Delawares from kathyinmo

[finnfur]

Chicks are 3 wks old now, spent their first night last night without a heat source. All are free ranging with the flock and sharing meals, scrapping for survival and doing great. Quite a nuisance when I have to do anything in the coop because they get underfoot quite a bit, but I'll bear up under the strain of it all.

But they are in with the mature birds at night ? Ours must be the same hatch I figure 3 weeks yesterday. About 3 days ago I don't think they would have survived here at 34 degrees .
Gee I think I have been babying them . Need to toughen up I guess.

 

[Beekissed]

That's what it was three days ago here too...but now we are up in the 40s and 50s at night~go figure. Yeah, they are in with the big birds and have been so since the beginning.

If the temps drop into the 30s again at night, I might consider a heat source...but probably not. They are old enough now not to pile up so badly that they kill one another and I want those feathers to develop. They will feather out quicker if they aren't provided a heat source all the time. They have some good, deep litter that is dry and fresh in their little sleeping spot and a corner that blocks the wind.

When I'm brooding chicks, I try to remember what mama is doing at any given time with her brood...at this age, they might be under her wing or around her flanks, but are rarely sleeping under her body anymore. They are more likely to just huddle near her or on her for warmth and they have each other for that. Some of my hens just return to the flock roosts at this time and leave the youngsters on the floor...they seem to do fine. Some even fly up far enough to roost with her!

I watched how they reacted to the heat lamp even last week and they were not congregating under the light but more over in a corner away from the heat. That tells me they are able to provide each other sufficient warmth and don't require that lamp so much.

Chickens start out rough here...sort of like boot camp for birds. They either get tough or die...

 

[crazyhen]

How do you get the hens to accept your chicks? Mine would simply devour them. They are hard enough on the older hens I introduce. They were sweet to them through a wire at night. Making sweet sounds if one was upset
but I know my big raptors. They love me but they would tear apart a chick if they could in seconds

Ps: Mine no longer have a heat lamp now. the nights here have warmed to the 40's. I even have some 2 week olds in there with them and they were not under the light either.

 

[Beekissed]

Mine are a free range flock, so it might make a difference when there isn't competition for space, territory or food. Any chicken can avoid another one and the food is for the taking out on the green, so they aren't really in each others faces at all except at feeding time.

I also cull for disposition in my flocks, so all the naturally mean birds have been killed and eaten. That leaves behind those that brook no nonsense but don't go looking for trouble...I call it firm but kind. I like that kind of chicken. I hate a bully and won't feed one.

I guess it has a lot to do with the environment and the flock development whether you have integration problems. I've never had any bird on bird violence that wasn't supposed to happen...like young rooster challenging an older one for flock supremacy. Even then, there has never been blood drawn on any of my adult chickens in their pecking order issues. I've integrated birds quite a bit over the years and never saw any unusual aggression/violence towards the new birds or new chicks.

I think chickens will go as far as you let them and I've just never condoned a bully flock of birds. I've always had multiple breeds in the flock, so it's usually not breed specific, though I've noticed that all the Wyandottes I've ever had were culled for needless aggression towards other birds and to me.

 

[Mahonri]

I really looked close at the 14 two week olds. Looks like two have slightly off colored legs with a tinge of green , all the others are bright yellow.

I just got 4 two week old BCMS and 2 Wheaten Ameraucanas that I put in with Milagro (My Naked Neck hatched from SCGs egg) and her two Dellie companions. It's a party. I usually leave the heat lamp off (we are in AZ)... I have an Ecoglow that the three of them had been getting under but now that there are 9 in there, when I turned off the light they started crying, so for tonight they'll have to suffer with the heat... I have it over 2 feet over their heads and they are still too warm. I put some cool water in the waterer and they are all drinking it like crazy.

 

[Zanna]

Mine are a free range flock, so it might make a difference when there isn't competition for space, territory or food. Any chicken can avoid another one and the food is for the taking out on the green, so they aren't really in each others faces at all except at feeding time.

I also cull for disposition in my flocks, so all the naturally mean birds have been killed and eaten. That leaves behind those that brook no nonsense but don't go looking for trouble...I call it firm but kind. I like that kind of chicken. I hate a bully and won't feed one.

I guess it has a lot to do with the environment and the flock development whether you have integration problems. I've never had any bird on bird violence that wasn't supposed to happen...like young rooster challenging an older one for flock supremacy. Even then, there has never been blood drawn on any of my adult chickens in their pecking order issues. I've integrated birds quite a bit over the years and never saw any unusual aggression/violence towards the new birds or new chicks.

