Answer to the Delaware Dilemma

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Original parent stock: The male appears to have good type and body, with the exception of the tail break. You should not see a severe angle. It should transition in one straight line. Great body and wing carriage. Color seems good for that age.

Hen #1 seems very good, but needs more color. It may need a wider head, but it is hard to tell. Hen #2 appears to be too shallow in the front end and seems to have a pinched tail.

Front view of the original male seems good, but legs MIGHT be too close together. I can't see well enough.

Female on the ground: Note that it flows to the back with no segments. This is how a top view should look. If held in the hand and tilted forward I would guess that it would be almost the same width from shoulder to end of tail. This is a good thing!

Last male: he has kind of a strange comb. It follows the head, but the two back points are quite long. Just doesn't look right. I wouldn't worry about that though. He has a great body. His tail is too high and he has a tail break. I would use him as a breeder. mate him with a hen that has a lower tail or even a totally horizontal tail.
His right foot appears to have a crooked toe. Not a DQ and it is so slight I would not worry about it unless you find that he throws chicks with crooked toes. His wing carriage looks a bit low.

Walt

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Oh, but the crooked toes developed over time. They did not hatch out that way. All of the dwarf signs took time to develop, and were not apparent at hatch.

 

[speckledhen]

We were all stunned when these dwarves popped up. The breeder I got the eggs from both times has never seen a dwarf from her hatches and that was probably because my Kira was the first hen where the genes "met" and it went from there. The dwarfism took a few weeks to become apparent to us each time it happened. If I had known it was Kira throwing them, of course, I'd have eliminated her eggs from the equation immediately. Just one of those strange things that happens when genes combine, I guess.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
You never know what will happen when certain genes pop up. It is too bad that you don't see it right away. There are some folks that would say that it is vitamin problem if you don't see it right away, but I think it is genetic. I will ask a friend about it. He seems to know all about these strange things.

Walt

 

[speckledhen]

My breeders were the picture of health, ate regular pelleted feed supplemented with extra calcium, probiotics and fish protein weekly, plus on occasion, I mixed up a batch of Avia Charge 2000 for them so I'm positive it's not related to vitamins. And when the vet did genetic testing on Kira's daughter and found her to be carrying a double dwarf gene, that was the "A-ha!" moment for us.

I found there are several forms of dwarfism. A dwarf or two has spontaneously appeared in my Barred Rock lines over the last five years, but those were normal birds, just small and short legged. They had no health issues like these Delaware dwarves did.

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
So would you eliminate either of these birds from a breeding pen for the above reasons?
Or just cull their respective offspring accordingly? (If necessary.)

I understand what you mean when you talk about tilting the birds forward to see the width of the tail. I have a Polish pullet that whenever I pick her up she automatically squats forward and her tail opens up like a Chinese fan.

Is the cushion that you mentioned in the pullet something that you still want in your birds even though it's associated with the pinched tail?

To address the leg color comment, they have lightened considerably from when they were younger but the pictures don't really show how yellow they still are now. Also, what exactly do you mean by the cockerels tail breaks? I've reviewed the pictures but I'm having a hard time understanding for some reason.

Thank you for your assesment Walt!

 

[joletabey]

Jeremy, I might be able to answer that last one, at least I want to see if I have learned anything!

I think a tail "break" is when the tail juts up from the line of the back instead of flowing smoothly from the back like the SOP picture. If you look at the SOP and then look at one of the photos, you will see a sharp "inside corner" where the tail leaves the back.

 

[jeremy]

Quote:
Ooh! That makes perfect sense Beth. There should be a smooth line from the back, up the tail. Correct?

 

[joletabey]

Yes, as I see it, it slopes up to the correct angle.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Quote:
Original parent stock: The male appears to have good type and body, with the exception of the tail break. You should not see a severe angle. It should transition in one straight line. Great body and wing carriage. Color seems good for that age.

Hen #1 seems very good, but needs more color. It may need a wider head, but it is hard to tell. Hen #2 appears to be too shallow in the front end and seems to have a pinched tail.

Front view of the original male seems good, but legs MIGHT be too close together. I can't see well enough.

Female on the ground: Note that it flows to the back with no segments. This is how a top view should look. If held in the hand and tilted forward I would guess that it would be almost the same width from shoulder to end of tail. This is a good thing!

Last male: he has kind of a strange comb. It follows the head, but the two back points are quite long. Just doesn't look right. I wouldn't worry about that though. He has a great body. His tail is too high and he has a tail break. I would use him as a breeder. mate him with a hen that has a lower tail or even a totally horizontal tail.
His right foot appears to have a crooked toe. Not a DQ and it is so slight I would not worry about it unless you find that he throws chicks with crooked toes. His wing carriage looks a bit low.

Walt

Thanks Walt! The young boys crooked toe is from his mean big sister

She pecked it when he was still very small, and I think it broke it...poor baby, never did heal up right. If he would ever be still I coulda gotten a better pic LOL! His ing carriage is actually quite good, but he was running in the pic, and it was hot outside, so he was carrying them down and away from his body a lot that day. I thought his comb was a bit funky too, but I'll work on that later

I am so THRILLED to have this information! Most of my girls look good, but most of the boys have a break in their tails. I have new blood in the bator though! Thank you again kathyinmo

Wish me luck!! I love my Dels!