The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[dheltzel]

Your purpose is to create a new variety/color and to have auto-sexing identification -- although don't the Wellies already come auto-sexed as chicks per Whitemore Farms? I never could figure the reason to create an auto-sexing Welbar when the Wellies were already auto-sexed. But then there is something to be said for genetic hardiness in cross-breeding too.

"Autosexing" is a term usually reserved for true breeding strains that are readily sexable. Welsummers are not autosexing in the same way that Legbars and Rhodebars are. I have Welsummers from Whitmore Farm (they are about 30 minutes from where I grew up and my Dad now lives) and there are a lot of chicks that are too ambiguous to sex with certainty. I make a good guess, but a percentage of the Welsummers "pullet" chicks I sell end up being roos. I tell my customers I am about as accurate as the hatcheries claim to be with vent sexing (90%), and that has been generally good enough. I also breed and sell Rhodebars and Legbars and the strains I have of both of those are MUCH less ambiguous, I can be 100% certain of those breeds. Now that I have recreated Welbars, I have a dark egg layer that is as accurately autosexing as my Rhodebars, and even better than the Legbars (some pullet chicks have small white dots on their heads).

This is a recent photo of the Welbar eggs I'm getting now. They fade a bit like Welsummers and Marans as the season progresses. They are identical to the pure Welsummer eggs.



Comparison of Welbars, Welsummers and Copper Marans (left to right)

 

[Sylvester017]

"Autosexing" is a term usually reserved for true breeding strains that are readily sexable. Welsummers are not autosexing in the same way that Legbars and Rhodebars are. I have Welsummers from Whitmore Farm (they are about 30 minutes from where I grew up and my Dad now lives) and there are a lot of chicks that are too ambiguous to sex with certainty. I make a good guess, but a percentage of the Welsummers "pullet" chicks I sell end up being roos. I tell my customers I am about as accurate as the hatcheries claim to be with vent sexing (90%), and that has been generally good enough. I also breed and sell Rhodebars and Legbars and the strains I have of both of those are MUCH less ambiguous, I can be 100% certain of those breeds. Now that I have recreated Welbars, I have a dark egg layer that is as accurately autosexing as my Rhodebars, and even better than the Legbars (some pullet chicks have small white dots on their heads).

This is a recent photo of the Welbar eggs I'm getting now. They fade a bit like Welsummers and Marans as the season progresses. They are identical to the pure Welsummer eggs.



Comparison of Welbars, Welsummers and Copper Marans (left to right)

Beautiful! What a bonus to have 100% sexing accuracy and beautiful eggs too! So Welbars breed true offspring? Do you have to re-introduce Welsummer breeding occasionally to keep the eggs dark or are the Welbars stand-alone true breeders without needing additional infused cross-breeding? I am so impressed with the evenness of egg colors between all 3 egg layers. And, of course, the brown does fade as the laying cycle progresses. Our Marans would start to lay speckled, splotchy, or half light/half dark shells by end of season.

 

[sasafras4u2]

My Wellie boy is only 16 weeks old and he is already mating with my hens. Silly boy. He is a beauty.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Yesterday evening, I was in the front room watching cartoons with my grandson. Suddenly my wife runs through the kitchen and out of the house onto the back deck and starts yelling for everyone to come outside.

I ran outside through the open sliding glass door, while my 2 1/2 year old grandson used our dog door. (He truly believes that it is his door).

In the backyard, a Copper's Hawk had one of my Welsummer pullets by the rump and was flying across the yard with it. Except for my wife...everything was quiet...even the chicken in the talons of the hawk was quiet. My son grabbed the chicken and I made a grab for the hawk.

Welsummers must have loose spongy feathers, I could not find any puncture wounds in the pullet at all. The hawk flew up into the Black Walnut Tree and surveyed all the commotion before flying off.

Wow...that was close. I can only figure that the hawk has been picking off the Eurasion Doves that come into the chicken feed, and today decided to take a chicken.

Sorry no photos....wasn't enough time.

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Yesterday evening, I was in the front room watching cartoons with my grandson. Suddenly my wife runs through the kitchen and out of the house onto the back deck and starts yelling for everyone to come outside.

I ran outside through the open sliding glass door, while my 2 1/2 year old grandson used our dog door. (He truly believes that it is his door).

In the backyard, a Copper's Hawk had one of my Welsummer pullets by the rump and was flying across the yard with it. Except for my wife...everything was quiet...even the chicken in the talons of the hawk was quiet. My son grabbed the chicken and I made a grab for the hawk.

Welsummers must have loose spongy feathers, I could not find any puncture wounds in the pullet at all. The hawk flew up into the Black Walnut Tree and surveyed all the commotion before flying off.

