Delaware

This is getting to be my favorite chicken. Mine come from about 4 different bloodlines and Im really happy with them. I think one of the best chickens for anyone wanting a real dual purpose bird.

these are my daughter's favorite.

Our Delaware rooster is very VERY aggressive. You can lay scratch down for him, and when you walk away, he'll flog you. We carry a lunge whip with us while we work in the barn just in case he needs a lesson taught to him. Again. But, he protects the hens. We also had guineas for a short period of time, not long after we got him, and the guineas and George didn't get along, so who knows why he's mean.

My Dellie is about 4 years old and she still lays 4-5 huge eggs per week. She is my lead hen and a very big girl. I watched her sitting on the nest the other day. She suddenly stood straight up, head toward the ceiling and tail toward the floor in a full body elongation and out came this massive egg. The she looked at me as if to say, "That's how you get this job done!" Impressive.

I currently have a flock of Dels. They always seem to be finding their way out of the yard to forage! They are good escape artists and lay wonderful brown eggs.
The breasts on them are much bigger than other DP birds we have used.The feathers are white so the carcass looks clean.
I did have an issue with frostbite on my roos due to the size of the comb, even though it was a mild winter here.My birds seem to stick to their own kind pretty much but have had no problems with the others.
The roo I have is fairly quiet and all the hens are quite laid back.
I like this breed.

I have 7 Delawares and 2 EE's, all are 8 months old and just hitting their stride as layers. They started laying sporatically at 6 months old in the middle of winter and for the last 3 weeks I've gotten 6-8 eggs a day without extra lighting. Haven't seen any aggressiveness towards the EE's. The Del's are curious, friendly, easy to catch, even for my two year old son. They follow me in the house if I leave the door open. They have gotten a bit demanding when they expect treats--they mug the dogs for dog food ( is that recommended layer diet?)

I love my Suzie Q Delaware hen. She has only been broody once, but she raised a nice brood and was a good mother, and easy to handle even with her babies. She is friendly and loves to beg for food. Main concern is that she eats too much..she is a bit overweight. She tolerates all types of weather and keeps on keeping on!

I got 3 of these. They all liked to keep there distance. There markings from my untrained eye seemed pretty good. I sold 2 and kept one. Now that she is laying and I have been playing with her she seems to be getting a lot more friendly. Hopefully the fact that she is super white doesn't make her an easy target for hawks!

I've only had a Delaware Rooster but I totally do not regret having this bird, he quiet and he doesn't jump on the hens.

If I could only have one kind of chicken forever, it would be Delawares. They are just smart and friendly and healthy and very reliable layers. Two things: they peck at people's clothes (I've heard other people say this too) and they have a really hard molt once a year that makes them lose more feathers than the other hens: picture a pillow exploding. Sometimes there's a few days during their molt where they have difficulty walking -- they do a weird backwards walking thing. They get over it, though.

Delawares are a wonderful dual purpose breed. Both males and females produce very good meat and the hens are loyal in their egg laying services. My experience has been mostly good. I picked a trio out of a lot I bought for meat. The rooster was a real sweetheart (until a bad experience turned him mean) and the hens were the same. They did eat a lot, but that's to be expected since Dellies are more on the heavy side of dual purpose. Overall, I loved them and definitely will try to get into breeding them.

haven't had these very long but i am impressed overall with them.

Recently added this breed from a local breeder. They are starting to lay at 16 weeks. Good sized birds from a combination of 2 strong breeder lines. I expect them to grow into large duel purpose birds. I plan to breed these myself to keep them in my flock.

I had two to begin with, but one turned out to be a rooster and I had to cull him. Both were the friendliest and smartest of my birds, and they sat beside me while I gardened, waiting for me to throw them weeds or worms. Now that the chickens are laying age (sans rooster,) the hen gives me a large egg at least 5 times a week. She's extremely intelligent, and she knows exactly where her treats come from. If I don't let her out during the day, she can be quite vocal about her desires, while the other hens cluck happily in confinement. Very well-mannered, hasn't been aggressive at all. But if I walk in her area holding something in my hand, she will assume it's a treat for her and will jump up to grab it from me.

Right now I have a trio with one rooster and two hens of varying age. The rooster is friendly and smart. I hatched him out myself and he does very well with the other birds. I did have a few roosters that I hatched out from the same group that were a bit pushy with the other chickens. Since that's not a trait I want in my flock I didn't keep those birds for breeding. The three I have are as sweet as can be. My nephew can pick them all up. They will not bite or scratch and they actually will step up onto your arm if you ask them to. They love human attention but are okay with being on their own too.

As far as their use as Dual Purpose birds they seem small compared to some of my other birds but boy when you pick them up you can feel that they are SOLID. They have more breast meat than my other DP birds and the white feathers makes them fairly easy to pluck as well.

I really have nothing bad to say about them they are amazing birds.

I bought my Delaware with a group of breeds thinking I was getting a great bird that would do well in a mixed flock and also be a good egglayer.

Wrong.

Even though I raised my hen with docile breeds, it didn't matter at all. It was soon clear when they hit laying age that she was highly aggressive and completely intolerable to everyone else. She would chase down my other birds just to pull their feathers out! She literally terrorized them and would not leave them be. The breaking point was when some of the birds couldn't even eat because of her. She had to go!!

She began laying early and laid every day, great sized eggs for a pullet, but in my book if a bird cannot get along with other breeds and be a good layer then they might as well be worthless. I thought perhaps she was a fluke, but I was proved wrong when many other Delaware owners or previous owners told me that they absolutely couldn't have them in a flock with any birds who weren't also bird aggressive.

While little Lilly was a good girl to me, I will never own another Delaware again.

Last year, I decided I needed some chickens. I bought three breeds....Delawares, Speckled Sussex and Blue Lace Red Wyandottes. They were raised together. Of the three, the Delawares are the only breed I will continue with. They are interesting, inquisitive and intelligent. They are friendly with my grandson and lay very well.

I find my Delawares to be friendly and calm. I have only had one rooster (out of many) that was a bit aggressive towards the girls, yet even he never tried to be aggressive towards any humans (even my young daughter). All of my Delawares lay nice large brown eggs very consistently, free range well, and are calm and well behaved. I believe so much that the breed is one of a few near perfect birds for the back yard fancy that I have started to breed them. One of the better breeds if you have children that like to handle the chickens.

This is a great bird, especially for those who have young children. They are full of personality, not to mention they lay great through all weather and just plain pretty to look at.