Delawares from kathyinmo

[Zanna]

Sometimes the females just don't like those "arranged" marriages LOL
Good luck - You might increase the hens and then when the group gets happy remove the ones you don't want the eggs to hatch- may increase her comfort level to start with a group she is familiar with. Just a thought of what I would try .

Yes, I have considered that but more birds in pens means more work and more feed as no free-range time so I avoid it if I can. Same thing happened last year when I single mated my BCM's. Took a week or two, then they got OK with their mates. This morning the girls were on the ground mulling around with their boys so I think things are getting worked out. I have to remind myself you can not keep a calendar with chickens and breeding which goes against my timely and routine nature!

 

[desertmarcy]

Sometimes the females just don't like those "arranged" marriages LOL
Good luck - You might increase the hens and then when the group gets happy remove the ones you don't want the eggs to hatch- may increase her comfort level to start with a group she is familiar with. Just a thought of what I would try .

That is a good idea. I just didn't have a big pen to put the Delawares in. The pullets were sharing a pen with some Rhode Island Reds of the same age, but my priority is the RIRs, so they got the big pen when I started mating up birds. I was probably looking for an excuse to get rid of that hatchery Delaware....she was the last chicken on this property derived from hatchery stock. I just didn't want to fool around with her, doing this or that to stop an egg-eating problem when she was not a "prime" specimen anyway, and given sister history of eating eggs...

 

[desertmarcy]

Unusual weather patterns all over. It was in the 80's yesterday here, for crying out loud. Only mid-February, supposed to be our coldest month! I am sure the snow birds and out of towners are loving it, but for one who suffers the hot summers here, I feel cheated on not having a real winter and no rain since November (Dec-early Feb is "supposed" to be our winter rainy season). Dry as a bone, nice that the pens aren't mucky, but really hard on the body. I work outside a lot, doing stuff with my hands, and get those really painful tiny, but hurt like the dickens, skin splits right beside the fingernail. I have three fingers with splits right now and they don't heal up because I don't stop working and we get no humidity.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

My trio has been in a sizable coop since Thanksgiving (when the turkeys left

). It's my first year breeding, and therefore I haven't divided the breeding coop up into separate "cages" yet. I'm not sure what I'll do next year when I've got more than one breeding male ... The coop is 10+ feet wide and 20+ feet long. I can get 4 + oversized breeding "coops" out of that one coop, all with nesting boxes & roosts on one side and pasture access on the other. I just need to install two more automatic waterers, and then all I'd have to fuss with is letting them in and out and feed. Automatic doors could take care of half of that ...

My two Delawares girls took the day off from laying yesterday ... I've been getting two eggs a day pretty reliably from them. I need to order my incubators and get this ball rolling. And figure out where I'm going to put defenseless chicks.

Zanna ... you know the smaller pullet? She has about caught up with the big one and she is giving us the bigger eggs. I'm proud of her.

 

[finnfur]

Yes, I have considered that but more birds in pens means more work and more feed as no free-range time so I avoid it if I can. Same thing happened last year when I single mated my BCM's. Took a week or two, then they got OK with their mates. This morning the girls were on the ground mulling around with their boys so I think things are getting worked out. I have to remind myself you can not keep a calendar with chickens and breeding which goes against my timely and routine nature!

I am way behind on breed pens and everything - its related to weather but when you try to be organized and prepared you feel out of control when it happens LOL-
This year I am thinking of just putting my #1 in pen with all hens except EEs and older hens and then pull 3 hens I want to hatch eggs from - collect all I can and hatch- Our # 2 will be with the EEs older hens . Collect EE eggs from that pen.
Trying to add a couple Delaweggers this year in my hatch.

Unusual weather patterns all over. It was in the 80's yesterday here, for crying out loud. Only mid-February, supposed to be our coldest month! I am sure the snow birds and out of towners are loving it, but for one who suffers the hot summers here, I feel cheated on not having a real winter and no rain since November (Dec-early Feb is "supposed" to be our winter rainy season). Dry as a bone, nice that the pens aren't mucky, but really hard on the body. I work outside a lot, doing stuff with my hands, and get those really painful tiny, but hurt like the dickens, skin splits right beside the fingernail. I have three fingers with splits right now and they don't heal up because I don't stop working and we get no humidity.

