The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[Anniebee]

I have one Welsummer hen - who has been moulting right through winter - and continued to lay in that time. Now she has a bare butt, is showing a few new pin feathers at her sides ( just underneath the wings ) .... but has begun to lay spasmodically, and I am sometimes at a loss to know if it is her egg, or that of my RIR - who lays beautiful big pink eggs. I have one today from I think my Welsummer - but the only indication it might be from her is a slightly darker lower part of the egg, with a few tiny brown spots on it. The rest of that egg is very light and quite pinkish.

Question : Do Welsummers strictly lay dark coloured terra cotta eggs ( I have had plenty of those from her ) .... and never any other colour, or can their colour fade to pale, or have a lot of variations ?

Just interested to know. Takes a magnifying glass and an extra hard look and comparison to my RIR eggs, to even guess the difference this past week or so.

Would appreciate some info if anyone has it.

Cheers ........ AB

 

[faykokoWV]

I have one Welsummer hen - who has been moulting right through winter - and continued to lay in that time. Now she has a bare butt, is showing a few new pin feathers at her sides ( just underneath the wings ) .... but has begun to lay spasmodically, and I am sometimes at a loss to know if it is her egg, or that of my RIR - who lays beautiful big pink eggs. I have one today from I think my Welsummer - but the only indication it might be from her is a slightly darker lower part of the egg, with a few tiny brown spots on it. The rest of that egg is very light and quite pinkish.

Question : Do Welsummers strictly lay dark coloured terra cotta eggs ( I have had plenty of those from her ) .... and never any other colour, or can their colour fade to pale, or have a lot of variations ?

Just interested to know. Takes a magnifying glass and an extra hard look and comparison to my RIR eggs, to even guess the difference this past week or so.

Would appreciate some info if anyone has it.

Cheers ........ AB

their egg color will fade over time and it can vary greatly - especially during and immediately after molt - I would say that it very rarely gets darker over time - usually only lighter over time. It is a color "over lay" though, not the actual color of the egg. think of it like an ink jet sprayer. so diet and illness can affect color. Things like worms and mites can also affect color ***when I say these things can affect color I mean they can temporarily affect the color of the eggs the hen is laying

 

[EweSheep]

Yahoo. Just scored a flock German utility wellsummers. I guess they need a lot of work on egg size but that's the easiest trait to improve on.
I am getting the flock flown here from BC. This line is direct from germany. T minus 6 days until their arrival!

I have been wanting wellsummers for a while. My mentor offered these to me so long as I payed freight. The are already laying. So I will start hatching in January this year. Get my numbers up to 100 potential hens select the ones that start laying the earliest (thinking some trap nesting might be in order) and from that group start culling using a ruler... The wider & deeper the better!

Just let us know when you get them! I would love to make comparisons between the Americans, the Dutches, the Germans and the British Welsummers. All I know that the German Welsummers would be darker in plumage.

Glad you are getting them, now we can send future buyers to your location. So many Canadians were asking about getting Welsummers somewhere in the mid central Canada to Eastern Canada.

 

[EweSheep]

my first Welsummers were from Ideal - one of the roos was meaner than sin and had to go - the hens were pretty - but as you noted none of the birds were anywhere near to SOP (obviously - its a hatchery so you wouldn't expect them to be) but I actually did have decent egg color from three of the hens - and one of the hens laid a really really nice egg color. If its just for a back yard flock I would say Ideal is fine

I agree, so many people were disappointed with any hatchery Welsummers and some are fine with the colors they got. If you want consistency, you would not want hatchery stock. You would be expected to pay a bit more for them. Some of the breeders are trying to get the SOP and dark eggs up to par and it will take a while.

I am hoping in the future, we will get some BETTER Welsummers.

 

[call ducks]

Quote:
I am excited. I myself don't breed the SOP in my breeds (on purpose) - I like utility birds. So I am always stress that utility comes first for my birds and as such they may not make great show birds.

There seems to be another german line that made it's way into the us (via Canada), From what I gather this is a more recent import.

The nice thing about these hens, I guess they started to lay earlier than expected. Bad thing - Small eggs. And I am really facing a dilemma - Do I keep this line of Welsummers the size they are now for egg production, and increase size of egg or do I increase their size and lose egg production (because egg production and egg size are inversely affected by hen size).

Humm lots to chew on. I am guessing that I should hatch some chicks when I get the birds here (I am getting 6 pullets and cockerel) and I won't feel comfortable just waiting to the spring to hatch them.... Maybe I can seek permission from the parents.... After all I just had two light sussex hen's come off the nests with 5 chicks (can you tell they lay in the winter!)

 

[miquwid]

Hello we aquired a wellie back in April shes almost 6months old. She is extremely friendly almost dog like. She'll stop eating and come visit and jump right on you. She seems small still though i did notice her comb and wattle started to grow some so im hoping she will get big soon.

So is so ridiculously tame my son calls her sweetheart.

 

[suebgbr]

Wow. What a difference. From the reading I have done (albeit it is a bit limited and geared to utility birds) in europe the prefer the really dark eggs. Take a look at this PDF and see the differences between European, and NA birds http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/12E05A10.pdf

Just to show you for comparison. I am in England and my Welsummers lay really dark choc eggs.



The one on the left is a Wellie, the middle is a Light Sussex (we had some wet weather recently so eggs are muddy) and the one on the right is the supermarket colour. The one at the back is a silkie.
On the wellie egg you can see the lighter patch. That is where another hen has scratched it to make room ro lay her egg. As someone said, the dark colour is 'spraypainted' on the top of a lighter egg.

 

[buttercup95]

So how do everyone else's Welsummers fly? I have one that I raised from an incubator as a sole hatching egg, at three weeks I put her with a self blue bantam cochin who was being picked on by the others in his brood. Now the two are inseparable, and she's almost 4 months and she is super tame, but I only noticed today that she doesn't fly, ever. I tested my theory with the use of meal worms and put some on a 4 ft tall bin. Now, normally she goes gaga for these and all she did was run around the bin while my self blue flew up and ate them all. Is this something that all welsummers prefer not to do or should I be worried? she glided semi-gracefully off of the bin a few minutes after I put her on it.

 

[nelmsy]

How much do welsummer cockerels weigh

 

[miquwid]

So how do everyone else's Welsummers fly? I have one that I raised from an incubator as a sole hatching egg, at three weeks I put her with a self blue bantam cochin who was being picked on by the others in his brood. Now the two are inseparable, and she's almost 4 months and she is super tame, but I only noticed today that she doesn't fly, ever. I tested my theory with the use of meal worms and put some on a 4 ft tall bin. Now, normally she goes gaga for these and all she did was run around the bin while my self blue flew up and ate them all. Is this something that all welsummers prefer not to do or should I be worried? she glided semi-gracefully off of the bin a few minutes after I put her on it.

My girl can fly I clipped her wing so she didn't disturb the neighbors but she's around 5-6 months.