My Experiences with Barred Plymouth Rock Large Fowl, by Tom Durgin
March 2012
I have been asked to write about Barred Plymouth Rock large fowl and these are my experiences and
I’ll pass it on:
I had not raised Barred Plymouth Rock large fowl until I saw some in a fancier’s yard a few years
ago and thought “ I like those and I would like to have a breeding go with them”. I have had White
Plymouth Rock large fowl as well as Barred Plymouth Rock bantams in the past so I was familiar
with the standard bred breed and variety characteristics. They were the first Plymouth Rock in the
standard. I recall the wonderful pictures and articles on E B Thompson and his exhibition record at
Madison Square Garden from my older poultry magazines.
I bought 10 chicks of the Guy Roy blood line. I got three males and seven females. When they were
raised I cut them down to one male and three females. I hatched chicks and could readily tell there
was white blood in the background as I got a number of white sports and some lighter colored barred
chicks. They were healthy vigorous chicks with good Rock type, however they had poor barring.
Next I bought a young trio of the Erik Nelson blood line. They had wonderful barring which was
their strong point. Their type and short leg were not to my liking. They did not lay as well as the Guy
Roy blood line and the egg size and shape was not as nice as well.
I attended the Plymouth Rock National in Hutchinson, Minnesota and bought a Barred cockerel from
Jeremy Woeppel of XW Ranch from Nebraska. His line had good barring, good size, wonderful
yellow leg. The cockerel’s tail was not the best – it looked like he backed into a fan.. But as with the
other two blood lines I had, they all had good and bad points.
All of the birds from the three blood lines are gentle in disposition in my setting. I sold a number of
birds and one cockerel became mean at one customers location. That was the only complaint I had. I
sold pullets to back yard non exhibition folks and they couldn’t be happier. I raise them for
exhibition and sell my excess birds to fancier’s, back yarders and the rest go to a local poultry
auction.
Recently I have cut back on my breeding program and presently only have 11 birds from the 39 I had
a few months ago. I sold most of my breeders to Tony Albritton in Caldwell, Idaho. Tony has a
wonderful set up and is in the hatchery business. If one is considering exhibition Barred Plymouth
Rocks he has very nice birds.
In my opinion the best way to appreciate a poultry breed and/or variety is to raise some. It gives one
a better appreciation of what it takes to get a good exhibition bird. It is much like all our experiences
in life. It is “on the job training”. Most breeders and fanciers will share both their knowledge and
birds. Just ask.