Delawares from kathyinmo

[LeslieDJoyce]

Hey Leslie, glad to see you still posting. You have done great with your first season at breeding "Heritage" stock and they are looking great!!! Yes, I may want to try your Cock over my hens or just get one of his sons from you when the times comes for you to cull. I am done breeding till early Fall. Just took my second set of New Hampshire and BCM culls to the auction, the first set we put in the freezer a month ago. All the Dels are too young to make any culling decisions yet. Boy, what a difference 45 less young cockerals makes!!!!!

Wow! Getting 45 cockerels is great! It sounds like it has been a tough breeding season for a lot of people for all kinds of reasons. So having anything to sell is a success.

I've only gotten like 41 chicks total so far (not including the 17 Freedom Mutts), and only expect a few more from the last clutch. I think there were only two cockerels in the first 10 chicks, and I haven't really started looking at the younger chicks for genders yet. I'm FINE with having pullets in my laying flock ... I hope they perform true to breed when it comes to winter laying. My egg customers seem to want eggs all year.

I want to learn about the auction. So far we have a line of people wanting the cockerels, so we haven't thought about that yet. But maybe someday ...

I'm absolutely going to prioritize getting the cockerels segregated as soon as possible, and I want them some distance from the main flock or in a run with a lid. I do not want a repeat of last year when we kept like 30 cockerels in a grow-out pen right next to the GenPop flock's pasture until Christmas. The pesky cockerels just hopped the fence as they pleased. Some of my hatchery hens still don't have feathers because they never got to regrow any after The World's Worst Molt last fall. Cockerels get so competitive with their mating, and they are not gentle.

For the Delawares, next season I hope to improve the hatch rates a bit. I have a few ideas for tweaking, broodies willing. Once the chicks get on the ground we're doing fine.

I wish I was already set up to get some of your BCMs. I love dark eggs and your birds are SO pretty and healthy. The Delaware trio we got from you really outclassed our hatchery mutts. I could also use some decent blue egg layers. And I'd like to pick a breed for white eggs. I got into this chicken thing for a colorful egg basket.

It's going to be a real learning experience watching these chicks mature so I can pick breeders. I think looking at everyone else's photos is a big help with that. Especially with these project Delawares. I wish this thread, and the one for Breeding Delawares to SOP, were more active. And I wish I could take better photos. And I wish I had a Master Breeder living right next door.

I don't want much.

 

[rancher hicks]

Wow! Getting 45 cockerels is great! It sounds like it has been a tough breeding season for a lot of people for all kinds of reasons. So having anything to sell is a success.

I've only gotten like 41 chicks total so far (not including the 17 Freedom Mutts), and only expect a few more from the last clutch. I think there were only two cockerels in the first 10 chicks, and I haven't really started looking at the younger chicks for genders yet. I'm FINE with having pullets in my laying flock ... I hope they perform true to breed when it comes to winter laying. My egg customers seem to want eggs all year.

I want to learn about the auction. So far we have a line of people wanting the cockerels, so we haven't thought about that yet. But maybe someday ...

I'm absolutely going to prioritize getting the cockerels segregated as soon as possible, and I want them some distance from the main flock or in a run with a lid. I do not want a repeat of last year when we kept like 30 cockerels in a grow-out pen right next to the GenPop flock's pasture until Christmas. The pesky cockerels just hopped the fence as they pleased. Some of my hatchery hens still don't have feathers because they never got to regrow any after The World's Worst Molt last fall. Cockerels get so competitive with their mating, and they are not gentle.

For the Delawares, next season I hope to improve the hatch rates a bit. I have a few ideas for tweaking, broodies willing. Once the chicks get on the ground we're doing fine.

I wish I was already set up to get some of your BCMs. I love dark eggs and your birds are SO pretty and healthy. The Delaware trio we got from you really outclassed our hatchery mutts. I could also use some decent blue egg layers. And I'd like to pick a breed for white eggs. I got into this chicken thing for a colorful egg basket.

