Delawares from kathyinmo

[LeslieDJoyce]

My Del pullets are doing fairly well with fertility, much better than my Dorkings. There were two, out of the four breeders, who had less fertility than the others. I think that I solved that by leaving the cockerel in the pen with each hen for longer - not moving him every night.

Has anyone else hatched 5th generation Dels from Kathy's strain?

Here are my results from the first hatch: 24 eggs set. 4 not fertile. 1 blood ring. 19 to hatch. 1 dead in shell. 18 hatched. 2 took longer to get out of shell and were not thriving and were culled. 16 active, thriving chicks.
Photo by Ron, who does my incubating for me:

oh my gosh. SO cute!!! So thoroughly cute!!!

 

[finnfur]

My Del pullets are doing fairly well with fertility, much better than my Dorkings. There were two, out of the four breeders, who had less fertility than the others. I think that I solved that by leaving the cockerel in the pen with each hen for longer - not moving him every night.

Has anyone else hatched 5th generation Dels from Kathy's strain?

Here are my results from the first hatch: 24 eggs set. 4 not fertile. 1 blood ring. 19 to hatch. 1 dead in shell. 18 hatched. 2 took longer to get out of shell and were not thriving and were culled. 16 active, thriving chicks.
Photo by Ron, who does my incubating for me:

Great Job !
Thats a good question . Has anyone else hatched F5s from this line . I presume maybe Kathy but don't know for sure. You should get 6 or 7 more pullets
out of that bunch . Maybe even Super boy -
They look good and healthy .

 

[crazyhen]

Can't hatch but all the dels. seem to be laying . I will separate later as my health and my Moms get better for them to breed. I love mine.

 

[ronott1]

My Del pullets are doing fairly well with fertility, much better than my Dorkings. There were two, out of the four breeders, who had less fertility than the others. I think that I solved that by leaving the cockerel in the pen with each hen for longer - not moving him every night.

Has anyone else hatched 5th generation Dels from Kathy's strain?

Here are my results from the first hatch: 24 eggs set. 4 not fertile. 1 blood ring. 19 to hatch. 1 dead in shell. 18 hatched. 2 took longer to get out of shell and were not thriving and were culled. 16 active, thriving chicks.
Photo by Ron, who does my incubating for me:

Here is a hatching video to go along with the picture:

 

[Abe Henderson]

Hi all. Has anyone been tracking egg production of Kathy's Del's?

 

[capayvalleychick]

Hi all. Has anyone been tracking egg production of Kathy's Del's?

Not that I know of, not formally, anyway. I've kept track of who is laying how many since they have been in breeding pens.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Day 4 of 5th generation chicks. I weighed them. Weights ranged from 1.5 to 1.9 ounces. Majority were 1.7 oz.
They have wing feathers growing in. I was excited to see this because I'm hoping that they mature a bit faster than the F4s. When I looked back on this thread, I saw that Bee's had wing feathers at 1 week and mine had them at 12 days. So, maybe this isn't a sign of faster maturity.
Waiting on Zanna's hatch and for Tom's & others to be laying better.

 

[finnfur]

Day 4 of 5th generation chicks. I weighed them. Weights ranged from 1.5 to 1.9 ounces. Majority were 1.7 oz.
They have wing feathers growing in. I was excited to see this because I'm hoping that they mature a bit faster than the F4s. When I looked back on this thread, I saw that Bee's had wing feathers at 1 week and mine had them at 12 days. So, maybe this isn't a sign of faster maturity.
Waiting on Zanna's hatch and for Tom's & others to be laying better.

I think its going to be a long wait for us. Broody B63 after 3 days moved off the clutch of eggs we put under and sitting on any egg she can find .
She is doing this daily so I am no longer leaving eggs under her. The eggs she abandoned seemed to have one fertilized of 3 . Had just moved the Cock in pen 2 days before. She is not laying.
Broody B57 is holding the course over a small clutch of eggs and not laying- going to candle after this weekend.[ not sure of source of these eggs] .
Hen B56 is in the hospital pen with the eye injury - healing well and most likely go back to the breed pen in a couple days- she is the better of hens not brooding [ not laying].
Two other F4 hens are in the pen - they were not going to be used for breeding but under the circumstances I have changed plans [ they did not lay anything today ] LOL
They other Del line just started laying again after rotating everyone around so maybe the F4s will start soon. On top of that we have had nasty snow/cold.
So we didn't have one F5 egg today . Sure hope things pick up soon.

PS - Kim we send you some rain if you send us some warm temps LOL

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I've been keeping track in a journal of my egg counts for several months now (mostly by color of eggs

). When my first Delaware started laying, I added a column for them. I could go through and construct some kind of "average." But I've only got the two females, so it isn't much of a sample.

Give me a thumbs up if you think I should bother. Otherwise I could eyeball it ...

 

[capayvalleychick]

I think its going to be a long wait for us. Broody B63 after 3 days moved off the clutch of eggs we put under and sitting on any egg she can find .
She is doing this daily so I am no longer leaving eggs under her. The eggs she abandoned seemed to have one fertilized of 3 . Had just moved the Cock in pen 2 days before. She is not laying.
Broody B57 is holding the course over a small clutch of eggs and not laying- going to candle after this weekend.[ not sure of source of these eggs] .
Hen B56 is in the hospital pen with the eye injury - healing well and most likely go back to the breed pen in a couple days- she is the better of hens not brooding [ not laying].
Two other F4 hens are in the pen - they were not going to be used for breeding but under the circumstances I have changed plans [ they did not lay anything today ] LOL
They other Del line just started laying again after rotating everyone around so maybe the F4s will start soon. On top of that we have had nasty snow/cold.
So we didn't have one F5 egg today . Sure hope things pick up soon.

PS - Kim we send you some rain if you send us some warm temps LOL

It sounds like a horrible year for breeders in most of the country this year. I'm hoping things change for you, for the better, soon. I'm anxious to see what the next generation looks like, now that it's been spread all over the US.
We have had rain, for the past month. Still in a drought, though. I would gladly send you our summers, if I could!