Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[joletabey]

Zanna, Del chicks are solid yellow, SOMETIMES you get a black spot on the head, but the rest belong to someone else.

 

[pinkchick]

Thanks Math, Jolet, Kathy!!! You ladies rock!

I will get photos of the one and only cockerel that I kept out of 13 of them.

I truly appreciated getting that many boys Kathy, I learned a ton from watching that many of them grow out. I hope I kept the best one....this time. I believe he has the correct wing carriage and he has nice 5 point comb, I believe he is good in the tail (will have to look again to be sure). He was the only one that did not ever develop any yellowing feathers or rust colored feathers throughout his body and he has barring in the hackles that looks good, but may be a bit light, so maybe I can use pullet 1 with him to help out with that like Math suggested. He also had the best barring in his tail. He is tall and gangly right now and still has some bulking up to do, but I think he will bulk up quite a bit. He has light leg color, but again pullet 1 should help, right?
I am happy to hear that I can use pullet 1 to help with leg color, the older girls that will a year old in a couple weeks need some help in the leg color dept. I culled those girls down as well and now have 5 girls total, 3 almost a year and the 2 younger ones. Soon as I rehome 2 more cockerels (which will put me at 41 birds Ms. Kathy

) I can turn the Del's loose in their new coop, wait for everyone to mature and start laying and off we go. I will try and get some photos of all the older gals too..including Miss Trouble.

Thanks again Everyone! Cross your fingers that the rain stops for a minute or 2 today so that I can run outside and get a couple good photos.

See ya'll soon!


*edited to add some photos* also need to say that this cockerel is pretty light in the hackle after getting a little closer and he is starting to yellow in the saddles. What to do with the yellowing? Is it just something we have to deal with or do we breed away from it? He has nice pale corn colored legs.

Here is the gangly boy. He is bigger than my 6 mos. old Marans cockerel that is the same holding tank with him. He is going to be a big boy. I have been jokingly referring to him as Mr. Bo"gangles"...lol....DH doesn't think it is funny, but he refuses to come up with a better name.

Please tell me I made a better choice in cockerels this time. If need be I can post a photo of the last boy I grew out, just let me know.

and sorry, but this is about the best photo I could get of his hackle or neck area....pretty much he doesn't have enough color in the hackles and he has some smut or marking on his shoulders just below his hackles. I will try and get a shot of that, he is very hard to photo.

The girls. I also need to get photos of the other 2- 1 yr olds.

This is "trouble"......the artist (escape artist

) previously known as Hambone when she was younger.

Pullet 1- an even closer up shot of her hackles.

Pullet 2 my favorite girl from the top and one of her tail.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[snowbird]

Pink, will give you an idea of what I see and maybe a suggestion on breeding them forward.

Pullet #1 Hackle little low on neck

Show a little influence from the Sussex

Pinched tail


Pullet #2

Hackle is a lot better all around

Pinched Tail

I see no problem with leg color. How is the undercolor on these pullets ?


To improve the pinched tail problem the easiest way is use a male with a extra wide and open tail

If these are hatch mates with the male you still have you will not be able to improve the young with this mating. If the fowl have major faults I will not breed brother and sister.

Pullet #2 has a really nice shape with the Back and breast being real nice.

 

[cubalaya]

how about this one?

 

[pinkchick]

Gotcha Don! Thank you!

 

[math ace]

Quote:

YELLOWING

Just kidding.... I mentioned yellowing feathers and lack of marigold yellow leg shanks way back when and the discussions that followed were not real helpful

As far as yellowing goes - there seems to be four camps of thought.....

1.) CULL it and start all over

2.) Worry about the BARN and don't stress the paint until the BARN is perfect...

3.) It is from outside factors - - corn / diet, sun exposure, old feathers and it is no biggie.
4.) It is the result of too much or not enough barred rock genes.

When I contacted a couple of judges, I was told that it is points off for each section the yellow appears in. So, the more yellow that shows the worse that it is.

I will tell you that I do not believe MY stock has yellow feathers due to # 3... I only see it in the roosters which makes me question ALL of #3's camp. ALSO, My roosters had it by 6 months and were not fed corn AND were kept in shaded pens....

Since it is considered a FAULT and not a DQ.... I am not culling mine. I am working with it and seeing if I can hatch a son with less yellowing than daddy.
I have been concentrating on body and yellow legs with culling choices. The yellow takes longer to show up.... so I haven't been sweating it yet. My f1's are 21 weeks old and no signs of the yellowing yet. . . .

My oldest delaware rooster is MOLTING, so I am watching to see if all the feathers come back pure white or yellow tinged.

Kim, there seems to be less known about the delawares than there is with the BCM. So there is a lot of

.

 

[kathyinmo]

I can tell you that my Oliver has hardly any yellowing at all. Considering that he is outside in the sun all the time, I think it is minimal. He is a molting mess right now, but here is a photo from a couple weeks ago... Poor photo, but you can get the idea.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
I don't know what this means. ???

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
I don't know what this means. ???

Referring to the lacing on the hackle feathers on #1. It would be interesting to see what color the undercolor is on these.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
I don't know what this means. ???

Referring to the lacing on the hackle feathers on #1. It would be interesting to see what color the undercolor is on these.

On my way out to tickle the girls pink and get more photos of them.