Meat qualities of Delawares - a BYC "article" :)

[speckledhen]

Quote:
It is not produced simply. The Delaware was a sport, a mutation, from that cross years and years ago. Now, it breeds true. You will not get a Delaware from a BR/NH cross. In fact, if you use a NH rooster and BR hen, you get a black sexlink type. You could breed BRs and NH all your life and never get anything like a Delaware.

 

[walkswithdog]

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What speckled hen said... You could never get to a delaware with that cross.

The standards for establishment of a breed are pretty well defined. You have to have bred for generations, have a written standard, have enough people breeding true to type birds, that then begin to show them, establishing type and breed knowledge, if the breeding pool is big enough, if enough people help out, if they breed true to type, if they show, if you develop a working written standard. Then yep can be done. Many people here are showing Marans to get the breed accepted into the APA. There are many people working with non-APA breeds to bring them into the APA.

One person can't really do it, since there has to be interest in holding the breed and promoting it, for a breed to become established.

You can breed a true to type hybrid that people may recognize and buy but it won't ever be a real breed until it is recognized.

Like some of the off colored Rocks I'll be breeding - unless other people pick up the color, breed it and show it, it would never be anything other than an off color.

If I add in Dels for size, then I have to spend generations getting the off characteristics back out of my lines. I have to get back to birds breeding true to the standard before they are purebred again. And that for a couple generations at least.

As to getting Delaware pattern by breeding random breeds together - not gonna happen. It's a sport. It's an uncontrollable fluke of nature.

And owning more than a dozen of them - it's a bit of a freak of nature as well, they're demented popcorn chickens.

 

[TimG]

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Some breeds have been reproduced in this way. I've been reading a bit about Chanteclers recently, and I am sure I have read of people who duplicated the original crosses to make "new" Chanteclers. It is my understanding that, as far as the chicken world is concerned, as long as the resulting bird conforms to the breed standard then it is considered to be that breed.

Someone will probably step in and provide a counter example, but I don't think this process of duplicating the original is ever really a simple matter.

 

[HighSpringsChix]

Thanks for the info.

 

[sealsandwich]

Thank you Speckledhen and everyone else. I am so glad I asked my embarrassing question. I will confess to you all this crazy lil' secret. No point in hiding my shame now! I hatched some Dellies last year in my incubator and loved them. I have eggs in there now from a different person. I actually gave my first roos to another BYC member here in AK who actually knows about "breeding" chickens, and plan to give her a couple of this hatch's hens for that bloodline thing... I honestly have tried to read on the history of this breed. Most all I have read just says that they started with that cross. I ordered a bunch of bantam eggs and said to myself, "I am going to learn to breed a Delaware bantam from scratch." At this point y'all can be doing this

I really did not understand their history and your explanation helps. It would have been horrible for me mentally to keep making little sexlink bantams. I will give up my dream of creating bantam Dellies, but I will not give up my love of chickens! Is there a link/page where I can read more about the actual gene stuff in chickens? I have many questions, like where that lemon blue color comes from (why isn't it a yellow and a blue chicken?)... I don't want to keep posting here asking individual questions that show off serious lack of knowledge. But I am thankful you answered. I did learn something today! And I didn't feel stomped on.

Thanks guys

 

[TimG]

This site should answer many questions and is pretty concise.

If you want to wade in deeper, this site has links to a few old books that have been digitized and put online.

 

[sealsandwich]

Thanks Tim! That is exactly what I wanted to look at!

 

[slc]

Quote:
Some breeds have been reproduced in this way. I've been reading a bit about Chanteclers recently, and I am sure I have read of people who duplicated the original crosses to make "new" Chanteclers. It is my understanding that, as far as the chicken world is concerned, as long as the resulting bird conforms to the breed standard then it is considered to be that breed.

Someone will probably step in and provide a counter example, but I don't think this process of duplicating the original is ever really a simple matter.

The Chantecler example above is true. Some breeds re-created to APA standard may have lost some of the genetic material that was important to the original breeder. I keep Chanteclers and can say that the buff and partridge are not entirely the same as the white which was the original beed of Chantecler. The buff and partridge are re-creations and not part of the original breed creation. There are clear size and other differences in the buff and partridge as well. Farmers who actually produced production meat back then did not care to keep the breed exactly to APA standard. Their individual lines were based on APA but deviated in their own lines to something they could profit from. They also crossed their lines with other production lines etc. The Delaware in its production era was not necessarily bred to standard but had other meat qualities that may have been lost because it was picked up by hobbists who breed to standard and not to production.

If we are not talking about creating a registered breed or new standard breed but a backyard experiment then 6 generations from the original cross would be a true breed in percentages. If you take a cornish x and another cornish x and keep crossing descendant with descendant for 6 generations you will have de-hybridized the cornish x like the breeder of the Corndel did. It is truly a shame that all that work has been lost.

 

[joletabey]

I realize this is an old thread pulled up, but it's new and good info for me, so thank you!!!! I culled my Delaware roos last week - at 19 weeks - just had too many roos and they were starting to beat each other up- no place for a bachelor pad. I found it interesting that the two who had Columbian markings instead of barred hackles were also the two biggest. The man who processed them for me said they all needed about 4 more weeks on them and they would have been quite nice carcasses. Chicken soup is fine, right? Having looked at these processed bodies, yes, the color is nice. One of them looks almost as good as anything you buy in the store, size wise.
Anyway, random comments from someone who appreciates a little more education!

 

[TimG]

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Does this mean the search feature is working again?

I'm sure I have posted this elsewhere, but it seems relevant, so I'll repeat myself:

Earlier this year, I butchered a Delaware cockerel at 18 weeks. He dressed out at 4 lbs 2 oz. He was by no means a roaster, but he did produce plenty of good meat. I don't know if he ever would have been a roaster which to me is proportioned differently than this bird was (roaster = bigger body cavity and breasts, more compact and plump; my Delaware was longer and leggier).

After two days in the fridge, I cut the breasts and thighs off the bones then breaded and fried. They were tender and juicy. No need for slow cooking at this age. (Though the carcass did make some great stock.)