Search results for query: *

Oh how sad. :hit

This right here is one of the reasons why I enjoy talking chicken with @BGMatt People tend to offer unsolicited advice in the "Why don't you just ...!" argumentative tone. And after talking to Matt I have some handy answers. Judging from the number of places people can buy Delawares with...

I've probably asked you this before, because I ask this question a lot, but I don't recall anyone has ever answered it: Do you know of any birds achieving those weights in that time and also laying like that? Any breed/strain/line will do except any of the commercial hybrids (and by "commercial...

Ahhhhhhhh! I'm not quite old enough to have know that, and didn't know to look it up (cuz the post had other little accuracy/transcription/formatting issues that sent my brain spinning). This is all starting to make more sense!!! -- I've been asking about how birds were dressed back in the...

There are people out there advertising Delawares harvestable at 12-14 weeks. But I have never gotten proof that any of today's Delawares perform that way. Maaaaaaaybe in an industrial setting? On pasture people typically suggest 2 extra weeks. I've never harvests any of mine that young. I don't...

I was told a version of that first thing by a poultry scientist interested in small flock/pastured poultry production ... that with our better feed we should get BETTER results today than they did back when Delawares were used in the Industry. The science I've read on the topic suggests that...

Oh, I've read comments about recreated Delawares perhaps not being true Delawares. Interesting considering the "if it looks like X breed, it is X breed" tradition of poultry. I do wonder if we knew a bit more about Ellis' recipe and breeding practices how that might help the breed reach its...

My breeding group is working these Delawares. They're about as close to the standard description of any Delawares are. We do have questions about the production qualities of these Delawares, but also we have questions about the production qualities of all Delawares. It's hard to tweeze the fact...

I'm eating more eggs lately. I'm feeling SO much better!! This is no small thing for me. Not perfect, but way more functional. I think if it were legal for me to sell my egg salad, I could get rich. I only learned to make it a few weeks ago. My best friend kept telling me to boil my eggs ... I...

Regarding cholesterol in eggs, I read a thing that tested store bit regular, store bought organic, pastured regular, pastured organic, and pastured soy free eggs. It suggested pastured eggs have a more healthy fat balance (omega 3 to omega 6) over caged eggs, but pastured soy-free eggs had the...

I've been asking around ... does anyone here have a chart for tracking chick growth? Care to share?

This year the pullet eggs from the breeding pen started out larger than last year. That seems like a good sign. I was able to select the breeding pullets better for type this year, for one thing. Also, we've been steadily improving our management of the flock, and I can see that in improved...

Agreed. That's my goal. To get the pullets in their own pen so I can track weeks to POL and then count eggs for the whole "year." So far, I've only been tracking Delaware-specific eggs seasonally, which gives an overly optimistic impression.

@gjensen, thanks for the positive feedback. It means a lot coming from you. I like the color pattern, too. The barring is an interesting variation. I really love the dark tail with buff like on Brahmas, or golden red body color like on New Hampshires. I hope we can keep improving the color in...

Thanks! Of course the color looks better in photos. But I'm pretty satisfied that we found the best birds for the breeding pens. I checked some eggs for fertility this morning and it looks good. Now I need to sort out an incubator cuz I think I'm going to cull the laying flock down to, like...

I do think the Buckeyes are more improved at this point. That's such a cool breed. I think Delawares might make a comeback. We're are working on it. Trying to figure out some real-life ways to measure things like "feed conversion ratio" so we can communicate accurately with people who want to...

I know that for Delawares, what's left of the breed wasn't maintained for conformity to the Standard, nor was it maintained for production performance. The hatchery Delawares do seem to lay early and well like other hatchery breeds do, maybe even producing more eggs in their pullet year than...

The question of productivity comes up a lot with the Delawares. People are often disappointed when Delawares don't perform as expected (Industrial-quality meat bird that also lays giant eggs all winter), so I'm often wondering how we can work on that problem from two directions: 1) make sure our...

Is it that our standards have shifted? Or our breeds have deteriorated? Deteriorated by hatchery productivity practices, or breeding the annoying productivity out of them to enhance their show potential? Or were they just never any good? I think the only way we can even assess their potential...