Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[LALEWIN]

Seriously?? I only have two! Of course if even one is a roo, they both have to go so I can start over. I got them from a hatchery. If both are roos, someone wasn't paying attention! I just wanted to have two chickens to pick around the yard. I really wanted one Delaware and one Buff Orp, but it took 3 months waiting to get the Delaware chicks, so I was not about to ask about Buffs!

BTW, single pics are all the same bird.
Also, is that why they do the run toward each other ( or if close, don't run) and jump thing? Like two guys butting chests. Didn't know if hens ever did this. They get along great and don't like to be apart.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Some new photos. Both have good size combs, but the tail on the one and the way it carries itself makes me think the roo guess is right.

Some days I am in denial. They will be 11 weeks this week. No crowing yet. Good thing! Can't do that were we live.

Both at 10.5 weeks. They like the back porch, but wish they wouldn't poop all over it.
They like to follow, but are not super friendly like I had hoped. Hatchery birds. If I sit on the porch, especially late in the day, they will get on my lap.
They are pretty though.
Comments? Feel free to share.

I'm sorry too. Those birds are ALL boys... or if they're both the same bird, then yes, they are boys.

But... there was a guy on the Heritage Large Fowl thread looking for Delawares in Tennessee.

Do you have girls too?

Maybe he could help you out with them.

I'll refer him to this page.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Oops, I'm sorry. I looked him up and it was Orpingtons he was looking for, not Delawares. Sorry about that.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I'm not even gonna try to read 1,188 pages of Delaware info... though I want to see the pics. Putting this here so I can find the thread again without going through all that other stuff.

I have Delawares from Sandhill. They are 4 months old now and I'll be trying to select which to keep. They are only a meat project but I want to have the best that I can and so will be consulting the SOP.

I'll try to take pictures soon to upload and see what y'all think. I'll be looking for advice on which are the best ones.

Well, between throwing my back out and catching a summer "cold" I'm behind the curve here.

I'm still planning on taking pics and posting as soon as I can.

I have a few really nice ones in the flock. It looks like a LOT of the boys have split wings. I'm not happy about that but there are several (I hope) that don't.

Cubalaya, do you have pics posted of your Delawares? I'd like to see them.

 

[desertmarcy]

I would take out the solid structure blocking their view. You can put hardware cloth in there instead... they'll be able to see but not be able to get to each other to cause any damage.

Is there any way to change the position of this pen so they can see hens running around? Or when you put your culls in another pen close by, can that pen be put in front of these rooster pens? You could have a walk-way between them but at least they would be able to see other birds. If you have more than one of these pens, can they be turned to face each other and then have your hen run in between them? I think that being able to see other birds would help a LOT with their attitudes.

I am going to have to think outside the box on this one. Could be that taking the solid material out and replacing with hardware cloth, like you suggested, would do the trick since each pen would have at least one other bird next to it in view. Right now, I only have 4 of these pens (there are 16 all together) in use, and only the Delaware is by himself, but my other breed cockerels are growing up fast. The Marans are already getting in each other's faces so to speak and my heritage breed cockerels will need to be separated before too long. I have thought about putting one hen (the sacrificial hen) in with each lone cockerel just to keep him company---but that would be two large birds in only a 4'X4' space. The guy I bought this unit from raised Old English Game. He built these pens 7' high and there is a (ugh) rebar perch in each one, in the middle, but it is way high but not so high that I don't bump my head on it

and few of my large fowl are able to fly straight up to perch on it, or at least they don't use it, maybe because it is darned uncomfortable. So there is another problem. I'm trying to figure out what I can do to make use of all this vertical space for the birds. I have a nipple water pipe running along the back wall of the pens, don't want that getting all pooped up. 4'x4' is really not much room for a bird to get a flying start to get up high. Thinking of taking the rebar out and putting a shelf up along the back, not sure how they are going to get up there though. A ramp would have to be way steep. Darn, I didn't realize all these issues when I bought the thing. It is turning out to be less than perfect! The one redeeming feature is the framing is all metal, the dividers are either metal or coroplast or chicken wire----no wood so nothing for the termites to eat and believe me the termites are really fierce little buggers out here. Sorry, kinda off track from Delawares now, but if anybody has ideas on this chicken condo, send them along or PM me.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Can you post pictures of this structure?

 

[Lacy Blues]

If you put up a shelf, like you said, you could make it about 2 feet off the floor. Put it over your water system. If you made it wide enough for them to stand on, they could then jump up to a perch perhaps 2 feet higher than the shelf. I would get rid of the rebar and put a 2x2 in its place, far enough out from the back wall that they can jump up to it from the shelf.

Trying to help you think about this...

 

[cubalaya]

Well, between throwing my back out and catching a summer "cold" I'm behind the curve here.

I'm still planning on taking pics and posting as soon as I can.

I have a few really nice ones in the flock. It looks like a LOT of the boys have split wings. I'm not happy about that but there are several (I hope) that don't.

Cubalaya, do you have pics posted of your Delawares? I'd like to see them.

i think i posted some quite a few pages back. need to take some pics of this rooster.

 

[kopeck]

Seriously?? I only have two! Of course if even one is a roo, they both have to go so I can start over. I got them from a hatchery. If both are roos, someone wasn't paying attention! I just wanted to have two chickens to pick around the yard. I really wanted one Delaware and one Buff Orp, but it took 3 months waiting to get the Delaware chicks, so I was not about to ask about Buffs!

BTW, single pics are all the same bird.
Also, is that why they do the run toward each other ( or if close, don't run) and jump thing? Like two guys butting chests. Didn't know if hens ever did this. They get along great and don't like to be apart.

FYI, the dead give away is the tail. Girls have a solid tail, boys have a barred tail. I know you got plenty of the "bad new", I thought I would pass on why they were so easy figure out.

K

 

[Lacy Blues]

FYI, the dead give away is the tail. Girls have a solid tail, boys have a barred tail. I know you got plenty of the "bad new", I thought I would pass on why they were so easy figure out.

K

In hatchery birds, it very possible for the boys to have solid tails just like the pullets. It's difficult, from what I understand, to have the proper tail markings even with non-hatchery sourced birds. It was mostly the shape of the hackle/saddle/tail feathers, their age, and the size of the comb and wattles that were the dead give-aways.