Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[pinkchick]

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Aww, thanks Kathy! But I think these boys are lucky to have the parents that they have, they are instilling some awesome values in to these boys and their hard work shows.

 

[HorizonSon]

One, if not two, of my Dellies is definitely a "runt". I am glad this dwarfing subject came up. I'll be watching them very closely over the weeks to come

 

[HorizonSon]

Okay Kathy

I took these pics this morning, before leaving for my weekend job. Have a clucking good time!

Yeah; we had lightning, thunder and a yard full of hail just before I snapped these photos

 

[pinkchick]

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You're in the PNW???????? AWESOME!!!!!!! I know you have probably stated this before but where did your Dels come from? Maybe if we are close enough to each other we can do an egg swap sometime when our girls get to laying?

 

[HorizonSon]

I purchased mine via Meyer Hatchery... So they are not purebloods... They merely have been turrrned to the Delside.

I'm near the outer rim of the PNW; in the southern region... Southern edge of Coos County; just north of Curry County; along the coastline

 

[pinkchick]

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Well HOWDY fellow PNW'er! Beautiful country you live in!

 

[HorizonSon]

I definitely will be interested in introducing good blood into my flock... Down the road of time

I know there are several Delaware caregivers in Washington and a few in upstate Oregon... I'll have my hands pretty full these next 12+ months; but I'm hoping that late Winter (early Spring) of 2012 I'll be ready for some fresh blood

 

[Serrin]

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Kathy, I'm going to get a few pictures for you of Lisette and Cosette standing side by side. I've been noticing in the last few days that Lisette seems to be just a bit smaller than Cosette. She is most certainly more dainty than Cosette. At first I was concerned that maybe Cosette was turning out to be a Cossell [as in Howard!

] but after reading all of this on dwarfism, I'm suddenly not so sure.

Once I get some good pictures, and post them, do you think you'd be able to tell? At what age does it become apparent that dwarfism is at work? And if I'm not breeding these girls, since they're already cross breeds, is culling still necessary? Oh lord! I so hope the answer is no! I don't know as I could put Lisette down now. She's so sweet. She always comes running when I call her name. And YES! She KNOWS her name!

 

[joletabey]

Amy, I think Kathy would have seen it before she sent them out, it is extremely noticeable by the time they are 6 -8- weeks old. From the pics I have seen of your girls, they are fine. I have a Del or two that are more dainty, more slender than the other girls, but the dwarf I had was way different and way more noticeable at that earlier age. The eye and beak are different, the legs are stubby, they look miserable and unhappy. It is just a totally different look. Like Kathy said, it is like a little old man deteriorating- and they get worse.

 

[speckledhen]

There is more than one type of dwarf gene. The hen we finally figured out was carrying it is no longer in my flock--both she and her daughter were sold. The one affecting this line is the bad type that makes parrot beaks, short legs, weird feathering, and toe deformations. They aren't just small, in other words. There is another type that is just small and develops differently, but isn't deformed in the same way.