Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[Inkheart]

That was my point earlier about my friends show dogs - and well some i have dealt with over the years - people keep "Brood females" dont always look like show quality but carry the lines and can produve great - some HUGE winning dogs have some from what most would have sold as pet quality. ITs all about lining up body parts! LOL

 

[jeremy]

Beth, I don't plan on double mating, unless I want to rehome my Ameraucana roo. I really only have room for 2 boys...

I essentially want to start my "breeding program" with the "best" all around stock I can find, if that means ordering hatching eggs and/or chicks for 2 or 3 seasons, growing out the results, keeping the best and culling the rest THEN starting my actual matings between birds that I feel meet the SOP, if that's what it takes, I'll do it.

I understand great birds don't always produce great offspring but if I choose to not introduce black tails into my flock, or pale legs, or squirrel tail, etc., etc. by being selective with intital starting flock then those are problems that I'm less likely to run into down the road. That's my theory.

Work smart, not hard.

I don't want to focus my efforts entirely on one aspect on the bird only to lose something else that's potentially needed, or to introduce bad genes by not being selective enough.

ETA: Also, I just turned 21, I've got nothing but time to try and get it right!

 

[kduncan51]

Quote:
So if they were a mutation, which I assume was an unexpected result, then just putting any new hamshire roo over any barred rock hen may not produce the mutation? I assume you mean that the mutation looked like Dels and were not the typical sex link -- orange pullet/barred roo? What made the difference? Sorry for all the questions. I am just so curious about all of this.

 

[HorizonSon]

@Cindiloohoo: CONGRATS!

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

Quote:
We used a SS roo over Del hen accidentally, got White/Silver boy with lots more baring than the usual Del and WHITE legs.

This spring we are looking to use a Buckeye Roo over our imperfect Del hens for a meat cross. I currently do not have a Del Roo.

When we brought the Whitmore Dels to the small county fair, the certified APA judge talked about them a lot to the on-lookers. Ok, mostly how we had fed too much corn so the feathers were yellowish and that they were a little light in weight (the Sand Hill girls are chunkier) but also how pleased he was to see some of the rarer breeds being kept (he stressed that our bird was obviously not from a breeding/show line, but a nice backyard production bird). Other exhibitors showed interest in the breed (she laid jumbo eggs every day at the fair), wondering where they could get some.

So there may be some longer-term financial market for Dels if you can get them closer to SOP. It takes money to keep all those breeding pens going, I want to offer you hope.

I'll keep raising interest, but unless I can find a nice Del roo, I probably cannot raise actual birds....If someone close to WI ends up with an extra that shows promise that they just cannot keep, let me know.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
It was a Barred Rock male and New Hampshire female. Genetically, it takes 3 generations to produce the Delaware...... that is IF the stock to start with are "pure," in their history. Recently someone did produce Delaware looking birds from the original cross. I was told that this happened because the Barred Rock was not pure. The first cross should produce all barred chicks (if the breeders are pure). Then on to the next step ......

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:

Congrats! YES, pictures are mandatory!

 

[joletabey]

Pictures! I need them! Congrats to everyone with darling Dellie chickies!

Jeremy- You certainly DO have all the time in the world, you young whippersnapper, you! Be really nice to me and I will leave you all my Dels and English Orps in my will. I would leave them to Kathyinmo, but I expect to outlive her!

 

[catdaddyfro]

kduncan51 So if they were a mutation, which I assume was an unexpected result, then just putting any new hamshire roo over any barred rock hen may not produce the mutation? I assume you mean that the mutation looked like Dels and were not the typical sex link -- orange pullet/barred roo? What made the difference? Sorry for all the questions. I am just so curious about all of this.

Hey there Delly lovers, I havn't checked in in a while. It's been a little windy here today and been cooler than I really like to be out in, so Ive been tuning into the BYC off and on today and I found a subject I thought I could/should give some input on especialy when our new members need answers, as I can remember how it was being a newbie on here and needing clearer answers than some may give because sometimes the anwers given are under the assumption that the questioner has more knowledge of the facts when actually that's what they are trying to arrive at is a clearer or more in depth answer to their questions. Now with that said I'm not knocking anybodies answers as in the past all I have recieved from the BYCers has been very helpful and insightful espcially from our Dellie section here.

kduncan51
If you go to the begining of this section Breeds, Genetics, & Showing theres a sticky on sex-links by tadkerson that gives great info on the crosses it takes to make a sexable trait at hatch.

The cross the breeders started off with when they came up with the Delaware breed results is not a sexlinkable cross as they used a Barred Rock male over a New hampshire female which will produce an all barred outcross. Now theres no telling how many times they did the cross or how many years it took them to come up with their resulting color but it list they used "sports" ie."mutations" which are unusal or different offspring than the cross normally produces to make the Delaware breed. Heres a web address on the feathersite called the "origin of the Delaware" by Ed Hoffmann that may give you a little more insight to your questions.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGD/Dels/Hoffmann.html

I have some pullets that I hatched back in the spring that are BR male over Production red females(which are real close to the same as using New Hampshire hens as they are all considered red Columbian or black-tailed red) and you can deffinately see where they would get the color to eventually make the Delaware color pattern as theres a lot of dillution that takes place just in the first F1 outcross. When I get some pic to post I'll show them here. Till then see all y'all later.

catdaddy​

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
You better be hiding under a chair instead of giggling, old woman!