Barred Rocks

Description

Barred Rock Chickens (also known as Barred Plymouth Rocks) are great general-purpose farm or homestead birds. Along with Buff Orpingtons, ISA Browns, Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers, Barred Rocks are one of our most popular chicken breeds.

They are good egg layers. Plus the males make a nice carcass for table use. Barred Rocks are excellent foragers and do well on pasture.

They are slower to mature than some breeds, with the first eggs coming at around 28 weeks.

The barred feather pattern is due to a dominant sex-linked gene. The gene prevents pigment from being applied to feathers, so it creates a light spot on the feather. Because the male carries two copies of the gene, and the female only carries one, males tend to be lighter colored than females. The barring feathers tend to grow more slowly, so feather growth is slow.

Brief history the Barred Rock

I once read that there is no end to what a man can accomplish if he does not care who gets the credit. I remembered that sentiment as I examined the various histories of the Barred Plymouth Rock. It seems that the further we get away from the original poultry show where they were first shown, more and more obscurity surrounds the origin of the Barred Plymouth Rock. To search for the “truer” history, I went back to the book The Plymouth Rock, by A. C. Smith, copyright 1906.

Smith writes that this breed was first shown in 1869 at a poultry show in Worcester, Massachusetts by Mr. D. A. Upham. Mr. Upham showed a trio of fowls and two trios of chicks. Mr. Upham states, “They were bred originally by a Mr. Joseph Spaulding, of Putnam, Conn. from a Dominique or Hawke-colored male” and a Black Cochin. Various stories circulated that the breeding was from a Dominique and Java cross. But according to Smith, Mr. Upham said a Cochin was used in the breeding, and the writers of the APA Standard concur.