Delawares from kathyinmo

[finnfur]

Got a pic of my Del eggs but it came out a little pastel in coloring...don't know quite why as my camera has never done that before. Must have been the lighting. I'll be hatching out some of these if all goes well in my incubation I started today.




Oh...BTW...I started that hatch and you'll find the thread in that section of the forum. I call it the Simulated Natural Nest Incubation experiment.

we get some like that I call them the "pre-peppered eggs"

Are you simulating sitting on the simulated nest lol

 

[Beekissed]

Nope! That would WAY too hot.....

But the nest is agoin'....temps at 99.0-99.5 now and all the eggs look so sweet in their feathers. I know all the experienced incubators are out there laughing their heads off at my simulated nest hatch, but it just might surprise a lot of folks. Could be by next year there will be many folks across the world trying this...ya never know.

Two years ago I couldn't find a single thing on feeding chickens fermented feed, so I just jumped into it, found a way to do it and it worked, started a few threads about it and I've been feeding it ever since. Put it into a search the other day and there were over 380,000 hits on a search for "fermented feed chickens".

Simulated Natural Nest Incubation...keep that in mind. Could be by next year it will be all the rage...

 

[mudvstheory]

Hi. I placed an order/reservation for 8 day old Delaware straight run chicks in early summer. I'm so excited! So question about housing, which depends on how the birds grow, and Delawares seem to have a special growth curve.

The housing plan is enough for half a dozen layers plus two batches of summer chicks, to build this spring. My favorite idea is a steel carport for the roof and structure, wrapped in hardware cloth, with a digging barrier, dirt floor and then put some smaller shelters inside it. A twelve foot roof would be ideal for this climate, lots of shade, escape for hot air and ammonia. And that would give me room for a broody baby nest area, and a chicken isolation corner. The foxes, Steuben and Maybelline, are voting for chicks on pasture. I might get them out weekly, which is why I want a large run with lots of air meanwhile. I could use a tractor for the summer chicks if it got too crowded or poopy, or cull. I'm thinking mostly deep litter, but will have to fine tune rain control.

So the layers need nest boxes and roosts; the summer meat chicks will not be laying, unless they graduate to the layer group. But do the summer meat chicks need roosts? On the one hand, they might hurt their little feet. But that might be more about the Cornish types. I was thinking about roost bars in a corner, with a little extra enclosure. Then a poop board underneath that slants directly into a compost pile, and a water barrel above so I can hose it all in. It seems like getting them to roost might help a little with poop control, even if it was from playing in daytime instead of night sleeping.

Is that crazy? will they roost enough during their short lives to help with poop control? Would a 2x4 be the right size? Or a low 1x2 and a higher 2x4? At what age do Delawares roost?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Hi. I placed an order/reservation for 8 day old Delaware straight run chicks in early summer. I'm so excited! So question about housing, which depends on how the birds grow, and Delawares seem to have a special growth curve.

Is that crazy? will they roost enough during their short lives to help with poop control? Would a 2x4 be the right size? Or a low 1x2 and a higher 2x4? At what age do Delawares roost?

Confused ... are you just buying Delawares? No Cornish X? If just Delawares, then their lives won't really be all that "short" ... they will likely want to roost before you want to eat them. Particularly if they're in a batch of other birds their own age and don't have to do the pecking-order thing to earn the right to a spot on the communal roost.

I have a greenhouse conversion coop ... hardware cloth sides with greenhouse plastic roof and sides. I can raise or lower the sides by rolling up the plastic. It works well in my climate, but would probably not be so great other places.

You will likely want a cockerel colony away from the females or it could be rather chaotic as the birds near sexual maturity. You'll know when it is time to split them up.

If you're ordering hatchery birds, they probably won't mature at the same rate as the birds in this project are at this stage ... maybe the people at the hatchery have more specifics for you.

 

[speckledhen]

Hi. I placed an order/reservation for 8 day old Delaware straight run chicks in early summer. I'm so excited! So question about housing, which depends on how the birds grow, and Delawares seem to have a special growth curve.

The housing plan is enough for half a dozen layers plus two batches of summer chicks, to build this spring. My favorite idea is a steel carport for the roof and structure, wrapped in hardware cloth, with a digging barrier, dirt floor and then put some smaller shelters inside it. A twelve foot roof would be ideal for this climate, lots of shade, escape for hot air and ammonia. And that would give me room for a broody baby nest area, and a chicken isolation corner. The foxes, Steuben and Maybelline, are voting for chicks on pasture. I might get them out weekly, which is why I want a large run with lots of air meanwhile. I could use a tractor for the summer chicks if it got too crowded or poopy, or cull. I'm thinking mostly deep litter, but will have to fine tune rain control.

So the layers need nest boxes and roosts; the summer meat chicks will not be laying, unless they graduate to the layer group. But do the summer meat chicks need roosts? On the one hand, they might hurt their little feet. But that might be more about the Cornish types. I was thinking about roost bars in a corner, with a little extra enclosure. Then a poop board underneath that slants directly into a compost pile, and a water barrel above so I can hose it all in. It seems like getting them to roost might help a little with poop control, even if it was from playing in daytime instead of night sleeping.

