White Plymouth Rock Bantams

[Hal Porcher]

I'm new to this site and figured that I'd introduce myself and post a few pictures of the chickens that I raise. I've been breeding and showing White Plymouth Rock Bantams and have attended and shown at some of the large national shows including the joint APA and ABA national in Indiana. This is the only breed that I raise and even though I'm a few months shy of my 80 th birthday, this is a relatively new endeavor for me. I'm still learning and trying to improve my stock every year. I started with birds that came from the Harringtons and added stock from Jerry McCarty of louisiana and most recently added some stock from Brent Davenport. I've got 17 females and only kept back 1 male this year and am having great fertility. Here are a few pictures of my birds









of my birds

 

[Kikiriki]

Hi Hal! Welcome to BYC!! Sorry no one caught your post.

It is their loss, though, since you have such lovely chickens! How long have you been raising them? Do you win prizes at the shows? In my opinion, you should be!

What do feed them?

 

[Hal Porcher]

Thanks for the nice compliments. My son has raised show birds on and off for his entire life and I always enjoyed going to the shows with him. He now has a young family and stopped going, so I started by myself and now my son occasionally travels with me to the shows. I've been raising the White Plymouth Rocks for a few years now and have placed birds at every show, even some very large shows. I feed my birds Purina Layena and also greens and other scraps almost daily.it keeps me busy and I just took 20 chicks to my local feed store as I've been hatching too many for an old man !

 

[jk9chicks]

Wow, three years with white rocks...I am totally new to chickens.
I would like to ask you about white rocks.
I was told I had a rhode island white, but recently learned, since it's a single comb, it is most likely a white rock.
With your experience, at what age could you accurately tell the gender of your white rocks?
Blanca is 7 weeks in these photos. She was a very round chick, and much smaller compared to the others (of different breed and hybrids).
She is the only all white bird I have. She is a character. Cockerel? or is it still possibly a future hen?

 

[jk9chicks]

Blanca at one week

Your white rocks are so beautiful.

 

[jk9chicks]

nevermind....we had a Cock-a-doodle-do today!

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm new to this site and figured that I'd introduce myself and post a few pictures of the chickens that I raise. I've been breeding and showing White Plymouth Rock Bantams and have attended and shown at some of the large national shows including the joint APA and ABA national in Indiana. This is the only breed that I raise and even though I'm a few months shy of my 80 th birthday, this is a relatively new endeavor for me. I'm still learning and trying to improve my stock every year. I started with birds that came from the Harringtons and added stock from Jerry McCarty of louisiana and most recently added some stock from Brent Davenport. I've got 17 females and only kept back 1 male this year and am having great fertility. Here are a few pictures of my birds









of my birds

Hi Hal! When I retired and got the house remodeled we finally added a backyard flock for fun and eggs 3 years ago. We have 2 Silkies, an APA LF Ameraucana and a Danne Honour strain of LF Buff Leghorn. A lot of fun. Our LF were shipped as juveniles from East Coast to West Coast and it amazed us how quickly (overnight) the USPS got them to us. The Silkies we bought locally (So CA).

We love our Silkies and they are how we plan around the flock - usually no fowl is over 5-lb with gentle temperaments. Our Silkies are top hens as the oldest and the 2 LF submit. We like it that way!

Any way - a question about Bantam White PRs - I understand they are very good layers and not too broody? Or are your show strains different and not as good layers? Seems like show strains are never as good layers as the production strains since egg laying is never specified in SOP's.

We want to add more bantams in spring/summer 2015 that are not as broody as Silkies. Our Silkies give us nice sized eggs at 1.25 oz to 1.5 oz but they are such determined broodies we lose good production from them. One Silkie is 3 years old and her productive years are pretty much done at 1 egg/month. The other Silkie is 2 years old so we won't expect much from her next year either. Do you happen to know the average size of your bantam PR eggs?

We are looking into Bantam Buff Leghorns if the breeder can up his fertile hatches by 2015. And I was looking into Dominique bantams but they are a very broody bunch like Silkies. However I was intrigued in reading a couple reviews where the White PR bantams were good layers and not so much broody. What say you?

BTW