The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[te dave]

Quote:
hey guys,

i posted these questions about 10 pages back, no answers?

anyone?

thanks

dave

 

[vanalpaca]

Quote:
hey guys,

i posted these questions about 10 pages back, no answers?

anyone?

thanks

dave

Dave, I suggest you pm Opa because he got stock from Estes when it had just transferred to them from Calicowoods and got a higher quality of stock. Since then, Estes haven't been culling and their stock has become less than it was. But you could see what and how Opa does his culling and see if that works for you.

I'm looking at culling for feathers on the legs, combs need to be 5 points, legs need to be yellow, no white underfeathers anywhere, if it is a CHICK, then no solid blonde ones or solid white ones (I want good solid chipmunk stripes and well defined V's/eyeliner on the girls), then it is a matter of watching for the correct feather color coming in as they grow. I don't cull for live weight/size as I feel mine are not mature enough at 12 weeks to even consider that. I don't want crooked toes in a rooster, either, but in a pinch I might use him to see if they were from incubator problems in which case the young would be normal).

If I culled for live size right away, I might lose something good and perfect shape, so I do give them a chance to GROW first. I might cull for live weight at maturity.

AND I am a rank newbie at chickens. But that is what I have figured out so far.

Cheers and good luck.
Bonnie in Clyde, OH

 

[Opa]

te dave, unless something has changed drastically with the birds from Estes Hatchery you should be getting pretty decent quality birds. Mine came from Estes a few years ago. One of the better know breeders of Welsummers was the owner of Calico Woods. When he passed Estes bought his birds and to my knowledge they are still breeding that line. A cockerel of 3 1/2 to 4 pounds is about when I would expect them to be at 20 weeks. Obviously you would want to keep the larger birds for breeding but a rooster at his prime is only going to weigh 7 pounds.

Any birds with feathered legs are birds that you would want to cull. A prime hen is going to weigh about 6 pounds. Welsummers on average lay a large to extra large egg. I personally don't feel that increasing their body size would be beneficial as it would increase food consumption without increasing egg size.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Also, they keep putting on weight until they are a year old - longer for males.

I would imagine you could introduce heavier stock to your flock if you still want to increase size later.

 

[te dave]

thanks guys,
out of the 14 hens i've chosen to make the second culling most of them look pretty good, color , type,(from the pics i've seen on here) i think i'm mainly going to have to choose for comb and tail carriage. however, it's the roosters that are most troublesome, i have 10 to choose from, 6 are out of the question because of feather legs/toes, the other 4 only one has a 5 point comb, the rest are 6-8 points, and all of their tail carriages are too high, in fact the 5pt comb one his tail is about 80-90 degrees, and all of their backs slope alot towards the tail. the sop says for a slight slope if i remember correctly. and all of the combs/wattles appear as big as the hatchery new hamps i had. i guess i'll just have to pick the best 2 and breed them to hens that are opposite (ie, flatter tail cariage and back, smaller combed) and then eval the offspring, then go again. or should i just try to fix one thing at a time?
if so, then should it be tail or back carriage or comb first? thanks for the answers, and please bear with me, i'm new at this breeding thing, trying not to make things worse ya know?

thanks

dave

 

[Happy Chooks]

From what I've learned so far - Comb is easier to work on than type, so if you have a rooster with fantastic type but not the greatest comb, I'd choose that over one with a great comb but not good on type. Nobody is perfect, so you shoot for the best you can.

 

[pinkchick]

Roosters are only suppose to be 7 pounds????????

.......I'm in sooooooooo much trouble.

 

[vanalpaca]

Quote:
Ok, pink, so HOW BIG IS HE?? And WHAT was his name? Odin or Thor or What?

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Ok, pink, so HOW BIG IS HE?? And WHAT was his name? Odin or Thor or What?

His name is Odin and he's REALLY big! And tall. I have 2 of his daughters and they have long legs - they are going to be larger than my girls that's for sure.

Found a picture of him here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6380930#p6380930


You're not alone Kim, Moose is big too.

 

[MarinMama]

Joining the welsummr group...got a new 12 week old...she is from whitmore line...