Delawares from kathyinmo

[LeslieDJoyce]

Looks like the F5s are graduating all at once

Three of the four bottom eggs have to be F5s - only have one F4 in that coup and got four eggs today - first time over one egg per day.
So three started laying on the same day - four if you count the dink at the top .Not bad size for a start .
Little egg at top must be that ones first but its the first small one we have gotten from the F5s.
We have gone from fast to feast a plenty in one week.

I got so excited about this I went and checked the nesting boxes again. I can tell some of my older pullets are getting mated, but still no eggs.

I want eggs.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Nuts and Bolts type post. I had hoped to have photos of the birds Zanna and I tagged when she came up this past weekend. Wow, was that HELPFUL!!! But my iPhone battery ran out yesterday just as I was getting around to taking photos of the birds we banded. I'll try again on our next sunny day.

Having a mentor is kind of everything with this, isn't it? You can only get so much from a photograph or by reading. Just watching Zanna handle the birds was educational. I was distracted while she was here, and I still absorbed up a lot. I'll have much better questions for her next time.

I don't think picking breeders out of my own flock is ever going to be easy. I'll never be able to see things as fast as other people, for one thing. Knowing what specifics to look for, and how to look for them, will definitely speed things up for me.

So ... in other news, this is how the extension on the Cockerel Colony Coop turned out. It's a little over 8 feet long, but is only about 7' wide cuz it needed to fit between the door to the coop and a door to part of the run over to the left. The whole end of the extension toward the camera opens. Most of the boys are sleeping in the extension now. The roosts are a little high, so I might have that changed. We have the door end covered with plastic -- I'd prefer it to be open for ventilation, at least in summer.



There is nearly 30' of roost space between the extension and what was already in the coop, and I still have one younger cockerel sleeping on the floor under the roost.

Out behind the coops, the guys also put the plastic on the cull cage so it won't be so breezy in there this winter. Now I can start moving the non-breeding cockerels into this space and put the "open" sign on it so the people can come and get their Christmas Dinners. The Cull Cage is 25' long and about 8' wide.



We left this whole North end open for ventilation. That is the more protected side in this area, generally speaking.






With the plastic put on like this, we can roll up the sides during hot weather, or weight them down when it is cooler and wet.






Yeah, some of those roosts are weird. We made them from scraps, and they aren't intended to be used for long by any particular bird. Room for a future upgrade for sure.





Here is how we made the end doors on these two projects ... just clipped open the wire of the cattle panel with bolt cutters, and bent the free ends of wire around another piece of cattle panel with pliers ... to make a hinge. I can do the clipping, but don't think I could do the bending without man hands. It makes a nice, wide opening, which is convenient except if the birds really want out at feeding time.







Hoop Coops built this way sure go up fast, are relatively easy to build with a couple extra hands, don't cost much, and don't require too many tools. Theoretically they are movable as the panels come apart just as fast as they go together -- I attached the wire to the individual panels before the coop was assembled, so they are modular -- except removing the posts takes a jack or a shovel. The greenhouse plastic allows for a lot of light and is easy to snug down in windy weather; the wire structure makes the coops easy to ventilate.

Here is all you need to assemble a coop or coop extension like these:

Metal T-posts (the short ones are great for this)
Post Pounder
Cattle Panels
Poultry wire (budget option, which was my choice) OR Hardware cloth (if you're feeling rich or want the extra security)
Bolt cutters
Pliers
Wire twist-ties & a twister OR Zip Ties
A 20' wide roll of greenhouse plastic will cover 100' of coop for about $1 per foot (I prefer the greenhouse plastic to tarps, though there are plenty of places to get tarps to fit a hoop coop)
Twine, rope, bungees or strapping lumber.

People in hotter, sunnier areas might have problems with greenhouse-style coops getting too hot in the summer. We have ours in at least partially shaded areas, and our weather here is pretty mild. Our main coops are also greenhouse frames with the plastic loose on the sides so we can roll it up, and have been working well for us for 3 years.

 

[Zanna]

That said, people working with this line who have experience with other lines of Dels, I'd love to read more about the similarities and differences.

Here is another very helpfull thread, hmm, I can't get the link to post. It is CSU - Chicken State University. This thread is locked and I am sure sorry it ended, it was/is an excellent one, very informative. The Delawares start on P.52, post #517. There are some pics of my old line of Dels. there. Great content from the beginning, lots of pics., explanations, discussion, etc.

 

[rancher hicks]

I had a couple of cattle panels but nothing to hold them in place. I used a couple of T posts and zip tied the panel to it. The plan is just to use it for storage. I would not be safe for chickens the way it is.

But they are cheap and easy to add on to as money and time allows.

 

[finnfur]

Here is another very helpfull thread, hmm, I can't get the link to post. It is CSU - Chicken State University. This thread is locked and I am sure sorry it ended, it was/is an excellent one, very informative. The Delawares start on P.52, post #517. There are some pics of my old line of Dels. there. Great content from the beginning, lots of pics., explanations, discussion, etc.

