Do Delawares bred with Delawares produce Delawares?

[Lady TS]

We are currently looking into heritage breeds and want to get a dual-purpose breed good for both eggs and meat production.

We are planning on doing a meat production a la Joel Salatin with the chicken tractors, and to have little pastures to rotate our egg chickens on.

We want a breed that we can reliably raise year to year and hopefully not have to buy chicks again and again(though I think it's fun to get different breeds!).

We are considering Delawares.
I realize that the Delawares are a cross between Barred Plymouth Rock Roos and New Hampshire Hens...

If you breed a Delaware hen with a Delaware roo, do you get consistent Delaware chicks? Do they breed true?

 

[Year of the Rooster]

Quote:
Thats how Delawares were started, by crossing Barred Rocks and New Hampshires, but that was AGES ago. They are now considered a breed and part of the description of a "breed" is to produce true offspring that look like the parents.

To answer your question, yes.

 

[Lady TS]

Ok, that's kinda what we were thinking, but wanted to make sure so we didn't get stuck with a breed we couldn't reliably raise ourselves.

Thanks!

 

[shortcake1806]

They sure do. I've been breeding them for several years now and can say without doubt they breed true.

 

[tadkerson]

Yes and no. Yes if the birds you are breeding do not carry recessive white. No,if the birds carry recessive white; if no then the delaware will sport a white bird every now and then.

Tim

 

[herechickchick]

You really need to read this , it is VERY informative.

 

[seriousbill]

Quote:
Tim, Like Tracy, I've been breeding Delawares for several years now, and I have neither had nor seen an all-white Delaware sport. I have also never heard anyone mention this until now. Are you talking about hatchery birds? Those might be a bit unpredictable because of the outcrossing, but I know of no breeder birds that carry recessive white. They are all plain old silver columbian.

 

[tadkerson]

Bill,

In chicken genetics, you never know what will show up. If you have a closed population of birds, then the recessive white gene may not be in your population. I have had recessive white show up in a bird that a person would think did not contain the gene.

Tim