Welsummer

Of ten hens I get about 4-5 eggs per day from 1st year hens. My rooster is not aggressive and is polite to the ladies. The eggs are not much darker than my other hens, some have fun speckling. When this bunch gets older I will replace them with Welsummer stock from a breeder or another autosexing breed, maybe Rhodebars.

I got my full grown Welsummer hens back in August 2012. They were plucked clean in lots of places from living in overcrowded conditions and being overbred. After getting them happy and healthy they started laying beautiful varied eggs. I am very very happy with them and will definitely get more.

I've been very happy with the welsumers I have in my flock. I make certain to include them in my annual chick order. They are fairly docile, productive and the eggs are really quite pretty....what more could anyone want? The hens are not flashy, not as colorful as others in the flock, but they get the job done!

such a beautiful colored chicken...she is always the first to run and greet me with her squwaking...can't say enough good things about this breed...waiting for her to start laying some eggs.

I have only had Welsummers about 3 months now but I am really enjoying the breed. They do tend to be a little shy but are curious and not overly flighty. Can't wait till I start getting some eggs.

I got my two off a woman who was getting rid of all hers, she didnt charge me much as she was in desperate need for them to go. They were both very confident towards the other hens, they layed very quickly after arriving and one went broody and sat on 26 eggs!!, the year after she toned it down and sat on 8. They were both timid and hard to catch. They are both dead now, one killed by a stoat and the other found dead on her back in the field, I miss having this breed in the flock and am looking forward to bringing it back in next year.

Great bird. I bought one with 10 chicks at a farm swap for fourty dollars. She raised her group very well. Then went missing! I was upset because I had lost my prized bird. Sure enough though three weeks later she came out from under our deck with 13 chicks! she had found a hidden nest of all of the others eggs and set. Great great mother. Always kept em safe and made sure to find lots of food for them. Lays beautiful light brown eggs. Perfectly shaped! great bird all around

I purchased my Welsummers at 8 weeks old, however they were tiny and sick with coccidia. They were improperly kept until I purchased them and had no enrichment what-so-ever. Despite this they were able to integrate with my existing flocks wonderfully and enjoy free-ranging and the often handed out treats. They are however non-trusting and flighty. I have gained much progress with them, having gone from a simple movement like scratching your nose and them flying up and freaking out, to hand feeding them.

Their eggs are beautiful! Their plumage is luxurious and vibrant. They are great at foraging around the farm and finding things to eat. They are however very vocal and when the lay an egg or are about to, everyone in the neighborhood knows it!

I would definitely purchase them again from chicks as I'm sure the behaviour of my flock had a lot to do with their chick-hood neglect.

I bought 2 chicks from a feed store that were supposed to be a different breed. Now that I know they were Welsummers I am pretty excited. They are a little more high strung than my other birds but they aren't crazy. They are 8 weeks old right now but I'm excited to see their dark eggs.

I have 5 of these sweet little birds. They are high to medium high on the pecking order and they are coopmates with 5 Buff Orpingtons and 4 Salmon Faverolles who were all purchased at the same time.

I have a rooster who has a large bright red comb and I knew he was a roo when he was about 3 1/2 - 4 weeks old. He will not let me pet him but he does walk fairly close to me. He was noisy at first but he seems to only make noise now when he is calling his girls. I have one that since she was a week old liked to peck at me, not mean, just to say hello - she is named Spike because she had one feather that stuck up on the right side of her comb. I have a smaller one that does get picked on a little bit and seems to be on the lower end of the pecking order - her name is Dot and she hangs out with her sister Dash sometimes and a Salmon Faverolle. Then I have one that I still haven't named yet who is just somewhere in the middle of the pecking order and seems to be docile and quiet.

They do have a beautiful cooing noise they make when they are happy and investigating something but mine will squawk when picked up at first then relax, coo and get petted. With the exception of Dot... She likes to be picked up.

I had a Broody Welsummer. She was an excellent mom!

"Penny" is a great chicken. She is not aggressive toward our other chickens. Nothing negative to say about her.

My Welsummers have been a great addition to the flock. We were trying to add darker egg color to the flock, so we kept a rooster for breeding. He is the most docile rooster we have ever had. He's quiet, and is a gentle breeder, doing the job without a lot of fuss or roughness. Hens are calm and quiet but avoid human contact.

The hens are productive, coming into production at around 20 weeks, like most of the heavies we have raised. They free range well, actively foraging through the brush and fields, with their neutral colors giving them a natural camouflage. They don't spend much time at the feeder. The hens do seem to seek out privacy for nesting, but for the most part they are using the nest boxes. Egg are large to x-large, dark brown, and firm shelled. Fertility has been excellent.

I can't offer any info on table qualities....we haven't processed any of these.