It's going to be a real learning experience watching these chicks mature so I can pick breeders. I think looking at everyone else's photos is a big help with that. Especially with these project Delawares. I wish this thread, and the one for Breeding Delawares to SOP, were more active. And I wish I could take better photos. And I wish I had a Master Breeder living right next door.

I don't want much.

Now I got to this part and thought to ask. Would you consider the "Barred Holland"? They're an endangered breed I believe and there was a White Holland that has gone extinct. I'm not sure it can be brought back. However the Barred does lay a white egg.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Now I got to this part and thought to ask. Would you consider the "Barred Holland"? They're an endangered breed I believe and there was a White Holland that has gone extinct. I'm not sure it can be brought back. However the Barred does lay a white egg.

HA! If I ever get to the point where I can be responsible about adding another breeding project to our setup, sure! Why not? It seems a good companion project to the rather impossible Delaware restoration project for someone like me who has not a single clue what they are doing.

Literally up to this point all I've had to do to "breed" the Delawares is buy them, feed them, and then gather the eggs they eventually laid to put under foster broodies. I'm coasting on other people's work ... Kathyinmo who got the birds to the F4 point (no small task), and Zanna who raised chicks from that project and selected this trio for me (and I think she was very generous with me).

I have not gotten to the point where I have had to evaluate birds at all, and that is where most of the challenge lies for me ... understanding the SOP and then applying it in practical ways when evaluating the next potential breeders. Presuming my chicks make it to that stage.

 

[finnfur]

It's going to be a real learning experience watching these chicks mature so I can pick breeders. I think looking at everyone else's photos is a big help with that. Especially with these project Delawares. I wish this thread, and the one for Breeding Delawares to SOP, were more active. And I wish I could take better photos. And I wish I had a Master Breeder living right next door.

I don't want much.

Glad to see you posting . It helps move the thread along .
Things a little slow now as everyone doing summer things .
There are more F5 people out here now and posting should
pickup when they get to selection time. I have 17 F5s that will be 8 weeks this Sat
in the grow out now . Still trying to determine sex ratio daily.
They have finally feathered out but on some sex is still a toss up.

 

[rancher hicks]

Glad to see you posting . It helps move the thread along .
Things a little slow now as everyone doing summer things .
There are more F5 people out here now and posting should
pickup when they get to selection time. I have 17 F5s that will be 8 weeks this Sat
in the grow out now . Still trying to determine sex ratio daily.
They have finally feathered out but on some sex is still a toss up.

If you mean things like cutting grass, planting flowers, watering the vegetable garden, checking broodies for more chicks, trying to figure out where to put them and cleaning coops, then yes I'm busy with summer things.

Lets see, 8 little chicks, 22 older chicks and some hens still sitting on eggs. Plus thoughts on building another coop just for growing out these chicks.

How do folks deal with chicks growing out and different aged birds? I've so many broodies and not all things turn out good. How do folks deal with broody hens?

I started to clean the garage but then the rain came.

 

[desertmarcy]

The four hens I used all had fairly correctly coloured tails and I still got some barred chicks this season. Must be coming from the Cocks, the two I used are both overcoloured - smut on chest, some barring on their backs, I don't know! Three of the four hens I used and the two Cocks (these are not recent pics):

That's about what my cock looks like, too.

 

[desertmarcy]

If you mean things like cutting grass, planting flowers, watering the vegetable garden, checking broodies for more chicks, trying to figure out where to put them and cleaning coops, then yes I'm busy with summer things.

Lets see, 8 little chicks, 22 older chicks and some hens still sitting on eggs. Plus thoughts on building another coop just for growing out these chicks.

How do folks deal with chicks growing out and different aged birds? I've so many broodies and not all things turn out good. How do folks deal with broody hens?

I started to clean the garage but then the rain came.

Send some of that rain out here!

I have a series of 8 wire-bottomed cages that are up off the ground about 4' that I use to keep birds clean after washing to take to a show and also to put broody hens in. If I catch them right when they start going broody, it usually only takes about 4 days in there to break them. Other times, I've moved them to a different pen with hens that are strangers, then she is usually disoriented and quits but some of them just go in the nest box in the new pen. I've kept a list this year of broodies because I don't like them and wanted to see which were repeats. If they go broody 3 times in a season, I get rid of them. Even that may be too generous.

