The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[Happy Chooks]

NCSprout - I'm not the best to offer any critique, but is he bantam? Or young? His size looks on the smaller side, though he is certainly a handsome fella.

vanalpaca......get another bator to hatch in. That way you don't mess up the other eggs while hatching the first ones.

 

[NCSprout]

he's a large fowl, just at a year old. He's the only roo I've had, and I'm new to chickens so I have nothing to compare him too.

 

[faykokoWV]

I'm still learning the standards myself, but he look a little disproportionate? The body is not as big as his head and neck? That could be the camera angles though.

I agree that his wattles are a little long.

 

[Opa]

Frostbite is always an issue and I've tried a myriad of methods to avoid or minimize it. With one rooster I applied Udder Balm on his comb and wattles on a daily basis. After a while I swear he came to looking forward to his daily massage. The coop he was kept in never got below freezing, had adequate ventilation, and high humidity wasn't an issue. His comb stayed red and bright all winter but about the end of March a very distinct black line developed followed by everything about the line on his comb or below the line on his wattles started turning black as well. By the end of April everything black atrophied and fell off. He looked like a dubbed gamecock. Eventually I can him along with a pair of young hens to a family that had their entire flock killed by raccoons.

For the last two winters all of my roosters are placed in separate cages inside the coop and aren't returned to their flocks until the cold weather has passed. Near the end of March I accidently didn't fasten his cage door on a day when I also left the door from the work area to the hen unlatched. The next morning I found the door to the hens pushed open and he was out in the run with the hens. Rather than try and catch him I just left with the winter flock. It wasn't a week later that I noticed some black frostbite damage appearing on the tips of his comb. As a result he now no longer has the prefect comb he once sported.

 

[vanalpaca]

So sad the roos are susceptible to frostbitten combs! They are so handsome with them.

My cabinet bator with hatching drawer was supposed to be shipped Tuesday last week and I haven't heard yet about where it is........ So I have another bator on it's way.

I'm going to try some 'local' eggs next and dispense with shipping eggs. Then I am waiting for CHICKENSTOCK in Michigan and hope to see what Opa hatches out for 'my dips'.

I am determined to get a flock of Wellies going this year! Then they can grow up and I can incubate eggs next year to my hearts content and grow them up and have 'some stock' to cull from.

So this year we are LEARNING how to deal with this whole chicken raising experience and next year we get to start raising our own and learning all about which chicks should get sold off and who gets to stay!

I LOVE how big the Wellie eggs are! And they are really dark, too. I can tell them first glance from the Barnie eggs and the Lt Sussex and the GLW have a really light brown egg.

Now if I could just get the family to eat eggs again!

Cheers all,
Bonnie

 

[NCSprout]

Thanks for the feedback, glad to have a place where i can get some.

I've got 2 roos from my Kummer poultry hatch, we'll see how they compare. he's actually not all that small imo, but i have very little experience to go on.
and as far as my current hatch of pinkchicks eggs...
12 out of 16 are making it to lockdown.

I wouldn't mind a nice roo or 2 from that hatch either, we'll see what pops out.

 

[vanalpaca]

If you get a roo from PinkChicks, would that name be 'Goliath?'.........Maybe 'Zeus'?

 

[Opa]

Quote:
It's always difficult to critique someone ones birds. You want to give you honest opinion yet not offend. That being said I think you have a very beautiful bird. I personally would like a rooster of that age to appear to have "shoulders", a much wider thicker blocky looking body. I also look for intermittent brown feathers though the chest area. While I think it was prior to being a year old, I can't tell you at what exact age my roosters have developed this block physique.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
It's always difficult to critique someone ones birds. You want to give you honest opinion yet not offend. That being said I think you have a very beautiful bird. I personally would like a rooster of that age to appear to have "shoulders", a much wider thicker blocky looking body. I also look for intermittent brown feathers though the chest area. While I think it was prior to being a year old, I can't tell you at what exact age my roosters have developed this block physique.

I noticed my rooster beef up at 9 months. But I've only had the one rooster.

 

[Opa]

Seems like about the same age mine beefed up, but sometimes I have trouble remembering what I had for lunch.