Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[Laney]

I hope that everyone had a great safe easter. I hope that LadyHawk is HOME!!!!!!!!!

Things were calm here. We had a quiet family meal and were able to convince my elderly neighbor, who is like a grandmother to me to come down for supper. She's far away from her own family so it was really good to have her here.

I took some pictures yesterday, we had the chickies outside. They are starting to be mean to each other. I'm thinking I'm going to have to split them up. Not sure yet though. I've got one or two good choices for Roosters and possibly one or two for Hens. The rest are culls. There is some kind of throwback on this set of eggs with the legs. Lot of them have a very green tint to their legs. The roos that are good though, are very good. Get ready for a LOT of pictures!!!! Oh and updated pics of SawsAll!

SawsAll's face, the goodside...

The Bad Side... which isn't so bad anymore...

Her neck markings

Her tail markings

Two new hens...The one on the left is my preference, due to leg coloring.

A Splash and a Rock...

Biden checks out the competition...and future mating potential.

The whole crowd!

One of my favorites in the Roo category.

What is that Shiney thing? Cannonball are you in there?

Showing off my gorgeous Java's.

Whew!!!!! Hope you enjoy!!!

Laney

 

[kathyinmo]

Laney,
Oh what great pictures! I like that little roo in picture # 8 on the very left side. He is "assuming the pose!" So cute! Biden looks like he is being so sweet to the babies. They sure are growing up fast!

Beth,
Thanks. It has been so fun having Kadin the past few days! He is a real joy. We only get to see our grandkids 3 or 4 times a year, and I sure enjoy every minure of it.

Hoping cetawin is home and safe!

 

[speckledhen]

I love that little cutie-roo, Laney! Looks like he'll have a very nice comb.

Isaac was dustbathing again today, by himself. That boy sure pays attention to his grooming! Never saw a rooster do so much dustbathing, with the girls or without. He'll also lay down on the ground among his girls at the end of the day. Such a prince of a guy!

 

[Laney]

Kathy, Cyn,

That is the only one of the whole hatch who will actually stand still for a picture. He is the same one in close up below, just facing the other side. You can see he is going to have a possible 5 pointer, nice and straight. He has some good looking qualities, and just the right amount of smut. I've got my fingers crossed for him because although Biden has a lot of good qualities, he is a NUT with the mating. Most of my hens are bald on their backs. He just hasn't calmed down at all. I don't know if providing him with more Hens will calm him down or not. Biden has a lot of great qualities too, but my Daughter is already planning his departure due to his mating behavior. He is very gracious with the food, very protective over his girls. He is wonderful with people. However, he just tears up his girls. He is the only rooster in the yard and he has 7 girls all to himself. No need for him to tear them up.

We'll see if things improve now that SawsAll, Pebbles and the Java's are getting older. Once I sit down and cull out the Java Roosters, pick my best there.....We'll have Hen-o-Rama and two Roo's in the yard. One Delaware and One Java.

Laney

 

[jeremy]

Laney, those young ones look to be growing up very nicely!

I just wanted to share some more pictures of little Quasimodo with y'all, he (or if she, it's gonna be Quasimoda!) is doing well from what I've seen. His feet are normal and he's drinking and eating like a good little chick should be.

However one of his Delaware siblings isn't doing so well. I think it's developed spraddle legs.

I didn't notice it before because it had always been standing fine, when I came home this evening though I saw that all of it's toes on it's left foot were curled up and it was walking on it's knuckles. I took it out of the brooder to the kitchen table and that's when I realized that it has spraddle, the poor little chick practically did the splits when I set it down! So I used a band aide and secured a dime to the bottom of the curled toe to hopefully set the bones straight, then I followed the instructions on this website to try and correct the spraddle. The little chick is back in the brooder with the others, it's really just setting on it's haunches not moving around much. The poor baby looks exhausted though from trying to get around the brooder. I fed it earlier when I was putting on it's prosthetics and I tried giving it some water when I put it back in the brooder. I hope so much that it will be okay.