Different aged birds are hard to deal with unless you have a lot of separate pens. I have moved all my breeder birds out of my main pens now that I'm not hatching and those pens are being used for grow-out pens. The breeders get combined in two big layer pens, the older ones in one pen and year+ old birds in the other. The males go in single pens by themselves. I am doing all this and still don't have enough space. Too many birds! Right now, I still have 4 hatches of Barred Rocks inside, the last I hatched this year and I'm telling myself never hatch this late in the season again!
Those chicks span from 5/25 to 6/17 hatch dates. As soon as I can do some rearranging, I will combine them all into an outside pen. I found if they are all combined at once into a new space, there is not much squabbling even though different ages. I need to either build a new pen or put smaller mesh wire around one that I would like to put them in (as soon as the birds currently occupying it are moved "somewhere") because it is snake season and some are still small enough for a snake to eat.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I believe broody hens are one of my biggest assets. I don't discourage broodies, I leverage them. I'm sure each broody saves me hours of labor and lots of electricity. But maybe I'd feel differently if my best looking breeding hen went broody on me ... I'd for sure want to hatch her eggs, but she wouldn't be giving me any as a broody. That would be a frustration. So far it's only the mutts that have gone broody here, so I haven't had to face that dilemma.

 

[rancher hicks]

I believe broody hens are one of my biggest assets. I don't discourage broodies, I leverage them. I'm sure each broody saves me hours of labor and lots of electricity. But maybe I'd feel differently if my best looking breeding hen went broody on me ... I'd for sure want to hatch her eggs, but she wouldn't be giving me any as a broody. That would be a frustration. So far it's only the mutts that have gone broody here, so I haven't had to face that dilemma.

I don't bother trying to break them but some rarely produce chicks if left in the coop. If I can quarantine them to themselves they do okay. If I have 7 - 8 at a time I've no where to put them all.

I did have one pair to themselves with shipped eggs and they did okay. The others did not. I need to figure out a coop that just holds brooding hens.

Two hens hatch chicks but they didn't live a day before I found them dead. I think the other birds did them in. My Dels never seem to bother the chicks. Not even the roosters.

If I intend to hatch this way, i need a better set up.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I don't bother trying to break them but some rarely produce chicks if left in the coop.  If I can quarantine them to themselves they do okay. If I have 7 - 8 at a time I've no where to put them all.  

I did have one pair to themselves with shipped eggs and they did okay. The others did not. I need to figure out a coop that just holds brooding hens. 

Two hens hatch chicks but they didn't live a day before I found them dead.  I think the other birds did them in.  My Dels never seem to bother the chicks. Not even the roosters. 

If I intend to hatch this way, i need a better set up. 

We put broodies in boxes we originally built to brood chicks to keep them organized. Each box is about 3' x 6.5' with lid doors at both ends. The boxes go right on the ground in the coops.

We can put a double nesting box at one end and food/water at the other end ... the nesting boxes are double ... with a divider. We line the top with empty feed bags so the broodies don't get pooed on. We also wrap the nesting box end in feed bags for broody privacy/seclusion.

We start two hens at once in the same double nest box. If one hen gives up we can start another, or we can combine the clutches under one hen. By having two hens brooding together and hatching at the same time we have two hens co-parenting one shared clutch of chicks. I think that's good during integration. We haven't lost a chick yet.

We have three boxes like this. We can start them in one box and later pick up the nest box with the hens in it and move it to another box. The hens tolerate this move very well. We have other cages we could use in a pinch, but we prefer these long narrow cages for brooding.

As soon as the chicks are up and around and the broodies are cooperating, we chase all the other birds out into the run and close the coop door, then roll the broody box on its side and get the chicks/hens to explore he whole coop. The rest of the flock comes to the wire side of the coop to check out the babies through the wire. Then we put the box back in place, empty, and open the coop doors for integration.