I think chickens will go as far as you let them and I've just never condoned a bully flock of birds. I've always had multiple breeds in the flock, so it's usually not breed specific, though I've noticed that all the Wyandottes I've ever had were culled for needless aggression towards other birds and to me.

My situation/method is similar to Bee's. My brooders are set up outside in a horse stall with an ecoglo in each brooder. I took the ecoglo away a week ago and put the BCM and Welsummers I was brooding with the Dels. into the main coop with my free-range layer flock. The Dels still looked pretty featherless so they are still in the brooder but I am planning on moving them out with the others this weekend. Most almost have full wing feathers now and are starting to get tails but still have pretty bare backs and butts I am almost monthly, year round, putting new 4 - 6 week old chicks into the main coop and have never had an issue with the adults. There is one older cock that ranges with them, currently two younger (7 mos. old) cockerals and about 30 laying hens/pullets. There are several feeders, waterers and their coop door is open all daylight hours year round. The adults go out as soon as the door opens and most stay out till dusk so the youngsters have the coop to themselves most of the day. They usually start venturing out for at least part of the day about two weeks after I incorporate them into the coop. By 8 - 12 weeks old, they are staying out most of the day as well. They have 11 acres of hayfield, clover, various crops and woodlot to wander so they have lots of space and I think that is key to my system working. My breeder cocks/cockerals stay locked up in breeder pens and the chosen hens/pullets get shuffled between their mate and back to the free-range coop depending on what I am playing with at any given time. Everyone gets along with minor disputes every so often.

 

[crazyhen]

Zanna,
That sounds wonderful, I have 4 acres, a neigbor with dogs, ducks that have heaven only knows what etc. Not a place where i can let my hens free to room like I would want to. I do have a large fenced area but it is not the same. Fields would be wonderful. Even the place on the coast is next to other homes. One of which has already fused about me having a roo last winter. I am two houses away from them. RRRRRRR

We each have 3 acres down there and are not in the city, or a development. I wish I wish.
My new babies are really growing. They are right side of the hens only a fence between them. They have access to the outdoors now. They stand at the door and look out. It won't be long till they are all over the place

 

[Jake Levi]

I have 13 eggs in the icubator from my Kathy line of Delawares, I would love to get some of her chicks.

These are the largest eggs that I am getting, all are extra large, and usually very brown with an occasional light one. They will go in an outside brooder when they are featherd out, and once in the chicken house will rotate with the other breeds free ranging. I want them all having only their own roosters fertilizing their eggs. When not ranging they will have their own run to get outside.

I am glad to have found this thread, from a link on the Delaware thread.

Keep the info coming please.

Jake

 

[catdaddyfro]

Yes i remember - and I found it in Del Genetics from 2011
Starts about here - interesting info seems some are carriers and others have it but don't pass it on - and no I don't understand all the genetics stuff need catdaddy and some others to explain it
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/291856/delaware-genetics-for-dummies/60#post_6146270

Hey Tom you can do a study up on the Id gene it is the cause of the green leg issues it is a trait instilled by the usage of the Barring gene

http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page3.html


Jeff

 

[capayvalleychick]

Chickens start out rough here...sort of like boot camp for birds. They either get tough or die...

I try to have this attitude with all the animals that I raise. It has been more difficult to think that way with these chicks because they are so precious to me.
They are slower feathering than usual, so I wasn't sure about turning off the heat lamp at the usual point. Night before last, I was waiting for it to cool down before turning it on and fell asleep. They went without heat and were fine, but the temps that night were in the 60's. Last night, I purposely left it off. It felt colder but the low was only 50. This is why I like having you all - to hear what you are doing, and I won't feel like I'm doing the wrong thing. They were all perky & fine this morning, of course.

I have a similar set up to Zanna's. This is the first year that I've tried hatching out a large number of (SGD) chicks. I have groups 3-4 weeks apart, all in a large coop. I had moved all the adult hens far out to pasture, but 2 of them keep coming back to this coop. The KDels are in a large stock tank brooder in the coop. I put them out on the grass during the day in an open bottom pen. With the other chicks, what happened by accident was that they learned how to fly out of the stock tank and started day ranging with the others. Worked out well, so that's my plan now.

Gloria, what is your zoning? Do the regs help you at all? I'm fortunate to be zoned Ag1, so the county and animal control are very supportive of my right to farm. I've trained my dogs to patrol my property perimeter and they keep neighbor and stray dogs and any predators away. Everyone has roosters so no one complains.