in the barn. Scratchin' my head a little over which groups to combine. Staggered hatching over a month and a half. Hmmmm….

Fred

We are obviously not as cool here as N Michigan, but I've put my little ones out in a grow up pen (2 small 4'x4' coops, with a 10'x10' run). One coop has a 100W heat lamp in it....just in case. However, I have 4 week olds out there that are about 1/2 feathered and seldom will I see them go into the heated area....we have had nights in the upper 30s/lower 40s recently (last night was 29) and the little guys LOVE to be outdoors

I think chicks are a bit tougher than we give them credit for

 

[LindaB220]

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.

Bahahaha. Too funny. I got a heavy duty utility cart for Christmas. I can't tell you how much it has empowered me. The SIL is still griping about lifting bags of feed. Now I can slide it to the cart and pull it to the store house. No I'm too old to pick it up but I can cut it open and dip out into the barrels until I can pick it up. Make do but it works.

 

[mithious]

Thanks Fred, I'm familiar with Guy and Frank, and it certainly looks like you have your project under control.

Personally, I'm coming back from two years of tragedy as far as the flocks are concerned. In some cases I'm breeding from culls this year. Luckily my culls aren't as bad as they were when I started. I'm following a comment one of my mentors Shelby Harrington told me. "The bloodlines are set, if you raise a hundred birds, you can't help but raise a couple of champions." I intend to test that theory and hopefully I won't wind up on the feed dealers Christmas Card list.... again!

Glad you have joined us here. Hope we can pick your brain some

What you just wrote reminded me of what Ralph Sturgeon used to say, " Start where you are with what you have". My Dad used to say that to me all the time. He chased poor Ralph and the guys around, asking questions, when my Dad was a kid and taught me to do the same when I was a kid at shows. I did learn from my Dad to start with good stock, something with the genes you want and it'll be there, but just start! That was straight out of Ralph's mouth

Of course back in their day, there wasn't this miss mash of hatchery mutts that is so abundant today. The stock they "started with" had the gene pool there. It's amazing what these great breeders did with those genes.

I read a lot and recently read an article by Don Schrider, on breeding. He wrote about quite a few ways of breeding that was really interesting and I learned a ton

According to Don, just like you said, the bloodlines are set

Best of luck and so sorry for your tragedy

 

[Fred's Hens]

The older you get, the more you gotta work smarter, not harder, or so they say. A year ago, I took up all the "floors" I used to have in this side of the barn. I filled the area with 6" of sand. Tried the so-called "deep litter method" this winter.

There's three large pens on that side and I can quickly remove the dividing barriers.
Last week, I did my spring clean out.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

If I post some pictures of my BR birds, would you all help me learn how to identify faults, and conformation standards? I'm not interested in showing them or anything, and the Barred Rock wouldn't even be my choice of bird to show, but the BR rooster and hen that I have are the only two full breed birds I have right now (until my hatchery eggs hatch in, oh, two more weeks). The rest of my flock are EE crosses.

Mostly, I'm looking to learn HOW to identify certain breed characteristics, and the best way for me, would be to learn on birds I can put my hands on.

Here is my rooster:

Right off the bat, just from the pictures I've briefly seen in the last few pages of this thread, his barring is different...not as tight as some of your birds. His tail looks more fluffy, too. What else?

I don't have a good picture of the hen....the only one I have is a more distant shot of her. I'll get a picture tomorrow.

 

[DMRippy]

I've been buying my feed 2 pallets at a time lately. That's 100 50-lb bags of feed. The truck drops the pallets about 10' outside the door of the building where I store it. But I have to carry each individual bag inside and stack it, one at a time. I feel like I've done some work after lifting and moving 5000 lbs.

Pallet here are 40 bags. I don't get 5000 lbs at a time but usually 65 bags.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Hi Sweetpea,

Your male looks pretty healthy and looks like you've taken good care of him.

To learn about the Plymouth Rock, I'd recommend a very old book that is online. I make my 4H and FFA kids read it. They like reading on a tablet or kindle anyhow. If those kids don't balk at reading through the book and show that they've read it by asking meaningful questions about what they've read, then onward we go. I know they're serious.

https://archive.org/details/plymouthrockstan00amerrich

Bob B used to say, "many are called, but few are chosen". Then he'd always quote his stat that 90% of enthusiastic folks would be gone in three years. Bob was right.

Anyway there's your link to the e-book. Yes, it is very old, but not all that much has changed about the Plmouth Rock in a century. I feel that is a good thing.

"Pure" bred in birds is a bit of a misnomer. To be the breed, any breed, the bird must be bred to conform to that breed's Standard. That is what makes for a Standard bred bird. All these breeds are composites, so all the "parts" have to be there, in the right place, shape, conformation, color, feather, comb, legs, tail, wing, body shape, size, weight, etc.

Here's a true bred, Standard bred male for you to compare.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Hi Sweetpea,

Your male looks pretty healthy and looks like you've taken good care of him.

To learn about the Plymouth Rock, I'd recommend a very old book that is online. I make my 4H and FFA kids read it. They like reading on a tablet or kindle anyhow. If those kids don't balk at reading through the book and show that they've read it by asking meaningful questions about what they've read, then onward we go. I know they're serious.

https://archive.org/details/plymouthrockstan00amerrich

Bob B used to say, "many are called, but few are chosen". Then he'd always quote his stat that 90% of enthusiastic folks would be gone in three years. Bob was right.

Anyway there's your link to the e-book. Yes, it is very old, but not all that much has changed about the Plmouth Rock in a century. I feel that is a good thing.

"Pure" bred in birds is a bit of a misnomer. To be the breed, any breed, the bird must be bred to conform to that breed's Standard. That is what makes for a Standard bred bird. All these breeds are composites, so all the "parts" have to be there, in the right place, shape, conformation, color, feather, comb, legs, tail, wing, body shape, size, weight, etc.

Here's a true bred, Standard bred male for you to compare.

LOL, I can totally see this quote. Its easy to be enthusiastic at the beginning...not so easy to see it through. Getting it right is hard, and time consuming. My enthusiasm and interest waxes and wanes with my free time. Right now, four homeschooled kiddos are my priority. But, I do like keeping chickens so far, and would like to learn a little bit as I go.

Eventually, I'd like to get into breeding BCMs to standard, but for now, I'm just learning.

I've downloaded the recommended book and will give it a read! I can tell right off the bat that my rooster has some differences from the one you posted. Especially in that tail, lol.

 

[mithious]

LOL, I can totally see this quote. Its easy to be enthusiastic at the beginning...not so easy to see it through. Getting it right is hard, and time consuming. My enthusiasm and interest waxes and wanes with my free time. Right now, four homeschooled kiddos are my priority. But, I do like keeping chickens so far, and would like to learn a little bit as I go.

Eventually, I'd like to get into breeding BCMs to standard, but for now, I'm just learning.

I've downloaded the recommended book and will give it a read! I can tell right off the bat that my rooster has some differences from the one you posted. Especially in that tail, lol.

What else can you see in your cock? Here's a hint, look at his wings, his feathering, there are 2 things for now....what do you see different in the two things between the two birds?