Marcy - I know the feeling with the hands-
Wish I could pack up some of the winter we have had and trade ya some sunshine - I'm getting depressed for the other reason LOL

 

[mudvstheory]

Hi. I placed an order/reservation for 8 day old Delaware straight run chicks in early summer. I'm so excited! So question about housing, which depends on how the birds grow, and Delawares seem to have a special growth curve.

The housing plan is enough for half a dozen layers plus two batches of summer chicks, to build this spring. My favorite idea is a steel carport for the roof and structure, wrapped in hardware cloth, with a digging barrier, dirt floor and then put some smaller shelters inside it. A twelve foot roof would be ideal for this climate, lots of shade, escape for hot air and ammonia. And that would give me room for a broody baby nest area, and a chicken isolation corner. The foxes, Steuben and Maybelline, are voting for chicks on pasture. I might get them out weekly, which is why I want a large run with lots of air meanwhile. I could use a tractor for the summer chicks if it got too crowded or poopy, or cull. I'm thinking mostly deep litter, but will have to fine tune rain control.

So the layers need nest boxes and roosts; the summer meat chicks will not be laying, unless they graduate to the layer group. But do the summer meat chicks need roosts? On the one hand, they might hurt their little feet. But that might be more about the Cornish types. I was thinking about roost bars in a corner, with a little extra enclosure. Then a poop board underneath that slants directly into a compost pile, and a water barrel above so I can hose it all in. It seems like getting them to roost might help a little with poop control, even if it was from playing in daytime instead of night sleeping.

Is that crazy? will they roost enough during their short lives to help with poop control? Would a 2x4 be the right size? Or a low 1x2 and a higher 2x4? At what age do Delawares roost?

I was hoping to have all Delawares; the cornish sound heart breaking. rangers might work, but in theory, i like delawares and want to start single breed.

I meant to have an older batch of layers who will certainly roost, but then also make space for one or two batches of meat birds. I'm hearing they should be butchered somewhere between 14 and 20 weeks, so that's what I meant by short lives (presuming I am capable of butchering - won't know until I try it.). I'm thinking this is more than I can do under a carport without overwhelming the deep litter, but it would work with little side pen gardens. I'm just trying to plan a flexible space so that I don't end up with a jumble of outbuildings and sheds.

thanks!

 

[Beekissed]

I was hoping to have all Delawares; the cornish sound heart breaking. rangers might work, but in theory, i like delawares and want to start single breed.

I meant to have an older batch of layers who will certainly roost, but then also make space for one or two batches of meat birds. I'm hearing they should be butchered somewhere between 14 and 20 weeks, so that's what I meant by short lives (presuming I am capable of butchering - won't know until I try it.). I'm thinking this is more than I can do under a carport without overwhelming the deep litter, but it would work with little side pen gardens. I'm just trying to plan a flexible space so that I don't end up with a jumble of outbuildings and sheds.

thanks!

CX aren't heart breaking...they are the most vigorous foragers I've had of any breed I've ever owned. And that's saying a lot. I've never lost one for health reasons...they are healthy, tough and hardy if raised properly.

 

[speckledhen]

And if you look up aoxa, she has amazing video of her Cornish X foraging on her property up in Canada. You really should watch that. If I ever raised Cornish, I might do it that way (if I thought I wouldn't become attached to them, LOL).

 

[finnfur]

And if you look up aoxa, she has amazing video of her Cornish X foraging on her property up in Canada. You really should watch that. If I ever raised Cornish, I might do it that way (if I thought I wouldn't become attached to them, LOL).

I think Bee has posted some cornishx foraging video

 

[speckledhen]

I think Bee has posted some cornishx foraging video

She probably has. I just haven't seen them.