#welsummer chicken

[a-literate-chicken]

Sticker number 4 of 7

[chickens-farm]

Where do welsummer chicken come From - Chicken Personality

Welsummer Chicken origins are in Welsum, a town in eastern Netherlands and mixture of Rhode Island Reds, Partridge Leghorns and Cochins

welsummer chicken origins are in Welsum, a town in eastern Netherlands. This complex mixture of Rhode Island Reds, Partridge Leghorns, Cochins, and Wyandottes originated in the 12th century. This chicken combines all of these flavors for your enjoyment.

[knuxtiger4]

Genny is a chicken that prefers privacy. She will let you know she does not appreciate your presence by screaming at you. She also does this when other chickens walk into the coop when she is in one of the boxes.

[farmer-dave]

Hatch Rate

In a low budget styrofoam incubator like a Hovabator I expect a chicken hatch rate of 50% to be good. I've read all sorts of stories of similar, or lower, hatch rates so I'm comfortable with that. This spring I experimented with some specific cross breeding and the breeding of a new chicken type. In contrast to the heritage birds I raise the hatch was very successful. That makes the upcoming hatch in the large Lyon incubator very important as it will help identify if my 50% is limited to a small incubator. My Welsummer birds (rare, Dutch) hatched at 86% and my cross breeds hatched at 66%. So, time to review the genetics of the old heritage flocks and see if new blood bumps hatch success. I'm doubtful the Chantecler can be made too robust due to the very limited "revival flock" genes when the bird was brought back from obscurity. The Monks had a very extensive genetic pool when they created that breed but when it lost favour the number of flocks shrunk dramatically. That meant very little diversity in remaining genes when people started to share birds to bring them back. The goal this year is to see if I can cross Welsummer (5-6 dark brown eggs per week when laying) and the Buff Chantecler while producing a bird large enough to be dual purpose (ie meaty boys). If so, they will be crossed with Basque to help genetics in my preferred homestead flock.