Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[joletabey]

Thanks, Cynthia, it's a relief to get her settled in. And I am glad to know I don't have the only nutso roosters- if Suede and Isaac, being perfect, chase around, then my boys must be ok!

Don't you just love that snuggly personality? I only have two that don't like to be held, but you can stroke them and they hang out with you. And Luke is getting better and better all the time. I can pet his back and chest a little now, and he will roost on my ankle if I sit in the run. And he is SO sweet trying to find things for his girls, and making them places to nest. He may not look like Ike, but I think he ended up getting some of Ike's sweetness, once past his first burst of hormones!

If Delawares are off the critical list, are they still on the "watch" list?

I also saw something really interesting, semi Del related, in Practical Poultry, which is, I think, from the UK. There was an article that mentioned "the sort of Sussex that laid close to 200 eggs, yet was capable of making a decent, early maturing table carcass" and referred to it as an old strain. Now I am used to seeing pictures of light Sussex with the heavy black web and white laced hackle feathers- the pictures of the Sussex in this magazine looked like my Lizzie- more like splash marks, or huge broken barring- the author related their type to that used in some book called Sussex Poultry of 1935.
I know Dels are sports of a BR and NH, but the resemblance was amazing- just thought I would mention it as a piece of trivia.

 

[kathyinmo]

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Here is the list. They are now listed as, "threatened."
http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/wtchlist.html#chickens

 

[Cetawin]

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Ahem Isaac is near perfect 99.9% perfect....he cannot be perfect whilst the Suedenator aka The Blue Shamu walks the land.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

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The barring in these pics has to be coincidental, a case of more than one set of genetics acheiving the same appearance.

I've always liked the Columbian pattern. It seems to have been popular a long time.

 

[rancher hicks]

One of the things I asked Seriousbill about was this. She told me that the reason for this upgrade is hatcheries. If I understood her correctly. So to me it means nothing. Hatchery birds are not true Delawares as far as I'm concerned. I have two from Ideal and they are noticeably not the same as my Western NY girls. Egg color is not true to the Delaware breed. One lays pink eggs. While I have tried to find pictures of CR eggs I have not found any.

Just as hatcheries are pawning off phony Ameraucanas and Cuckoo marans. I have two CM's one of which has feathers with a green sheen on them. There is no way Delawares could become so numberous this fast without some cross breeding IMO.

The copy right date for text in Storey's is 2007. That mean in three years a breed that was listed as Critically endangered is no longer endangered? I don't believe it.

This is my Western NY broody

Can you pick out which of these pullets is a hatchery Delaware and which is the Western NY pullet?

Egg color aside it's pretty clear to me that what the hatcheries are selling are not pure Delawares. IMO.

 

[joletabey]

Well, I guess the first one is the hatchery one. ???

Color genetics just intrigues me, and I suppose JoAnn is correct- it is just thought provoking to me that the old strain of light Sussex that the gentleman referred to looked so different from light Sussex now as far as the hackle markings. He had a flock of them. My mind goes off on tangents.

 

[Bassleg]

The first one because I have some that looks just like that one, as you know.

 

[rancher hicks]

The "light sussex" is noted by it's "Columbian" plumage. Very unlike the pattern in the Delaware breed.

Columbian : Plumage on body breast, and legs is primarily white (more silvery white in the male). Black feathers with white lacing are on hackle (and cape and saddle of the males). Tail is primarily black with white high lighting. Wings are primarily white with black highlighting.

Delaware: Body and breast are white to silvery white; hackle, tail and wings are white with some black barring; all feathers have white shaft and quill. Can you see the difference now?

The "Columbian" in the columbian rock is a feather pattern description. A feather pattern that can be on a number of other "breeds". The "Rock" referrs to the breed rather than the feather pattern. Rocks can come in a number of other "feather" patterns, just as the "Sussex" can.

Unlike Delawares that only come in one feather pattern, it's own. There is no "delaware" feather pattern. Delawares do not come in any other feather pattern.

If you have a "columbian" bird and it has "barring" it's not pure columbian, no more than a Delaware with lacing is pure Delaware.

Not taking into account type or conformation.


I have probably given this to much thought and study.

Rancher

 

[joletabey]

Tim - here is a picture of Lizzie's hackles so you can see it's not really the description of Columbian- the web is NOT fully black and glossy and the feathers are not evenly outlined in silvery white.
I don't have a scanner, or I would post the picture of the Light Sussex this guy had- it's a very in between pattern- in between what a Del should be and what the SOP says the light Sussex should be. It's looks just like this:

You can see that the black is all broken up, not solid.
Like I said, I just thought it was interesting-

 

[rancher hicks]

You can see that your girl has a "lacing" pattern as opposed to a "barring" pattern.

It's really not about whether she is a Sussex (breed) but whether she has the Columbian feather pattern. I"m not sure why they are called a "Light" sussex. Unfortunately your girl is definitely not a Delaware. She may have Delaware in there but she also has something else.

Where did you get her?

A pure Sussex of any color should have the same "type" just in different feather "patterns". Kinda like shoes they should all look the same just in different colors. Just like Orpingtons.

With a Delware there is only one color. The Delaware "type" only comes in one feather pattern.