Delawares @ 30 Wks (Pics of Isaac & His Ladies)

[Barred Rocker]

They are so beautiful. Can't wait to start my flock next spring.

 

[lone cedar farm]

Delawares are sharp birds for sure, hope to raise some one of these days!

 

[speckledhen]

They are fabulous layers. A couple of my girls lay very dark, peachy-tan eggs, really pretty.

 

[Chickens in Elmwood]

Quote:
Your frownies would have been better if they had been smilies...

 

[walkswithdog]

He's looking good, so is his cousin but we had a set of problems the last few weeks. Algernon broke into the scratch sack and ate all he wanted for DAYS maybe a week before I caught him at it - ugh yellow bird, then... my toyota sprung an oil leak and I have an entire flock of tan/oil spotted hens. ADD the stupid RED CLAY from all the incessant rain and soggy here this year and my Delawares are no longer spotless and shiny white and I am sad....

If it ever ever stops raining I will give them all baths and wait for Algernon's idiotic yellow to fall back out, sigh.

I am loving the big pink/tan eggs though. I'm about to pop a bunch in the incubator. Delawares are just cool.

And yes, fed for meat the large heritage males are more than big enough. I'm going to tinker with a group of culled Dels/marans as a meat flock.

The hatchery dels wouldn't get big enough til you'd cycled through probably 3-4 or even six generations culling and breeding for size. They're not much bigger than hatchery partridge rocks aka narrow and fairly puny.

Heritage and breeder birds are both showing a much better start in that regard. I'd show pics but I'm ashamed of my messy free range corn eaters at the moment. Silly things.

 

[M To The Maxx]

Nice pics!!!

 

[speckledhen]

Omigosh, bad Algernon! I bet he is a lovely shade of yellow from all that corn!

It's raining and raining and raining and everyone is inside. They are going to be so antsy from lack of activity when we can let them out. The Dels had so much mud in their pen that their feet and lower legs were black from scratching in the sucky mud.

Thanks, Maxx!

 

[walkswithdog]

Quote:
I can't find it in me to get mad at him. He is SOOOOO creative and intelligent. But I finally got smart enough to wonder what his interest was in a feed room where he couldn't "supposedly" be getting at the feed.

The bag looked closed to me, and in the end the opening when I found it should have been impossible to get to. Too smart for my sanity he is, and yes, he's a lovely shade of yellow - remember their neon yellow chick down??? OMG.

 

[walkswithdog]

I'm letting them free range despite the pouring rain, they'd have each other for dinner if they got bored.

I go in the coop mid-day and usually there's a hen or two, it's too funny they are such assertive birds, if I bend over or dip low enough there's a Delaware on my back or shoulder immediately - hi MOMMA whatcha doing???

I need to create jungle gyms and mazes for these monsters to keep them from being bored. Even Guinea bullying has become boring despite the neat noises they make. Sigh.

I think I may soon hang a hunk of some kind of meat/fat slab, they pulled a loose wire out from under Laura's truck yesterday. Chuckle.

 

[speckledhen]

Oh, dear! Dismantling vehicles? I knew they were smart, though. They do need to get out and entertain themselves, or they'll do bad things, like the girls picking at poor Ike's wattles all the time. I believe we need to expand their pen some and maybe put a cover over it so they can go out even when it's pouring rain.