Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[TillyPeeps]

Well I went to bed with this.......







And woke up with this...............



Two more external pips this morning so I should have three of the little buggers running around when I get home from work.

Congratulations! What breed is the chick?

 

[Chaos18]

It's a Dominique, as are the other two that have piped.

 

[TillyPeeps]

Well, if she was really interested, I have a chocolate layer, green layer, and off white in the brooder now lol. I can't giants they're pullets though. I have 1 black copper marans chick, a bunch of ameraucana/rhodebar chicks, and a little cross beak silkie chick looking for a home.

Speaking of which, if anyone would like a silkie, this little one is looking for a pet home. She/he has a cross beak. It's not causing any problems yet.the picture is from about a week ago. She/he is about a month old.

Hope the little one will find a good home, she is so cute. Too bad that your ameraucana/rhodebar chicks are not autosexing (Theoretically, black ameraucana roo x rhodebar hens should be, since only males are barred.). They will be great green egg layers.

Maybe you can put the chicks on sale on Craigslist.

 

[TillyPeeps]

It's a Dominique, as are the other two that have piped.

That's exciting!

 

[TillyPeeps]

I've had a few Welsummer/Welbar eggs that might be viewed as pink, if your definition of "pink" is pretty liberal. They seem to have an excess of bloom that gives them a different look that is kind of pinkish, but it's only occasional, not a particular hen that lays them consistently. I'm pretty sure no chicken lays a consistent, repeatable pink. The Croat Langshans have that reputation, but if they do, it's certainly not all the strains, my late uncle, and now my cousin has had top show stock for decades and I've never seen a pink egg. I'm pretty sure they would have told me if that had pink eggs - it would help chicken sales for sure.

The other colors are easy, of course. If a friend asked me to get a flock like this, I would give them:
- Black sexlink that lays blue eggs
- Cream Legbar
- Welbar or Welsummer
- Bielefelder or Olive Egger

The Welsummers and Olive Eggers are a bit "iffy" about sexing as chicks. If they were close by (so I could take back the extras, meaning we could do straight-run), I'd add some blue Copper Marans or blue Ameraucanas to get a blue colored hen, taking back any cockerels and extra pullets.

Gosh, only 4? This would be so much better with 8 or 10 . . .

I'm supprised that it's Welsummer/Welbar laying pinkish eggs. I thought you would mention Rhodebar. I heard some light brown egg layers, such as Australorp and Barred rocks, lay pinkish eggs.

By the way, did you used Rhodebar or Barred Rock to create your Welbar? If you used Rhodebar, then theoretically they are not welbars but a brand new chicken breed, that could named after you. You may publish a journal paper about it and become a famous breeder.

 

[dheltzel]

I'm supprised that it's Welsummer/Welbar laying pinkish eggs. I thought you would mention Rhodebar. I heard some light brown egg layers, such as Australorp and Barred rocks, lay pinkish eggs.

By the way, did you used Rhodebar or Barred Rock to create your Welbar? If you used Rhodebar, then theoretically they are not welbars but a brand new chicken breed, that could named after you. You may publish a journal paper about it and become a famous breeder.

I think the pink color is a physiological anomaly, like extra large or extra small eggs. Sort of a mis-fire on the amount of bloom that hen produces. I wonder if those eggs would hatch better or worse?

I used a commercial Barred Rock to start with, since I was looking to improve the laying ability of the Welsummers at the same time. That seems to have worked, I often get 6 eggs from the 7 pullets, and most are very dark despite the high lay rate, though that is likely to fade as their egg "cycle" progresses. I used the recipe for Welbars that you can find on some of the sites with autosexing info. The classic recipe is barred rock to brown leghorn, to make a legbar with white (or more likely, light brown) eggs and no crest. I subbed the Welsummer for the brown leghorn.

This is an excellent page about the history of Welbars in the UK: http://www.harislau.info/welbars
I followed the recipe on that page exactly and have hens that look just like the ones on that page. Fortunately, their eggs are much darker than the egg picture there. I truly can't tell the difference between them and the pure Welsummer and BCM eggs.

 

[TillyPeeps]

I think the pink color is a physiological anomaly, like extra large or extra small eggs. Sort of a mis-fire on the amount of bloom that hen produces. I wonder if those eggs would hatch better or worse?

I used a commercial Barred Rock to start with, since I was looking to improve the laying ability of the Welsummers at the same time. That seems to have worked, I often get 6 eggs from the 7 pullets, and most are very dark despite the high lay rate, though that is likely to fade as their egg "cycle" progresses. I used the recipe for Welbars that you can find on some of the sites with autosexing info. The classic recipe is barred rock to brown leghorn, to make a legbar with white (or more likely, light brown) eggs and no crest. I subbed the Welsummer for the brown leghorn.

