Delawares from kathyinmo

[caychris]

The spots on her back bother me less than her neck color. But I do like her smoothness.

Her columbian neck pattern is very full more like a Brahama it is very pretty though. I thought that they should have more neck color most Dels seem washed out at the neck.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Her columbian neck pattern is very full more like a Brahama it is very pretty though. I thought that they should have more neck color most Dels seem washed out at the neck.

In this line we aren't to the point where we have to worry about "washed out" Delawares yet. I don't suppose we'll get there for a long, long time. One thing we do have to worry about in the meantime is making sure they have barring on their necks instead of stripes. Last year I only got a few pullets with barring instead of stripes (and other major bad color issues), so those were the ones I chose to breed this year. I could have used other criteria for sure. But that's where I chose to draw the line.

In looking at the two groups of "chicks" here ... the pullets/cockerels from Mr. Fatty vs. those from from PapaDel ... I don't see any columbian neck color in the Mr. Fatty pullets/cockerels. I do think I'll see some in the PapaDel chicks, they're still feathering. Certainly I haven't seen anything "too light." But if I did, I'd hope for no bad faults so I could put that bird in the breeding pen.

I posted this photo over on the Delaware Poultry Club United facebook page when I was trying to decide which pullets to include in the breeding pen early this year. I asked, "Is this enough barring to work with?" meaning, is there enough white in the barring to call it barring ...



I was told it was too much barring (clearly meaning too much black) because the barring is supposed to look like a necklace, and if this is a necklace its super gaudy.

 

[caychris]

I see what you mean about too much black.

As to the bit about possible Mareks. Our issues seem to be more acute and less degenerative but since they are both cockerels we will probably cull them and have them tested, Ill talk to Neal about it. If it is Mareks then there is not much to do about it at this point. We could start vaccinating chicks.

 

[finnfur]

They've been running a free subscription offer to Backyard Poultry Magazine. I pretty anti-bringing-magazines-into-the-house, but they have online-only subscriptions, too.

Too late already subscribed - curiosity killed the cat - interesting article however.

 

[finnfur]

Pullet in the front. Cockerel in the back.

Dual gender - I will change name to Caitlin maybe !

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Dual gender - I will change name to Caitlin maybe !

One of her baby photos (that you posted earlier) showed the same tail. Fluffy upright sprouts. This photo.



It's super cute. But I'd be getting impatient. Last year ALLLLLLLLL my pullets looked like that FOREVER. Maybe without the uprightness of the sprouts. I figured out I have a "messy tail" problem on my females as well as my males. One of my starter pullets has it, as does PapaDel. The female's tail feathers stick out in every direction, PapaDel's tail is super bushy and the sickle feathers are so narrow they turn into streamers instead of holding an arc. I think I made about 50 "tail envy" posts last year. I kept hoping they'd juvenile molt out of it, but not all did. Now they're doing their first adult molt, so I'm watching with interest.

One of the satisfying things this year has been seeing more organized tails growing in on the pullets at about 11 weeks (?). After learning more about tail feathers, I'm happy to note that Mr. Fatty's tail has wider tail feathers, which likely has helped. I don't know about the tails on the PapaDel chicks yet. They're still kinda young.

Now "wider tail feathers" is going to be part of my "feather quality" selection criteria. In theory. We know how THAT goes. Hope to focus on feather quality, and end up with a bunch of birds with wide tails but DQ faults that HAVE to be culled.

And this year our priority is yellow legs ...

And people are really hoping to get some of our culls ... I love these birds in this line, and they have some super nice qualities that other lines lack, but I don't want to be spreading around obvious culls as that will for sure spoil the reputation of this line in a hurry and do the breed no favors.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I see what you mean about too much black.

As to the bit about possible Mareks. Our issues seem to be more acute and less degenerative but since they are both cockerels we will probably cull them and have them tested, Ill talk to Neal about it. If it is Mareks then there is not much to do about it at this point. We could start vaccinating chicks.

Cool that you're getting them tested!

What are you guys feeding your chicks? Or your breeders prior to breeding season for that matter? Any chance they've got access to toxins? Lots of possibilities to consider, and this is a peculiar problem you're describing, so it seems environmental to me rather than genetic.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Too late already subscribed - curiosity killed the cat - interesting article however.

I'm glad they interviewed Kim and Walt so there's informed info in it.

 

[finnfur]

One of her baby photos (that you posted earlier) showed the same tail. Fluffy upright sprouts. This photo.

Yes but now its half way up the back - first I have seen of this - maybe check some archive photos see if previous chicks show this .

 

[finnfur]

.



I was told it was too much barring (clearly meaning too much black) because the barring is supposed to look like a necklace, and if this is a necklace its super gaudy.

Its a step in the correct direction from the columbian look which I see a lot of.