IF I HAD TO WAIT TWO YEARS TO GET SOME FROM KATHY I WOULD WAIT WITH HAPPYNESS. YOU WILL BE LIGHT YEARS AHEAD GETTING HER STRAIN AS THEY ALLREADY LOOK LIKE THE OLD DELAWARES FROM THE PAST. SHE MADE THEM THE CORRECT WAY. IF SHE CAN SHARE SOME WITH YOU WILL BE HAPPY BUT ALSO ASK HER TO HELP YOU ON HOW TO BREED THEM. THIS IS NOT A EASY COLOR PATTERN.
Wow, that's quite an endorsement. The only qualm I have at the moment, is that while they are beautiful, they are not early feathering like the original... Zanna told me they were weeks behind her other chickens. She loves them, they get good meat on them, but I'm unsure how to balance my practical need for a quick maturing meat bird with my urge to help renew a Heritage bird. Someone pointed me to Cpartist
http://eightacresfarm.weebly.com/delawares.html ...and while they started with hatchery, it's pretty amazing how they've bred up in size and she appears to be conciencious<sp> regarding SOP? Pros / cons on each?
You are the expert, Mr. B, and I am not.
Is this a situation like discussed elsewhere where "angels fear to tread" is appropriate? I mean, I'm trying to work a couple of difficult things here. <hey, where did this logical, *sane* voice come from! quick, somebody quash it!> Also, I would not (at this moment) be obtaining direct from Kathy, I'd be ordering eggs from Zanna who obtained F4's from Kathy this year. She is going to be culling pretty heavily, it sounds like. That's a good question, actually. If Zanna culls well, and she's sending next gen eggs, how many does one order to guess that after heavy culling, would still have at least 2 cockerels and 4 pullets to work with? 2 dozen? 4 dozen? all at once, or once a month a new batch until X dozen reached? This is a serious level of complexity here... Oi! Vey!
