In Breeding White Plymouth Rock Large

By Robert Blosl

I have heard that some breeders of other breeds have used this method to fix the traits of a certain Proponent Male bird that has excellent Type and is one of the best Large Fowl that a breeder has ever raised. I have read and studied a master breeder of Black Old English Bantams that used the method of Inbreeding a very special male to about 10 of his daughters. He then took the best five daughters the following year and breeds and hatched the chicks and again re-breed the best five daughters back to the male again. Each year the females improved in type and on about the fourth year not only did he produce some very special females, but he hatched some you cockerels that where spectacular. One cockerel from that years mating grew up and he conditioned him to be Grand Champion of the Ohio National for that year. .

At the head of such an In Breed mating is a very special bird. In this mating you take this special male and mate him to an outstanding White Plymouth Rock Hen that may be four to five years old that has maintained her pullet like appearance as well as egg laying capabilities. These special hens are usually fast feather females between their molt cycles and have strong constitutional vigor to make them the exceptional mates to this male. From among this pair's progeny a pullet is selected of better quality than her mother and the special pullet is then paired to this male, her sire. If possible, from amongst their progeny an even better hen is chosen and the key bird is then matched to his granddaughter. This method is then continued each and every year till the next the special white rock pullet is paired to his (superior) great-granddaughter, and on and on until finally a Cockerel is produced which is better-quality than the original sire. At this stage of the Inbreeding method you may have done this with another special male in another building. From this mating we pair the best available White Rock Female and start this process over again with the special cockerel. Now it is possible that you could have two or three inbreed families going on each year and after four or five years of inbreeding. You then just rotate a good male down to the right and start all over again with inbreeding your white rocks. Let’s say you are limited to space on your poultry plant, you could hatch 10 to 15 chicks per  mating and fix these traits in such a way all your birds will look like peas in a pod. I plan to use this very same method in our inbreeding method of our Buff Brahma Bantams. We have three excellent pullets and only one male so we will reverse this concept and use female for four years and mate the best male back to his mother to fix the traits that we want to keep. Then in four years we will rotate the families to the right with a new male and start all over again. We purchase a special female from Bill Bowen and this female to our strain to give us fresh blood and hammer away with inbreeding for another five to ten years. I hope with this chart you can see how easy inbreeding could be with large fowl white rocks when you have limited space to keep and free range your offspring.