The original appearance and excellent productivity distinguishes the Plymouth breed. Chicken of this breed can be a highlight of any house. Consumer demand for meat, especially dietary, is increasing every year. A great help in solving this problem within the framework of home breeding is the plymutrok - chicken, capable of producing first-class meat of a yellowish tint.
History
The Plymouthrock chicken breed was bred in the second half of the nineteenth century in America. Chickens of breeds are white by Kokhinkhins, Dominican and Langshans crossed with black Spanish roosters. Representatives of bream breeds and Javanese chickens took part in the breeding. Obtained as a result of prolonged crossbreeding, the breed was named Plymutrok in honor of the American state of the same name.
Plymouthrock (the bird in the photo in the text) officially received recognition in 1910, when the American Poultry Association defined and approved the breed standard. The productive qualities of the bird contributed to its wide distribution throughout the world.
Breed characteristics
Plymouthrock - chicken meat and egg. Its main productive indicators:
- egg production - up to 190 pieces;
- egg weight - 60 grams;
- hatchability of chickens - up to 80%;
- poultry safety - up to 96%;
- egg color - cream (light brown);
- features - at the daily age, the color can distinguish between males and hens of striped plymouths, late feathers - by the end of the sixth week;
- chicken weight - up to 3.5 kg;
- rooster weight - 4.5 kg (sometimes up to 5 kg);
- incubation - present;
- temperament - calm, inactive;
- productivity - meat and egg.
The breed has eight approved plumage colors: gray, partridge, white, black, blue, striped, yellow, yellow. The main include two varieties:
- Plymutrok striped - a breed of chickens, the most popular for keeping in poultry houses. Each feather of a bird has transverse stripes of gray-blue color. Moreover, roosters have a 1: 1 ratio, so they are slightly lighter than chickens (they have a 3: 2 ratio). The fly and tail feathers have wider strips. For the perfect color, you need the pen to end in black. The stripe of the feather can be traced along its entire length; in fluff, there is no such pronounced manifestation of the color gamut. The chickens are dark in color. Unacceptable disadvantages include: a yellow or brown tint, blurry pattern, lack of stripes on the feathers of the feathers (the color of the pen is black), ash gray, white or fluff without stripes.
- A white plymouthrock should have flawless whiteness. No shades of yellow or any other color are allowed. The disadvantages include the presence of non-white feathers, green metatarsus, a clear yellow hue of the plumage of young animals. Only white plymouth rock chickens are used in industrial poultry farming. Egg production of white plymouth rods is 20% higher than that of birds of any other color.
In addition to farm breeding, there is such a species as dwarf plymouthrock. Chicken weighs up to 1 kg, roosters up to 1.2 kg. Chickens have good egg production: up to 140 eggs per year weighing up to 40 grams. The bird was bred in Germany in 1914 and bred by amateurs as an ornamental breed.
Species
Plymouth breed rooster has the following features:
- the head is slightly convex, of medium width, small;
- beak strong, short, yellow;
- the crest is small, leaf-shaped, has 4-6 not too deeply carved regular teeth;
- eyes are orange, large;
- the lobes are red, medium in size;
- neck set straight, strong, medium in length with a lush mane;
- body of rectangular shape, deep and wide, long enough;
- the chest is well rounded, wide and deep;
- the back is broad, slightly elevated to the lower back, medium length, has an oval rounding;
- belly deep, full and wide;
- wings tight, short;
- tibiae strong, medium length, surrounded by adjacent plumage;
- metatarsus without plumage, smooth, yellow.
A hen has almost the same symptoms as a rooster. It features a deeper, rounded body. The tail feathers are short and only slightly exceed the length of the tail feathers.
Benefits
Plymutrok breed of chickens has proven itself for the production of broilers. From crossbreeding, early young animals are obtained, which, when properly fed and maintained, reaches a weight of up to 1.8 kg by the age of nine weeks. In addition, the bird is used to breed new breeds of chickens.
The advantage of the content of plymouth tracks include:
- calm nature of the bird;
- a large mass does not allow birds to fly, so there is no need to protect the range with a high fence;
- resistant to various diseases;
- easily adapt in different climatic zones ;
- excellent meat qualities (it tastes very tender, with a yellow tint);
- high egg production up to 190 eggs per year, egg weight up to 60 grams;
- steadily transfers to the offspring their pedigree characters;
- sit well on the masonry, without showing concern;
- unpretentious to the conditions of detention.
Exterior defects
The external disadvantages of the striped plymouth rock are:
- dark beak (this color is not typical for the breed);
- earlobes are white;
- the presence of processes on the crest or its overdevelopment;
- brown plaque on plumage;
- white color of legs and their plumage;
- the presence of pure white feathers in plumage.