Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[HighSpringsChix]

The Skipper is just 6 months old. His legs are a nice yellow color. The extra barring is on the feathers below his wings, towards the back, not exactly around the vent but in that general area. You can see a faint hint of it in the pic below the tip of his wing. Of course, the extra barring on his behind may help get some barring on his daughter's covert tail feathers, which I have never seen on any Del I've hatched yet. He also has some barring in his saddle feathers. But the pullets I get from my Holtman birds are only very lightly colored. So a little extra color on the roo shouldn't be a problem.

We'll see. I'm sure he will eventually replace his daddy. But for right now, after losing Tarzan earlier this year, having an extra roo is comforting.

This is the roo I kept to replace Tarzan, my Braden roo who died. His name is Boy (of course).

He was about perfectly average. I had 3 almost identically average sons of Tarzan to choose from. This one was the friendliest, so I kept him. He has some white lacing on his tail feathers, which has been cropping up a lot in the Braden line. I don't know where that is coming from. I had a gorgeous cockerel from my other Braden roo, but he was a full pound smaller, really too small to use for breeding. Boy was 6 lbs at 16 weeks. I have some of his girls eggs in the incubator now, a test hatch.

Here is a close up of Boy's tail feathers.

 

[HighSpringsChix]

Wow, Domino is great looking! Wanna swap?

And the girls have nice triangular tail feather carriage. And fluffy butts.

 

[kathyinmo]

So, Skipper and Domino are brothers?

More pictures guys! I LOVE seeing all these pictures!

 

[cpartist]

Quote:
I am really happy with them...ya done good

They laid their first eggs last week....I've gotten 7 that were between the size of a quail egg and a bantam egg...
then yesterday I got one as big as a duck egg

...seriously xtra JUMBO!

They like to amaze me

 

[HighSpringsChix]

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Actually, Boy and Domino are brothers. Both sons of the late Tarzan, my biggest Braden roo.

I haven't sold too many Holtman eggs, I only had 2 hens. I've added 4 more girls, ( the best 4 girls out of the 20 or so I hatched, very pretty girls) so now I can sell some of those, too.

 

[cpartist]

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Kathy, I think Domino and Boy are brothers....Boy looks great too doesn't he?

Love the lawn party your "kids" were having

Some of their expressions are just priceless.

 

[kathyinmo]

Honestly, Camille, you have some great stock there! I think you have done a wonderful job! You should be proud!

 

[HighSpringsChix]

Here is another pic of the Skipper that shows the extra barring on his butt and elsewhere. Do you think his tail carriage is too high? Sometimes I think it is, other times I don't.... Not that it matters, he's the biggest roo I've ever hatched, so he is going into the breeding program regardless.

 

[kathyinmo]

I think I like Boy better than Skipper. Seems that Skipper is a little leggy, do you think?

I really like Boy and Domino. I think they look great!

 

[HighSpringsChix]

Quote:
Thanks, I'm blushing. I've been hatching a ton of eggs... and eating a lot of chicken. I hatched more than 40 eggs from my Holtman birds in Oct/Nov last year. We only just got the last of the roos into the freezer last week. When you hatch that many, you're bound to get at least one good one.

I am really more and more pleased with the Holtman birds. I seem to have gotten rid of the split wing, not one in 40+ chicks had it. Their breasts are meatier than the Braden's, the hens lay better, the hens are friendlier.... I am using them for my layer flock now, as a matter of fact, replacing the sex links. My roo Little Buddy is mean as a snake. But really, that only makes it easier to eat his sons when they start acting out. So far, the Skipper has been real mild mannered. I do get a Columbian colored roo occasionally, too. But for farm production, not showing, they are head and shoulders above the Bradens, in my opinion. (The Braden roos are *much* better behaved than Buddy, though.)