White Welsummers

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:08 am

My guess is.... two pullets, the rest are boys.

Post by **WLLady** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:13 am

: welsummer chicks.jpg (9.79 KiB) Viewed 3557 times

Soooooo these are not quite show quality, but true breeding welsummer chicks.....tthere are 4 in the photo, the bottom one is a girl, and the one on the left is a boy. the top right head is a boy, while the other one the head is hidden, but is probably a girl given the depth of colour in the dorsal stripe on the back. but compare the triangles on the bottom bird and the left hand bird...the bottom has distinct straight edges on the triangle, and the left bird has "wiggly" edges. There's virtually no eyeliner on the one on the left....unfortunately this photo doesn't show the eyeliner on the girl very well, you can just see a hint of it on her right side of her head.

I think your welsummer must be mixed. i have welbar chicks with that sheen, and they come in much much lighter-and they are gold welbar. you can see one male with a broken dark line in the top left corner of the box, with the lighter head dot around the broken line (these are still a project in the works) and a girl at the bottom of the photo with a much heavier stripe. These are a mix of barred rock and welsummer (more involved than a simple cross, but they carry the barring gene so they are lighter in colour and girls are darker and boys have head dot and lighter).

but yours look like they're carrying silver....not gold....or a mix of silver and gold giving them that silvery sheen...more like these guys (silver welbars-again project birds, not completely ready/pure yet)

bottom left corner is a girl. looks like i'll be overflowing in boys again on this line....
so i really think somewhere your chicks are throwing silver.....maybe a "rogue" dad got in there, or a recessive coming out....do you have photos of the parents? actually, you may have a line that has some mahogany in it....that also does funky things to chick down....if you have the parents you can photograph, the telling part is the breast of the females....if they carry mahogany the breast will be reddish instead of salmon, that could do that to the chick down as well.....

heyden · Post by **heyden** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:49 pm

what two of those chick look like now.

heyden · Post by **heyden** » Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:51 pm

others look like welsummers should

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 2:03 am

Interesting colour.

Post by **WLLady** » Wed Jun 22, 2016 2:50 pm

They look like they might feather out with a lot of mahogany.....interesting.

heyden · Post by **heyden** » Thu Jun 23, 2016 10:47 pm

I looked at the hens breast colouring 3-4 have darker colouring and not the salmon colour. Now I pulled the 2 roosters a put in a new old rooster. DO I cull all off coloured hens or do I have a new project with these off coloured welsummers....

Robbie · Post by **Robbie** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:57 am

Well, if you are positive they are pure welsummers,,,,,,,,,, go for it! Even if they were delaware welsummer oopsies they would probably make fantastic hybrid layers........... something I'd be tempted to do on purpose myself!

Post by **WLLady** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 3:52 pm

i would love to see how they feather out in the end. if they are salmon breasted and mahogany might be a nice project with some very very pretty birds.

heyden · Post by **heyden** » Fri Jun 24, 2016 9:28 pm

everything was pure.. at least thats what i bought last year. Woman i bought the original 4 pullets from is where the off colours likely came from. And are now showing up in their grandchick's.