My experience is limited on this breed. Five chicks purchased from a hatchery a year ago. We free-range, with chickens closed into a pen at night. Ad lib layer pellets. 15 hour light regimen is maintained year round.

I would not hesitate to get more Welsummers, and make sure to stuff a couple of Welsummer eggs under every hen who goes broody.

I spent months researching what breed I wanted when I decided to get chickens about 4 years ago. I settled on the Welsummer for their reputaion as a great back-yard all-purpose bird, which is what they were designed to be. I also liked the idea of a dark brown or speckled egg. When I read Will's descrription of them on teh Whitmore Farm website (www.whitmorefarm.com) as his friendliest breed, who laid his customers' favorite eggs, I was sold. I drove down to his farm in western Maryland and brought home five of his babies, and enjoyed a wonderful tour of his gorgeous, well-managed operation. My girls started laying at four months (!) and one of them imediately went broody -- rare for a Wellie. My youngest son was entranced-- i remember watching him out the window one morning as he ran laughing into the coop, and came out with the broody pullet, Mrs. White. He plunked her down on trhe seat of our garden tractor, where she sat as stil as a statue for 30 minutes. When I asked him why he did this, he replied delightedly, "You can pick that chicken up and put her anywhere, and she just sits there!" After she got over her little hormonal fit, she became my best layer. alll five had very distinct egg patterns, shapes and sizes. They are great foragers, super-smart, with great survival instincts. They all seem to prefer to forage for seedheads on grasses rather than bugs, except for butterflies and moths, for some reason! I have four of the five left after four years.
The largest, heaviest one (probably close to 8 lbs) was found dead in my yard during a 100+ degree humid day (I am in Delaware). They have a nice grassy, shaded yard and plenty of water, but she was a big. heavy girl and it was just to much, I guess. Cold does not bother them, though they hate walking in snow (as do all my chickens). They are all still beautiful, a testament to their good breeding, I am sure. I get about an egg a week now from each, and what I love is that their eggs, unlike my other older hens', never got excessively large as they aged. They are nice, large, perfectly-shaped and speckled, which I love. they get lighter toward the end of the cycle, which is normal. They laid through the winter for two years, and started to taper off their third year, but I love their peronalities, so I will never put them down. They are laid back, but don't allow anyone to bully them, including the roos! They like to be around people, and come running when I go out, although they have never loved being held. If I need to handle them, I get them off the roost in the evening. I imagine they would make good table birds, too, being heavy, but I can't say since I could never bring myself to eat them ( although I have slaughtered and eaten others -- usually roos, or hens who were mean to other hens). I also have buff orps, Aussies, sex links, and have had barred rocks, but the Wellies are my favorite, and my egg customers love their speckled eggs the best. Once the coop got inadvertently closed and they could not get in. I got home after dark and saw this, and went out with a guilty, heavy heart. I looked around their yard and eventually found them all -- cleverly hidden under various objects like the wheelbarrow, a piece of plywood resting against the fence, etc. I tucked them under my arm and placed each one lovingly in their coop, none the worse for wear. They quietly murmered what sounded like " thanks" and hopped up on the roost. They have never been sick. My favorite whistles a quiet little song to me if I talk to her on her roost when they first go in, while she gently rocks back and forth. What's not to love?

I love my welsummers. They are really good hens and they lay beautiful dark brown eggs. They are docile and other breeds have a tendency to pick on them in confinement. Great foragers and lovely.

I got my Welsummers from a hatchery originally and I loved them.... until I saw the real thing! I was lucky to do a swap for some great Welsummer stock from Nate Vanwey. The difference between the breeder stock and the hatchery is amazing.

I love how pretty my girls are with their gold hackles and peachy colored breast feathers. And the roos are soooo handsome and polite.

They do well without a lot of space, but they also enjoy free ranging.

I bought some Welsummer hatching eggs but only one hatched (I was too impatient three years ago and kept candling the eggs) and of course it was a rooster.

That summer I hatched many roosters and most were purebreds (large variety) and I hated to give them up but slowly did. I kept the Welsummer because he was always bullied and had to stay away from the main flock all day long. Once he was the head rooster he "came into his own" got on very well with everyone.

He was a good "watch dog", alerting the hens to danger when ever necessary. He managed to live here three years and no predators got him - my second oldest chicken to date. We lose many chickens every year.

He is good with hens, not a pain in butt jumping on them all day long. He helps them forage well.

I just gave him away three weeks ago to a family with children and hens because I had too many of his offspring and I need to hatch eggs every year to replenish my flock. But I have some lovely mixed hens that are his offspring that lay very nice dark speckled eggs. I miss seeing him but he has a safer home now.

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Beautiful bird and beautiful eggs; not as early to mature or as prolific and consistent a layer as some, but still good. Friendly, but prefers to be left to do their own thing. Always puzzling out how to get into something they shouldn't!