The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[PattyO]

Has anyone bought from the Whitemore Farm in Maryland?

 

[EweSheep]

There are several in here that purchased birds from Whitmore Farms and most of them are positive.

 

[PattyO]

Excellent. I emailed him today. I can only have four more chickens legally and he said there was no minimum for on farm pickups. I cant wait to visit his farm.

 

[ksf59]

Quote:
Why is that Pink. I am completeing my CNY Hatch. My one line of wellies all hatch fisrt. All set the same day, same incubator, moved to hatcher at the same time. 1 line of wellies all hatched yesterday. other line and mixed eggs last night. Other line of wellies this morning and black copper hatching right now. Set the 13th. I have hatched about 30 of this line of wellies, same roo, most from 1 hen, some from hen 2 all hatch together at about a day befor eth Marans. The new line of wellies are the first from them, quite a bit darker egg. a full day later. I was thinking they were not going to hatch. all piped within about 45 minute of each other.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Why is that Pink. I am completeing my CNY Hatch. My one line of wellies all hatch fisrt. All set the same day, same incubator, moved to hatcher at the same time. 1 line of wellies all hatched yesterday. other line and mixed eggs last night. Other line of wellies this morning and black copper hatching right now. Set the 13th. I have hatched about 30 of this line of wellies, same roo, most from 1 hen, some from hen 2 all hatch together at about a day befor eth Marans. The new line of wellies are the first from them, quite a bit darker egg. a full day later. I was thinking they were not going to hatch. all piped within about 45 minute of each other.

ksf~

I do not know why this is.....perhaps they are just very eager to get here. My Wellies have always been the first to hatch out of any eggs I incubate, the Marans on the other hand for the last year have always been a day or 2 behind for the most part, but I have had some early Marans chicks hatch on day 19 a few times (before this last year the Marans hatched on time

) . One of my recent hatches in December, the last Marans to hatch.....hatched on DAY 27

Matter of fact, one hatched on day 23, one on day 25 and one on day 27, I thought that hatch was never going to end. Good thing I didn't pull the plug on the 'bator!

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
Why is that Pink. I am completeing my CNY Hatch. My one line of wellies all hatch fisrt. All set the same day, same incubator, moved to hatcher at the same time. 1 line of wellies all hatched yesterday. other line and mixed eggs last night. Other line of wellies this morning and black copper hatching right now. Set the 13th. I have hatched about 30 of this line of wellies, same roo, most from 1 hen, some from hen 2 all hatch together at about a day befor eth Marans. The new line of wellies are the first from them, quite a bit darker egg. a full day later. I was thinking they were not going to hatch. all piped within about 45 minute of each other.

ksf~

I do not know why this is.....perhaps they are just very eager to get here. My Wellies have always been the first to hatch out of any eggs I incubate, the Marans on the other hand for the last year have always been a day or 2 behind for the most part, but I have had some early Marans chicks hatch on day 19 a few times (before this last year the Marans hatched on time

) . One of my recent hatches in December, the last Marans to hatch.....hatched on DAY 27

Matter of fact, one hatched on day 23, one on day 25 and one on day 27, I thought that hatch was never going to end. Good thing I didn't pull the plug on the 'bator!

Our hatches have typically arrived on day 20, the only one that was a day or so after day 21 was the eggs we hatched from Nate, maybe it has to do with how the incubator is running and how steady it holds the temp.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
That's where my flock came from. I posted pictures of them a few pages back and I also sell hatching eggs and day-old chicks. I don't believe Whitmore Farm sells hatching eggs.

 

[NCSprout]

Quote:
yep i think your right, but fortunately we can still get chicks.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I have this cockeral from my pair of welsummers, Moose over Cleopatra. I just couldn't bring myself to send this one to the freezer, as I think he has potential. He's still really young (almost 20 weeks) and we were going to give him to a friend, but the friends girlfriend isn't too sure about having roosters, so they backed out on us for now. I have another friend that their rooster died, so they are thinking about taking him.

I'm using this time that I just have the pair to test hatch them together and see how their offspring come out. I have 2 pullets that hatched on New Years Day from this pair that I'm looking forward to seeing once they mature.

So I'm putting these pictures up so I can learn. Some negatives I see in him: He's a bit smaller than Moose was (but Moose is pretty big, so I have nothing else to compare to) but I think he's maturing a bit later than the other 2 that went to the freezer were. Also, he's got a very small amount of brown edging in a couple of his tail feathers. (toward the base of his tail) I'm not sure how much is allowed if any?

Some positives: He's got a nice solid black chest, does have a bit of red in his thigh area, but not too much. Nice 5 point comb.

So with all that said, whatcha think? Again, I'm not keeping him, but I would like to learn more about breeding and selecting.

Outside in natural light, his legs look more yellow in person:

He tried to hide from me, so I had to take this picture with a flash in the coop, but it shows his nice chest:

 

[PattyO]

To Ruth What kind of chickens laid those green eggs. Also who lays better the Maran or
Welsummer?