Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[Lotsapaints]

Mine were finding the shade and doing the pant....they didn't want to give up on the dirt and dust just went to the shaded parts and I have some who like to go wading when it gets toasty most of them dig holes and look dead pretty cute.

 

[Cetawin]

Quote:
The stupid flippin hatcheries. I imagine someone in one of the hatcheries was looking at the birds one day and a little light bulb popped on over their head and they said

"Hey, the colombian rock is a black and white chicken....we can put them in the delaware line....it will make em better"

The problem is that the very idiot who had that thought. shared it with other hatchery idiots and you have the result that hatcheries excel at .... a total screw up of a good breed!


I read on another chicken forum awhile back (name not being mentioned) the brilliant advice of an individual connected with a large well known hatchery discussing improving someone's delaware line....this moron told the inquiring person to

"to improve your line, go back to the roots. Breed in the Barred Rock and the Rhode Island Red"


Well, I left that forum after witnessing that one stupid delaware thread but not before inquiring of the brilliant hatchery expert advice giver "why breed the foundation breeds back into the line?" and "Why a RIR when a NHR was used to create the Delaware?"

The response "ummmmm no it was the RIR" reply "ummmmm no and you have no worries of me or any of my friends buying from your hatchery because you have no dammmd idea what you have in it"

Moral of the story....if something is screwed up....look to the high production hatcheries for the cause.

They could screw up breeding a BR to a BR and somehow produce a red chick.

 

[Serrin]

Quote:
Which for me, begs the question, how do Delawares do in extreme cold conditions? We know that most of them can pretty well take the heat, but how do they do in say minus 20F at night? Sometimes even lower?

Granted, our coop has never gotten quite that cold inside, but not for a lack of old man winter trying! We insulated it in the very first year, long before winter hit. Thank heavens we did. That year we had a near record overnight low of around -24. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! I know it got down to at least freezing inside the coop that night as there was a thin scrim of ice on their indoor water dish. So, can Dels handle those kinds of conditions?

Note to self: Pick up large jar of Vaseline Jelly @ the commissary tomorrow! No way in heck am I going to put these boys through the winter with exposed combs! Not to mention these crazy ladies of mine!

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Serrin, there's lots of Dels in Alaska. Does that answer your question?

This will be my first winter with them, but my two oldest girls have already survived a winter just fine and lots of others are doing so as well. My plans are to have a tight, draft free coop, deep litter method, 2x4 roosts, and only keep a heat lamp over the water and food. (Per the advice of the previous owner of my flock.) Haven't heard about any frost bite, and by all accounts they keep on laying...

 

[hcammack]

My delewares suvived the winter very well when I had them I had no insulation in my coop and no heated waterers. I guess maryland is in the south but then again Deleware is just as warm as we are. There water was half frozen every night for a week and I just melted it every morning and they were fine. Just breed against beefy combs.

Henry

 

[Lotsapaints]

Cetawin I figured it was some moron...still though where are those lighter greenish cast shanks coming from? Maybe the same place as the "cow hocks" some of those hens have. I am very happy with the stock I got from Steve and should end up with 5 or 6 nice hens and a couple of big chunky roos. I'll be doing my first cut the end of the month the hens should start laying soon I love how they bloom when they start laying. The Cackle bunch are okay but some have a dark streak on the beak I have all these chickens but very few good ones for breeding anyways and while everyone has been enjoying pullet eggs I don't need 30 hens in a layer flock so CL or the salesyard I'm hoping POL pullets will be easy to sell.

 

[joletabey]

POL pullets will probably move. I wish I could remember this quote exactly, but it was something about serious breeders breeding 100's of chicks to only end up keeping less than 10% - it takes lots of culling. I think sometimes we are all too impatient, wanting our good results in one generation- it is still going to take years for most of us.

 

[Lotsapaints]

Yeah I'm a Resolution fan he never said it would be quick.....5 to 8 years but what a wonderful hobby. I spent 20+ years raising Paints starting with good stock and raised some good ones lot more time and work in that and tried to make a living off it showing horses takes way more money than chickens I think

 

[joletabey]

Lotsa, oh yah, I know. I was into Arabians. Talk about pouring the money out! You see the results in the chickens LOTS faster, and they are MUCH less expensive to feed!
Although there is still nothing in the world like the smell of a horse- my gelding still has to deal with me burying my nose in his neck every night.

 

[Cetawin]

LOL No kidding....you can feed 100 chickens for a couple weeks for what feeding one arabian costs per week.


Re: dellies and cold. Mine came cross-country with no insulation, no heat source etc etc thruogh two snowstorms and a whiteout. They did great! At night with the u-haul open a few inches, they had no problem whatsoever. My orps and other single combed birds had no comb worries either. I would just put bag balm mixed with vaseline on their comb...that is my plan for my big combed ones this year. if they do not have central ac/heat in the coop by then.