The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Fred's Hens]

My kids down in KY just posted this photo on my timeline.
Thought I'd share it here. This is Bob's project pen. He's pretty excited about the vigor in these birds.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

OK Fred, I'll give it a try. I have proper legbands and toe punches so I will keep very good records and I will only do a single mating. For the novice its very difficult to know what to do. I have the SOP and a poultry breeding book but they are limited in their usefulness when green. Looking for the local mentor.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

Very nice!

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

My kids down in KY just posted this photo on my timeline.
Thought I'd share it here. This is Bob's project pen. He's pretty excited about the vigor in these birds.

Very nice!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Funny thing is? I might well WANT to test mate her. I'd want to see what comes of it. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, and might, might, maybe, give you a better bird, especially if she throws some male chicks. Those young male chicks might pick up her lighter color and be stunning!!!

Just my mind whirring, that's all. hahahahah

Not to get anyone all confused, but there are male lines and females lines, ie, lines that produce better pullets and lines that produce showier males. My line is currently a pullet dominated line and I wouldn't mind working on a side project to make some showier males. She might be right at the top of my list, if I had an itch to make some flashy males.

I'm confused by this Fred and perhaps it has to do with my lack of complete understanding of the standard color desired. Male line birds I thought were bred to the darkest females and female line males being lighter were bred to female line. In keeping two lines you result in the even color standard of a male and female though they are not to be bred together, merely for representation of show quality standard color.

I'll have to break out the big book and see if I can figure out the desired color.

 

[Fred's Hens]

You won't find this in the Big Book, my friend.

This kinda stuff is in the heads and stories of the Barred Rock breeders, like Tom Wheeler, aka RacerTomTom, Jamie Duckworth, aka DuckTang (?) and others in the Barred Rock fancy.

It is extremely difficult to breed top winning males and females without doubling mating, ie, keeping a "male" line and a "female" line going.
Edited to add: In my experience.

 

[emenheiser]

Male line birds I thought were bred to the darkest females and female line males being lighter were bred to female line. In keeping two lines you result in the even color standard of a male and female though they are not to be bred together, merely for representation of show quality standard color.

This is correct, Egghead. The reason is that the barring gene (which is an inhibitor of dermal melanin and thus dilutes the shade of the bird) is sex-linked. Males are naturally lighter colored than females because they have two copies of the barring gene rather than only one. This is the same reason why males usually have fewer issues with dusky leg color than females. The Standard is written with the ideal shade for males and females being more similar than the barring gene typically allows. This is why most exhibition breeders who show both sexes of barred Rocks (including the famed E. B. Thompson in his day) breed separate male and female lines. The light males are useful in a female line and the dark females are useful in a male line.

 

[emenheiser]

OK Fred, I'll give it a try. I have proper legbands and toe punches so I will keep very good records and I will only do a single mating. For the novice its very difficult to know what to do. I have the SOP and a poultry breeding book but they are limited in their usefulness when green. Looking for the local mentor.

In addition to the Standard of Perfection, The Plymouth Rock Standard and Breed Book is a must have, and is available for free download at https://archive.org/details/plymouthrockstan00amerrich

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Edit: I had to read up on desired standard color for male and females. 50/50 male, 60/40 female.

After reading and reacquainting I've wrapped my head around it again. There is a lot of info in the big book and why it's always necessary to have it handy. Maybe in my youth I'd retain more of it.

Thinking about it I've seen, and this is not a fault to my eye rather more appealing, females with more than 60/40 black to white barring. Somehow I've in my mind that Male line breeding had fizzled out in the US. Now that this is fresh in mind I'll have to keep my eye out as which breeders keep male lines.

Glad I got caught up on what you said. Think you meant female line correction with this light female; regardless she would produce interesting results and perhaps something truly positive.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Thus, if one is seeking a lighter, flashier male, that light pullet in question, might be worth a test mating. I wouldn't discard her, as was suggested by Tumbleweed Farms, simply because she is too light. She might, may, perhaps have some value to one's project, used in a specific way and a test mating might well reveal those possibilities. My response was merely to the statement that TF didn't want to use the light female. Given that she only has the two females, limiting oneself to the sole female seemed overly conservative in approach, depending on what one's goals were in hatching to begin with.