Wow...that was close. I can only figure that the hawk has been picking off the Eurasion Doves that come into the chicken feed, and today decided to take a chicken.

Sorry no photos....wasn't enough time.

Wow how scary. Glad you were able to save your little girl! Next time id have my gun ready. It might come back now that it knows where your chickens are..

 

[microchick]

We have breeding Red Tailed Hawkes around us in our timber. Not unusual to go outside in the morning and finding a juvenile RTH sitting in one of the trees near the coop eyeing the birds. I swear I can almost see a fork in one hand and a knife in the other. That's why my flock is penned and covered.

Just remember that in most states it is a felony charge to shoot a protected species and most raptors are just that.

That's why the term Shoot Shovel Shutup was invented.

Just saying........................

 

[jenniferlamar70]

We have breeding Red Tailed Hawkes around us in our timber. Not unusual to go outside in the morning and finding a juvenile RTH sitting in one of the trees near the coop eyeing the birds. I swear I can almost see a fork in one hand and a knife in the other. That's why my flock is penned and covered.

Just remember that in most states it is a felony charge to shoot a protected species and most raptors are just that.

That's why the term Shoot Shovel Shutup was invented.

Just saying........................

Haha love it!!

 

[Sylvester017]

Yesterday evening, I was in the front room watching cartoons with my grandson. Suddenly my wife runs through the kitchen and out of the house onto the back deck and starts yelling for everyone to come outside.

I ran outside through the open sliding glass door, while my 2 1/2 year old grandson used our dog door. (He truly believes that it is his door).

In the backyard, a Copper's Hawk had one of my Welsummer pullets by the rump and was flying across the yard with it. Except for my wife...everything was quiet...even the chicken in the talons of the hawk was quiet. My son grabbed the chicken and I made a grab for the hawk.

Welsummers must have loose spongy feathers, I could not find any puncture wounds in the pullet at all. The hawk flew up into the Black Walnut Tree and surveyed all the commotion before flying off.

Wow...that was close. I can only figure that the hawk has been picking off the Eurasion Doves that come into the chicken feed, and today decided to take a chicken.

Sorry no photos....wasn't enough time.

We don't care about photos at this point - we're all relieved you saved the Wellie!!!!

Cooper's Hawks are prevalent in our city area and nest in the very tall freeway tree-haven behind our house. I never got a picture of our hawks either because we'd rather immediately chase them off rather than go get our camera!



Crows have been diligent to chase off the resident Cooper's Hawk but if the Crows aren't around she/he will visit our yard. We've taken measures to eliminate long open yard areas where it would be easy for a hawk to swoop down on a running hen and grab her with his talons. So we distributed 5 large dog houses around the yard, have a pop-up canopy, lawn furniture, plywood/lumber lean-to shelters on paver blocks, potted containers, thorny stickery bushes, even wheelbarrows and city trash cans, etc -- all for the hens to duck/dive into/under when they spot a hawk, so they don't have to go running for shelter and be easy bait. The hawk can be standing 5-ft away from a hiding hen but will not go after her. I guess hawks prefer to swoop and talon-catch a running hen rather than fight her on the ground? Here's some of our hiding shelters for the hens to use:

 

[microchick]

Sylvester017 I can clearly see that your chickens are not spoiled one bit!

No more than my own birds are.

Seriously. Back when I was a city dweller, I kept finding dead sparrows and song birds in my yard with their breasts torn out. The birds were otherwise intact except for the missing breast meat. Some days I would find 5 or more little corpses but couldn't see any indication as to what was causing the carnage until one day a neighbor across the street called me up and announced that she had happened to look out her front door and saw a hawk swoop down and grab a bird out of my bird feed. Yep, it proved to be a Cooper's hawk. I immediately moved my feeder under a tree and near some bushes so the birds had cover to escape to and weren't out in the open.

So I really like your strategically placed dog houses for your chickens to escape to for cover. Well thought and and imaginative.

 

[microchick]

Okay guys, I need your opinion. For a year I have been hoping to see a chick sired by my Lavender Orpington Rooster. Here he is in the middle with Bo, my junior Welsummer rooster who didn't have enough common bird sense to stick his head under his wing this winter and as a result, lost half of his beautiful comb on the left and one of the Welsummer, Buff O cockerels from my February hatch named Dos on the right.


At first I thought Dusti was a Lavender O/Buff O cross but here she is at 6 weeks and now I'm thinking she is LO over a Welsummer hen. I had only seen Larry cover a Welsummer hen in the past so now I'm thinking that this chick is a product of that union mainly because of the heavy lacing on her breast.


She is just 6 weeks old in these pics. What do you all think?

I think she is gorgeous. I call her my oversized baby Robin.