Once a staple in American backyards, the Plymouth Rock chicken faced a significant decline in numbers, leading to its inclusion on The Livestock Conservancy’s Conservation Priority List. However, as of 2023, the breed has been officially removed from this list, marking a significant conservation success.

The Conservation Priority List

The Livestock Conservancy’s Conservation Priority List is a vital tool used to monitor and promote awareness about the conservation status of heritage livestock and poultry breeds in the United States. Established to help prevent the extinction of historically significant breeds, the list evaluates population numbers, historical and genetic value, geographic distribution, and active breeding programs. It serves as a call to action for farmers, breeders, and conservationists to support vulnerable animal populations that are often overshadowed by commercial breeds.

Note: The Livestock Conservancy has yet to lose a breed on its Conservation Priority List to extinction.

Other Conservation Priority List Successes

A breed’s inclusion on the Conservation Priority List is a call to action that can galvanize breeders, small flock owners and poultry fanciers to do what is necessary to bring the breed back from the brink. This is what happened with the Orpington chicken and Wyandotte chicken breeds, which, a decade ago.

Both of these breeds recovered in population and graduated from the list in 2016. Today, the Orpington and the Wyandotte are two of the most common backyard chicken breeds in the United States.

Also removed from the priority list in 2023 were the Australorp, Brahma and Rhode Island Red chickens.

Read more: For this keeper, barred Plymouth Rock chickens rule the roost.

The History of the Plymouth Rock Chicken

No clear origin story exists for the Barred Plymouth Rock. Numerous poultry breeders and fanciers claimed to have developed the breed at some point in the mid-1800s. The theory most hold to is that the breed was developed in the 1860s, when Black Javas were crossed with single-comb Dominiques.

The resulting bird was named the Plymouth Rock. It was slightly larger than the Dominique but otherwise indistinguishable from its progenitor.

Both had a barred, or cuckoo, pattern on their plumage, and both had both single- and rose-comb varieties. The two breeds remained interchangeable until an 1870 New York poultry exhibition, at which it was decreed that the single-comb birds would be shown as Plymouth Rocks, while the rose-cushioned birds would be exhibited as Dominiques.

In 1874, the Barred Plymouth Rock, or Barred Rock, was recognized by the American Poultry Association.

Plymouth Rock Chicken Characteristics

In addition to the Barred Rock (aka the original Plymouth Rock), several other color varieties were soon developed. These include

• White Rock
• Buff Rock
• Silver-Penciled Rock
• Partridge Rock
• Columbian Rock
• Blue Rock

All varieties of Plymouth Rock feature a large, bright-red single comb, red wattles and red earlobes. They have yellow, featherless shanks—the chief distinguishing feature between a Buff Rock and a Buff Orpington—and hens lay approximately 200 large brown eggs per year.

Plymouth Rock females are good broodies and mothers. Chicks reach maturity at the early age of eight to 12 weeks.

Because Plymouth Rock chickens feather early, they are considered cold-hardy birds, although the points of the single comb are susceptible to frostbite. Plymouth Rocks are calm, sweet birds that get along with other breeds and are very affectionate with their humans. Barred Plymouth Rocks are often kept as pet chickens and are used as 4-H showmanship birds due to their cuddly, friendly nature.

Rocks like to range and explore, but are tolerant of confinement. They are an excellent choice for a backyard flock.

This article about the success of the Plymouth Rock chicken recovery from the Livestock Conservancy’s Conservation Priority list was written for Hobby Farms and Chickens magazines. Click here to subscribe.