The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[Beer can]

Seven months! She should be laying!
Actually I'm still waiting. I think mine are between 18 and 20 weeks. The plan was three of each Welsummers, Brown Leghorns, and EEgrs, and I ordered two Wellie roos and planed on keeping the best one. Cool mix of colors of eggs for the kids to help with. I also bought a mix of ten "Leanns adopt me bargain" of mystery chicks. Ended up with a third Wellie roo, two didn't look sop, the one that did I kept for breeding, luckily he was also the boss, even with the other two weelie roos (they were bigger but not as colorful), two polish roos, a white leghorn, a huge RIR, and two huge white cochins. Out of the 'mystery chicks' I also kept a bantam EEgr pullet and a puffy headed golden laced polish pullet that my kids fell in love with. I lost two of my wellies (one to a injury and one to a racoon?) and am down to one, but of the three, she is the only one that had yellow neck feathers like they are supposed to. The other two had reddish neck feathers. The plan was to keep the darkest eggs out of the wellies and the blue eggs out of the EEgrs (for olive eggers) for hatching. I'm hoping the wellie I have left lays a dark egg.

Kick that hen in the butt and tell her to earn her keep! Good luck and happy egg collecting!

 

[maddogdodge]

My wellies are 22 weeks old in 3 days... still no eggs... waiting... waiting... gosh its hard! I can't wait to see what their eggs look like

 

[HanwellChickens]

My wellies are 22 weeks old in 3 days... still no eggs... waiting... waiting... gosh its hard! I can't wait to see what their eggs look like

My wellies are 22 weeks 1 day old and I'm still waiting too. I can not wait until I receive their beautiful eggs

 

[TheGeekySheep]

I hatched out two Wellie pullets in July, they're already looking so grown up at 13 weeks but I'm going to just forget they're even supposed to lay eggs and let it be a nice surprise.

My first batch of chicks, Ameraucanas, took 35 WEEKS to lay their first egg. It only happened in the dead of winter when I had just given up on them laying anything before Spring. It's like watching a toaster.

 

[sssharon]

Well Geeky sheep, that makes me feel a lot better. I'm on week 30 with a couple of mine so at least I'm not the only one.

 

[sssharon]

Beer can, A yellow neck, is that a characteristic of Wellies. Does that mean that they aren't actually Wellies or are a mix? Can't always trust people when you buy even when they seem very sincere.

 

[soroco]

BrandyJK I live ln Van Buren Co. and am about to buy a few Welsummer eggs locally. Would you please PM me with the name of the Breeder you recieved yours from? If they sold the chickens you have as pure breed Welsummer while they good looking.I don't think they are pure breeds Thank you for the heads up. Please PM the name do not want to hurt anyones rep. just don't wan tto pay for pure breed and get crosses

 

[BrandyJK]

BrandyJK  I live ln Van Buren Co. and am about to buy a few Welsummer eggs locally.  Would you please PM me with the name of the Breeder you recieved yours from?   If they sold the chickens you have as pure breed Welsummer while they good looking.I don't think they are pure breeds  Thank you for the heads up.  Please PM the name do not want to hurt anyones rep. just don't wan tto pay for pure breed and get crosses

Sent you a pm. Sold all my loped comb pullets. He is very reputable welsummer breeder. I think maybe he has a couple of girls with off combs.

 

[Beer can]

Beer can, A yellow neck, is that a characteristic of Wellies. Does that mean that they aren't actually Wellies or are a mix? Can't always trust people when you buy even when they seem very sincere.

Great article on Wellies. chickenaddictsanonymous.weebly.com/welsummer.html
And I don't know if you can say just because they don't meet Standard Of Perfection that they are mix bred, or just not bred right. Hatcheries breed for numbers, not SOP. Even so I ended up with one pullet out of three that looks to me SOP, and one roo out of three from a hatchery. I'll breed them two and see what happens.

 

[Beer can]

I tried to post that article as a link, but if you look it up it shows pics of hatchery wellies compared to SOP breeder ones. It also explains how to pick your breeder if you want to buy SOP, it says to ask the breeder what faults they might have in thier flock, and if they have none don't go with them, they all have faults. Remember, welies were origanaly a mix breed bird, just like many dogs or other animals. Case in point a Boxer dog was origanaly bred from mastiffs, bulldog and a little terrier, so you can expect some of the traits from the original breeds to pop up, like a severe underbite from the bulldog blood, a good breeder will not use such a dog for breeding. The same with chicken breeders, if they are not SOP, they shouldn't use them for breeding. Hatcherys don't do this because they are hatching out eggs for numbers to fill orders. I already have hatchery welies, and just plan on breeding them towards SOP, I will use any that don't fit the standerd for soup, and hopefully will end up with good breeding stock. We will see what happens, if not, I don't plan on showing them anyways.