Plymouth Rock thread!

[PEI chicken]

Thank you Normanack.

 

[Silver Rock]

Hello all

Sunny June 8th day here on PEI. It has been a while since I posted pics so here are a few of my small sppr flock. I really enjoy checking out your pics; I envied your pics that showed grass when we still had snow on the ground!

Two 2013 hens with their saddles on for protection. Last summer some of the hens looked awful because their backs were bare! I'm trying to prevent that from happening again.

Mature cock with his hens outside on this nice day. I just chased them from the garden where they were digging up the sunflower seeds.

Back in their protection pen, where they spend the most time.

Rooster Cogburn (12 lb plus) with his flock. I have another cock that spends time with these ladies too. I am going to switch the males soon.

I have 42 eggs now in the incubator. I threw out the first batch because the temp got way too hot! I should have chicks by the end of June, then I will hatch another incubator full from the second cock.

I'm enjoying the lovely sunny afternoon; back to work tomorrow. It is so nice to have a weekend break to actually have some time to enjoy the chickens!

Bye for now.
PEI Chicken

Very Nice PEI!

 

[BackAtIt]

I just stumbled on to this thread, and was inspired to respond. 30+ years ago,when I used to show chickens at our local fairs, I knew Ruth Whitney. She was an amazing chicken breeder, and was a great mentor and support for many of us. I've often wondered what happened to her birds. I am happy that her work continues with you!

 

[PEI chicken]

Thank you Clayton.

I love the look of your birds too.

Hello Back At It. I wonder where you are located. I have not heard of Ruth Whitney, but I have only recently started my sppr flock and do not know many breeders from the past. (I'm from Canada, but someone in the US may know of her.)

PEI Chicken

 

[4hmomwyo]

Two years ago my daughter did a wonderful crossbreeding of a Buff Orpington Roo over Barred Rock hens and we got wonderful layers and big, fast growing cockerels and they also turned out sex-linked.

This year we were looking to repeating the crossbreeding, however the set-up we used had a mixture of White Rock, Barred Rock, Partridge Rock and Buff Orpington hens and there were 3 different roos...a White Rock, a Partridge Rock and a Buff Orpington.

We ended up getting 12 chicks out of the hatch (there were some incubator issues that are not relevant to this thread). We got 1 White Rock chick, 1 Buff Orpington chick, 2 pure black chicks (one has black eyes, the other has reddish bay eyes and they have black legs), 2 chicks that resemble our original sexlink hens--copper & black with blue legs (from 2 years ago). What is interesting to me is 6 of the chicks appear to be Barred Rock...that wouldn't surprise me if we had a Barred roo, but there can't be any pure Barred rocks. Also, no Partridge looking chicks to speak of. They are all 9-11 weeks old now. I'll attach pictures as soon as possible.

What I'm wondering is what genetics could have given us what look like pure Barred Rocks when there wasn't pure Barred parents? Also do the Copper & black chicks look like young Partridge rocks?

Any insight would be appreciated!







This shows the darkness and clearness variability of 4 of the Barred looking chicks.


This is one of the pure black chicks.


This is the lightest colored barred chick.


And the darkest colored barred chick.



One of the 2 that look like the original cross (Buff x Barred) from 2 years ago.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

A really interesting strain of commercial Barred Rocks is an old time production laying strain preserved by the Decorah hatchery. Very interesting. Even without "spiking" Barred Rocks, breeders who trapnested and kept only the best layers indirectly selected for smaller, more active birds within the breed.

 

[Fred's Hens]

It seems Decorah hatchery may be finished.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Huh? Tell me more. I know that the chicks were no longer being sold on the webpage, but I had no idea they had gone out of business.

 

[Chicken Ducks]

Which pattern is better?

 

[DMRippy]

Which pattern is better?

Looks like a cockerel on the left and pullet on the right.