The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[Hens and Roos]

well my friend and I are trying but it's always something; lost a decent hen and her better looking daughter to preds this summer; other things happening. My friend sent me her girls, because she doesn't have a roo; my boy has had a terrible case of feather mites (I dusted everyone with DE, thought that was good enough, then spent two months doing about 50 hours a week a work, recently found the mites never slowed down; hopefully with some sulfur we have that licked, of course now they are all molting) I'm thinking of ordering hatching eggs when things cool off, because I haven't got the best looking birds and can't find any really good ones here. Soooo maybe next year ;-)

so if you find some, please let me know

where did you find the sulfur? Is it in a product?

 

[Hens and Roos]

Welsummers are one of the breeds I am looking at breeding and showing but I read in one of the threads that welsummers can be difficult to win with at show because the judges are not as familiar with them. What is everyones thoughts on showing welsummers? Also is their breeders who are winning at shows with welsummers?

My DD shows them at our local county fair and has done pretty well- it depends on the judge- but the one year he had to use the SOP book a lot to look up information.

If you like the breed then go for it- the only way anyone gets more familiar with them is to see them more often.

Good luck!

 

[maryhysong]

where did you find the sulfur? Is it in a product?

You can buy 99% pure food grade sulfur on Amazon. BUT! I just used 90% pure garden dust ;-) which cost me about $7 for a two pound shaker can at a local nursery. This brand was ferti-lome Dusting Sulfur. It is sold for all sorts of fungal diseases on garden plants and for the control of thrips and different kinds of mites on plants. It is not listed for use on animals, but I didn't want to wait for the food grade stuff to be mailed and took a chance. Label says 90% sulfur and 10% "other ingredient". I don't know what the "other" stuff is, but figured if it was a synthetic poison it would have to be on the label. I am thinking that it is just the impurities in the sulfur, like iron and what not, that wouldn't be present in the more pure food grade.

Just as with using DE and wood ash, you don't want to breath it and try to keep the chicken from breathing too much of it. Because it is sold as a pesticide it has all the standard warnings and precautions on the label about ingesting it and breathing it. None of my birds had any adverse effects from it and so far I have not seen any live mites on any of the ones I have checked. Work it down through the feathers and into the skin as much as you can.

I also used it to make up some home made NuStock (http://www.nustock.com/) according to recipe found at (http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html). Home made or store bought I put some of it around their vents to kill the mites, also on any sores, bare skin, bumblefoot, and if there are nits on the feathershafts I coat as much of them as I can with it. That smothers them so they don't hatch.

So far this is working like a dream. I did also shake a little sulfur into their dusting holes and into the nest boxes.

 

[Hens and Roos]

You can buy 99% pure food grade sulfur on Amazon. BUT! I just used 90% pure garden dust ;-) which cost me about $7 for a two pound shaker can at a local nursery. This brand was ferti-lome Dusting Sulfur. It is sold for all sorts of fungal diseases on garden plants and for the control of thrips and different kinds of mites on plants. It is not listed for use on animals, but I didn't want to wait for the food grade stuff to be mailed and took a chance. Label says 90% sulfur and 10% "other ingredient". I don't know what the "other" stuff is, but figured if it was a synthetic poison it would have to be on the label. I am thinking that it is just the impurities in the sulfur, like iron and what not, that wouldn't be present in the more pure food grade.

Just as with using DE and wood ash, you don't want to breath it and try to keep the chicken from breathing too much of it. Because it is sold as a pesticide it has all the standard warnings and precautions on the label about ingesting it and breathing it. None of my birds had any adverse effects from it and so far I have not seen any live mites on any of the ones I have checked. Work it down through the feathers and into the skin as much as you can.

I also used it to make up some home made NuStock (http://www.nustock.com/) according to recipe found at (http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html). Home made or store bought I put some of it around their vents to kill the mites, also on any sores, bare skin, bumblefoot, and if there are nits on the feathershafts I coat as much of them as I can with it. That smothers them so they don't hatch.

So far this is working like a dream. I did also shake a little sulfur into their dusting holes and into the nest boxes.

Great thanks for the information, we have a few breeds that the mites just seem to love and it is a job to keep the chickens mite free. I will look into this.

 

[chickadoodles]

We use sulfer here in the south around our property to keep snakes away! They won't cross it!

 

[maryhysong]

Great thanks for the information, we have a few breeds that the mites just seem to love and it is a job to keep the chickens mite free. I will look into this.

I seem to have certain birds in certain pens that get them real bad. I"m sure it is something about that particular bird, I have also noticed that birds that have some other health issue usually have some of the worst infestations. Whether the mites are attracted to sick birds or the birds get sick because they are weakened by the mites I have no idea.

We use sulfer here in the south around our property to keep snakes away! They won't cross it!

That is a great thing to know; do you use the finely powdered sulfur? Here our soil is very alkaline and I buy soil sulfur, which has been pelletized to add to the soil to bring down the pH; wonder if that would work too?

 

[mike184]

Hello all! Just wanted to share some photos. I ordered a dozen Welsummer eggs on ebay. I received 14 eggs all intact. Hatch day was Friday and kinda ran into Saturday. I ended up with 8 that hatched but there are 2 I'm watching closely as I'm not sure they will make it. If what I've read about auto sexing them is true, it looks like I have 5 pullets and 3 roos.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this one looks like a pullet, also has a very defined V on head.


This one is a roo I think. Pretty solid red head, not much of a V at all.



Both together to compare

 

[bwalden]

Hello all! Just wanted to share some photos. I ordered a dozen Welsummer eggs on ebay. I received 14 eggs all intact. Hatch day was Friday and kinda ran into Saturday. I ended up with 8 that hatched but there are 2 I'm watching closely as I'm not sure they will make it. If what I've read about auto sexing them is true, it looks like I have 5 pullets and 3 roos. Correct me if I'm wrong but this one looks like a pullet, also has a very defined V on head. This one is a roo I think. Pretty solid red head, not much of a V at all. Both together to compare

Hi Mike, if I'm not mistaken those are some of mine. You are correct in your guesses. Photo #1 pullet. #2 Roo #3 roo #4 left pullet, right roo. Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[mike184]

Hi Mike, if I'm not mistaken those are some of mine. You are correct in your guesses. Photo #1 pullet. #2 Roo #3 roo #4 left pullet, right roo. Thanks for sharing the pics.

Yes they are, I recognize your screen name! Small world huh lol. Sadly one did die but the second one in question is looking a lot better. If it does make it looks like I will have 5 pullets and 2 roos.

 

[medplantwoman]

Love my wellsummers, except the noise from one of my girls. Have 4 and 23 wks. old and one sounds like she is laying an egg. Noise every few hours and sometimes every few min... No eggs as of yet. Have 4 Australorps no such noise but one whines and whines. No eggs from them either and only a few days apart in age. I have raised chicks before but no WS`s....are we behind???? I know a couple of the girls are fixing the nesting boxes up, u know feathers and all. I have a fake egg in all boxes. Any info?? My husband is getting irritated with all the noise since we have never had such noisey chickens. and live in town....