Im thnking Delaware but what do I know

[Chickerdoodle13]

Yep, hatchery delawares. I love the barring in the tails on those guys!

 

[BaconFarms]

Thanks everyone. Just wanted confirmation. He likes to peck at my boots when I am in the yard. I can pick him up and pet him. So can my 20yr old daughter. Except yesterday she went in the yard with sandals on. He attacker her feet. I think he may have drawn a little blood. She didn't think it was funny, but I'm still laughing..

BaconFarms

 

[BaconFarms]

Update,

So our Delaware hen started laying eggs. I have 100+ hens and only one Delaware hen. 14 boxes and she picks the top middle box every time. And you can tell when she was in there because she lays the biggest eggs ever. We get a couple double yokers from our other chickens, however, her egg is just as big or bigger than the double yokers, only they are single yokes and have a regular egg shape only bigger. Fun.

BaconFarms

 

[aoxa]

That rooster is not a delaware. He is cross bred. I have hatchery Delawares, and they should not have any colour in their wings like your boy has.

Here is my old Hatchery Delaware hen. Google image "Hatchery Delaware Rooster" and you won't find any that look like your boy.

 

[speckledhen]

The rooster may be partly Delaware but I would not call him one, not even a hatchery Delaware has color like that in the wings. I would not breed him as anything other than a mixed breed rooster, perhaps mixed with Delaware. I have had Delawares for years, started with hatchery, but for the past five years, have had breeder Dels.

Delaware roosters have tail barring and Delaware hens have tail black (black feathers with white edging). Both sexes have barred hackles.


So, is your last name "Bacon"?

 

[aoxa]

The rooster may be partly Delaware but I would not call him one, not even a hatchery Delaware has color like that in the wings. I would not breed him as anything other than a mixed breed rooster, perhaps mixed with Delaware. I have had Delawares for years, started with hatchery, but for the past five years, have had breeder Dels.

Delaware roosters have tail barring and Delaware hens have tail black (black feathers with white edging). Both sexes have barred hackles.


So, is your last name "Bacon"?

I was really hoping you'd come in and explain it

 

[speckledhen]

If a hatchery is selling that type of rooster as a Delaware, I have to tell them to be ashamed of themselves. A Delaware should have NO other color than black and white, like my rooster, Isaac, pictured here resting today. Sorry about his bald spot-one hen likes to pluck him there, plus he's molted out his sickle feathers so his tail is mostly missing. You can tell, though, that he is black and white only:

 

[aoxa]

If a hatchery is selling that type of rooster as a Delaware, I have to tell them to be ashamed of themselves. A Delaware should have NO other color than black and white, like my rooster, Isaac, pictured here resting today. Sorry about his bald spot-one hen likes to pluck him there, plus he's molted out his sickle feathers so his tail is mostly missing. You can tell, though, that he is black and white only:

Isaac is not a hatchery Delaware is he? He's so pretty

My hens love pick too

 

[speckledhen]

No, Isaac and his hens came from Janet Holtman, a breeder of good quality Delawares, however, as you said in your post above, even hatchery Delawares should have no brown/red/gold on them anywhere.

Some Delaware lines do tend to yellow in the sun, unlike Isaac's line, but that's a completely different issue than what we are seeing in BaconFarms's rooster. Hatchery Delawares may have narrow body types or a Columbian Rock influence if they have been outcrossed at some point way back when the Delaware was highly endangered, but under no circumstance should there be wild colors on them like on the rooster in question. That says to me that something else was bred into the line.

As endangered as Delawares still are, in my opinion, we should be careful to not breed examples like that as a Delaware, but simply as a mixed breed. He's handsome, certainly, but just not what would be considered a Delaware.

Even the pullet seems to have some brown on her that I don't think is dirt like our red Georgia clay (my Ellie right now is one dirty Delaware!). Could be just the photo, but the color seems to follow a laced pattern so seems to be in the feather, not on the feather.

 

[aoxa]

No, Isaac and his hens came from Janet Holtman, a breeder of good quality Delawares, however, as you said in your post above, even hatchery Delawares should have no brown/red/gold on them anywhere.

Some Delaware lines do tend to yellow in the sun, unlike Isaac's line, but that's a completely different issue than what we are seeing in BaconFarms's rooster. Hatchery Delawares may have narrow body types or a Columbian Rock influence if they have been outcrossed at some point way back when the Delaware was highly endangered, but under no circumstance should there be wild colors on them like on the rooster in question. That says to me that something else was bred into the line.

As endangered as Delawares still are, in my opinion, we should be careful to not breed examples like that as a Delaware, but simply as a mixed breed. He's handsome, certainly, but just not what would be considered a Delaware. Even the pullet seems to have some brown on her that I don't think is dirt like our red Georgia clay (my Ellie right now is one dirty Delaware!).  Could be just the photo, but the color seems to follow a laced pattern so seems to be in the feather, not on the feather.

Most hatcheries aren't close to the SOP, but this guy is way off the charts. I was told that Delawares are silver based, not gold, so that leakage wouldn't be possible in a true Delaware.

I found this interesting:

A quick view of the genetic history of the Delaware:
* Although the Delaware is often referred to as having the Columbian pattern, it is not the same or related to the Columbian Plymouth Rock. A lesson in genetics tells us that the Columbian pattern restricts where color will be placed on the chicken. The body is usually one solid color while the hackles, wings and tail are the areas of solid black on Columbian patterned birds. These areas on Columbian patterned birds are usually solid black. The coloring of a Delaware is barred and not solid, thus causing confusion to the reference of the Columbian pattern.
* The silver sport offspring that were produced from the Barred Rock/New Hampshire matting lacked the factor for the extension of black pigment to all of the plumage which would have been transmitted to the silver sport offspring by the Barred Rock male. The result was a bird that was mostly white but showed irregular barring in the hackle; primaries and secondaries of the wings; and on the tail. This is the Columbian factor or pattern.
* The Columbian factor is what restricts the black and shifts it to certain locations on the bird’s body. On the Delaware female, the black is restricted to the primaries and secondaries of the wings and to the tail while the hackle shows irregular barring. In the Delaware male the pattern of color is restricted to the hackles with irregular barring; the primaries and secondaries of the wings, and the tail which is also barred.
* Although the Delaware was the result of “silver sports”, it does not imply that those sports where any form of gray or silver in color. Chickens have 2 kinds of pigments that determine their plumage color. One pigment color is black, and the other is a yellow/red pigment. The absence of these colors produces “silver” which actually looks white. The white plumage and white under color of the Delaware set it apart from The Columbian Rock. The Columbian Rock has a bluish-slate under color that proves the Columbian Rock is not “silver” like the Delaware and therefore not related to the Delaware.