This bird is as American as apple pie! The Barred Plymouth Rock is a striking bird with black and white bars and the hen is a good egg layer of brown eggs.  This breed is one of Americas’ oldest breeds, dating back to the 1800’s. During the 1930’s, the American government encouraged residents here in the States to grow “Victory Gardens,” can their own food, and raise their own chickens in an effort to conserve other food reserves for the men fighting overseas in WWII. Barred Rocks were seen from coast to coast before the end of World War 2, and it became the nation’s main source of chicken meat and eggs during that era.