Answer to the Delaware Dilemma

[joletabey]

Thank you, Cynthia, that is a wonderful and encouraging reminder! My girls are in for the beginning!!! And I don't care if it takes a while, I honestly do think that is part of the fun.

 

[kathyinmo]

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For sure! Just takes time, and we all have time, right?

 

[aveca]

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Delawares should have, "rich yellow," legs, according to the SOP. The difficulty is keeping them that color. As soon as the girls begin to lay, their legs pale.

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Jeremy,
I was told that a pinched tail is like .... well, like when you take your thumb and finger and crease a piece of paper (set it down like a tent) .... Imagine doing that along the back of the chicken, and there will be a ^ (an upside down V) shape looking from behind. That is the pinched tail.

In your first picture, in the center, is an example of a pinched tail.

Its that picture that was posted above, The leg color looked off..I know they are supposde to be a bright yellow, Ricks are blinding yellow LOL...almost like somebody painted them that way...Im sure it was just the light the pics were taken in...They looked a pale grey, or off white but certian light conditions can do that. Like those people who take pics of thier blue eggs one with flash on one with flash off..Makes quite a difference , sometimes the flash washes out the bright blue eggie. Im thinking the shaded light and shadow changed the color..

 

[mama24]

This thread is interesting. I just got my first chickens this past Saturday from a local breeder. I had no idea what I was buying, I just wanted some good large layers. He really talked up the Delawares and convinced me to take them over the other layers he had. I got 3 hens and 1 rooster. They are about 8 months old, so still pretty young (are they technically too young to be called hens and rooster? The hens are laying.) He told me they were show quality, but after reading this thread, I am not so sure. I think their color is good, but they are pretty thin (maybe b/c they're so young?) and I think the girls definitely have pinched tails. Here's a pic, what do you think? Just out of curiosity, I got them for eggs, didn't care if they were show quality or not. Only took the roo b/c he wouldn't sell the hens unless I took him, too. Pictures aren't the best, took them w/ my phone the first day we got them. If you want better pics, I can try again tomorrow.

The colors are a little washed out. The tail feathers are black black, the roo's are definitely all barred. They all have bright yellow legs. Almost like a lemon. They look much lighter in the pics. Oh, and the brown on that one girl is dirt. She got pooped on during transport.

They are all snow white except for the tails and around their necks. They're so pretty! I love them!

 

[kathyinmo]

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From this I learned to look at the legs in a new way .... to look at how widely they are spaced. I did not know to do that. I just love learning new clues to look for. Thank you.

 

[joletabey]

Yes, leg spacing is something that I had not realized was that important, either. ALSO, not just the angle of the tail, but that is should smoothly rise out of the body, and not jut out - it seems to jut out on roo's that have too long a back.

What is really nice is all these people popping up with Delawares all of a sudden - YAY!!!

Mama24- It is hard to see the actual hackle markings in those pictures. They should be irregularly barred , not pencilled, so do check that out. Your roo looks slender in the first picture and fairly round in the second picture. ??? And yes, you want the yellow legs. The tails on the roos are supposed to be black and white, but your boy could produce hens with great tail black. At 8 months they could still fill out more, especially if they are thin because of not getting proper food. See what happens over the next month or two, if they fill out more. They are supposed to be wide, broad, chunky birds. The wing set looks great on all of them, and in the first picture, the girl on the far right looks like she has a good tail.
Don't you just love their personalities?

 

[speckledhen]

Isaac's wide stance should pass on to most of his progeny, I'd think. He is a big guy, I just can't seem to get many pics that show it since he's in perpetual motion, LOL. This pic when he was about 26 weeks old shows the leg spread pretty well. He's gotten so much bigger and more bulky since then; you just can't judge this breed too early for culling, except for obvious bad flaws like side sprigs.

To me, Ike's temperament is worth more than his lack of perfection. If I had the perfect boy, conformation-wise, but he was an aggressive jerk, I wouldn't risk passing that on. Some folks don't seem to care about that, but I think good calm temperament is worth more than all the perfect whatever in the world.

When I have a broody next year, I may put some Delaware eggs underneath her, even if I don't plan to keep the kids. It's easier to rehome purebred type birds, it seems, than crosses. Anyway, was just showing the leg spacing on my guy.

This last pic shows Kira's tail. She had an awful comb, but I think her tail black and tail spread was pretty good. She passed on those traits to her daughters most of the time. Ike's influence fixed the comb issue, though. She doesn't have wry tail, was just bending sideways to get some food on the ground. I rehomed her awhile back to someone who didn't breed them since she was a good layer, but carried that dwarf gene.

 

[fowlman01]

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You want good leg spacing to show the capacity of the abdomen to accommodate the chickens organs. (makes sense, doesn't it?) We see many chickens with legs close together and this indicates an un-thrifty chicken. Many times legs too close will result in a knock kneed bird. Look at the APA SOP picture of the female and you will see that the tail comes up from the back at a 30 degree angle. It is not like a Rock or Orp that goes in one continuous line. The males has a continuous line from the shoulders. It should be 40 degrees with no noticeable break like the female has.

Many birds look OK from the side. The front/rear view separates the good from the bad. A Del should not look skinny from the front/rear view.

Walt

 

[mama24]

Here are some better pics of my birds, taken with a real camera.

They are around 8 mos old.

 

[joletabey]

So as I understand this, looking at a hen from behind, you should see almost an open triangle made of the black feathers, and this should be a fairly wide triangle? That is hard to tell from the SOP picture, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense if the bird is really a wide, broad bodied chicken.