Hatchery Delawares--What If?

[jvls1942]

sounds to me like Delawares are hard to come by. If this is the case, I would not be too choosey if they were aggresive..

In the first place , I do not believe that WHERE you get them from makes one more aggrasive than another..

just get some and work out the problems.. go for nicer birds, then weed out the traits you do not want..

 

[jensaisquoi]

Quote:
My girls (and surprise late-blooming rooster!) were from Privett; I inherited them from a woman down the valley from me when they were about five months old, she said...they did not start laying for about a month and a half, though. But once they did, they were prolific layers, even in Montana winter! Unfortunately they were killed in a coop fire here about a month ago and I have been seriously mourning. Even my rooster was so docile and sweet, would let my kids carry him around, let me touch his comb to check for frostbite,etc. They all were so gentle. I miss them a lot and don't know how I'm really going to replace them since Privett's min order is much higher than I'm allowed in city limits. (i had six before, max is 8, I may push it

) I think I'll have to go the local Murdochs which is murray-mcm or MPC when they start--I don't know. I tried incubating my girls' eggs but no luck. early development and quit except for a couple late ones who never pipped. BUMMER!
Sorry for the novella just wanted to weigh in on the Privett question.

Best
Jen

 

[BeardedChick]

Quote:

I'm sorry, Jen. That's so sad.

ETA: Ideal will let you order smaller numbers, and they have Dels. I have some from there and they are friendly birds. Not show quality, but nice barnyard stock.

 

[speckledhen]

Temperament is heritable, absolutely. You certainly can breed a strain of human-aggressive birds. I owned a nasty strain of hatchery Dels myself. I didn't even want to keep the pullets, so I didn't. And it took lots of convincing by a breeder friend of mine to get me to try her birds (fertility test for one of her cockerels). They were nothing like the hatchery ones I owned. I love these.

 

[NateDomRIR]

Like some people have said in the past, they are calm, gentle, friendly, curious, grow fast, mature quickly...I can't enough good about mine. I did buy mine from a breeder though and these are my first Dels.

 

[Mahonri]

We got a Delaware X roo in our Rainbow Layer pullet assortment from McMurray.

He was extremely flighty and exerted his dominance almost from day 1. And he was NOISY so we had to rehome him.

I have a BO from Cackle that is a magnificent lap bird... most tame bird in my flock.

 

[smith2]

OK. Update. I got 2 Dellie hens from a man down in Camden about 2 months ago. They came from Privett and they are wonderful. They are nice looking birds, calm, friendly, and laying big eggs. I am going to hatch some from them soon.

 

[jensaisquoi]

Thanks, Bearded Chick--
It's so comforting that people on here actually "get" what a loss that was--most of my friends think I've gone 'round the bend!!! Especially because I spent a bunch of energy trying to hatch the eggs from that group--a wash--and now I'm spending lots of time researching possible "bad strains" of Dellies. That would be a huge letdown if I were to buy some from a place that had the goof-birds. So this is a great thread for me!

I think I may try to go with My Pet chicken (they use Meyer) or just survey the town here and put together a big Privett order!!

Plus I still want to try another hatch if I can find some quality eggs--geeze ya' think the addiction's taking hold???

I'm such a sucker...No offense to all my fellow suckers...

best

Jen

 

[BeardedChick]

Quote:
Weren't Cyn's mean strain of Dels also from McMurray?

 

[Faverolle]

I have 8 Delewares from three different places. 3 are from a somewhat local breeder and were not hatchery stock and the rest were hatchery stock. None of my Delewares are aggressive. I think that some of these hatcheries have so many different breeding birds that you very well could end up with some from a hatchery especially in regards to roos that are aggressive while the next person can can them from the same place and they may be the most timid birds.

BTW does anyone know of anyone here on the forum working with and selling really nice Delewares?