The Welsummer Thread!!!!

To remove the spurs of my roosters an Amish neighbor of mine showed me to used a halfed hot potato. Put it on the spur for about 30 sec and remove then just a light twist and the spur is off. No blood no apparent pain to roo. They also run a USDA certified poultry processing operation as well . $2.00 a bird great for all my culls.
 
These are my Welsummers I need to find out if they are decent for breeding, so far anyway. I got them from a breeder and at first thought they were doing ok with growing. Then they seemed to slow down and the hens seem to be awful small. The cockerel just got a growth spurt and has started to grow nicely again. I looked up pics of other Welsummers their age and wonder how well they are growing because mine seem so much smaller. I also have some Coronation Sussexes that are the same age and are dwarfing all my similar age pullets and wonder if that is why everything seems small. These are 24 weeks old. The cockerel seems to be on track other than his wattles and comb. I am more concerned with the pullets, they aren't even as big as my (hatchery) Dominique hen who is quite small. I am just trying to figure out what I am doing wrong? If there is something I can do to try and help them along more or if they are fine and it's just that because of the Sussexes they seem small. Or if it is too late? Should I chalk the slow growth up to the severe cold here? It was staying around -5 to -10 for the last few weeks. Also we had a very cold fall even for here. When I got them as chicks we had also lost a lot of chicks in the shipment because the post office messed up so bad, they got chilled really bad.

Also just read about "grey fluff", and how it's a bad thing? My cockerel has some slight grey feathers and fluff on the base of tail feathers where his scent gland is, is this a bad thing? Will he grow out of it? He had more a few weeks back but there doesn't seem to be as much grey now. But then again all my roosters are all going through a heavy molt right now so don't know if he just lost it and it will come back or not.



Gandalf my white adult breeder Cochin rooster (too bad the lighting is so bad he has the funniest eyebrows!
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the sussex are the same age and the bedding is on a slight hill (sussex being on th up side)







the white one is a sussex the same age then the blue in the corner is an adult hatchery Cochin





sorry about the bad and blurry pics they just would not sit still
 
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Perhaps if you could get some better pictures it would help. In these the birds appear to be too red and uniform in color. I would suspect that if the colors in the pictures are true your birds have interbred with Rhode Island Reds. Here is what I feel a good hen so look like.
 
If i breed my barred rocks or my EE's with a welsummer rooster will the rooster pass along the dark egg gene to the chicks??
 
Hillschicks, it would be best if start a new thread on the genetics page. They will help you to understand better how genes are passed on.
 
OMG I just went and looked at some pics of Rhode Island reds and that looks closer to mine then the Welsummers! I can not believe this I am soooooooooo dissapointed
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This is so frustrating!!!I am so mad right now! I just thought they would lighten up. They have the salmon chest so I thought they would lighten up. I thought they would just end up looking like the last picture on the feathersite Welsummers. Thank you very much for your help, well I guess I should've gone straight to Whitmore farms after all!
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I will have to wait until next spring! I will keep them anyway and decide what to do after they start laying.
 
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These are my Welsummers I need to find out if they are decent for breeding, so far anyway. I got them from a breeder and at first thought they were doing ok with growing. Then they seemed to slow down and the hens seem to be awful small. The cockerel just got a growth spurt and has started to grow nicely again. I looked up pics of other Welsummers their age and wonder how well they are growing because mine seem so much smaller. I also have some Coronation Sussexes that are the same age and are dwarfing all my similar age pullets and wonder if that is why everything seems small. These are 24 weeks old. The cockerel seems to be on track other than his wattles and comb. I am more concerned with the pullets, they aren't even as big as my (hatchery) Dominique hen who is quite small. I am just trying to figure out what I am doing wrong? If there is something I can do to try and help them along more or if they are fine and it's just that because of the Sussexes they seem small. Or if it is too late? Should I chalk the slow growth up to the severe cold here? It was staying around -5 to -10 for the last few weeks. Also we had a very cold fall even for here. When I got them as chicks we had also lost a lot of chicks in the shipment because the post office messed up so bad, they got chilled really bad.

Also just read about "grey fluff", and how it's a bad thing? My cockerel has some slight grey feathers and fluff on the base of tail feathers where his scent gland is, is this a bad thing? Will he grow out of it? He had more a few weeks back but there doesn't seem to be as much grey now. But then again all my roosters are all going through a heavy molt right now so don't know if he just lost it and it will come back or not.



Gandalf my white adult breeder Cochin rooster (too bad the lighting is so bad he has the funniest eyebrows!
lol.png
)













the sussex are the same age and the bedding is on a slight hill (sussex being on th up side)







the white one is a sussex the same age then the blue in the corner is an adult hatchery Cochin





sorry about the bad and blurry pics they just would not sit still
A little difficult to say from the pics. Seems to be pretty low light inside your coop. If you could take some out in natural sunlight it would be easier to tell about your birds. The pullets look ok to me but your roo in the first pics i'm a little suspect of. Just my opinion...
 

the chest is not quite as red as in this pic, but their chest is a salmon

This is out side-This is pretty close to what they really look like but again it has just a slight more red tone to the pictures they are a shade more brown than this




this is more what the hens color is-the best pic of their color I can get





don't mind the mess in the back but I figured getting his color was more important




 
Just asking but my new additions are 3 welsummer 11 month pullets to check if I would like the breed or not. I have mainly barred rocks ,fbcm and birchen Marans but my wellies do not like to free range at all. They sit fluffed up in the coop while the rest all run amuck on the farm. I've had them for a few months and at first thought they just needed to acclimate to there new area but they are always in the coop or very close by. Didn't know if this was a breed characteristic or not. Birds are from a very good breeder.
 

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