Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[kathyinmo]

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My eggs from you are in the hatcher! Due tomorrow!

 

[shelleyb1969]

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Let me know how it goes. The chicks that are RIR/Del crosses will have visible brown streaks down their necks and backs...at least the ones I hatched did. Good luck!

 

[zephyrcreek]

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He is gorgeous, and everyone here is in love with him. I often will carry him up for people to see (but do not let them touch him), and they all fall in love. I'm sure it is a combination of genetics and the excellent start that he had at your home. He loves to cuddle, shares treats with his girls, and is a romantic. If only My husband could meet all those requirements.

 

[shelleyb1969]

Prince, the rooster I have now, is the same way. He's much too big for me to carry around, but he's really a good boy. He's always very curious as to what I'm doing, and I don't worry a bit about my 4 year old walking past him or collecting eggs in the coop for me. That's why I named him Prince, aka Prince Charming.

 

[joletabey]

Cyn-

And I hope these girls of mine settle into a routine soon- I am getting one normal size egg every few days from someone, the rest are pullet size- at least the teeny ones have gotten a little bigger.

Kathy- more babies???? Yes!!! More fuzz butt pictures!!

CrazyLady- just give in and break out the 'bator. I feel guilty when I say that, since I am relying on the kindness of others in getting some more kids. . . . . .

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

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He is gorgeous, and everyone here is in love with him. I often will carry him up for people to see (but do not let them touch him), and they all fall in love. I'm sure it is a combination of genetics and the excellent start that he had at your home. He loves to cuddle, shares treats with his girls, and is a romantic. If only My husband could meet all those requirements.

Oh my sides hurt from laughing..

 

[walkswithdog]

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Let me know how it goes. The chicks that are RIR/Del crosses will have visible brown streaks down their necks and backs...at least the ones I hatched did. Good luck!

That was also true of my Del/Partridge Rock chicks - little racing stripes on them too. Makes for a huge bird though - like putting a Del on steroids. I had one guy that bought them all.

 

[kathyinmo]

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Let me know how it goes. The chicks that are RIR/Del crosses will have visible brown streaks down their necks and backs...at least the ones I hatched did. Good luck!

That was also true of my Del/Partridge Rock chicks - little racing stripes on them too. Makes for a huge bird though - like putting a Del on steroids. I had one guy that bought them all.

Good to know! These will be my meaties!

 

[walkswithdog]

I'm not hatching because they're free roaming for spring grass and bugs and the mixes I'd be hatching could be seriously fugly - splash sizzle and delaware, and brown red sizzle and delaware, I'm not sure I'm ready for and they're persistent and successful little guys, one has his own harem of a pair of HUGE delaware hens, they follow him around devotedly. It's embarrassing. And I don't even want to think about Delaware to Black Copper marans, or Blue Rock (well maybe - blue dels... hmmm)... so no "breeding" now and no hatching. I'm growing out the winter group and am pretty happy but it's time for the spring eat everything that moves and doesn't. I swear some of them have gone after my tires from boredom this winter.

I cut my layers down to eleven, four of which are POL dels, so five or six eggs a day, soon 12/13 a day, I usually have one or two laying two eggs in 36 hours, so still too many eggs but the up and coming second generation hens that I've kept look good except for Spook and Icabod, who I've kept mostly out of morbid curiousity to see how they turn out.

They're from the hatchery dels, they're narrow and slower growing, they were odd chicks and they're odd juvenilles. I sold off all the off colored birds that came out of the hatchery dels eggs - mostly brown smears, unmarked tails, none or nearly none, neck hackle barring. The Del crosses were frankly huge, and kind of interesting but since they ate like pigs I sold them all to a neighbor.

All the combs were better this generation, lacking many of the flaws we were seeing in Isaac's cousin, Algie, and no sprigs at all this time. Algie got mean Cyn. He went to live with a very LARGE man who didn't care about his attitude, he wanted to improve the meat capacity of his flock. A pairing made in heaven. Algie's two best sons are here vying for Rooster rights. The one I'm leaning towards is only four pointed but it's four clean distinct, well spaced points on a good straight blade. I'll take it. He[s got great shoulders, you can hardly tell he was born on Halloween.

I kept one del mix, her name is Toad. Also born on all hallows eve. Because she was a fat little blue toad. It stuck. Who her father was is totally questionable, she hatched with blue down, in a blue chick pattern, like a blue rock, and now, she's a pastel colored hen blueishand brownish center feathers, with white lacing on the edges, bars on her hackles and del tail feathers but her down... is still light light blue under her white feathers. I have to take a picture to the color genetics gurus, her only two possible fathers are the sizzles mentioned above. She is obviously not fathered by a delaware and she came out of a del hen... The white edges to the colored feathers are gorgeous. And she's sweet. So for now she stays. What happens if I breed that back to the splash sizzle? LOLOLOL this could drive you crazy...

 

[rancher hicks]

Walkingwithdog, where are the pics? It's not fair not to post pics.

And a question for Del roo owners, or roo owners even. How many of your roos do the mating dance? I expect to trade out Eric the Red (CM), for a BO roo as I like them, or another color of orpington. Which breed of roo do you have that does the mating dance? Oh and don't forget the pics, please.