Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[Mrs MIA]

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I keep telling myself that. "The more roos I rehome, the more pullets I get to keep."

I'm pretty sure I've nailed down which Del cockerel I'm keeping, I just want to wait a little longer to see how he develops then the other 2 (or 3, one of them still has me puzzled) will go to new homes. As for the BBS Orps, I hope hope hope hope hope hope hope hope hope that at least 1 of them is a pullet. At this point I'll keep blue, black or splash, I just want one!

I'm glad to hear they survived the trip...

With the rooster thing, it's "Don't ask, don't tell" for me. I usually feel a little twinge of regret when I sell a roo, but it doesn't last long because there's always another set of chicks to worry about. Just don't give them up too soon... Cynthia knows...they change a lot in the first 6 months.

 

[popcornpuppy]

Hi my Dellie friends. Today is day 3 of my broody Del sitting on the nest. She is doing a good job of being mother hen.
I know these questions have been asked on the forum before, but I know a few of you have broodies of your own and could help answer my questions

So, all of my girls like to lay their eggs in the same box. The box my broody is now in. I marked the eggs that she has been sitting on since she went broody, and colleted all of the others for the past 2 days.
Should I move the broody out of EVERYONE"S favorite box, or block it off to the other girls and make them lay in different boxes?
I don't want to kick my broody out of her favorite spot and have her lose interest in hatching the eggs under her. ( I know for the safety of her and her chicks that I will need to seperate them, I just don't want to freak her out and cause her to quit.)
Also, today is almost 90* out and she is panting. I put water in the box with her but I am concerned that she is not getting enough hydration. Any thoughts on that matter? Can you force a full grown chicken to drink?

 

[froggie71]

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I just wanted to say we have having the same kind of weather, and I've worried about our broody too, but we have her in a dog kennel inside the coop with food and water in the kennel. She was sitting in the nest box forever and everyone kept laying more eggs with her. Our boxes are removeable, so I was able to take her box, put it in the kennel and put a different box in it's place. I do worry about her getting too hot, but I guess I don't have to worry about the eggs getting cold. I can't help with your problem, but at least it made it easy for us.

 

[froggie71]

Don't worry Kathy and joletabey I'm hanging in there. I know I'll have some chicks before I know it.

 

[speckledhen]

Kathy, I always remove my broodies to drink away from the nest once a day. Nugget won't leave the nest unless we pull her off it. Is that broody Del one of mine or the other bunch?

 

[kathyinmo]

For heaven's sake .... broodies, broodies everywhere! I have 2 more I have been watching .... sure enough, they slept in the nest. One is a Splash Marans, and (no surprise) a Silkie. That makes 4 broodies. Maybe I really don't need to plug in my incubators!

Cyn, I have been watching my 2 broodies, and they get up every day to do their business. I haven't had to boot them out yet. Is that unusual? I am gonna move them out of the layer's coop, but not today. The plan is to put them in the rabbit hutch style coop, that I used to use for the Silkie's. It is 8 - 10 ft long, and I will put one at each end. I will partition it, if I need to.

Rainy and dreary here today. YUK! I can't get anything done outside when it is like this.

 

[speckledhen]

Most of my broodies get off the nest on their own once a day, but not Nugget, silly thing.

 

[jeremy]

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Cyn, when will they reach their mating age? Is there anything I can do to make the young cockerels have an even better temperament? I try to handle them all as much as I can daily. The only issue I have with keeping them all is that I live in a very urban neighborhood. We've had a roo now for a little over a year that luckily our neighbors have been more than gracious about, but I have a feeling that if we had 3, 4 or 5 little guys crowing and expressing their manhood our neighbors might not be so pleased... so unfortunately I'm going to have to make the decision on which cockerel to keep a bit earlier than I'd like. I want to keep them until they start getting aggressive with each other, or making too much noise, then they've got to find new homes.

See my dilemma?

So I'm hoping little Stewert doesn't act up and decide he wants to take a trip to freezer camp anytime soon.

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

I'm glad to hear they survived the trip...

With the rooster thing, it's "Don't ask, don't tell" for me. I usually feel a little twinge of regret when I sell a roo, but it doesn't last long because there's always another set of chicks to worry about. Just don't give them up too soon... Cynthia knows...they change a lot in the first 6 months.

Thank you so much again for the eggs! I'm so happy that the ones I candled seem to be developing so far. I sold two Wheaten Ameraucana roosters on Friday to a nice man who I had a convo with about his birds, and breeding, I felt like they were going to a good home. But, even if he was going to eat them I guess there's not much I could do about it. I've thought about it a bit and I can't keep the roos, so wherever they go and if they'll be pets or food I'm sure they're making somebody happy.

 

[kathyinmo]

Jeremy,
My hatch with 8 roos and 2 pullets ... I can tell you, they are not noisy boys. Not at all. And, they do not fight. I don't know if that helps you at all. They are 4 months old

 

[jeremy]

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That's good to know Kathy. I've got 3 confirmed Del cockerels, plus the 2 BW Ameraucanas, so 5 total. I'm hoping that they get along for awhile. They're still very young so I'm not too worried at this point. I'm planning on selling one of the Ameraucanas soon and that'll help a bit. But after that there's the 28 eggs that are incubating due around May 20th to worry about! We'll see how many boys hatch out of that bunch.