Delewares

[ginasmarans]

O.k. you Deleware experts, I have some questions. Mine are about 2 months old and i think I can tell the girls from the boys and of course there are more boys than girls. What I am noticing is the pullets are feathering out with less black on their back thatn the roos. Is that typical? They are really nice looking chicks and i'm glad I have them.

 

[gumpsgirl]

That seems to be what mine are doing. They are 3 wks. old now and you can tell which ones are cockerels and which ones are pullets now by their combs. The pullets don't seem to have as much black as the cockerels. I'm no expert on this breed by any means, but I do see what you are talking about in mine.

 

[coopist]

Hello Gina,

Yes, that's fairly typical, but it isn't set in stone.

I've seen males with the wheaten base pattern feather in with very little marking on the shoulders or back. Also, females with the wild-type base pattern feather in with a lot of smut all over, and can be a little hard to distinguish from the males with darker shoulders. So, while it's far from a hard and fast rule, and varies with the underlying e-locus genetics, the short answer is yeah, Delaware males tend to feather in with more dark on the shoulders.

 

[ginasmarans]

Thanks. I think I have 3 pullets and 5 roos.