Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[Brandi Leigh]

Beautiful birds, can wait to someday get a few of my own.

 

[chickenlover89]

Great photos! I'm wondering where you got your Dels if you don't mind telling us, they look nice
Also, I really like your coop/pen, esp. the attachemnt, we have mostly A Frame runs but the coop/run attachment is nowhere near as nice as how you did yours (as in will have to make sure DH sees THESE photos

We got our dels from MyPetChicken, just hatchery delawares! And we had our coop custom built by a local carpenter who does chicken coops!

 

[FeyRaine]

Well I spent some time in the pen today and I've pretty well decided Ruby, my Del pullet is just going to be an egg layer, or at most make some OliveEgg daughters w/ my Ameraucana Roo. She has filled out nicely in the body and has the great leg color, but her neck feathers have no pattern at all, they are just splotchy dots of black. So compared to the really nice Dels I'm seeing here, I think there is no point to using her for the sake of making more Dels. I

ts a little sad, but perfectly ok -- I'm glad to know she is just general hatchery quality likely kinda a mutt mix somewhere back in the line. So this is my round-about way of saying THANKS to all those who have posted photos on this thread, it really does help to make decisions and be aware of how to breed the best!

I'm going to unsubscribe to this thread now, nothing personal, ya'll are great, but I've got other projects and breeds I'm going to focus on in 2013 and only so much time. If I end up getting into quality Dels in the future I'll rejoin this thread. Meanwhile - HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013, may all your chickens be healthy and your set eggs hatch

 

[GhostRider65]

Hey all,
just thought I'd check in and see whats up here.
I lost one of my hens today, so hansom is back to only his sisters to breed, I got 4 babies last summer from Jim only 1 hen and she turned up dead this afternoon, no apparent reason, though she looked like she broke her neck somehow the way she was laying.......... wish I knew what happened.
Anyway, I have had a terrible time finding good Del. stock so I thought I would try the old fashioned way of making my own, I'm ordering 5 NH and a couple others from Sandhill in IA. Hope I get at least 1 rooster, they are straight run chicks. then gonna keep at it till I get some sports, hopefully ppl around here will want some BSL chicks, I ain't so good at culling, I hate even doing our extra roo's each fall....... but if I can sell a few chicks maybe it won't be so bad............ any suggestions from the people who have done this? as too how long it might take b4 I see a sport chick? and just how many eggs am I gonna have to hatch to hope for a few? I do have Hansom as a roo just now, and his 2 sisters, but I want unrelated stock, and not hatchery stock, my girls didn't look bad the first year, now they barely resemble Dels at all, they lost almost all there black feathers when they molted, they now resemble white rocks except freckles still has a little speckling in her neck.... argggggggg they do lay well, and nice big dark brown egg, but so disapointed with how they look in color........ so anyway with suggestions fire away........ Kim

 

[Zanna]

Hey all,
just thought I'd check in and see whats up here.
I lost one of my hens today, so hansom is back to only his sisters to breed, I got 4 babies last summer from Jim only 1 hen and she turned up dead this afternoon, no apparent reason, though she looked like she broke her neck somehow the way she was laying.......... wish I knew what happened.
Anyway, I have had a terrible time finding good Del. stock so I thought I would try the old fashioned way of making my own, I'm ordering 5 NH and a couple others from Sandhill in IA. Hope I get at least 1 rooster, they are straight run chicks. then gonna keep at it till I get some sports, hopefully ppl around here will want some BSL chicks, I ain't so good at culling, I hate even doing our extra roo's each fall....... but if I can sell a few chicks maybe it won't be so bad............ any suggestions from the people who have done this? as too how long it might take b4 I see a sport chick? and just how many eggs am I gonna have to hatch to hope for a few? I do have Hansom as a roo just now, and his 2 sisters, but I want unrelated stock, and not hatchery stock, my girls didn't look bad the first year, now they barely resemble Dels at all, they lost almost all there black feathers when they molted, they now resemble white rocks except freckles still has a little speckling in her neck.... argggggggg they do lay well, and nice big dark brown egg, but so disapointed with how they look in color........ so anyway with suggestions fire away........ Kim

Do you have some Barred Rocks as well? Is your plan to cross them with the NH to make Dels? I have read that one way to improve the Dels. is to breed the Del cock to a nice NH hen...... I am going to play with this idea if I some of my NH grow up to be nice enough to try. Never heard of crossing a NH Cockeral/Cock to Del. hens to improve the Dels. but I am pretty novice........ Anyone else??

 

[speckledhen]

It's quite an involved process, not as simple as some make it sound. Kathyinmo culled literally HUNDREDS of chicks in making her new line of Delawares and the culling isn't over yet, even several generations into it.

A NH x BR, or vice versa, doesn't just automatically equal a Delaware, as some in previous posts/threads have made it sound. Delawares are not crossbreeds. They breed true. Your first generation is nothing more than a mixed breed bird.

There are some lines of Delawares around, but unfortunately, not very many good ones. Janet Holtman stopped breeding them for the time being. Kathy herself has found that her Del cocks in her new lines are actually too large, per Delaware SOP, at least at this point. It's a tricky business, breeding Delawares. That, along with other factors of the breed, seem to me to be one reason they were nearly extinct in the first place. I have some myself, out of Holtman's last breeding stock, but they will be 4 years old next month, and I don't plan to have any more of them. Good layers, friendly birds, even big old Isaac, but not heat tolerant as my Orps and Rocks, surprisingly.

Here's Isaac with Georgie recently. He's a great rooster, but I fear I'll have to replace my buddy soon.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Kathyinmo may have some cull birds she would be willing to sell to you. Look her up. She's not too far away from you.

 

[GhostRider65]

Ok how do I go about finding her? I have used the search for threads but never ppl?
I would really appreciate any info on starting over that anyone can give me?........... if I learn as much as possible maaybe my results will be what I wanted in the first place.......... Kim

 

[Lacy Blues]

Type in Kathinmo and on the left will be a list of uses. At that bottom it says "Users" Click that. There should only be one.

 

[wekiva bird]

It's quite an involved process, not as simple as some make it sound. Kathyinmo culled literally HUNDREDS of chicks in making her new line of Delawares and the culling isn't over yet, even several generations into it.

A NH x BR, or vice versa, doesn't just automatically equal a Delaware, as some in previous posts/threads have made it sound. Delawares are not crossbreeds. They breed true. Your first generation is nothing more than a mixed breed bird.

There are some lines of Delawares around, but unfortunately, not very many good ones. Janet Holtman stopped breeding them for the time being. Kathy herself has found that her Del cocks in her new lines are actually too large, per Delaware SOP, at least at this point. It's a tricky business, breeding Delawares. That, along with other factors of the breed, seem to me to be one reason they were nearly extinct in the first place. I have some myself, out of Holtman's last breeding stock, but they will be 4 years old next month, and I don't plan to have any more of them. Good layers, friendly birds, even big old Isaac, but not heat tolerant as my Orps and Rocks, surprisingly.

Here's Isaac with Georgie recently. He's a great rooster, but I fear I'll have to replace my buddy soon.

Nice Photo of Isaac and Georgie.