 

[Laney]

I have found that when a chick develops leg problems that a bit of vitamin (polyvisol without iron) or vitamin and electrolyte water can speed up their recovery x3. I think that sometimes a b12 deficiency or a vit e deficiency can cause a weakening that makes them more vulnerable to the spradle leg. Perhaps a chick that is lower in the pecking order and gets less food?

The polyvisol you can give to just the one chick by dribbling just a drop onto the beak, making sure not to get it near the nasal passages. The Vitamin and Electrolyte solution you can give to them all, just make sure not to give them more than 3 days of v&e water every 2 weeks.

Laney

 

[jeremy]

Thanks Laney, I added some electrolytes to their water, hopefully that helps the little guy. I feel so worthless because there's nothing that I can do at this point.

I had to dime and band aide another little chicks feet, they were starting to curl inwards, almost like they were becoming pigeon toed? Hopefully by wearing their little casts for a couple days will fix the problem.

 

[Laney]

If more than one is starting to have problems with their feet then you definitely want to go with Vitamins and electrolytes. Go 3 days on, one week off, 3 days on, then 2 weeks off. If the little ones don't improve, I have had luck with ducks that have severe leg problems separating them and doing their water 3 days on, 3 days off. You just never want to do that with healthy chicks. Giving too many vitamins can be just as bad as giving too few.

Also, a little scrambled or really well chopped up boiled egg probably wouldn't be too bad. Just make sure it's really really small bits. It needs to be that small because they will have nothing in their crop to grind it up, and are too young to give grit to. You are doing a great job, keeping an eye out for these problems and loving on your babies. Sometimes these things just happen. Do you have a non-slip surface in your brooder? That will help them gain strength in their legs. Slipping around is hard on their little legs. Newspaper is good if the surface is a bit slippery.

Laney

 

[jeremy]

I put electrolytes in their water tonight, I'll keep it up for the next few days. I'll also keep an eye on the chicks that I've already doctored. The one who I believe has spraddle is so pitiful looking. I feel so bad for it! The little thing just lays there until somebody walks on him, then he peeps and army crawls away. I've been making sure it's eating, I try to keep it close to the feeder in the brooder. I've also been dipping my finger in the water and then let the chick drink the drips from my fingers. It's so adorable.

I really, really want these Delaware babies to make it. The second chick with some toe problems seems okay so far, I think I may have caught the problem before it became an issue. At least I hope so. I'll try some hard boiled egg tomorrow before I go to work.

The babies are on pine shavings right now, the bedding isn't too deep but it does completely cover the bottom of the brooder. Most of them don't seem to be having any problem with footing.

To those of you who had dwarf chicks, could this be early signs of the dwarfism? I know Cyn mentioned toe and tendon problems in the dwarfs, could I have hatched a couple of them? The only reason I ask is because it doesn't seem that any of the W/BW Ameraucana chicks are having any feet ailments. It's only been with the Dells so far, which is absolutely what I did not want to happen. I've only got six little Dells to grow up! Why couldn't one of the little Ameraucanas be messed up, I've got tons of them...

L0L, no that's so mean, I take it back.

I'm worrying so much over these babies, all of them, I never worried this much over my hatchery babies. I know it's because I hatched these little guys, I just want all of them to make it to happy, healthy adult birds. (Especially little Quasimodo!)

Have a goodnight everyone.

 

[speckledhen]

Jeremy, that could be signs of dwarfism in that one, but you'll just have to watch it. It should become apparent by three or four weeks old. Could just be leg issues not related to that, though. I think the Meier part of their heritage is the key. Apparently, that is an very inbred show line of Delawares. Mr. Meier is no longer breeding them, though, and it's fairly common for show lines to be inbred. Linebreeding is a legit system, but to do it for generation upon generation upon generation, you have to be very careful to do it properly.

Laney, Janet told me that Delaware roosters are generally vigorous breeders overall, that one like my Ike can handle 20 women! I believe it, too. He has 9 now and I have to keep saddles on them. They're real studs, those Del boys! Biden needs probably about six more girls, really.