The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[jenniferlamar70]

I think there is a definite ability to "spoil" them into pets if they will let you. I also find that chickens in general are a monkey see monkey do kind of animal and if someone else is getting more stuff by allowing the pampering then they will too. I can see it in the faces of some of my young chickens the inner struggle between wanting to be friendly enough to get the treats and the instinct to run. I think some breeds are better at the taming thing than others but it all boils down to the individual bird. Love attention and FOOD tend to be the biggest influence.If there are older girls already used to the treatment the younger birds learn from them.

This I can completely agree with. I even see it with some chicks. For some reason my jubilee's are quite flighty no matter how much attention we give them. I guess only time will tell if they will be able to be tamed..

 

[katatonic123]

I get my wellie hen tomorrow!!!!

 

[microchick]

I have two Welsummer roosters, Chester and Bo. They are gorgeous boys and apart they are well mannered and well behaved, well, Chester is. Bo is another story. Together they are a handful and always in trouble. At the moment, Chester is the flock master. He was injured when he was about 5 months old by another pair of roosters that I no longer have and has a bad hock on the right leg. As a result, he walks with a bow legged limp at times which is how he got the name of Chester after the deputy sheriff on the old western, Gunsmoke. It's taken me about a year of working with Chester to get him to respect me and give me my space when I am in the run or coop. I still don't press my luck with him.

Bo is the exact opposite of Chester. I cannot turn my back on him as he will attack me from behind every chance he gets. I just healed up a spur wound from him on the back of my left calf because of one of his rear end attacks. If you keep facing him, no problem. Just don't turn your back and loose track of where he is because if you do you automatically have painted a bulls eye on your back. Right now he is in the bachelor pen and behaving himself.

Unfortunately when these two pretty boys are together they form an alliance and set out to terrorize every young cockerel in the flock. The only thing saving their feathered necks at the moment is that they are excellent flock masters, especially Chester. The hens adore him and he does an excellent job of watching over them as does Bo when he gets a turn as flock master. That makes me a little more tolerant of their lack of good behavior.

And as an FYI. Their bad behavior towards humans and other roosters began when they were a year old. From my experience, if you can get them past that year mark with out them doing the Jekyll/Hyde thing, you probably have a good roosters. Most of my rooster bad boy behaviors started when the cockerel turned a year old and experienced their first 'spring surge' of hormones. Three out of 4 were handfuls, the fourth, a Buff Orpington rooster, was just a doll. Loved humans, loved his hens and they loved him. He died two weeks ago.....figures that the sweetheart of my 4 cockerels would be the one to get sick and die.

Guess the Bug Guy in charge figured I needed a challenge.

 

[tomphot]

Here's IrisApfel - named for here eyeliner and V shaped shading @ 24 hours old.
Pics at 3 weeks old and 6 weeks old.

 

[ldawntaylor]

This journey of keeping chickens has taken another turn. I got 4 Welsummer chicks.

I thought I would share some updated photos. First are the 4 Welsummers along with my Olive Egger and Ameraucana. All of these birds are about 10 weeks old.



This next picture is of the young cockerel.



I believe the third picture is of a pullet.



I believe the following picture is of a pullet.



Well, I thought I had a picture of the fourth. In the top picture she is the one whose head is not showing at all. Between the Olive Egger and the Ameraucana.

Maybe next time the pictures won't be so blurry....

 

[jenniferlamar70]

I think one of the keys of the rooster rescue is there are no females. I find that can make a huge difference in behavior, as having hens to protect is the trigger for many roosters. All my roosters are fine with me as long as there are no girls, but I do pasture raise, so having protective flock roosters is key for me. I actually started out treating my roosters more like pets, and didn't realize the aggression in my one line until they were fully mature and protecting flocks. That is when I realized I needed to start selecting for both protectiveness of hens and tolerance of humans and giving them some distance and respecting them in their role as flock protector. I agree with you on differences in breeds, which is basically just a bigger step up from lines within breeds. My Ameraucana roosters are big babies and never show any aggression, even when fully mature. But one interesting difference is that they also are not great flock protectors.....they tend to help themselves to the food first, not be as watchful, don't alarm call near as often (we have lots of avian predators).......so I have come to the conclusion that there is likely a linkage between vigor as a flock protector and what we would call "aggression" from our human perspective.....and that is the balance that I am working towards with my Wellies. What I am having to back out of a bit is that I was developing a line with good protective roosters and high producing hens (5-6 eggs/week for much of the year) of dark eggs.....but my latest batch of cocks from that have turned up the notch a bit too much in the protective category and that was for birds raised both by myself and several other experienced poultry folks. So I am working on correcting that balance in my birds.

Yes I think the key is leaving out the females. It must be males only. Even in our world things get complicated when you throw in the ladies lmao..

 

[jenniferlamar70]

Oh my goodness my 3 week old welsummer rooster started crowing this morning. He is just so cute. I've had early crower but this tops the cake lol. They are such cute little crows though. He is also really developed for his age so I wonder if that has anything to do with it?

 

[Sylvester017]

I've perused this Welsummer thread (but not all 1000 pgs!) to find adult male pics to see if the white at the base of the tail is a DQ or not? I read someone's Welsummer site that said they are breeding to eliminate the white feathers at the base of the tail. I know Brown Leghorns have the white and that Welsummer have Leghorn breed history so why are some trying to get the white out of the Welsummer? To differentiate them from the Brown Leghorns? Just wondering. I personally like the bit of white as it traces back to the Red Jungle Fowl but that's just me. Thx for any reply.

 

[microchick]

Good question. One of my roosters has white (actually almost a very very pale blue) at the base of his tail and the other doesn't. The lady who bred both birds was at our house one day looking at the fine cockerels the boys had grown into and commented that the then cockerel without the whitish/blue feathers at the base of the tail was probably closer to the desired color than the other with the coloring was.

 

[BluebellUK]

I'm so glad I started reading through some of these posts! I'm getting two Welsummer hens next week to start my flock and reading they love bindweed is a godsend! My garden is suffering from the dreaded weed even if I dig out the roots I find it keeps coming back!

Can't wait for my girls to arrive