Epic search for real Delawares

[Katonk]

So I'm looking for large meat delawares and it's been a sad search so far. I was excited to be planning a purchase from Claborn Farms but he emailed back to let me know he had lost his flock to illness. Totally heartbreaking, his lines showed his love of the breed and years of hard careful work. So now I'm looking for options. Lots of hatcheries selling mutts, private owners with ill flocks. (Gotta say i love Dave's Garden review section for the skinny on a few hatcheries i considered.) I haven't committed to anything yet as my current flock is healthy and happy, and man alive I didn't realize what a gift that was until I started searching.
My current flock are for eggs only. There's a few big girls in there but the flock is too small to put some good consistent meat up to offer.
Anyways delawares seem like the best fit for us, I'm not ready to give up on my hopes for Delaware chicks next spring. I've already got one rooster who is too tiny to work with as far as breeding stock, so I've committed to plans for two separate flocks with hopefully two to four breeding pairs. I'd like to buy eggs from a few breeders and then close my flock to work towards what my family needs.
But guys. Just locating owners has been a challenge. So much so I'm wondering if my tiny Tim of a rooster might be my only option to pair with commercial hatchery birds.
But I think this move would be a disservice to the breed.
What to do?
Who out there knows of large bodied delawares? Good responsible breeders? Who else is out there trying to find and grow this breed?

 

[jolenesdad]

Yayyyyyyyyyyy more Delaware enthusiasts.

There’s a fascinating thread on here for Delawares I don’t know if you’ve seen it. It’s about Delawares from “Kathy I’m MO”. That is the “Bonham” line of Dels. The most correct to the SOP because she actually recreated the breed. Apparently she deleted some of her notes here in BYC, but the thread still abounds with great info. It’s LONG.

Aside from that. There a few lines of these birds.

The original Whitmore line is fairly utility. That line is now owned and worked on by Deer Run Farm. They’re working on more utility with every breeding. Realllllly nice people. Ship eggs year round, they’re only shipping birds the next four weeks until spring.

The chickcharney line was sold. They’re not “releasing” it back to the public for a little while, I don’t know when.

Oregon Delawares breeds based off the Bonham line but it’s their own line now. They breed to the SOP so maybe not what you want.

I just purchased Delawares from Dawnridge Farm in CA. They hatch to order and ship year round and do not often ship eggs. 10.00 per chick, including shipping, 25 minimum. Erin Angulo is the breeder, really helpful.

This line is getting finished carcasses of 3 - 3.5 lbs at 12-13 weeks. It’s the MOST utility line out there. It is NOT an SOP line, it carries a few faults, I believe. That’s probably not your goal with Dels, if you’re looking for utility.

If you’re on FB, the Delaware United Club has a group that is really very informative. I actually found my APA mentor through that group.

Oh also, Frank Reese is active in that group as well.

Oh, I also have two Bonham-line (via Oregon) Delawares.

 

[PirateGirl]

 

[Katonk]

View attachment 1905784

Yayyyyyyyyyyy more Delaware enthusiasts.

There’s a fascinating thread on here for Delawares I don’t know if you’ve seen it. It’s about Delawares from “Kathy I’m MO”. That is the “Bonham” line of Dels. The most correct to the SOP because she actually recreated the breed. Apparently she deleted some of her notes here in BYC, but the thread still abounds with great info. It’s LONG.

Aside from that. There a few lines of these birds.

The original Whitmore line is fairly utility. That line is now owned and worked on by Deer Run Farm. They’re working on more utility with every breeding. Realllllly nice people. Ship eggs year round, they’re only shipping birds the next four weeks until spring.

The chickcharney line was sold. They’re not “releasing” it back to the public for a little while, I don’t know when.

Oregon Delawares breeds based off the Bonham line but it’s their own line now. They breed to the SOP so maybe not what you want.

I just purchased Delawares from Dawnridge Farm in CA. They hatch to order and ship year round and do not often ship eggs. 10.00 per chick, including shipping, 25 minimum. Erin Angulo is the breeder, really helpful.

This line is getting finished carcasses of 3 - 3.5 lbs at 12-13 weeks. It’s the MOST utility line out there. It is NOT an SOP line, it carries a few faults, I believe. That’s probably not your goal with Dels, if you’re looking for utility.