This is an excellent page about the history of Welbars in the UK: http://www.harislau.info/welbars
I followed the recipe on that page exactly and have hens that look just like the ones on that page. Fortunately, their eggs are much darker than the egg picture there. I truly can't tell the difference between them and the pure Welsummer and BCM eggs.

I read that website before and noticed that their egg color are lighter than yours. That's why I was wondering if you used Rhodebar instead of Barred rocks. Any way, your welbars seem be a lot better (production, color, personality, etc.) than the ones they created. If they breed true, you should create a thread for your welbars on BYC breeding section, so people know that they have a better choice. To be honest, the welbars shown on the original website don't sound very exciting, but yours birds are totally different story.

 

[dheltzel]

I read that website before and noticed that their egg color are lighter than yours. That's why I was wondering if you used Rhodebar instead of Barred rocks. Any way, your welbars seem be a lot better (production, color, personality, etc.) than the ones they created. If they breed true, you should create a thread for your welbars on BYC breeding section, so people know that they have a better choice. To be honest, the welbars shown on the original website don't sound very exciting, but yours birds are totally different story.

If I were starting now, I would use a Bielefelder to create Welbars instead of Barred Rocks. In the end, a BF is so much like a Welbar that it would have saved me a year or more of work. The main difference is egg color and give that a BF's egg is already markedly darker than a Rock egg, that would have made that part easier too. I will probably do that cross anyway and see if the resulting hens are better in any way than the Welbars I created from BR's.

All the other autosexing breeds had to make significant "tweaks" to the genetics to get them pure again. A great example is the Rhodebar, the people trying to improve them by crossing to heritage RIR have a rather long road to get back to autosexing because of some interfering genes in the RIR that must be eliminated. Those genes are not in the Welsummers, so a straight cross of a Welbar roo (or a Rhodebar or BF roo, for that matter) will create "welbar" pullets that are truly autosexing if crossed to any autosexing roo. This is true of any of the autosexing breeds, so a cross of Welbar to Legbar would create autosexing olive eggers, and a Rhodebar to BF should make an awesome laying hybrid that retains the autosexing traits and adds in some "hybrid vigor" (as we used to call it in the horticulture world).

I find the genetics of autosexing so interesting. I love the Welbars because I made them, but now the possibilities for creating additional, designer autosexing pullets is intriguing. Maybe I should call my business "Designing Chickens" or "Designing Poultry" (a play on "Designing Women", for anyone old enough to remember).

 

[syndie]

(a play on "Designing Women", for anyone old enough to remember).

 

[TillyPeeps]

If I were starting now, I would use a Bielefelder to create Welbars instead of Barred Rocks. In the end, a BF is so much like a Welbar that it would have saved me a year or more of work. The main difference is egg color and give that a BF's egg is already markedly darker than a Rock egg, that would have made that part easier too. I will probably do that cross anyway and see if the resulting hens are better in any way than the Welbars I created from BR's.

All the other autosexing breeds had to make significant "tweaks" to the genetics to get them pure again. A great example is the Rhodebar, the people trying to improve them by crossing to heritage RIR have a rather long road to get back to autosexing because of some interfering genes in the RIR that must be eliminated. Those genes are not in the Welsummers, so a straight cross of a Welbar roo (or a Rhodebar or BF roo, for that matter) will create "welbar" pullets that are truly autosexing if crossed to any autosexing roo. This is true of any of the autosexing breeds, so a cross of Welbar to Legbar would create autosexing olive eggers, and a Rhodebar to BF should make an awesome laying hybrid that retains the autosexing traits and adds in some "hybrid vigor" (as we used to call it in the horticulture world).

I find the genetics of autosexing so interesting. I love the Welbars because I made them, but now the possibilities for creating additional, designer autosexing pullets is intriguing. Maybe I should call my business "Designing Chickens" or "Designing Poultry" (a play on "Designing Women", for anyone old enough to remember).

I like "Designing Poultry", very impressive.

Bielefelders are really good-looking gentle birds, but is their production as good as barred rock? Any way, I think your current Welbars are really perfect for the future market: beautiful autosexing chickens with the best production of dark brown eggs. What can you ask more for a chicken? After you confirm that they breed true and get more chicks, you should start to show the BYC people about it. I'm petty sure that there will be a big market for them.