Welsummers

[sephiroth]

Okay, so I like Welsummers -- their size, their beauty, their personality, their foraging ability.

The question is how important is the egg? Which has priority dark color or high productivity? Are the two mutually exclusive? I know generally Welsummers don't produce like a RIR. Do I really care if the egg isn't dark enough if there is an egg every day?

Please discuss.

 

[lauralou]

To me, the darkness of the egg is more important than the number of eggs laid. This is easy for me to say because I have plenty of other hens to provide eggs for me. Generally speaking, I would prefer a hen that laid 3 knock-your-socks-off dark eggs per week to a hen that laid 6 speckled eggs per week.

Not there's anything wrong with speckled eggs! In fact, I think they are adorable. Festive even. I just hatched some, and I chose the particular eggs that I bought from a larger container of eggs. I chose some that were uniformly dark, and some that were speckled. My thought was that I would have a more varied egg basket that way. We'll see what happens with that once my girls start laying.

As far as the dark egg/rate of lay thing goes, I don't have any experience to back this up, but it would seem that a hen that laid fewer eggs would tend to lay darker eggs. I've heard others with more experience say that it was so. Kinda makes sense to me. I'd love to hear what everyone has to say about this.

Do you care if the egg isn't dark enough if there is an egg every day? Well, I'd say that depends on whether or not your egg eating needs are being met. Mine are, with or without my Welsummers. If the egg was just not very dark in general, I'd be disappointed all around. I have a Buff Orp and a Red Sex Link who both lay a nice dark brown egg. If my Welsummers can't do any better than that, they will probably need to find new homes! Speckled eggs are acceptable to me though, because they make me giggle.

So, for me, speckled eggs are fun and are perfectly acceptable. Uniformly dark eggs are preferred. And eggs that don't look much different from a regular darker brown egg from another breed of chicken would be a major disappointment.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Definitely egg color! And I get both beauty and production from my hatchery birds. Some have a lighter egg and some have just as dark as the well bred girls. My better bred birds give me great color but not as good of production but still not too shabby. I'm am working for both in my flocks but it is an on going project.

 

[gamebirdsonly]

Color!

 

[BlackBart]

I just bought some Welsummer chicks and the breeder told me she spent years, and bought birds from different strains and countries to make Welsummers that would lay the classic terracotta brown egg and still keep to the breed standard.

She felt that Welsummers from the big hatcheries were of poor quality.

 

[L&Schickens]

I show Welsummers so the over all bird is important to me including feather color, leg color and comb shape size and color. Egg color is also important to me, but if I had a champion hen (wich I do ) that laied a light colored egg I would still keep her. Fortunatly for me, mine lay a dark egg AND are champions! Lucky me.

 

[EweSheep]

I agree with Bart and L&S.

I think it all boils down to egg color is the most important. The "real" Welsummer may not be up to par like the hatchery bred ones but neverthanless, disposition, temperment, color, rapport with humans are all important!

IMO, do not get any hatchery bred Welsummers, sometimes its the luck of the draw not getting the true terra cotta egg you been wanting.

 

[Wynette]

I think it all depends on what you're doing. If you're going to be showing, then look at the APA standards and abide by them. If you just enjoy the looks of the breed, choose for layability. I personally prefer a nice, dark egg. but, that's just me!

 

[TimG]

Quote:
Good question: do you care? I don't think anyone can answer that question for you.

 

[Tailfeathers]

I think Lauraloo probably covered it the best.

I too breed and show Welsummers so getting as close to the SOP as possible is the most important to me - however, not at the expense of egg color or production. I do not believe they are mutually exclusive.

As most on here who have followed any of my posts regarding Welsummers, I got my original Welsummers from one of the five original breeders and am acquiring birds from at least one, if not two, of the remaining four breeders. One of the things that attracted me to the Welsummer was the egg color.

If one is most interested in production, you might as well go with a Leghorn (they "look" pretty close to a Welsummer) or at the very least a breed known for being an egg producer and not a dual-purpose breed like the Welsummer.

As for speckled vs. uniformly colored, I too prefer the "smooth" look of the uniformly colored egg. Whether or not one can breed specifically for one over the other, I haven't decided yet. I think one can probably lean towards giving more attention to one over the other but I'm not sure that one can ever totally eradicate speckled eggs. The reason I say this is because I have had pullets and hens that lay an absolutely gorgeous, dark, reddish-brown, uniformly colored egg and then all of the sudden throw a speckled egg for awhile.

I am still in the process of figuring out exactly what the causes of that are but at this point I believe things like diet changes, heat, lack of water, stress and other environmental issues are likely the causitive factors. Also, we all know that the brown is "spray painted" on the egg. Like any spray gun, I think the "jets" get clogged every now and then, and that results in the large speckles that sometime occur. I have noticed that the speckled eggs are always more lightly colored than the dark, uniformly colored eggs.

I agree with you Lauraloo in that the hen that tends to lay the fewer eggs will tend to lay a darker egg. The biology of that is common sense. However, that being said, there does come a point where too much of a delay is not economical. At least for me, a chicken must pay for itself in room and board.

I would agree with BlackBart that, generally speaking, the hatchery Welsummers tend to lay a poor quality colored egg. I think this is a natural consequence of the focus on producing as many chicks for sale as possible over producing quality chicks where concentration and focus is given to certain characteristics and genetic traits.

All in all, I think most would agree that one of the most appealing characteristics of the Welsummer is the nice, darker than most (but certainly not THE darkest) reddish-brown egg. I think if you were to ask the same question about an Ameraucana (a true one) or a Marans, you would likely get the same response.

Interesting discussion. I enjoyed reading everyone's responses.

God Bless,