The Plymouth Rock Breeders thread

[Beekissed]

Sort of. I know. I know. Ask a hundred people and get a thousand responses on the whole disease phobia deal. A testimonial:
Walt Leonard shows his birds 10-12 times a year and has for almost 45 years. Walt says he has never, not once, brought home a disease from a show.

I don't want to side track this breeders thread into that WHOLE DISEASE/ IMMUNITY/ BIO-SECURITY debate.
Goodness, gracious, the server storage space fee this website alone has to rent to hold all the posts on that subject would raise 4 orphans in Bangladesh to adulthood.

Amen!

Smurf Blue!!! That's it exactly, Just laughing so hard I've got go blow my nose now.

There are Blue Rocks, but I'm pretty sure my trying to pass of Whites as Blues would be DQ'd for faking.

 

[LindaB220]

Here's a quote from Matt Ulrich, aka Matt1616:

Matt Ulrich "We do not raise poultry commercially. It is a hobby although it feels like a full time job sometimes. We raised about 500 chickens this spring and summer just to get about 15-20 to show."

Bear in mind that Matt and his kids raise and show a half dozen breeds, so you can do the math, but if you're gonna be as successful as Matt, with the various breeds and varieties he breeds? This is what it takes.

So, everyone feel a little better now?

Cheese and crackers, no wonder he has such fabulous birds!!!! lol

 

[SilverRockFarm]

Hatching season begins!!

Scott... how did your hatch turn out? I have a few that should be hatching out today. I'll get a few pictures posted tomorrow.

 

[Yard full o' rocks]

Scott... how did your hatch turn out? I have a few that should be hatching out today. I'll get a few pictures posted tomorrow.

Fertility in first set was not great. 3 made it to the hatcher. So far 2 have hatched, last one is trying

 

[SilverRockFarm]

Fertility in first set was not great. 3 made it to the hatcher. So far 2 have hatched, last one is trying

My two hatches for this year hasn't been that great. I plan to have a few more hatches in the month of February & hope for a better hatch results.

 

[desertmarcy]

Hi all, I have not posted in a while, been too busy. Now we are having one of those rare, for us, days of continual rain! So stuck inside. I wanted to give an update on my Barred Rocks. The predator (never caught it) that killed most of my young cockerels and my Stukel male that I used to cross to the Good Shepard line, has come back a few times and tried to get in my pens along the outside perimeter but has been foiled each time by the wire barrier I put down, yeah!

I got another Stukel cockerel at the Nov. Tucson show, one of his "culls" that his friend who helps cull out birds brought up to the show to sell. He was still a pretty decent bird, with nice wide tail feathers. I put this one over the 6 Good Shepard X Stukel that I culled down to. I only got 7 fertile eggs out of them, out of about 130 set. Well stupid me, I never checked that bird for mites or treated him when he came here and that was the problem. He ended up dying from the mites. I feel so stupid, when am I going to learn not to make assumptions. Fortunately, all 7 fertile eggs hatched out a few days ago and all look fine. Maybe I'll get lucky. I went through all my chickens and treated them all for mites but did not see any sign of them on any other birds. But that male was completely covered in them.

I am down to one Good Shepard X Stukel cockerel and one Good Shepard X Duckworth cockerel from the original group that were killed by the predator. So I took the Good Shepard X Stukel cockerel and put him over the pullets. They are his "sisters" but being an outcross to begin with, I don't think that is an issue at all. He has only been in with them for a little over a week and eggs are just starting to be fertile. This breeding will be my main focus this year for the Barred Rocks, I think. The Stukel males are coming out with some nice tails this year. I wish I'd have bought a couple of the pure Stukel pullets at the show.

My Good Shepard X Duckworth cockerel has a poor tail. I'm not sure why I'm hanging onto him, except just for the genetic diversity. I don't think I will use him for breeding this year, maybe not at all. I have kept two of his "sisters" and have a Good Shepard line cockerel over them. So far fertility is excellent, 100%. The first of those, 9 eggs, is due to hatch 2/10.

I also put one of my older GS hens that I like in with an older GS cock. Now I only had 4 fertile eggs out of her, so a small sample size, but of those, 3 hatched, I think I helped 2 of them, and those 2 had really bent over toes so I culled them. Hmmmm....bent toes, needing help, and failed to develop, I think this is telling me something.

 

[Fred's Hens]

It is with great sadness we pass on Lindsay Halbach's message of the passing of her grandfather, Harold "Harry" Halbach.



It is with great saddness that I must tell you that Harold Halbach passed away peacefully last night. Last night my family and many others lost a great man. My grandfather, My gramps was a chicken man, raising show chickens was his life, but there was so much more to him than that. He adored all of his grandkids and attended everyone of our events that he could. He always supported all of us and was a safe place to come to when we really messed up (trust me I had to do that more than once). He served his community by serving on several boards, constantly helping 4-h and FFA kids and working to improve the APA. More than anything my gramps touched lives. He had fun every day and loved sharing his knowledge with others. Harry made you smile and that made him happy. He taught me so many life lessons right up until the end (mostly being really stubborn and how to be a tough old bird). He missed my gramma terribly and is finally with her again. Gramps did not just live his life, he loved it and he loved everyone in it. When I think back on the 1000's of 4-H kids he helped, who now have kids of their own who are showing it warms my heart. While Harry will be greatly missed, he would want us to share in his love of life and remember the good times we shared with him. Thank you to all of you who have prayed for him, myself and my family this past week. To meet my gramps was to love him. I can only hope to be half the poultryman that he was.


Lindsay Halbach



Harry Halbach, on left, wearing the Plymouth Rock sweatshirt, of course.

 

[Beekissed]

Fred, I wish we all could have met him as he sounds like a true man, a giving person and a wonderful educator. A rare thing in today's world, to be sure.

 

[chicken pickin]

He sounds like he was an absolutely wonderful man, I send my condolences to his family and those whose lives he touched.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Harry Halbach was part of a family that gave us, in many, many ways, the White Plymouth Rock that we know and love from their farm in Wisconsin. For the past 3/4 century, the Halbach name was forever attached to the White Plymouth Rock. They bred the best and the birds they shared by the thousands were the best.

If you have Blosl or Volk or many other lines of "stay white" White Rocks, you've got birds that are Halbach in heritage. But beyond that, as Lindsay says in her announcement, Harry was a giving man and lived a worthy life. Rest in peace. Our prayers go out for the family.