![]() Hens, barred plumage | |
Conservation status | recovering |
---|---|
Other names |
|
Country of origin | United States |
Standard | American Poultry Association |
Use | dual-purpose breed |
Traits | |
Weight | |
Skin color | yellow |
Egg color | brown [2] |
Comb type | single |
Classification | |
APA | American [3] |
ABA | Single comb clean legged |
EE | yes [4] |
PCGB | Soft feather: heavy [5] |
APS | heavy breed softfeather |
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The Plymouth Rock is an American breed of domestic chicken. It was first seen in Massachusetts in the nineteenth century and for much of the early twentieth century was the most widely kept chicken breed in the United States. It is a dual-purpose bird, raised both for its meat and for its brown eggs. It is resistant to cold, easy to manage, and a good sitter. [2] [6] : 68
The Plymouth Rock was first shown in Boston in 1849, but was then not seen for another twenty years. [2] In 1869, in Worcester, Massachusetts, one D.A. Upham cross-bred some Black Java hens with a cock with barred plumage and a single comb; he selectively bred for barred plumage and clean (featherless) legs. [6] : 68 His birds were shown in Worcester in 1869; the modern Plymouth Rock is thought to derive from them. [2] Other people have been associated with the development of the Plymouth Rock, as have other chicken breeds including the Brahma, the Cochin (both white and buff), the Dominique and the White-faced Black Spanish. [2] According to the Livestock Conservancy, it may have originated from cross-breeding of Java birds with single-combed Dominiques; [7] or, based on genomic analysis, principally from the Dominique, with substantial contribution from the Java and Cochin and some input from other breeds. [8] [9]
The Plymouth Rock was included in the first edition of the American Standard of Perfection of the new American Poultry Association in 1874. [2] The barred plumage pattern was the original one; other colors were later added. [2]
It became the most widespread chicken breed in the United States and remained so until about the time of World War II. [2] With the advent of industrial chicken farming, it was much used in the development of broiler hybrids but began to fall in popularity as a domestic fowl. [6] : 68
In 2023 the Plymouth Rock was listed by the Livestock Conservancy as 'recovering', meaning that there were at least 2500 new registrations per year. [10] Worldwide, numbers for the Plymouth Rock are reported at almost 33000; [11] about 24000 are reported for the Barred Plymouth Rock [12] and over 970000 for the White variety. [13]
The Plymouth Rock is easy to manage, is early-feathering, has good resistance to cold and is a good sitter. [2] It has a single comb with five points; the comb, wattles and ear-lobes are bright red. The legs are yellow and unfeathered. The beak is yellow or horn-colored. [6] : 69 The back is long and broad, and the breast fairly deep. [14]
In the United States, seven color varieties of the Plymouth Rock are recognized: barred, blue, buff, Columbian, partridge, silver-penciled and white. [3] Ten plumage varieties are listed by the Entente Européenne d'Aviculture et de Cuniculture, of which five – the barred, black, buff, Columbian and white – are recognized by the Poultry Club of Great Britain. [4] In Australia, the barred variant is split into two separate colors, dark barred and light barred. [15]
The Plymouth Rock is a dual-purpose breed and is kept both for its meat and for its large brown eggs, of which it lays about 200 per year. [2] The eggs weigh about 55 g (2 oz). [16]
In industrial agriculture, crosses of suitable strains of white Plymouth Rock with industrial strains of white Cornish constitute the principal stock of American broiler production. [14] : 415
The American Game is an American breed of game fowl, chickens bred specifically for cockfighting. It has many color varieties, and may also be kept for ornament.
The Chinese is an international breed of domestic goose, known by this name in Europe and in North America. Unlike the majority of goose breeds, it belongs to the knob geese, which derive from Anser cygnoides and are characterised by a prominent basal knob on the upper side of the bill. It originates in China, where there are more than twenty different breeds of knob goose.
The Rhode Island Red is an American breed of domestic chicken. It is the state bird of Rhode Island. It was developed there and in Massachusetts in the late nineteenth century, by cross-breeding birds of Oriental origin such as the Malay with brown Leghorn birds from Italy. It was a dual-purpose breed, raised both for meat and for eggs; modern strains have been bred for their egg-laying abilities. The traditional non-industrial strains of the Rhode Island Red are listed as "watch" by The Livestock Conservancy. It is a separate breed to the Rhode Island White.
The Orpington is a British breed of chicken. It was bred in the late nineteenth century by William Cook of Orpington, at that time in Kent in south-east England. It was intended to be a dual-purpose breed, to be reared both for eggs and for meat, but soon became exclusively a show bird.
