The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[Happy Chooks]

Rock-n-roo.......most of those chicks look like barnevelders. I don't have Partridge rocks, so not sure how they feather in, but the 2 with dark wing feathers might be Partridge rocks, not wellies.

Here's barnevelder chicks from a breeder (ignore the mottled java's in the picture):

Welsummer chicks, also from a breeder:

Pure barnevelders should not have a V on their head. If they do, they are likely crossed with welsummers.

 

[pinkchick]

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WoooooooWhooooooooot!!!!!!! Both at the same time.....I know what that is like, boy howdy they can be cranky. Are you going to put any eggs under them to see how they do?

I have my 14th broody this year right now (only 2 Welsummers went broody the rest have been Marans)......hoping I don't get anymore.

 

[Happy Chooks]

14 broodies? Wow.

I'm on number 1 broody. (an olive egger mix) I do think her sister is thinking about going broody.

 

[pinkchick]

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He is Barber lines....he is from a breeder in California. I used to have a few birds of the German line from Washington, but I was not happy with them...they were too small, I mean way to small. One girl never matured to weigh more than 4 pounds and she looked like a bantam, she was beautiful though. There's a photo of her floating around this thread somewhere. I rehomed all of those birds, which I never breed and stuck with my original Wellies.

 

[beesong]

Whoops! Guess I'd best change my info on the Welsummer club; I thought Pink's stock was from the Washington lines. I definitely want to be accurate!

 

[EweSheep]

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They ARE crossbred somewhere because the Welsummers chicks should not have a broken pattern similar to the Barnvelders and Barnies shoudl not have that stripe so obvious in color and the V's are strong. That is why I am NOT happy with those chicks' patterns. Sandhill may do a good job in "preserving" the breed but realistically he is NOT culling out inferiors or did not know what he is doing. He is NOT breeding for standard I can tell you that much but he is only interested in preserving the breed as it is even it may have been crossed somewhere in the background. Funny that he said he was going to provide pictures of his breeders on the website but never did because of the time constraints. Well if you don't have the time to cull your birds, then he should not be doing the business in "preserving" them. In MY book and MY opinion, he is another hatchery that rare breeds you buy from him, the work is starting on the person who wants to bring those chicks up to the standard and culling HARD left and right.

 

[EweSheep]

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Let me know what you need changed and I will change it for you! ;-)

 

[beesong]

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Let me know what you need changed and I will change it for you! ;-)

Thanks, EweSheep! I guess I just need to change the Erhard part to Barber lines and keep Pink's name the same?

 

[pinkchick]

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Let me know what you need changed and I will change it for you! ;-)

Thanks, EweSheep! I guess I just need to change the Erhard part to Barber lines and keep Pink's name the same?

My birds originated from elderly gentleman named Willie in Oregon, who had been breeding chickens for a very long time and purchased his Wellies from Lowell Barber. I purchased his entire flock of Welsummers as he was sick and selling his farm, fact I purchased 3 breeds from him, but stuck with the Wellies. Wonderful man and I miss him.....when I would travel to central Oregon to see my sister I would go visit Willie...what a wealth of info he was. I should have walked around with a recorder when he was talking.....so many wonderful useful ol' time "how to" facts that I could not possibly ever recall to use from my feeble mind today.
I was not happy with the male that I had from Willie (he threw feather stubs....which I am still fighting on a very rare occassion). My friend who is a truck driver and had a dedicated run to and from California agreed to pick up 4-4 week old cockerels for me on one of his trips back home. At 4 weeks of age Odin was already the biggest boy in the bunch...he definitely did not have the best comb out of the 4 of them...it was his size that drew me in. I kept 2, Odin and his brother Ve, the other 2 boys I gave to my best friend. Ve was killed at 6 mos. old in a pitbull attack along with all of my females, except 1 and Odin. I rebuilt my flock from Odin and the one surviving female from my original birds from Willie.

I did purchase hatching eggs from Erhard and those were the birds that I did not care for. No offense to Erhard whatsoever....they were just too small for my taste.

 

[pinkchick]

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"Berry tweet" as my 2 and a 1/2 year old step granddaughter would say!!!!!!!!!!!