The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[tazcat70]

Quote:
Yes, most wellies are slower growers/feathering out... It is the trade off to get good stock, which are dual purpose(unlike hatchery birds that grow quick are are bred for production.

Nate

I will try to get a picture of her, compared to her hatch mates.

 

[EweSheep]

Okay for those of you that are wondering about Estes Hatchery and Harry Shaw. I agree with Nate that the quality has been diminished since then and been hearing from folks that the chicks were not of good quality anymore. I am sure they have not culled as hard as Harry Shaw did with his Welsummers.

Here are the information from the old threads that I need to put it down on here so everyone can read it.

Harry Shaw died on Dec 20, 2006. So it has been a long five years.

"Hey all,

Just got off the phone with Harry's wife. She found him lifeless in the duck pen on Dec 20. All birds except K(ardosh) Bronze turks were sold to Estes Hatchery.
She is not sure that whoever she sold the turks to is keeping them for breeding or they sold them for the table. She had to sell quickly as she couldn't take care of them all and finances are a great concern.

She doesn't know how to access and redo the website yet but will be attempting that after the holiday's.

Their dtr (16 yo) is monitoring email from one address for now:
guineas@... and will respond to all emails as she can. They
can't find passwords for the other addresses. Harry apparently kept a lot of stuff in his head. "


Another response:


Harry Shaw is out of business i talked to Veronica (Harrys wife last week) its true Harry was found in the duck pen lifeless.It is also true she sold ALL birds to the amish(From the help of a Hatchery owner he supplied) to help the family who still has a daughter and a son still living at home.She also has sold all 3 of the large incubators and is keeping the gqf1502 for herself.Family is doing good for the circumstances at hand Harry will truly be missed in the poultry industry Rest in peace my friend.You are sadly missed and in are prayers
Don Mitchell
Mitchell Hatchery

Harry Shaw has been the supplier of Estes Hatchery and one other hatchery that he mentioned to me before his death. I believe I last got his email in Spring of 2006. It was a hatchery in MO, thinking of Marti's Poultry but not 100 percent definate. It was in my old email addy and the account of that email is long gone.

So Estes Hatchery had his stock for five years and I am sure they are not breeding them to the APA standard. Like Opa's stock and my original CW hen coming directly from him, is all of the "greatness" of Shaw's ablility to keep the Welsummers to standard. Mothergoose had some of his stock as well before she sold all of her flock the year before last. So it is up to me to cross that CW hen to Nate's lines and see if I can "tweak" it better in egg shell color on her offsprings but still maintain the conformation quality that I like in her and improve on her yellow legs.

Harry was a very nice guy and easy to work with but a terrible loss in the Welsummer world.

As for Ray Valentine, that's another story.

 

[EweSheep]

I did order 15 chicks from Estes Hatchery in 2008 but none of them survived to egg laying....such heavy losses and the male chicks were vicious. The pullet chicks were better than hatchery, run of the mill type but not as good as pure breeder/SOP birds I've got. I won't be getting anymore Estes stock at this point in time because Estes has created their own line from Harry Shaw stock.

There is a certain point when it is no longer "Harry Shaw" birds, probably after the second year of their purchase of his stock and not keeping it SOP, then it is Estes Hatchery lines.

However if one wants a hatchery stock for cheaper price, I would refer them to Estes.

From one Welsummer breeder that emailed me once, that Ideal Hatchery bought some of Lowell Barber's Welsummers but the hatchery ruined it and it has been over 10-20 years since Barber died and the birds that Ideal now has, looked awful or worse than Barber's original stock. I would not refer anyone to buy Ideal hatchery stock.

 

[EweSheep]

Good job folks..........I'm not on here as much but I do check from time to time.

Good job Nate, Pinkchick, Opa, Faye, HappyChooks!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
I'm still new to breeding, but I would choose type (body structure) first. Then I'd look at comb and points. My rooster has very little brown spangling, I'd guess around 5%, but he has excellent type. (and I don't see any restriction on too little brown spangling - only too much)

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
Thank you for sharing this.

 

[pinkchick]

Hi Robin! Glad to see you! Hope you are doing well.

Let's get some Wellies out there to these folks looking for them friends. I would offer to send out eggs but no one is laying right now....I'm getting a pathetic 6-8 eggs a day from close to 150 fowl overall. Not egg-zactly egg-citing. I swear every bird I have over the age of 1 year is molting. I have feathers everywhere....looks like the kids took the feather pillows outside to the coops and had pillow fights until the pillows exploded.

Great big welcome to the Wellie thread to all the new folks joining us.

For those looking for breeders of our beloved Wellies you can also look on the Welsummer Club of North America Website http://wcna.webs.com/home.htm
and look under the breeder section for breeders close to your area. I am not sure of who ships chicks, but I know someone out there has to. Well I know Nate does but I also know he can't at the current time due to a great loss of flock.

Annie~ It was fabulous talking with you yesterday! Thanks for calling.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
I'm still new to breeding, but I would choose type (body structure) first. Then I'd look at comb and points. My rooster has very little brown spangling, I'd guess around 5%, but he has excellent type. (and I don't see any restriction on too little brown spangling - only too much)

AGREED! 100%!!!!! Build the barn first, paint it later.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Just goes to show you, you can't always predict wellies at hatch:

Remember this one I hatched on 8/1? (Kim and I both thought boy)

Well, it was cruising around with mama broody this morning and I got a really good look at HER salmon colored chest feathers!

 

[EweSheep]

A real gender bender sort of chick! Congrats on a girl!

That is why we don't always rely on the sex markings 100%. Some lines are better than others. Best approach would be "wait and see".

Thanks Pinkchick....family issues are harder to deal with. But we are dealing with it day by day until He** freezes over.