The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[Tailfeathers]

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- - Chick Pictures - -

Anyone want to try to guess the sex on these guys?
I thought they were all females based on the head triangle, but one is growing a lot bigger and it's comb is bigger too.
Here is an overhead of all of them. 2 weeks old.



Yellow band (we think this could be a boy)




Pink Band



Daddy's Girl (we think she's a girl



and Wellie #2

I'm going to step out on a limb here and respectfully disagree with the other two folks. I think you've got four pullets.

The comb will grow at various degrees throughout a birds life and while the one may seem more pronounced here than the other three, the head caps on all four tell me that they are all probably female. Males are usually much less defined and "fuzzier" around the edges. However, like Robin says, it's not an exact science. I should also note that I've read others who've said their "lines" didn't really hold true to the headcap and eye-liner markings theory.

I will say that the outside color does appear to be much lighter than what I'm used to seeing.

Now, I’m beat. Friday was a blur as I loaded up the 15 birds I washed Thursday and then went in to coop-in and finish help setting up. I spent most of the day yesterday at the show and then putting the birds away last night. Got home from church about 1300 and thought I'd have a nice, hot cup of coffee before heading out to make my rounds. And now I just finished up with the email about 2 HOURS later!

We got about 2” of snow last night but most of it is gone now. Still, it’s one of those Sunday’s where I think I’ll just make my rounds and curl up on the couch with a blanket. See y'all tomorrow...

God Bless,

 

[faykokoWV]

Hey guys, I have a question. my non breeder roo (my back up) had gray fluff at the base of his tail, but no white at all, now he suddenly has one white feather? He's almost two and has never had any white until now..is that unusual to develop white so late. I'm not breeding him, so its not a huge problem, but its something I'll have to watch for in future offspring since its a fault.

 

[Hens and Roos]

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I would most definitely cull any birds that have any linkage to the parent(s) that is contributing to the stubs. My guess is that you have hatchery blood in there somewhere as I know the hatcheries are notorious for having chicks with stubs. That's not to slam hatcheries. Just a fact. I have seen Wellie chicks from at least four different hatcheries and the majority of chicks I looked at had stubs.

Also, while I can't back this up, I think stubs is a trait that can be latent in that in may not show up for a generation or two and then all of a sudden rear its ugly head again.

Hopefully you are linebreeding and keeping good records so you know exactly who the culprit(s) is/are or at least have a good ID'ing system to do the same.

God Bless,

We do have a very good record system and know who is from who. Based on what breedings we have done last year(our 1st year) and this year(our 2nd), we already culled the younger of the 2 roosters as he is one showing stubs, we know which 2 hens he could have came from and will be culling them off-probably as laying flock birds only. We have noticed that the cockeral chicks hatched from the younger rooster show stubs but the pullet chicks do not at this time. The chicks hatched from the older rooster don't show stubs at this point. Of course this is one of the breeds that my DD is planning to show at fair for her 4-H project and she understands fully the problem with stubs. Looking at who we have we will end up culling back to 4 birds. The 4 that we will have left will be test mated to check and make sure they aren't producing chicks with stubs- unfortunatly we need to wait before placing the birds togethers to make sure the hens are clear so we know for sure whose chicks hatch.

 

[Opa]

Please do take as many pictures of him....I did like his comb, realllllly nice one you got there! I like his neck and saddle feather colors. I agree with Royce about the leg color but I know photographs dont always reveal the TRUE colors. Like the Ameraucana egg colors lOL!

I must say this roo is better than his father. AND I agree with Royce in working on those little flaws and hopefully the next generation can clean that one up without repeating the flaws or make it even more less noticable.


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[pinkchick]

Naturespace~ I believe the yellow banded chick is a cockerel and the rest are pullets.

Opa~ That's a nice looking rooster you have there. Love his hackle, saddle and wing bow color.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Chilly morning here in Northern CA. Good morning for some pictures.

 

[Hens and Roos]

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WOW! You have snow...... we slept with windows open last night and this am it was about 59* outside! We now have rain. Nice pictures of your Wellies too!

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yep, unfortunately we've had a heck of a storm for the past week. Started off with heavy rain and turned to snow on Saturday. Thankfully, tonight it's supposed to rain, so it will melt it all.

My poor fruit trees were all in bloom too.

The chickens were not so happy about the snow. Although they were tired of being cooped up, so they braved it this morning.

 

[Sarplaninec]

Hi Everyone,
Any Welsummer breeders in New York. If so, please send me a private message.
Thank you,
Beck

 

[Happy Chooks]

Hi Everyone,
Any Welsummer breeders in New York. If so, please send me a private message.
Thank you,
Beck

I only see 1 breeder in New York. Here's the breeder's list:
http://wcna.webs.com/breederslist.htm