Blue Plymouth Rocks?

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 10:34 pm

WOW! isnt that something! really COOL!

baronrenfrew · Post by **baronrenfrew** » Sun Mar 20, 2016 11:41 pm

don't the genetics folks call that a "throwback?"

SandyM · Post by **SandyM** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 8:30 am

Ok so wait. Blue Plymouth rocks have wyandettes in them?

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 9:10 am

In 2014 I bred sibling Blue Wyandottes (all I had) which produced 2 Blue pullets showing recessive single comb.
Precisionplymouthrock was looking to bring Blue in to his Plymouth Rocks and purchased the 2 Single comb Blue pullets from me.
Then had some very nice non-poultry people pick them up and deliver to him. :)
He can tell you the rest of the story, I am amazed at the results 2 generations later.

SandyM · Post by **SandyM** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 9:21 am

Ok so. A Plymouth Rock isn't a Plymouth Rock en if the wyandettes are in there? It's essentially a cross breed, bred for desired traits?

I'm just trying to understand things

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:09 am

SandyM wrote:QR_BBPOST Ok so. A Plymouth Rock isn't a Plymouth Rock en if the wyandettes are in there? It's essentially a cross breed, bred for desired traits?

I'm just trying to understand things

Most breeds are combinations of other breeds created by dedicated breeders over long period of time.
Specific desired qualities can be introduced by outcrossing to another breed by knowledgeable, experienced and patient breeders.
Once the Type of the Original breed and the Introduced Trait are fixed, you are back to the original breed. :)

precisionplymouthrocks · Post by **precisionplymouthrocks** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 4:28 pm

The blue Plymouth Rock was basically extinct. I have started this effort to bring it back. When I read the standard of perfection there is a a brief history of how each variety was created by crossing various other breeds, but the blue Plymouth Rock has no history on it at all.

I searched for 5 years looking for something suitable to breed into my rocks to bring back the blue rocks. Then I found OC single comb wyandottes.

There are no pedigrees with chickens just a breed standard and description. So to call what I started with a wyandotte is wrong because they do not fit the breed description for a wyandotte. Now they are not rocks either, however my son has shown this single comb birds with yellow legs as rocks without disqualification where they would be disqualified as wyandottes.

At the end of they day they had enough rock traits to give me a very good start at resurrecting the the blue rock and as far as standard bred poultry goes that is good enough to be a blue Plymouth Rock.

Also the Canadian pedigree act defines a purebred as 15/16

Post by **Killerbunny** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 8:10 pm

Great you had the patience and SKILL to do this. Thanks for the explanation.

SandyM · Post by **SandyM** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 8:18 pm

Thanks for clearing that up. I'm always full of questions and an eager learner:)

precisionplymouthrocks · Post by **precisionplymouthrocks** » Mon Mar 21, 2016 9:02 pm

This is what I have done to recreate the Blue Rock. I have had to create a black rock also.

The first generation I use a Barred rock male on blue single comb wyandotte hens creating offspring with a blue barred pattern and black barred pattern, all the blacks where culled. I also used a columbian rock male on a barred female to create black females but of full rock blood.

The second generation I use a blue barred male (one barred gene) on the solid black females. and i also bred a columbian rock to the blue barred females and back to the single combed wyandottes. The males from the Columbian on blue wyandottes have red in their shoulder I probably won't use any of them.

Next Generation I will be using a blue barred male (1/2 columbian, 1/4 barred, 1/4 wyandotte) on full rock blood black and pure barred females. Also I will use a Black rock male (3/4 columbian, 1/4 Barred) on blue females that are (1/2 columbian, 1/4 barred, 1/4 wyandotte) and purebred barred females.

I hope to show a blue rock female this fall, leg colour is an issue.

I added a picture of the blue barred pattern of the males. one nice thing about this project is the sex linked barring gene