Delawares from kathyinmo

[Zanna]

Best I could do for your Hair up smile face
LOL

Gee when I hear ya'lls numbers I feel like a slow mo .
Only have possibly five breeding Del pullets and maybe two EEs to make some delaweeggers.
So if I can save max five days I figure about 25 per hatch a week LOL

Oh Tom, you just made my day, that pic. is the cutest!!!!! DH and I will be laughing all night!

Well, you currently have more breeder Dels that me........ I have the two pullets I have posted pics of and two cockerals that I will be test mating them over. Just getting going with my New Hampshires, think I have a total of 8 breeder pullets and two cockerals to test them over. My BCM I have so many potentials from last years breedings but will probably work with 8 pullets over their Dad and a Hen over her Son and possibly his Grandma and 3 Aunts over him as well. (3 Years ago I had only one BCM breeding pair and built from there). Also have a possible Blue Ameraucana pair if the pullets eggs look blue enough otherwise I won't bother. Uh, oh, I should never write this down, it scares me I still think I only have about 1/2 the number of chickens as Desertmarcy, haven't counted in a while..........

A Very Happy New Years to All!!!!! I appreciate all of your help, opinions and conversation. Here's to a great 2014!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Easy peasy for me. I just have the Delaware trio and nothing else to breed at all. Newbie bliss.

I'm going to try not to buy an incubator, but can't imagine I'll have the fabulous luck to have the right numbers of the broodies at the right time.

 

[Zanna]

Easy peasy for me. I just have the Delaware trio and nothing else to breed at all. Newbie bliss.

I'm going to try not to buy an incubator, but can't imagine I'll have the fabulous luck to have the right numbers of the broodies at the right time.

If the timing works, I would be happy to do some earlier hatches for you if the broodies have not gotten going yet. Let me know when the time comes if you need some help.

If you do want to buy an incubator, I highly recommend the GQF Genesis 1588. My DH did all the research way back when and ordered one before they had the new digital readout. When it came and I unboxed what looked like a strofoam ice-chest I seriously asked him if it was some kind of joke! Well, the joke was on me, they work awesome and are not too expensive.

 

[Zanna]

Easy peasy for me. I just have the Delaware trio and nothing else to breed at all. Newbie bliss.

I'm going to try not to buy an incubator, but can't imagine I'll have the fabulous luck to have the right numbers of the broodies at the right time.

When all I had was my Marans pair (in that breed), I hatched over 150 chicks from them that season even with the hen going broody every 2 doz. eggs or so (I never let her set on them, I kept breaking her up as I wanted to get back to hatching ASAP). I figure with your trio, you ought to be good for about 300 That being said, I only kept 3 of the daughters to breed forward and one son.

 

[Beekissed]

Thought I'd show one of Kathy's girls cutting trail in the snow this morning....



Kathy's Del, her WR hatchery style foster mom, Kathy's WR, and a hatchery BA.



And scavenging the garbage pile.... Del and WR pullets from Kathy, with their WR foster mama still looking out for them.

 

[finnfur]

Great pics Bee
But has she learned too cut a trail to the nest for egg deposit yet ??

 

[Beekissed]

Great pics Bee
But has she learned too cut a trail to the nest for egg deposit yet ??

Nope. And I'm even trying an experiment right now so I can eliminate that factor from the equation....I have a light in the coop. Yes, Bee has a light in the coop for the duration of this experiment. There, I said it!

It has been up for a week now and the results? The one old hen~the aforementioned foster mom~had been my only hen laying and she stopped for a few days when I introduced the light and killed the flock patriarch...don't know which change caused the hiccup. But, she's back to laying again, light or no light.

The other two oldsters are not laying...one is recovering from molt but I have no doubts she will be back in the saddle real soon. The six 8 mo. old pullets, two of which are hatchery genetics, four from this group of Dels/WRs are not laying. I locked them in the coop for some days~WITH the light on at all times, mind you~to see if they are holding out on me. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

I even introduced a young rooster to act as a teaser male. Nothing.

I'll continue with the light for another week or so, but after that it's back to normal in my coop with the lights out at night so that folks can get good sleep. I had a light in my coop some years back but it was just to keep the water from freezing...I never saw an increase in eggs with that light on either, so I'm not sure just how folks get lights to produce eggs out there in the world but it doesn't work in my coops.