Is that crazy? will they roost enough during their short lives to help with poop control? Would a 2x4 be the right size? Or a low 1x2 and a higher 2x4? At what age do Delawares roost?

I think we may be confused a bit by your post. Do you mean Dellies have a short lifespan? OR did you mean your Cornish type chicks? Delawares have an average lifespan. They are not like the CornishX meat bird at all. My heritage Delawares are 5 years old and laying still. My rooster needs a 2x4 with the wide side to sit on, but he has arthritis now and I added an extra board against it so he won't have to balance so much (he started falling off since one leg is a bit stiff in the joint). My Delaware chicks were roosting at about 2 weeks old. I don't think Cornish meat chicks roost at all. So, I hope I answered your question in some roundabout way, LOL.

 

[ronott1]

Hi All!

I am hatching some Delaware eggs for @capayvalleychick Kim!

I candled them and 19 out of 24 are doing very well. 4 look like clears and one looks like a blood ring.

I will keep you updated on the hatch and plan on setting up a hatch cam.

 

[Zanna]

Hi All!

I am hatching some Delaware eggs for @capayvalleychick Kim!

I candled them and 19 out of 24 are doing very well. 4 look like clears and one looks like a blood ring.

I will keep you updated on the hatch and plan on setting up a hatch cam.

Awesome and good luck to you and Kim!!! Just put my two chosen pullets in with each of their mates a few days ago and neither has layed an egg yet. In fact, the pullets are pretty unhappy with their new digs and boyfriends and are spending much of the day on the roost Hopefully after about a month I will be setting my first of Kathy's birds eggs too. Unusual weather here has slowed down progress..........

 

[desertmarcy]

Of the 3 pullets I kept, I am breeding two to the Delaware cockerel. Out of pen space in the big pens, having taken up two pens each for breeding Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and Marans, so they are none too happy about being moved to individual 4'x4' pens. I rotate the male back and forth. The third pullet has brownish in the white on her back, plus she is the one with more of a Colombian pattern on the hackles, so she is keeping a spare Rhode Island Red cockerel company for red sex links. I don't get eggs every day out of these pullets, more like every 2 or 3 days, so don't expect to hatch a lot of these. Maybe they will lay more once they settle down in those smaller pens.

I was going to cross my last hatchery Delaware hen to my Kathy cockerel, just to see what might come out. She had a nice big head on her and I kept her after butchering all the rest. However, two times in a row, after I moved her to the smaller pen for breeding, she laid and ate her egg. The first time I thought perhaps the egg had been accidentally broken. However the next time, I saw her sitting and came back not 5-10 minutes later, she had just finished up eating the egg. So she went the way of her sisters. She dressed out as a nice 4-lb stewing hen

I wonder if the tendency to eat eggs can have a genetic component. I had to butcher one of her sisters the first year I had them for that behavior, maybe there was another one, too, don't remember now.

 

[finnfur]

Of the 3 pullets I kept, I am breeding two to the Delaware cockerel. Out of pen space in the big pens, having taken up two pens each for breeding Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and Marans, so they are none too happy about being moved to individual 4'x4' pens. I rotate the male back and forth. The third pullet has brownish in the white on her back, plus she is the one with more of a Colombian pattern on the hackles, so she is keeping a spare Rhode Island Red cockerel company for red sex links. I don't get eggs every day out of these pullets, more like every 2 or 3 days, so don't expect to hatch a lot of these. Maybe they will lay more once they settle down in those smaller pens.

I was going to cross my last hatchery Delaware hen to my Kathy cockerel, just to see what might come out. She had a nice big head on her and I kept her after butchering all the rest. However, two times in a row, after I moved her to the smaller pen for breeding, she laid and ate her egg. The first time I thought perhaps the egg had been accidentally broken. However the next time, I saw her sitting and came back not 5-10 minutes later, she had just finished up eating the egg. So she went the way of her sisters. She dressed out as a nice 4-lb stewing hen

I wonder if the tendency to eat eggs can have a genetic component. I had to butcher one of her sisters the first year I had them for that behavior, maybe there was another one, too, don't remember now.

Interesting - Was having some problem withe the eggs breaking / eating . But it all went away when I expanded my nest count from 2 to 10 [ 14 hens - had 20 ] At that time we also added wooden eggs to the nest . not sure any of that changed it but the only egg I have found pecked is the occasional ones dropped from the roost - bomb bay style LOL

 

[finnfur]

Awesome and good luck to you and Kim!!! Just put my two chosen pullets in with each of their mates a few days ago and neither has layed an egg yet. In fact, the pullets are pretty unhappy with their new digs and boyfriends and are spending much of the day on the roost Hopefully after about a month I will be setting my first of Kathy's birds eggs too. Unusual weather here has slowed down progress..........

Sometimes the females just don't like those "arranged" marriages LOL
Good luck - You might increase the hens and then when the group gets happy remove the ones you don't want the eggs to hatch- may increase her comfort level to start with a group she is familiar with. Just a thought of what I would try .