Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[desertmarcy]

Pointy neck feathers are called hackles.

My Delawares are about 4-1/2 months now and I'm getting ready to start processing. Luckily, they don't crow very loud. Most of them are really big. Good luck getting some girls.

Do yours have much of a breast on them now? I finally made the decision to butcher my Delaware cockerel. He is a poor example of a Delaware. I picked him up yesterday, and his breast is really flat. He was hatched in Nov! He should be way meatier. Plus he has never had a good temperament. I will just need to look for a different line when I want some more hens. The hens I have now will still be good layers for another year I think, so I've got time. That will solve the problem of him, anyway, being in a pen all by himself. I still haven't taken pics of that condo yet. So overall, are you happy with the Delawares you got from Sandhill?

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
My Delaware project F3s show a variety of markings. As I am working on "building the barn," first, I am not real concerned with that quite yet. I expect the "smut" to clear with maturity - anyway it did in the F2s. I have about 100 growing out, and will probably only keep a dozen or less. The rest will be butchered.

 

[desertmarcy]

My Delaware project F3s show a variety of markings. As I am working on "building the barn," first, I am not real concerned with that quite yet. I expect the "smut" to clear with maturity - anyway it did in the F2s. I have about 100 growing out, and will probably only keep a dozen or less. The rest will be butchered.

Kathy, do you sell your butchered/processed birds? Just curious since I have butchered quite a few culls this year and last, I have 3 freezers (1 one them is small) and they are all full! We freeze garden produce too, and it is becoming a challenge finding space for everything. There is only so much chicken the two of us can eat, plus I have turkeys. When do you think your Delawares will be at the point where you can offer them for sale--chicks or hatching eggs?

 

[Lacy Blues]

Kathy, you are indeed brave! Didn't you start completely from scratch making your Delawares? Like it was originally done in the first place?

You do have nice birds.

Overall, the only thing I'm unhappy about with the Sandhill Delawares is the split wing on many of the boys. I have one that I REALLY like but he has a solid tail. I need to tell myself that it doesn't matter because I have NO intention of showing them. I have a couple nice ones that have barred tails too.

Desertmarcy, I have several big boys. I'm sure I have one that you would like. Do you intend to show? I have nice boys with barred tails as well as solid. I'll have to get out there and take some pics.

If we could find a way to transport them, I would give you one of them. I'm not going to have room in my freezer for 18 roosters.

 

[kathyinmo]

Yes, I started from scratch on my project. I'm glad, too. I'm not ready to release them publicly yet. I have to see how these F3s turn out myself. I do like their type better than any strain I have had (I have had several).

No, I don't sell my butchered chickens. We have 5 adult children and other family members that like to fill their freezers, too.

Tell me, what do you all look at when you cull?

 

[Lacy Blues]

Defects and Disqualifications first.

I have one rooster who I think has a malformed spine. He never stands up straight, his back is short, when he looks up at me his head will sort of tip to one side and I can see a little bit of trembling... sort of. It's not fear. You know how an old person's head will kind of shake side to side? It's like that and while that is happening, his head lowers to the side. He also has split wings. He'll be the first to go.

Many of them have split wings. They'll all go. I have one who has both inside toes bent in. He goes. I have another with side-sprigs on his comb, he goes. I don't know what choices I'll make from there. Perhaps I will look at the eyes. They need to be the same color with no deviations in the pupil shape. Any that don't exhibit vibrant health will be gone too. Wry tails? and definitely temperament. They're original purpose was "dual purpose" so I want the females to have good egg laying capacity with straight breast bones. I'll be checking for meat quantity on the breast and legs.

There has been a discussion recently on the Heritage Large fowl thread and we talked a little bit about production. I want good heavy shanks, a wide back, wide heart girth area, wide and deep head. Eyes should not be sunk in nor extended.

I have several to choose from though that look really good.

I don't plan to show them so I'm trying not to be too specific. I want them to be and look really nice but my goal is meat/carcass quality and I haven't done that before. l raise Andalusians and I'm pretty sure I'll always have them. They're not for meat, though we do eat the culls that have been allowed to stay til adulthood.

 

[desertmarcy]

Kathy, you are indeed brave! Didn't you start completely from scratch making your Delawares? Like it was originally done in the first place?

You do have nice birds.

Overall, the only thing I'm unhappy about with the Sandhill Delawares is the split wing on many of the boys. I have one that I REALLY like but he has a solid tail. I need to tell myself that it doesn't matter because I have NO intention of showing them. I have a couple nice ones that have barred tails too.

Desertmarcy, I have several big boys. I'm sure I have one that you would like. Do you intend to show? I have nice boys with barred tails as well as solid. I'll have to get out there and take some pics.

If we could find a way to transport them, I would give you one of them. I'm not going to have room in my freezer for 18 roosters.

From reading your next post, it sounds like you had more than just split wings problems with your Sandhill Delawares. Bad back, side sprigs, bent toes. The first two definitely reasons to cull. I was thinking of ordering Delawares from Sandhill, but now I'm not so sure! No, I am not showing the Delawares. The ones I have now came from Ebay hatching eggs and at the time I didn't ask, but I am sure they are hatchery stock. They just aren't very big and beefy. And I don't think their temperament is good. Last year, when I picked the cockerel to keep, several of them were biters. I test them by picking them up and reach to their face and handle their beak. If they try to bite, that is a sign of testy temperament I think. I had to put down the one I kept because he developed leg problems. The hens I have are undersized as well as poorly marked. I am just using them for red sex-links right now but I want my sexlinks to come from good quality heritage stock. I breed black and red. In the Tucson city limits, no roosters are allowed, so this way I can positively sex chicks for people in the city who want good egg layers. I have the German line of New Hampshires now, which I will keep pure and breed, but I will use my extra cockerels for the sexlinks--I think that will improve their egg laying. I was hoping to breed my own Delawares so I don't have to buy chicks when it comes time to replace these hens, but now I'm thinking I should get a different line altogether, one that is heavier as they should be. This year a fellow was buying all my male sexlinked chicks to raise for meat. I hope he does that again and it would certainly help if they came from big, beefy stock. I can't really work on breeding Delawares just to work on the breed---I already have too many breeds I'm working with---everybody says don't do this, but I just can't bring myself to give any of them up. I just need to keep from adding another!

 

[Lacy Blues]

One thing that Sandhill does is send birds from different matings so that people can raise their own if they choose to. I think that all the bad ones might be from a particular mating, and that the rest are from a different mating. At least I hope so.

 

[desertmarcy]

One thing that Sandhill does is send birds from different matings so that people can raise their own if they choose to. I think that all the bad ones might be from a particular mating, and that the rest are from a different mating. At least I hope so.

That is good to know. Do they mark the differently mated chicks so you know? I guess not, or you would know that your bad ones all came from one pair.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Not one of the girls show any of these problems.