Welsummers and Lowell Barber **Updated Pics of Chicks**

[Chickndaddy]

The line I had were from Lowell Barber's birds. I may be completely off base but I believe he had Barnevelders too. Of course that has been years ago and I could be getting that bit mixed up. Here are some pics of Wellies from his line.

Welsummers are gorgeous birds. Good luck with the babies.

 

[halo]

So correct me if Im wrong. Everyone says that hatchery Welsummers are basically crap, and I have no problem with that, they are just breeding a flock of birds to make chicks. But if the original Welsummers were imported by Lowell Barber, then wouldnt it make sense that hatchery birds also came from the original imported birds? So arent' basically everyones Welsummers from the same stock? If so, what you do with them from that point is your own breeding.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

I think that is the concern with hatchery stock in general. They are trying to produce the most chicks possible for the cheapest price, or are trying to please customers who want pretty (but not necessarily APA SOP) chickens that lay a lot of eggs for the cost of feed. Doing this they are are possibly not culling as much as they could. They are possibily not putting much effort into matching roo to hen to hopefully more closely approach APA SOP, etc.

As others have said, hatcheries have their place.

Also stated elsewhere, it is as easy to enjoy the personality, appearance and eggs of an APA SOP bird as it is a non-APA SOP bird. so if you can only have a few birds, why not go for the best?

 

[Chickndaddy]

I agree. Even with the two roosters pictured above you see two different colors in the hackles. Honestly I'm not sure what the APA SOP calls for. The darker or lighter. I rotated them forever until I had too many hens. Then I moved Willy the lighter roo onto a bred pen with 8 hens or so and added to young (and I mean young) roos onto the larger pen with Wiley the darker rooster to help him cover the hens.

Occasionally you hear about Welsummers with a few feathers on their shanks or this and that. And like any other breed can have off-type combs or wattles. Breeders take the best (or at least should) and breed them to make more excellent birds. Hatcheries generally are just trying to breed as many birds as possible, quantity over quality. Hatcheries may make outcrosses to other breeds as well to improve size or egg-laying ability in order to turn more of a profit.

So while the original birds were probably very similar, the two strains now are probably quite distinct.

 

[Misty Oak Ranch]

I've got my chicks on my front porch right now. Instead of getting 2 cockerals and 3 pullets, she showed me that they are 1 cockeral and 4 pullets!!! I'll try and find my camera to upload some pics. They are 3 weeks old, nearly fully feathered and very active. Knats keep flitting in the tote they are in and they swoop down on them.

 

[josh44]

Here's My welsummer Roo.

 

[halo]

Quote:
Thats exactly my point. Everyone with Welsummers can say they are from Barber lines, whether a private breeder or a huge hatchery. So it really means nothing to say that.

 

[Misty Oak Ranch]

I wouldn't agree with that. People that have maintained the ORIGINAL bloodlines by selectivly breeding Welsummers have maintained the birds that were brought in, and they maintain the same criteria that Barber and others like him held them too. I've got these 5 chicks, and I've got 3 NHR pullets that are 2.5 months old, and at three weeks these new chicks are about half the size already, and they are way more active and alert than any chicks I've raised. The vigor and selectiveness of the breeder is showing well in these chicks. I'm glad that I have these chicks rather than hatchery chicks, no way they could come close to these. Tomorrow I'm going to put them in a medium sized tractor and let them start ranging in grass like they are trying to do right now in the shavings. They sucked up the 6 big nightcrawlers I dropped in there, and ate a ton of knats that happened in there. I'm in amazement at the preformance of these chicks.

 

[big-island-chickens]

Aloha!

Does anyone know of a breeder on the Big Island (Hawaii) or neighboring? I would truly love to add welsummers (and ameraucanas) to my flock of free range RIR. I'm fairly new to the chicken world (17 weeks) but have been reading lots of posts and google information and it appears if I want real terracotta eggs I need to purchase from a breeder.

Thank you for any information!

 

[EweSheep]

YOu can see on the Welsummer thread or visit the Yahoo groups or the WCNA website for what you are looking for. Your best bet is to get some hatching eggs or chicks from the west coast.

It is posted in the Welsummer thread in here.

http://wcna.webs.com/

No we do not have any Hawaiian Welsummer breeders yet but you could be the first!