The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[EweSheep]

Once in a while you get some pretty ones, even for Welsummer crosses, like yours, MsBear!

I really like the comb on the second hen you pictured, nicely put together. If she would have lighten up her black pencilings on her neck feathers, she would have been goreous. I think she is lovely anyway such assorted egg laying flock! Glad your father enjoyed them!

 

[vanalpaca]

Quote:
Interesting history on these birds. They are very pretty and I think they may be useful in a self-sufficient setting since they produce a LARGE egg and they are wider of breast yielding more meat for dual purpose. I'm not sure about SPURS on hens, but if it keeps them alive and away from predators (unless it's ME of course) that only helps.

The whole problem around the Wellie standard is that they are a NEWER bird to the standard, still fairly rare in NUMBERS of flocks in the US, and still need a lot of work and culling to get flocks that produce higher percentages of offspring to the standard.

I am still learning. Looks like a Wellie to my inexperienced eyes. Appears to have a high percentage of the correct feathering, too. (A lot better than that solid brown with shaft color own produced out of my hatchery to breeder to breeder to me stock that was SUPPOSED to be Welsummers.) At least these hens have proper coloring.

Cheers all and KEEP POSTING WELLIE PHOTOS!!
Bonnie

 

[Msbear]

Quote:
And, if I showed her, (and she didn't have spurs

) any certified American Poultry Association judge would give her a number just like the rest of the "pure" wellies. It wouldn't be a high one but, it would be one. If she were considered another breed or a mix, they would state that on her card neglecting to rank her among the rest. ....so... it doesn't matter how inexperienced your eyes are ... they are what they are... that's my point.

If I never mentioned their history, I am positive we would be having a totally different conversation.

If you want PURE welsummers, then breed "Rhode Island Reds, Barnevelders, Partridge Leghorns, Cochins, and Wyandottes" all together and you'll have them -from wikipedia


...eta: now that I recall, the faverolle had feathered feet and was a cochin cross... maybe Im the one with the purest of the pure

 

[Happy Chooks]

I still can't get over you guys saying welsummers are narrow in the chest. Mine aren't narrow.

Moose has a nice wide, thick chest. (and frame) I wouldn't consider my hens narrow either. (well, the pullets are, but they're still growing)

 

[vanalpaca]

Happy Chooks,

My adult birds are the only thing I have to judge off of and that was this spring and they were Light Sussex and Wyandotte, which are very large and broad birds. The sussex can't get into a 12x12 nestbox, but did fine in an apple crate or the 20 gallon round tub/tote on it's side......The other was a Barneveldar and she was considerably narrower than those two large dual purpose birds. And Wellies have a lot of Barnie in them, correct?

Barred Rocks are considerable wider than Barnies?? So MsBear's birds in the photo are appearing to me to be broader of chest than my Barnie was........

The 'teens are from eggs purchased here on BYC in late March and hatched out in April. So they are at least 12 weeks old now and they are a scrawny little handful with no meat on them, just bones and feathers. I don't know at what age Wellies start packing on muscle or broadening. But the 'teens are mostly mixed lines and while there is some good lines mixed in and the lines were closed flocks......I have off color going on in the feathering with black heads and solid brown hen and then there was that blonde chick that grew up into a red roo.

So, yeah, I'm under the impression that the Wellie is a medium sized bird that is not overly broad of chest?

I've got another year of growing out these birds before I will be hands on with adult wellies and know for myself their true size. I saw Opa's and Harolds, but it just isn't the same as being hands on in your own flock on a daily basis.

(I hate the waiting game.....)

At least MsBear's 'Welllies' don't have feathers on their yellow legs...........nice chipmunk stripe chicks, no blonde chicks..........probably looking as good as most of our flocks of Wellies, especially if folks aren't culling hard enough? We all breed to a different purpose, while trying to reproduce to the standard (after we learn the standard of course). And we are all here on this thread trying to do just that. First I have to get pullets, then grow them out into egg layers, put them with a roo, and start hatching chicks out to see what I REALLY have in this Wellie flock.

And their is the fact that they have been line bred over the last 6 years back to the full Wellie roo? So they have to be a higher percentage of Wellie by now??

How many generations would be produced in 6 years and since they were always bred back to a Wellie, what percentage of Rock would be left in them?

Now I am going out to reread Wellie history and see just what birds went into them and into Barred Rocks.............I REALLY don't want to clean out the garage today for Saturday's garage/yard sale!!!!!!

Cheers,
Bonnie

 

[Happy Chooks]

My barnevelders aren't fully grown yet, but they are much smaller than the wellies that are the same age. Barnevelders are a more medium sized bird. My welsummer hens are certainly smaller than my BR hen - I don't have a BR rooster to compare with.

 

[McSpin]

Quote:
All digital photos are tampered with. The camera only takes in light that is interpreted by the hardware and software of the camera maker. The engineers of the camera maker do the tampering for you. They design into the camera a look that they want the photos to take on and in most cameras, the default setting puts out a super saturated, over contrasted photo. They do this on purpose because the average snap shooter likes this overblown color and tend to be impressed with cameras that do this off the shelf. In reality almost all digital cameras can be adjusted for any level of color, brightness and contrast to make the photo coming out, look just about anyway it pleases you. Just don't mistake any of this for reality - it isn't. Sometimes a photo comes close and sometimes it's off by a mile.

Every photo you've ever seen is only an interpretation based on the desires of that camera manufacturer, or the photographer if they are manipulating the final image. I don't even want to get into your monitor's interpretation of color - that's an even bigger money-wrench in the appearance of photos on the web.

 

[Msbear]

wow... well, comparing that image to what I see with my own eyes, it's the same... I tried to show what the bird actually looks like and I feel that was an accurate account.

 

[tazcat70]

Quote:
All digital photos are tampered with. The camera only takes in light that is interpreted by the hardware and software of the camera maker. The engineers of the camera maker do the tampering for you. They design into the camera a look that they want the photos to take on and in most cameras, the default setting puts out a super saturated, over contrasted photo. They do this on purpose because the average snap shooter likes this overblown color and tend to be impressed with cameras that do this off the shelf. In reality almost all digital cameras can be adjusted for any level of color, brightness and contrast to make the photo coming out, look just about anyway it pleases you. Just don't mistake any of this for reality - it isn't. Sometimes a photo comes close and sometimes it's off by a mile.

Every photo you've ever seen is only an interpretation based on the desires of that camera manufacturer, or the photographer if they are manipulating the final image. I don't even want to get into your monitor's interpretation of color - that's an even bigger money-wrench in the appearance of photos on the web.

I can see that. When searching for a camera I went to lots of comparison sites that took identical pics at the same settings and chose my camera based on which one I liked better.

As for pure breeds, honestly some of my favorites aren't. I think the only time it plays in is in the honesty part of selling your birds. I went to our state fair a few years ago. A lady entered her EE's as Ameraucanas and Araucanas. She was the only entry. She then started selling her eggs on craigslist as first place show stock.

 

[enggass]

Is this my camera or my eyes that need fixing?