The Welsummer Thread!!!!

[John farmer]

This is our first year with them, we have 6 hens and rooster in our breeding pens and 30 or so chicks in the brooder plus 40 egg's in the bator.

We only had 7 breeds so we thought we should have another, great birds wonderful color.

 

[indianawelsumm]

we have 11 pullets and 5 cockerals. Any input as to picking the best ones to keep?? I want to get down to two roosters and want to keep the best ones so any help will be apreciated.

 

[stoopid]

Pictures!

we have 11 pullets and 5 cockerals. Any input as to picking the best ones to keep?? I want to get down to two roosters and want to keep the best ones so any help will be apreciated.

 

[Happy Chooks]

we have 11 pullets and 5 cockerals. Any input as to picking the best ones to keep?? I want to get down to two roosters and want to keep the best ones so any help will be apreciated.

How old are they? Early on, you can weed out any obvious flaws, like wrong leg color or feather stubs (which are a big no no). You can also look for chest coloring (no more than 20% red in it), gray fluff at the base of the tail (you want as little as possible). But for body type it's best to wait until they are about 9 months old. Also, their temperament should be a big consideration too.

 

[indianawelsumm]

They are 5 months old and came from a breader so they are good stock. A couple have larger combs than the other ones I think all have five points to the comb. As far as pictures if I can figure out how to post them from my phone I will try. If anyone is close you are welcome to come look at them and help me out.

 

[Hens and Roos]

How old are they? Early on, you can weed out any obvious flaws, like wrong leg color or feather stubs (which are a big no no). You can also look for chest coloring (no more than 20% red in it), gray fluff at the base of the tail (you want as little as possible). But for body type it's best to wait until they are about 9 months old. Also, their temperament should be a big consideration too.

We had a chick at 4 weeks old that was very mean towards all the other chicks- he picked on one to the point of pulling fuzz/feathers out of it's neck area- at 8 weeks that patch is still missing. We removed the mean one.

 

[faykokoWV]

They are 5 months old and came from a breader so they are good stock. A couple have larger combs than the other ones I think all have five points to the comb. As far as pictures if I can figure out how to post them from my phone I will try. If anyone is close you are welcome to come look at them and help me out.

Pictures for critique are great for all of us, I'd love to see some pictures of your birds. It so helpful when the experts can point out to us what traits to look for on actual birds!!!

 

[vanalpaca]

The incubator is FIXED!! To replace the thermostat switch, instead of soldering, we used a wire nut clamp thingy. So nice when hubby feels good enough to help me out!!

So, naturally, I set 39 Welsummer eggs. I decided to ONLY set the ones that had spots. Even if they were terra cotta, if it was more like a solid clay colored egg and didn't have SPOTS I didn't set them. About 6 of them are dark as Marans eggs, and the rest are all really fine spots and darker than a flower pot.

So there are 3 Wellie Roos, the 'Blonde Chick Hen', 15 Welsummer Hens from last years chicks and hatching eggs, and a PAIR of White Silkies, same age. Hoping the Silkie did NOT get any of these eggs with his roo juice. But if they come up with Silkie traits we will know. All culls will be sold as 'brown egg layers' and not identified as Welsummers. I have not yet divided up the hens to separate nestboxes/cages to see who lays which color egg. I figure I need to get me some of those #7 numbered bands first so I can keep good records.

This is the test run of the incubator this year. Day 21 I will be away all day at a Fiber Fair trying to sell alpaca fleece. I guess that is a good thing.

I'll go over to the hatch along thread and post over there. Bator is at 101.5. Did not add any water for humidity at this time. Need to pick up a humidity meter for inside the bator later today.

Any suggestions on humidity for the strongest most successful hatch? It's a smaller cabinet bator with 2 fans and 2 100 watt bulbs at the top and I set the darker eggs on the middle shelf and the lighter ones on the bottom shelf. They are on egg turners and I will shut those off on day 18.

I set the eggs at 4 pm today, so tomorrow at 4 pm is the end of Day 1?? That right folks?

 

[Opa]

Hope all goes well with your hatch. I don't have any fertile eggs and won't be returning the welsummers to their enclosure for another couple of weeks. Once I have fertile eggs I think I will also be setting only the dark spotted eggs.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I don't worry about humidity the first 18 days. I add some water to my incubator, but I don't measure the humidity. Then at lockdown, I get the humidity to 60-65%. Haven't had any glued in chicks since I've done it this way and every viable egg hatches.

Got eggs in my bator too.

Almost done collecting for Kim, so she can have a wellie boy again.