Delawares from kathyinmo

[finnfur]

I have long been interested in and selected for the merits of utility. It has spanned a couple decades. Since I have become interested in breeding to the Standard, I have been unable to separate the two.

I think thats a good thing and a great background for breeding to the SOP.
You learned the health of the bird information first and its a basic valuable building block.
Thanks - I enjoy your informative posts

 

[finnfur]

Mrs Broody finally came off the nest after two months - and went to serious molt stage in 3 days


lost almost all except a few and some down - she better grow it out fast going to 20s in a couple days LOL

 

[Zanna]

Mrs Broody finally came off the nest after two months - and went to serious molt stage in 3 days


lost almost all except a few and some down - she better grow it out fast going to 20s in a couple days LOL

Poor thing! I have several that look like that and it got to 28 here last night with a very high wind chill.

Not fun trying to train horses this morning, the chickens handle these extreme changes way better than me!!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

It hurts to look at her.

 

[finnfur]

Poor thing! I have several that look like that and it got to 28 here last night with a very high wind chill.

Not fun trying to train horses this morning, the chickens handle these extreme changes way better than me!!

Me too- time to work on projects in the heated shop and drag out the extension cords for the coop water defroster

Leslie I shiver every time I look at her- It got her off the nest though and she doesn't look in that bad shape as far as body condition considering time on the nest. I know I promised pics but I keep forgetting to take my camera and my phone doesn't take great pics.
Film at 11 LOL

We killed all seven F5 cockerels yesterday - was looking at F5 pullets and some look really nice IMHO and have potential -
selecting the best three of that bunch plus two of best F4 hens and breeding this year to #2 Cock - Bernie even though he has some brassy.
#1 is not brassy and he threw brassy cockerels so I am going in reverse on the cock this time with the whitest females that have type.

 

[finnfur]

Cockerel tally notes: seven culls - difference 19>28 weeks
Weights: The bottom three at 19 weeks are still the bottom three at 28 week cull - the middle two are still the middle two and the top two are still the heaviest. No major change in position.
there were some changes in bottom three but they still were at bottom.
Live weights Low 6.14 LB - High 7.87 LB AVG 7.16 LB [ the avg was 4.24 LB at 19 weeks]
Rex Wing thing: all had it to some degree on one wing or other - it was same at 19 and 28 weeks
Brassy : two had some at 19 weeks - 6 of 7 had some at 28 weeks- this is the only fault I couldn't see at 19 weeks.
Other faults; all I would cull for were present at 19 weeks.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Cockerel tally notes: seven culls - difference 19>28 weeks
Weights: The bottom three at 19 weeks are still the bottom three at 28 week cull - the middle two are still the middle two and the top two are still the heaviest. No major change in position.
there were some changes in bottom three but they still were at bottom.
Live weights Low 6.14 LB - High 7.87 LB AVG 7.16 LB [ the avg was 4.24 LB at 19 weeks]
Rex Wing thing: all had it to some degree on one wing or other - it was same at 19 and 28 weeks
Brassy : two had some at 19 weeks - 6 of 7 had some at 28 weeks- this is the only fault I couldn't see at 19 weeks.
Other faults; all I would cull for were present at 19 weeks.

That's all super interesting about the lack of significant changes between 19 & 28 weeks.

Please let us know how they taste.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Two styles of wings in our older cockerels:



The bird on the left, his wings at least appear to fold up correctly. I haven't pulled the wings out very recently to see if the entire wing looks correctly formed, but at least it folds up alright. He also is probably brassy.

The bird on the right seems to match the illustration for the "Slipped Wing and Twisted Feather" disqualification from the SOP. He is younger than the bird on the left, but probably old enough to decide he isn't going to grow out of it based on finnfur's report. Ratz.

 

[finnfur]

Two styles of wings in our older cockerels:



The bird on the left, his wings at least appear to fold up correctly. I haven't pulled the wings out very recently to see if the entire wing looks correctly formed, but at least it folds up alright. He also is probably brassy.

The bird on the right seems to match the illustration for the "Slipped Wing and Twisted Feather" disqualification from the SOP. He is younger than the bird on the left, but probably old enough to decide he isn't going to grow out of it based on finnfur's report. Ratz.

They should taste same or better than F4s as I waited till 33 weeks to cull them- I do think some will change past 28 weeks but mostly just chunk up more.
Wish for those wings on a non-brassy LOL
Yes the wing thing is predominant but not so much on the females - only had a couple but were not major- to the egg flock until I can replace all with quality.
Your mileage may differ LOL
Bert seems to produce nice hens maybe run two lines but lacking space.
Just thoughts

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

They should taste same or better than F4s as I waited till 33 weeks to cull them- I do think some will change past 28 weeks but mostly just chunk up more.
Wish for those wings on a non-brassy LOL
Yes the wing thing is predominant but not so much on the females - only had a couple but were not major- to the egg flock until I can replace all with quality.
Your mileage may differ LOL
Bert seems to produce nice hens maybe run two lines but lacking space.
Just thoughts

I was looking at the pullets on Monday/Tuesday ...

It looks like at least one of my few pullets with the better neck barring and whiter plumage is ... brassy! And the 2nd of the two F4 hens -- the one in heavy molt -- is looking beige now, too.

I gave the breeding coop one of the big peat moss/sand dust bath pools like worked wonders for getting dirt off the cockerels.

that I will see whiter plumage on the females soon.

Counts from this year, which was my first ever trying to gather eggs for hatching, blah blah blah.
Got 48 chicks to pullet/cockerel stage
21 cockerels (4 are DelaMutts, several/all birds with poor wings and probably some brassiness on the lighter birds, 8 cockerels still young enough to hope on)
27 pullets (2 are DelaMutts, several birds with brown feathers so far, most with Columban type coloring)
This also reflects less-than-great hatch rates ... need to work on that.

Maybe I need to hatch a LOT more birds to find a few worth breeding? Though, to be fair, looking back at the earlier photos of my trio, I think I can spot hints of Brown Feathers Of Doom and ever-so-slight Dangly Wings.

NOTE: Brown Feathers Of Doom are confoundingly much the same color as the soil in our area.