Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[jeremy]

Quote:
JEREMY a bad rooster is better than no rooster if they are good to the hens.

They still have my Blue Wheaten Ameraucana boy to keep them company.

 

[speckledhen]

Aw, Stewart was a pretty good boy, Jeremy. He amazed me by getting so much color when he started out so white!

 

[jeremy]

He just kept getting too much color for my taste Cyn. He had many solid black tail feathers that I could not look past.

 

[speckledhen]

Solid black? Of course, those are not desirable in a Delaware. Still, gotta start somewhere, right? Body type is paramount. If he wasn't very stocky, then yes, you needed a different boy. Naturally, breeders don't keep the flock sire they start with--they breed up till they get one as close as possible to the standard, then raise up a couple of replacements to wait till they're needed. I would be doing that if I considered myself a breeder, but to concentrate on the Dels as a true breeder, I'd have to get rid of the rest of my birds and I'm not willing to do that; not to mention, my DH does not have the heart of a breeder, period. He can't see getting rid of much of anything that we've had for over six weeks.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Quote:
Hehe, I happen to be culling the two roos I have that have correct tail barring because they do not have the body type or growth rate I'm looking for. I hope it will somehow work out, since all of my hens have very little tail black.

It's fascinating to see the differences in priorities in breeding programs!

 

[jeremy]

Stewart looked stocky, and broad breasted, but when you picked him up he felt like a bag of bones and feathers. Granted he was just over 7 months old, but his lack of overall weight combined with his poor coloring was the reasoning behind my removing him from the flock. There's always next year...

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Hehe, I happen to be culling the two roos I have that have correct tail barring because they do not have the body type or growth rate I'm looking for. I hope it will somehow work out, since all of my hens have very little tail black.

It's fascinating to see the differences in priorities in breeding programs!

I'm with you, Rachel. I have purchased a couple old poultry books, and they have alot of good information about breeding. TYPE is paramount. Coloring is not important at this point in my breeding. A few dark feathers (or a few light feathers) in the tail really mean nothing, if you don't have the type.

 

[jeremy]

If it were only a few feathers, I would have kept Stewart. But the fact is that they were predominantly black lacking any kind of barring at all, thus my reasoning for rehoming him.

I understand you're suppose to work on type first. I feel I have good size, shape and weight in the pullets that I held on to. Next spring I'll try and hatch a cockerel to match them.

I'm not going to focus my efforts entirely on one aspect of breeding, only to allow faults to pollute my line, I've said this before.

 

[joletabey]

Well, we can all head into it from whatever direction we want, that is going to be part of the fun of this- I love chunky chickens anyway, so working on the body type is going to be very satisfactory for me.

 

[jeremy]

Then when we're all to a point where we've got lines with specific qualities that are great, we'll do some outcrossings and be well on our way to the "perfect" Delaware!