Delawares from kathyinmo

[DuckBoy]

Quote:
What is you brought an Columbian into the picture?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Oh yay!

Zanna dropped by this evening and was quick to spot my best potential breeding cockerels, so we banded them. They are good sized birds, and one even has a nice comb. We also weighed the F4 cock, and he is somewhat oversized ... I had been thinking he was a little small, luckily his roundness makes up for any perceived lack of length or height. He is incredibly compact. Now we can cull the birds we don't need, and that should help reduce feed costs and minimize the hormonal scuffling.

I'm definitely preferring the males to the females.

Pullets are going to be a challenge. We marked a few, but I need to get the birds with brown feathers out of the coop before I can better assess what's left. My females weigh a tad on the light side. Big balls of fluff. I haven't been allowing them many treats ... that can't explain all of it. I will depend on the males to bring some size to the girls. I also will tweak their feeding a bit by giving them a hopper of dry pellets and allowing them more scratch.

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 ...

 

[finnfur]

Oh yay!

Zanna dropped by this evening and was quick to spot my best potential breeding cockerels, so we banded them. They are good sized birds, and one even has a nice comb. We also weighed the F4 cock, and he is somewhat oversized ... I had been thinking he was a little small, luckily his roundness makes up for any perceived lack of length or height. He is incredibly compact. Now we can cull the birds we don't need, and that should help reduce feed costs and minimize the hormonal scuffling.

I'm definitely preferring the males to the females.

Pullets are going to be a challenge. We marked a few, but I need to get the birds with brown feathers out of the coop before I can better assess what's left. My females weigh a tad on the light side. Big balls of fluff. I haven't been allowing them many treats ... that can't explain all of it. I will depend on the males to bring some size to the girls. I also will tweak their feeding a bit by giving them a hopper of dry pellets and allowing them more scratch.

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 ...

See it wasn't as bad as you thought lol

I am having the opposite problem - the gals look better than the guys-in fact all the F5 guys are in the " no feed zone "

Went to feed the group in the breeding coup yesterday and started seeing lots of speckle red/brown on back . At first I could not figure how they developed the bleed thru so fast . Well it turned out it was bleed on. When moving everyone we had de spurred # 2 cock and he was spot bleeding on the pullets/hens backs .. Evidence shows he's getting his job done. LOL

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Attaboy!

 

[finnfur]

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"

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I'm busy re-reading this thread from the beginning ... each time I read it I'm at a different stage in the process, so catch totally different things. But it is time consuming.

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.

 

[finnfur]

I'm busy re-reading this thread from the beginning ... each time I read it I'm at a different stage in the process, so catch totally different things. But it is time consuming.

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.

Here are the original threads that got me interested in Dels
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/249618/show-off-your-delawares-pic-heavy
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/411540/answer-to-the-delaware-dilemma
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/291856/delaware-genetics-for-dummies
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/384349/sdwd [ you need to be a secret member to view this one ]
You may have already read these - there is lots of chit chat but informative also.
Just read it all Sunday - we will have a test Monday

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Here are the original threads that got me interested in Dels
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/249618/show-off-your-delawares-pic-heavy
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/411540/answer-to-the-delaware-dilemma
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/291856/delaware-genetics-for-dummies
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/384349/sdwd [ you need to be a secret member to view this one ]
You may have already read these - there is lots of chit chat but informative also.
Just read it all Sunday - we will have a test Monday

Now I'm being all ADD ...

... lots of windows open, losing track of what I've read and not read, and I think I may have just joined a defunct cult.

I wasn't familiar with that last thread at all, at least not that I remember. Tons of chict-chat to sort through on that one.

I can't remember which thread I'd read that got me interested in Delawares. Probably a combination of some kind of "Dual-Purpose homesteading" type thread, and one of the Heritage Large Fowl threads where I asked what kind of breed might work for my situation ... Some people were really pushing Delawares, others were not as enthusiastic about this breed (because it needs so much work). When I looked up the breed stats and compared them to a few others, it was the supposed good winter laying and larger eggs that influenced me most ... more even than the fact that Delawares were once "the" meat bird. I've eaten a lot of Delaware eggs, I think they are particularly yummy, but haven't eaten a Delaware bird yet.

I think it is kinda a fluke that someone who was already working with this line was near enough to share these particular birds with me, was also familiar with my other local choices about where I might get my first Dels, and was willing to share. If not for all that, I might be busy on the Buckeye thread!

I'm glad to have the Dels ... I like their happy U-shape, and their dorky personalities. Dad was telling me yesterday, "It might be worth it to keep those guys [the herd of cockerels] around just for entertainment."

 

[finnfur]

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.

 

[rancher hicks]

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