Homestead mailing list

["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 7:34 AM, Robert Walton <waltonrp AT gmail.com> wrote:
> Has anyone kept Delaware chickens? I'm interested in whether they are
> reliable layers.

If you get them, let us know. The last chickens I had were sex-linked
(golden comets). The females lay really well, and the males grow
really fast. I kept them on free range with a little grain in the
evening so they'd go in, so I could lock them away from the coons,
owls, coyotes, etc.

Here's a little blurb on sex-linked birds:

Red Sex-Links are the result of various crosses. White Rocks with the
silver factor (the dominant white gene would produce all white
offspring) are crossed with a New Hampshire male to produce the Golden
Comet. Silver Laced Wyandotte crossed with New Hampshire gives the
Cinnamon Queen. Two other crosses are obtained with Rhode Island White
x Rhode Island Red, and Delaware x Production Red. These two crosses
are simply called Red Sex-Links. Males hatch out white and, depending
on the cross, feather out to pure white or with some black feathering.
Females hatch out buff or red also depending on cross, and they
feather out in one of three ways.

Marie