There are lines of Barred Rocks that would indeed benefit from being crossed to other good lines of Barred Rocks. Most breeders I know are already doing this. But this takes skill, a good eye, excellent records, patience, and a lot of work. Ask me how I know. LOL
Our Barred Rocks are a bit slow to get to laying, or least one of our lines is, but once they start, all of our birds are GREAT layers. Remember, these were never Leghorns or other heavy laying breeds, but they were and should be good to very good layers. I'm biased and I admit it. A Plymouth Rock should lay 200 eggs their pullet year or you've got some work to do as a breeder. I personally consider attributes of behavior and utility (inner attributes) to be as important as outward attributes. But again, I'm a farmer, so my perspective is mine.
I'd say ours are better than very good. We do track laying and we've many of the pullets lay 240 eggs their pullet year. For a gorgeous, true bred, heavy bird I'd say this is terrific laying as it averages almost 5 eggs per week, over a year's time. You cannot do much better than that from true, dual purpose bird. If you need 300+ eggs per year, the Rocks aren't the right breed for you.
Thank you
for your wonderful reply. My comment earlier was hypothetical in nature--sometimes, as with dogs, when you add a loose version of a purebred into the equation, it could help to improve health, temperament, and vigor (even if it introduces changes in the line in other ways). It seems that good breeding practices are few and far between with some dog breeds, because breeders don't control for problems before they develop in areas such as health, performance, and temperament, thus you see a lot of soup sandwiches in the inbred purebred world. Does this happen with chicken breeding too? I guess I wonder how one finds a very distant line of BPRs that's not related to your line/strain. It can feel like you're on an island!
I like the spiral breeding in chickens method, as it seems the best way to continue good blood lines without compromising their standard. By choosing the BPR, I know it's laying abilities will never meet a leghorn's production, but that's not what I'd strive for anyway. My current mutt BPR lays eggs the size of an ostrich's egg but she's 3 and it's not every day. But boy, when she gives us one, THANK YOU!
Currently I'm raising hatchery bought Buckeyes (some look like mutts, some loosely fit the standard). Of the 2 Buckeye
COCKERELS (
sheesh) I own, only 1 fits the standard by 90%--he looks good enough by would fail in the show ring with flaws such as shank color, sickle color, deformed spur. I hatched out 7 of his offspring from 3 Buckeye pullets; they're adorable, and I'll just use them for egg production. Eventually, I'll get a trio or chicks from a good Buckeye breeder and cull these guys.
Lastly, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Don Schrider, but he's a great source for information about chickens and breeding, and YOU Mr. Fred's Hens are a close second! Thank you, again.