Here you go Zanna
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/732985/csu-chicken-state-university-large-fowl-sop

 

[finnfur]

I had a couple of cattle panels but nothing to hold them in place. I used a couple of T posts and zip tied the panel to it. The plan is just to use it for storage. I would not be safe for chickens the way it is.

But they are cheap and easy to add on to as money and time allows.

I am thinking about building some of the hoop coops like you have on a large pallet so I can pick it up with forks on the tractor and mvd it around. As you can tell by my coops our chickens are Gypsies

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I am thinking about building some of the hoop coops like you have on a large pallet so I can pick it up with forks on the tractor and mvd it around. As you can tell by my coops our chickens are Gypsies 

The wooden part of the Cockerel Coop was built on a pallet to be portable. It got overbuilt so would probably be hard to move and harder to level. I had wanted the sides to be wire and plastic and think cattle panel hoops would make that easier to do. We've never moved our pallet coop ... I'm just not up to the begging moving it would require.

Since we built that, I've decided I prefer to have the coop floors soil ... I still do wish for portability.

We did a hoop coop with big PVC pipes where people usually have the wood skids. We use it for the ducks right now. It took way longer to assemble than the hoop coops using the T-posts ... but it's our most portable coop. The PVC makes it slide pretty easy. We got the idea from Zanna.

 

[finnfur]

All our coops are on wheels - for the Gypsy chicks
Main coop is a red twelve nest tandem trailer and the breeder coop is the small white single axle . six nester.
They move about 4 times a year enclosed in portable Emet.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Zanna dropped by this evening and was quick to spot my best potential breeding cockerels, so we banded them...

Is anyone else working with this line having more success with the males than the females?

Too bad we don't all live closer together so we could trade birds around ...

How nice to have her close enough to help. I wish that I had a knowledgeable breeder in this valley- or county even.

My pullets have less defects than the cockerels. We do live close enough to trade birds, IMO. I'm the one who made a 2000+ mile drive a couple months ago, to pick up Dorkings.

Well gals and guys we whine a lot about the problems we are having towards perfection - but I had a attitude adjustment when I stumbled on the old Delclub site and looked at the pictures.
http://thedelclub.webstarts.com/pictures.html
Looks like progress is in the making to me - stay the course or as Bob would say keep" kicking the can on down the road"

Yep, you are right.

Also, when people post photos of other lines to this thread, or statistics from other lines, without making it clear they are from another line, it can get super confusing! That said, people working with this line who have experience with other lines of Dels, I'd love to read more about the similarities and differences.

Yes, people with other strains need to state that in their posts. I don't mind if they post here, if they have questions, but there is also the thread for breeding Dels to the Standard for all breeders and the Pic Heavy one, etc. for casual Del owners.

I have had three different strains of Delawares. All unique, none were like this one. Sand Hill Dels were ok. Faster maturing than this one. Color could have been workable. Size was ok but not as wide as Kathy's. Excellent layers, fair meat birds. Fantastic foragers, didn't require as much feed as Kathy's. Healthy. Braden line were horrible. I hate to say that, since he is such a nice man. Most of them dropped dead from the heat. Lots of defects. Very brassy. Narrow, too small for meat. Poor egg layers. Kathy's line are the widest, closest to type. Best meat bird. Equal to Sand Hill as layers. Slowest maturing of all. Some defects, but also some very good birds. Most healthy but these had my first confirmed cases of Mareks and one hatch had cocci. This might be the typical adjusting to a new flock health issues.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

How nice to have her close enough to help. I wish that I had a knowledgeable breeder in this valley- or county even.

My pullets have less defects than the cockerels. We do live close enough to trade birds, IMO. I'm the one who made a 2000+ mile drive a couple months ago, to pick up Dorkings.


Yep, you are right.

Yes, people with other strains need to state that in their posts. I don't mind if they post here, if they have questions, but there is also the thread for breeding Dels to the Standard for all breeders and the Pic Heavy one, etc. for casual Del owners.

I have had three different strains of Delawares. All unique, none were like this one. Sand Hill Dels were ok. Faster maturing than this one. Color could have been workable. Size was ok but not as wide as Kathy's. Excellent layers, fair meat birds. Fantastic foragers, didn't require as much feed as Kathy's. Healthy. Braden line were horrible. I hate to say that, since he is such a nice man. Most of them dropped dead from the heat. Lots of defects. Very brassy. Narrow, too small for meat. Poor egg layers. Kathy's line are the widest, closest to type. Best meat bird. Equal to Sand Hill as layers. Slowest maturing of all. Some defects, but also some very good birds. Most healthy but these had my first confirmed cases of Mareks and one hatch had cocci. This might be the typical adjusting to a new flock health issues.

That's really great & honest info about the different lines you've worked with! Thanks so much for sharing it.

I'd love to produce big meaty pullets like yours.

Scary about the Mareks. Any idea how that got into your flock?

It was freaky how fast Zanna spotted Finnfur's favorite and said, "That's your breeder right there. Where are the pullets?"