Delawares from kathyinmo

[Zanna]

Quote:
Wow, that bear is cool! I have to admit that we have two hanging on our wall, not from around here though. Leslie, we forgot to go snuggle with the honey bees Thanks for coming, it was a fun day (except for the heat!)!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Wow, that bear is cool! I have to admit that we have two hanging on our wall, not from around here though.

Leslie, we forgot to go snuggle with the honey bees

Thanks for coming, it was a fun day (except for the heat!)!

I'll just snuggle with the honey I brought home!

And thanks for lunch!

Here is about the best photo I got of the buck. He was just leaving.

 

[Zanna]

Quote:
Here's one we got a week ago from out of the truck window:

 

[finnfur]

Wow! he going to be nice - lots of venison burger there .

Our Brer Bear must read because he never shows up during our short 10 day season.
He knows when the corn is ripe however . He.s fairly smart or lucky they don't get that big around here. Usually.

Got one pic last year of a sow and cub so presume he is passing genes,

 

[caychris]

Just asking how do you predator proof a coop/run for a bear?

 

[finnfur]

Just asking how do you predator proof a coop/run for a bear?

Chris - this is a up close and personal pic of Brer Bear - If you look in the back ground you will see the deterrent - Electrified net.
Now not much is going to stop a determined charging Bear - but as long as he's just nosing around to test the net and zap.
Like a cat that jumps on a hot stove - they learn quick and don't jump on a cold one either.
Some campers use electric ribbon for bear protection. Never had a predator loss except a Hawk. Well ,not counting my sons dog when he was feeding the chickens.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

If you don't already subscribe, watch the Backyard Poultry Magazine website for the August/September issue to post. It is the one with the Delaware article featuring some of Kathy's Line birds.

http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Time for a pity party. PapaDel is molting. He looks like he swallowed a small explosive. I keep stepping outside and thinking "Oh no! We've had a predator attack!" Feathers everywhere!

The chick that's feathering doesn't look much better at the moment.



Everything is so dry and dusty and all the birds are so dirty I am actually considering washing them. I wish it would rain a bit.

 

[finnfur]

Time for a pity party. PapaDel is molting. He looks like he swallowed a small explosive. I keep stepping outside and thinking "Oh no! We've had a predator attack!" Feathers everywhere!

The chick that's feathering doesn't look much better at the moment.



Everything is so dry and dusty and all the birds are so dirty I am actually considering washing them. I wish it would rain a bit.

Dittos on all that- same here.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I thought I'd share a few more terrible photos taken on the 21st of July. Even on an overcast day, like the 21st, the white birds get "blown out" on the iPhone camera, so they don't show the detail of the black bleed-through on the white feathers as well as I had hoped.

The flock is molting, and even the younger birds are rapidly shedding & replacing feathers as they grow, so they do look a little ratty. Even the pullets that had decently complete-looking & open tails a few weeks ago have messy tails now. Also, it's painfully dry here, and everything is a desiccated reddish brown color, even the grass. And the birds ...

Here are some of this year's Mr. Fatty pullets and one of the breeding females I used this year. Color-wise, there is not a lot of variation in these pullets. MAYBE there is one with more solid-looking black in her tail (third from the top), though that's hard to judge when they're between feathers.

You can see these pullets are approaching hen size. Their weights are still increasing, and they seem to have relatively even width from front to back, though I'd like to feel them a little wider ... I think they'll keep filling out over the next several weeks; last years pullets all seem to have "bulked up" over the past few months. These pullets are looking through the fence to the cockerel colony. They hang out here a lot as it's a hub of activity. I even found an egg on the ground right there last night ... someone had gotten comfy (not a pullet, they're still peeping so clearly aren't laying).



I think that hen (even if she was from the last hatch last year she should be a year old now) has a decent shape. I like the smoothness of her back all the way to her tail. In general, the pullets don't show as much extra color as the cockerels, but then the pullets tend to darken as they reach POL, while the cockerels get progressively lighter. So, it's still to early to tell ... except we know they aren't the super clean white they are supposed to be.

...

This is one of the females I used as a breeder this year. I think she has about the best color of all the females I used. About the lightest barring around the neck, about the cleanest white body feathers (though you can still see a little "staining" showing through her back feathers), and about the closest thing I've got to a black primary tail with white frosting. The illustration in the standard does show some barring around the tail primaries ... but maybe not quite this much. The red/brown on her back is dirt.



What I don't like about this hen is her "bee body." She has a bit of a "wasp waist," which I don't like, and a muffin top (cushion). I think her legs are NOT the most orange/yellow of the breeders I used in the spring, though I need a bit more clarification on what qualifies as "yellow." I think maybe she is a little short through her back, which means in that regard she'd be best matched with PapaDel rather than Mr. Fatty. At this point, Mr. Fatty's legs are more yellow than PapaDels ... so if we're breeding for leg color, she'd be better with Mr. Fatty. Either way, she was mated to both. She has a nice wide head, her tail spread is okay, and she has a full chest.

Here is a detail of that tail, showing the hints of black on gray barring in her tail, and some irregular & uneven "frosting." Other females I hatched last year had more "perfect" tail color, but they also had a lot more black on their bodies and all of those had striped neck feathers instead of barred.



...

Here is are a few of the Mr. Fatty cockerels. NOT much variation here, either.



Love their shape. But. So. Much. Black. It's very difficult to photograph the cockerels as they have too many places to hide, and only come out for treats, and then you can't see their chests. Trust me: there is peppering on those chests. I'm hoping they lighten up a LOT over the next several weeks.

I plan to do another set of weights soon.