Right now I have 5 Del roos, 4 mos. olde, only one of who I intend to keep, and that's debatable. I also have a Del chick roo and maybe another. Seems Dels don't produce many hens around here. I also have two bantam Frizzle/Del chicks and expect maybe two more to be born soon.
I have scheduled the four older birds to be processed at the end of August, but I really don't want to feed them til then nor do I like the looks of them. In fact none of the birds from the hatch look very nice. Perhaps they will get better looking when they are older?
The thing is I was going to offer them, for free, to a contact who I gave 6 hens that had been pecked but just took to long to grow their feathers back. They were laying but I just got too stressed looking at them.
I can't process them myself, not to mention they don't look very promising for meat. I think producing Delawares to the original standard and purpose is a long way off even for Whitmore farms.
So what do you think? Should I keep them to see if they fatten up or give them away?
I have no seperate place for roosters to be penned up. They are starting to mate and crow.
Thanks for your advice
Rancher
I have scheduled the four older birds to be processed at the end of August, but I really don't want to feed them til then nor do I like the looks of them. In fact none of the birds from the hatch look very nice. Perhaps they will get better looking when they are older?
The thing is I was going to offer them, for free, to a contact who I gave 6 hens that had been pecked but just took to long to grow their feathers back. They were laying but I just got too stressed looking at them.
I can't process them myself, not to mention they don't look very promising for meat. I think producing Delawares to the original standard and purpose is a long way off even for Whitmore farms.
So what do you think? Should I keep them to see if they fatten up or give them away?
I have no seperate place for roosters to be penned up. They are starting to mate and crow.
Thanks for your advice
Rancher