 

[finnfur]

Oh no ! Bee with a light in coop . This must be desperation LOL
I read you are supposed to increase the light to a 12>13 hour equivalent.
My light timer comes on at 4AM and off at 8AM when it gets light.
In addition I have a brooder lamp that comes on when temperature gets down
to 35 degrees in the coop. Thats not for the hens comfort thats for mine so
no ice water to change twice a day . I am sure its colder there but its 16 degrees here this
morning and not expected over freezing all day.
I also provide extra protien when the bug traffic is low .

Funny when you say killed patriarch the quit laying. When we were going thru the end of molt I told DW that we need to take out 6 older hens as we were only
getting 2>3 eggs a day from 20 hens. So when we culled the cockerels we also took the 6 hens.
The next day we got 9 eggs and following day 11. Wife says they must have had a meeting and discussed" no eggs - no feed and your out of here"
But in reality when she cleaned the hens all five of the six had eggs in the chute. I think the molt was just over and they were i process of returning to lay.

 

[EggieRowe]

Best I could do for your Hair up smile face LOL Gee when I hear ya'lls numbers I feel like a slow mo . Only have possibly five breeding Del pullets and maybe two EEs to make some delaweeggers. So if I can save max five days I figure about 25 per hatch a week LOL

Delaweeggers. I love that! In a few weeks I'm processing most of my original flock in favor of going mostly Del. The only ones I'm thinking of keeping are 2 EE hens and 3 blue Ameracaunas (2 pullets & 1 cockerel).

Easy peasy for me. I just have the Delaware trio and nothing else to breed at all. Newbie bliss. I'm going to try not to buy an incubator, but can't imagine I'll have the fabulous luck to have the right numbers of the broodies at the right time.

An incubator is the official gateway drug to crazy chicken person. Next thing you know you will be signing up for hatchalongs. My flock of 20 has become 43, not counting the 35 I just hatched for New Years, but thankfully presold so I can't keep any.

If the timing works, I would be happy to do some earlier hatches for you if the broodies have not gotten going yet. Let me know when the time comes if you need some help. If you do want to buy an incubator, I highly recommend the GQF Genesis 1588. My DH did all the research way back when and ordered one before they had the new digital readout. When it came and I unboxed what looked like a strofoam ice-chest I seriously asked him if it was some kind of joke! Well, the joke was on me, they work awesome and are not too expensive.

I also have the 1588 with a turner and its fantastic! It does look like cheap, but does a great job. Easy to clean and easy to store. It has some of the best reviews and not too pricey.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I have my cockerel finalists. Used my brand new Keipper coops, which helped keep them in one place, but did not improve my photography.

Started out with 5 males, 8 months old.



From left to right ... R16 (6 lb. 10 oz.), R21 (8 lb. 1 oz.), R18 (7 lb. 9 oz.), R8 (6 lb. 12 oz.), R10 (7 lb. 5 oz.). I am pleased with the weights, yet they don't have the full breasts that they should. Makes me wonder if/when I do get correct type, if they will be over the standard weight?

I have known for a while that R8 was a cull. He's obviously more narrow than the rest. I was surprised by R16's low weight. Visually, he did not appear to me, to be smaller. I weighed him several times to make sure, then sadly put him in the cull pen due to his low weight. Here's an individual shot of him:

Here's the other, obvious cull, R8:

So, here are the three remaining cockerels, that I am keeping:



Left to right... R21, R18, R10

R21 has been the largest for a long time. Two judges picked him as the favorite out of a line up, last Sept. Since then, his tail has changed a bit. It bothers me. The transition from back to tail is not as smooth as on the other males. I'm putting this guy in with the pullets, so he'll be the sire of the first batch of chicks.



The next two were potential culls, (Judge didn't like either one in Sept.) but I could not do it. Maybe I'll never be a good breeder because I sometimes let emotion override logic.

They ended up having the second & third best weights.

R18 was slow to mature, lacks lower breast, but he meets standard weight for a cockerel. He looks too upright in this shot, doesn't usually carry himself like that:



R10 was the male that I recently posted (better) photos of. His topline is different from all the others, that's why I wondered whether he was more correct or less. He does have a slight, overall, more yellow color than the others. That was another reason I thought that I should cull him, if that was brassiness. It doesn't look the same as the brassiness that I've seen in other Dels, though. He is very wide, looking from the top down.


So, that's it for my males. On to the pullets, next.