Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY* - Page 1204

Quote:

Originally Posted by cubalaya 

she has pinched tail and not much comb but her leg color looks good.
 

13 week old pullets don't have much of a comb she still has another 6 to 8 weeks before POL other than that your critique was spot on with the exception of tail-black which still may come on in the next molt in about 3 to 5 more weeks.

Jeff

A lot of the dels I got from Beth Holmes have pinched tails. But amazingly the few I kept from my ebay dels have beautiful open fan tails but a couple have green legs. Maybe I can cross a few of these and get something with yellow legs and open tails.

Quote:

Originally Posted by catdaddyfro 

13 week old pullets don't have much of a comb she still has another 6 to 8 weeks before POL other than that your critique was spot on with the exception of tail-black which still may come on in the next molt in about 3 to 5 more weeks.

 

Jeff

She has tail black, it is just hard to see in the pictures.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barred Rocker 

A lot of the dels I got from Beth Holmes have pinched tails. But amazingly the few I kept from my ebay dels have beautiful open fan tails but a couple have green legs. Maybe I can cross a few of these and get something with yellow legs and open tails.

Pinched tails is a problem in alot of strains of Delawares.

That is one thing I am watching for in mine..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barred Rocker 

A lot of the dels I got from Beth Holmes have pinched tails. But amazingly the few I kept from my ebay dels have beautiful open fan tails but a couple have green legs. Maybe I can cross a few of these and get something with yellow legs and open tails.

thats what i did and some of mine were from beth holmes. if they don't have teepee tails, yellow legs and the bowl shape then i don't breed them. hopefully will have a better percentage of those type birds this year.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kathyinmo 

Nice shot of your birds out in a natural setting.  They are coming along great Kathy.

So...How long does it typically take for Delaware cockerels to truly take on their mature shape?

I know they grow faster then a lot of other breeds, I could see it quite plainly as I hatched some other breeds along with my Delawares.

The reason I ask is the rooster I kept seems to really have come into his own very recently.  He's a little over 4 months old and the changes in the last week or two have been dramatic. He's always been big now he's round, his chest is getting much more of a bowl shape.  His tail has always driven me crazy as it looked to stand way to high.  Well when it came down to it that was primarily due to two feathers that stuck straight up.  He shedded those and all of a sudden his tail looks pretty good.

Not that he's going to be a show bird but at least he looks like a Delaware. :-)

His attitude isn't quite perfect, maybe that will change too.

K

Quote:

Originally Posted by cubalaya 

thats what i did and some of mine were from beth holmes. if they don't have teepee tails, yellow legs and the bowl shape then i don't breed them. hopefully will have a better percentage of those type birds this year.

Definitely a work in progress.  I'm hoping too that I'll have a better percentage of the "good" type of Delaware next year.  I've got one hen that seems near perfect. I'm going to use her a lot next year in my breeding program.