The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[EweSheep]

HUH? Cat got your tongue????

 

[Hozer]

Sorry, I left the page open on the computer at work and someone jumped in while I was out. Some kids never grow up.

 

[CANDLE98]

Quote:
ha ha ha that is sooo funny!

Anywho,
i just lost a hen to a racoon last month....stupid racoon, but my husband shot it in the head! Only after it killed 10 chickens.... so i am down to 1 hen and 2 roos. i have one roo that cares nothing about anything but treats and i have one roo that chases my kids around. i am thinking about giving him away to the mexican neighbors (not being rude, they are mexican and super nice, but they just don't speak a lot of english) i figure they can eat him if they want. I had a silkie roo (also eaten by the coon) but my daughter whacked him with a tennis raquet and he left her alone, so maybe we can do the same with him? I dunno. but i am sooo going to get some more of these birds, the are beautiful! i think i am going to be making a HUGE order this spring from ideal. i would buy eggs but i just don't want any more roos.

okay sorry rambling

 

[Hozer]

Quote:
Actually, I think that you have the same amount of Maran eggs as Wellies in the pictures. The Wellie eggs have a reddish brown color completely through their shell, fairly uniform with some variation or slight speckling allowed, which also carries through the shell. The Marans eggs are a nice brown color egg, uniform in color, with a layer of dark chocolate colored coating on the top that can be scratched off. On the best Marans eggs the color will cover the entire shell but on most of what you find in the US they are largely speckled.

I was under the impression that, in the case of both breeds, the darker brown is a pigment outer layer that is "sprayed" on a basic brown egg. I have read here in the case of both breeds it can be rubbed or scrubbed off, which seems to be the case with all of my eggs so far. I was also under the impression that Welsummer eggs have a greater ocurrence of speckling. I'm not trying to be contrary, just a little confused. Maybe someone more experienced than I can clear things up.

Aslo, I no longer get any of the lighter eggs. I am assuming her "ink jets" kicked in.

 

[Hozer]

Quote:
I should probably be grateful they edited out any obscenities. I'm writing from the oil field above the Arctic Circle here...and a pretty coarse crowd.

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
I should probably be grateful they edited out any obscenities. I'm writing from the oil field above the Arctic Circle here...and a pretty coarse crowd.

 

[Hozer]

Quote:
ha ha ha that is sooo funny!

Anywho,
i just lost a hen to a racoon last month....stupid racoon, but my husband shot it in the head! Only after it killed 10 chickens.... so i am down to 1 hen and 2 roos. i have one roo that cares nothing about anything but treats and i have one roo that chases my kids around. i am thinking about giving him away to the mexican neighbors (not being rude, they are mexican and super nice, but they just don't speak a lot of english) i figure they can eat him if they want. I had a silkie roo (also eaten by the coon) but my daughter whacked him with a tennis raquet and he left her alone, so maybe we can do the same with him? I dunno. but i am sooo going to get some more of these birds, the are beautiful! i think i am going to be making a HUGE order this spring from ideal. i would buy eggs but i just don't want any more roos.

okay sorry rambling

So sorry to hear about your raccoon problems. I just wanted to chime in on the hatchery vs. breeder birds. I know of 2 people up here that have had Welsummers and gave them away because they were so flighty. They said they would never own them again. I am assuming they were hatchery birds. I got mine from a private breeder and have found if anything they are friendly and vigorous to the point of being rowdy. They are anything but flighty. The downside to getting them from breeders is you will probably get straight run which means approximately 50% roosters.

 

[EweSheep]

Oh yeah, Hozer, you are right about that! Sometimes you end up having more than 50 percent roos! Probably closer to 80% for me.

 

[Hozer]

I had beginners luck...out of 16 Welsummer chicks I got 10 hens.

I got 30 chicks total and didn't lose a one. My buddy, who has always gotten hatchery stock, was amazed I didn't lose any. I'm not bragging, it's a tribute to the vigor of private breeders stuff. I'm glad I went that route my first time. As far as extra roosters...that's why they invented crock pots (and dumplings).

 

[Tailfeathers]

Quote:
Actually that is not true. The Welsummer color is also "painted" on and it will wash off too at times. There are only two true colored eggs - white & blue. From the picture of your eggs, the eggs at 1100, 1700, and 1900 are Welsummer eggs. The eggs at 1300, 1500, and 2100 are too hard to tell from the pic but my gyess is that they are Marans although I have seen Welsummer eggs that dark.

Btw, the lighter, speckled eggs are typical of first time layers and sometimes even hens that undergo some sort of stress such as extreme hot weather. They are also representative of the eggs you will likely see more often coming from hatcheries than from those of us who have been breeding them for awhile and working on egg color as part of the breeding program.

God Bless,