If you’re on FB, the Delaware United Club has a group that is really very informative. I actually found my APA mentor through that group.

Oh also, Frank Reese is active in that group as well.

Oh, I also have two Bonham-line (via Oregon) Delawares.

Man of I could like a post twice!!!
That's EXACTLY the kind of information I was looking for. I'm def not looking for show birds, I need workers on my field and in my kitchen all the way. I'll keep everyone posted on my shenanigans, nice to make some fellow dellow friends

 

[RoosterML]

@Katonk
Hi,
The main rooster in my flock is a Delaware and he has two Delaware hens he runs with in the flock.I would be more than happy to ship you some eggs in the spring if that’s when your looking to get them. Here some pictures of him and two of my Delaware hens.


Sorry one of my Turkeys was getting in the way of the pictures.
By the way Turkeys may be dumb as a rock but they are really nice to have.
Also in regards to your concern about possible sicks birds here is what I can tell you.
I had my rooster get sick last year and I had no clue why. So I brought him to UCONN ( yes home of the best women’s basketball team ever) for a necropsy. The results came back negative for AI and his illness was caused by the ingestion of mold. No other illnesses were reported. While Npip may be valuable to some personally the results of a necropsy are worth much more. I hope that helps you.

 

[Katonk]

Hey all update! First and foremost I love you beautiful chicken people!!! Thank you for your support! I love these forms because they're full of people helping one another. It's a refreshing burst of air when you spend most your time in your own little family bubble. It's been pretty busy around here, I'm preparing for meat rabbits to help support the family responsibly just a little bit more. With fall weather mellowing out most of Texas I've been running around nonstop getting projects done in the window of fair skies and happy winds.
I hope spring finds me continuing to build towards what is important to me.
So! I'm finally getting to those notecards! I've got 15 addresses and 15 hellos I'm about to throw to the wind.
And whelp that's it
Huggles all and party on man
Pm if you wanna make a friend

 

[jenniealice]

The original Whitmore line is fairly utility. That line is now owned and worked on by Deer Run Farm. They’re working on more utility with every breeding. Realllllly nice people. Ship eggs year round, they’re only shipping birds the next four weeks until spring.

Just hit the 16 week mark with my Delawares from Deer Run Farm yesterday. All my roos were getting close to 6# (~5# 14oz avg) with two a few ounces over 6#.
Really liked the availability of hatching eggs which is why we went with Deer Run, but next year I may try Dawnridge since I'm here in CA. I think USPS was too iffy this year for eggs--success was low for the amount of eggs we ordered.
Will also be hatching our own from our best boys and girls to see if we can work on improvements.

 

[Mosey2003]

Yeah, Kansas shouldn't be too bad of a trip. Have you seen his website? Might be best to shoot him an email, unless you know someone that knows him. It's Good Shepherd Poultry, don't know the exact web address right now.

It just depends on your time and resources available, really. If you can't find anyone with decent stock, you can breed up hatchery birds. The thing is, it's gonna take hundreds of them, grown to about 12 weeks. Cull everything but the heaviest 10%, grow out to maturity, evaluate, and breed all you can, 100 if possible. Then cull everything but the top 10%, and breed them back to their parents. Do it again.

 

[FortCluck]

Here's mine... We call her Mama Chicken because she wants to be the mother of everything. She watches our ducklings all day long and makes sure they're safe.

 

[Acre4Me]

Search NPIP for breeders near you.

http://www.poultryimprovement.org/statesContent.cfm

When you click on a state, it will open up a document. You will use stock codes to search within the document (use the "Find" function on your computer - usually in a drop down menu such as under the "Edit" menu, and type in the code you are interested in and it will find all instances of that code in the doc). Then you will find NPIP places that have that breed. Stock codes are listed on the left side of the above link.

The codes you are interested in are as follows:

" T " refers to Meat Production Stocks

" R " refers to Other large breeds and varieties

For example, in Ohio where I live, I found 26 instances of R17. Some of these were codes that were more than R17, such as R171...but still found several Delaware R17. But, I was unable to find T44 in Ohio. When I looked up R17 in Texas and Oklahoma, I did find matches. Hopefully this helps you in your search.