Answer to the Delaware Dilemma

[speckledhen]

I sure hope you can determine what the actual ailment is. I'm sorry for your trouble! I hate to be the voice of doom and gloom, but I just want folks to know that chicken diseases aren't quite the same as human ones, other than the fact that some of them are like herpes-type viruses, which remain in the body after the symptoms are gone.

 

[jeremy]

Here's a couple shots of the pair that I hatched from Cynthia, please be objective!
They were 5 months old on the 1st, hatched April 1st.

I just realized I didn't take a picture of Quasi's comb, or her tail black... whoops. I'll have to post some more tomorrow!

So?

 

[speckledhen]

Remind me, Jeremy; how many hatched? I know you got a couple dwarves, but now my dwarf producer isn't here anymore (Kira); were there any others besides those and Quasi and Stewart?

Stewart has a chunk out of the underside of the back of his comb, poor guy! Who did that to him? If they get into a tussle, seems they always lose a chunk from there. He is looking pretty good, but he's still young. He'll fill out even more as he approaches a year old. Quasi must be Georgie's daughter--the hackles are like hers, a bit heavy on the dark/solid side.

 

[Serrin]

Quote:
Well, thank you! As a District Director of the APA (Dist 8 AZ,CA,NV,NM and UT) I try to promote pure bred poultry when I have a chance. There is a lot of mis-information online, so when I can, I like to offer my input. I have not raised Dels, but I have raised many other varieties/breeds, many would be called heritage breeds now, but in the day they were just called rare breeds. At one time I had 48 breeds and varieties at one time for a total of 1400+ birds. My wife would say "have you always had all these different kinds of chickens"?....."oh yes, aren't they purty"?...then hope lightning didn't strike! hahaha It is cheaper than a psychiatrist and it keeps me out of taverns.

Walt

Ain't that the truth! For my dad, it was always pigeons. For me it's chickens! There are days where, were it not for my birds, I'd probably end up in the tavern!

Fourteen HUNDRED chickens?

The logistics of that alone must have been mind boggling!! How many do you currently have, and what breeds are you working on now? Any Blue Laced Red Wyandottes? Besides Dels, that's the one breed I'd really love to have.

They're just so darn pretty!

 

[joletabey]

Jeremy, Quasi looks like a lighter version of my Lizzie- wonder if they had the same mama.
Is that Stewart?

 

[Serrin]

Jeremy, you always get such awesome pictures of your birds!

And I want to know how you do it! Granted, it helps to have a beautiful subject to photograph in the first place, but even your close ups are amazing!

 

[kathyinmo]

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I want some of those, too! AND the Silver Laced ones! OOoooooohhhhhh, so purdy!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

This is my original parent stock I hatched from eggs, and culled down to these as breeders. They were around 5-6 months in these pics.
Original roo.

Hen one.

Hen two.

Front view of original roo.

These are several of the first offspring including the little roo I plan on using this next generation with some new blood.

Walt, would you kindly tell me what you think? Pretty please

All these pics are birds that are around 5-6 months old. I think I have pretty good birds as far as type. Do I have something to work with here or should I consider them utility? I am really not into Dels for showing, but would like to know if I have decent stock or not. I was told they were not hatchery by the person I got eggs from, but others I have asked tend to think they are hatchery grade.

I have only been raising these birds for a couple years, so I would like a more experienced opinion. I very much appreciate your input in this thread. I have learned a lot already

Very nice of you to take the time to patiently teach some of us newbies

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
Out of the 30 I only had 6 eggs hatch Cyn. 1 we euthenised at 2 days old, it had a slipped tendon that we just couldn't correct no matter how hard I tried. Believe me, I did try.

One chick was a dwarf, I do believe it was out of the egg labeled Kira. It lived until almost a month old, I believe, then we decided to cull it because it was beginning to be malnourished and just couldn't keep up with the others. It was literally like a third of the size of it's hatch mates and would just get trampled when it was feeding time. It was heartbreaking. The remaining 4 chicks were Stewart, 2 other cockerels and my Quasi. Whom if I hadn't helped out of the shell she would have died due to being shrink wrapped during zipping. She pipped and zipped but just couldn't get out of the egg, after just over 24 hours I decided to intervene and help her hatch. If I hadn't I would have been left with all boys!

Anyways, out of the three cockerels Stewart looked to be the most promising when they started to fill in and mature, he was always the biggest and next to one other he had the most perfect color. One of the cockerels looked like a Colombian Rock, green tail feathers with super messy hackle feathers. He was also kind of a 'tard...

He would just run dead into the walls of the brooder for no apparent reason! The other cockerel showed signs of aggression at an early age, he hated to be handled and was mean to the other chicks. Always biting and pecking the pullets and constantly sparring with his brothers. I thought about keeping him around for awhile to see how he matured, but I decided to risk it and rehomed everyone but Stewart. Thus far, I'm happy with his development.

As for his comb, you can blame that on my BW Ameraucana cockerel, Claude. That missing chunk is actually the reason Claude was moved into the layers pen with the older women, I was so mad Claude almost became dinner. I couldn't chance him taking a bigger bite out of Stewart's comb so I separated the two. They've had some interaction since then and have both been on their best behaviors. It's really not fair, Claude literally has next to no comb for Stewart to try and get his beak around, where Claude could bite off Stewart's all day long! Stupid bird... if he weren't so pretty he would probably be living somewhere else.

Quote:
Yup, that's Stewart!

ETA:

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It's all the camera! I dropped a bit of cash on a nicer digital Canon and it does everything for me.

I was also outside for about 2 hours, trying to get these shots. I took about 40 pictures originally and only kept the ones I posted. Sheesh!

 

[speckledhen]

Sure took us awhile to determine which hen was throwing dwarves, but thanks to the brilliant coincidence of Cetawin's vet doing research on dwarfism in poultry and doing genetic testing on Isaac's daughters, we finally found out that Kira carried a double dwarf gene. She and Isaac were in no way related, so Ike was cleared of all charges, LOL. That was so interesting. Kira, Phoebe and Kira's daughter, Gracie, went to live with someone who only wanted a few laying hens. Gracie was chunky with a near perfect 5 point comb, but she had the possibility of carrying that gene.