One last answer. No, I don't find that they feather slowly, quite the opposite. However, since I've never had any other Delaware strain I have nothing to compare them with that would be "apples to apples". They feather as fast or faster than anything else I am currently raising. I am in F6 now...
"Fairies" I like that-not PC though. Another reason I'm about done with this site. I usually mean what I say & having it constantly changed is annoying.
For my money there's no better place to start than chicks from Kathy Bonham-if she's still selling them that is.. Mine came from her & they've done very well for me. I even got a couple on Champion Row last year. They got a lot of attention everywhere I showed them. People said they didn't know...
Andalusians are an old breed-they were in the first APA Standard & existed long before that. If there are "health issues" singular to Andalusians it's news to me.
It's not uncommon. There is Cochin in the background development of Wyandotte Bantams. It is however a disqualification so be careful about breeding from birds with feathers on their legs.
As I assumed this section is shaping up to vary little from the rest of the site. There are already posts about crossing EEs with something else & several references to people's "babies". It was a nice idea, a forum for serious breeder, but it is after all BYC.
What you're describing sounds more like Angel Wing to me. It happens often in waterfowl given too much protein too early. Slipped wing is when the primary feathers may overlap in reverse order or there is a tendency for theprimary feathers to be held outside the secondaries when the wing is...
I have never had an infertile or otherwise unhatchable chicken egg blow up in the incubator. Guinea & waterfowl eggs are an other matter. Those I'm vigilant about. You only need to have one blow up once to make you not want it to happen again.
Yes, mottled birds tend to lighten with age. This can affect their performance in the show room but it doesn't alter their genetics so there would be no reason not to keep them as breeders if they were good as young birds.
You should probably check the definition of quarantine. Keeping them in the same space behind wire accomplishes nothing. Many pathogens are air bourne & wire won't stop the exchange of particulate matter.