The Cochin is a breed of large domestic chicken. It derives from large feather-legged chickens brought from China to Europe and North America in the 1840s and 1850s. It is reared principally for exhibition. It was formerly known as Cochin-China.
The Indian Game is a British breed of game chicken, now reared either for meat or show. It originated in the early nineteenth century in the counties of Cornwall and Devon in south-west England. It is a heavy, muscular bird with an unusually broad breast; the eggs are brown.
The Brahma is an American breed of chicken. It was bred in the United States from birds imported from the Chinese port of Shanghai, and was the principal American meat breed from the 1850s until about 1930.
The Dominique is an American breed of chicken, characterized by black-and-white barred plumage and a rose comb. It is considered to be the oldest American chicken breed, and is thought to derive from birds brought to America by colonists from southern England. It was well known by about 1750, and by the mid-nineteenth century was widely distributed in the eastern United States. It is a dual-purpose breed, but is kept principally for its brown eggs. It became an endangered breed in the twentieth century, but numbers have since recovered.
The Wyandotte is an American breed of chicken developed in the 1870s. It was named for the indigenous Wyandot people of North America. The Wyandotte is a dual-purpose breed, kept for its brown eggs and its yellow-skinned meat. It is a popular show bird, and has many color variants. It was originally known as the American Sebright.
The Cayuga is an American breed of domestic duck. It was introduced to the Finger Lakes region of New York State in about 1840, and is named for the Cayuga people of that area. Until the last years of the nineteenth century it was the principal duck reared for meat in the United States. In the twenty-first century it is kept mainly for ornament. The plumage is black with iridescent beetle-green lights.
The New Hampshire Red or New Hampshire is an American breed of chicken. It was developed in the early twentieth century in the state of New Hampshire by selective breeding of Rhode Island Red stock; no other breed was involved. It is fast-growing, early-maturing, quick-feathering, and yields a meaty carcass. Mature birds are a light or medium red in color; they may fade in sunlight.
The American Buff is an American breed of domestic goose. It was accepted by the American Poultry Association in 1947. It is named for its single plumage variety, which is a pale buff or apricot-fawn in color.
The Bourbon Red is an American breed of domestic turkey. It is named for its reddish-brown plumage and for its area of origin, Bourbon County, Kentucky, where it was developed in the last years of the nineteenth century. It was accepted into the Standard of Perfection of the American Poultry Association in 1909, and in the early twentieth century was an important commercial meat breed until the Broad Breasted White began to dominate industrial production. The Bourbon Red is considered a heritage turkey; it is an endangered breed, classified as 'watch' by the Livestock Conservancy. It was formerly known as the Bourbon Butternut or as the Kentucky Red.
The African or African Goose is a breed of domestic goose. It is one of two domestic breeds that derive from the wild species Anser cygnoides, the other being the Chinese; all other domestic geese derive from Anser anser. Despite the name, it is not from Africa but is of Asiatic origin. It is a large bird, among the heaviest of all goose breeds.
The Ancona is a breed of domestic duck, characterised by an unusual and variable broken-colored plumage pattern. It is not clear whether it originated in the United Kingdom or in the United States. It is not recognised or listed by the American Poultry Association, by the Entente Européenne d'Aviculture et de Cuniculture, or by the Poultry Club of Great Britain.
The Modern Game is a British breed of ornamental chicken which originated in England between 1850 and 1900. It was bred from gamecock stock, but solely as an exhibition bird.
The Nankin Bantam or Nankin is a British bantam breed of chicken. It is a true bantam, a naturally small breed with no large counterpart from which it was miniaturised. It is of South-east Asian origin, and is among the oldest bantam breeds. It is a yellowish buff colour, and the name is thought to derive from the colour of nankeen cotton from China.
The Java is a breed of chicken originating in the United States. Despite the breed's name, a reference to the island of Java, it was developed in the U.S. from chickens of unknown Asian extraction. It is one of the oldest American chickens, forming the basis for many other breeds, but is critically endangered today. Javas are large birds with a sturdy appearance. They are hardy, and are well-suited for both meat and egg production, especially by small-scale farms, homesteads, and backyard keepers.
The Rumpless Game is a British breed of tail-less chicken. It may have originated on the Isle of Man, and may thus be known as the Manx Rumpy. There are both standard-sized and bantam Rumpless Game.
The Hook Bill or Dutch Hookbill is a breed of domestic duck characterised by an unusual down-curved beak. It is an ancient breed, and has been documented since the seventeenth century. Speculation that it originated in Asia, or is related to the Indian Runner, is apparently unsubstantiated.