laurie (Mother Mastiff)
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 Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2003 8:09 am Post subject: US Welsummer line |
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In the salvia/saliva thread, Burl posted:
[quote]Laurie,
Why are you so worried about them getting stoned?? Just take their car[/quote]
keys
and it won>t hurt anything :)
Thought I>d tell you that the Welsummer>s I got from Rip Stalvey are now
laying. The rooster is indeed a "classic" picture of perfection. The eggs
are
not as dark as I was hoping for, but they are easily darker than anything I
had. If you don>t mind, post or email where you got them from yourself, I
thought I should keep track of that.
Burl<<
Howdy Burl, isn>t Rip a great guy?
The Welsummers I have are the personal flock of the man who brought the
breed to the US, the late Mr. Lowell Barber of Hendersonville NC. He got a
dozen Welsummer eggs at a show in Wales (over a dozen years ago, I believe)
that were darker than any eggs from the several lines of Marans he had
imported over the years.
Of the 12 Welsummer eggs from Wales, 8 hatched, 5 hens and three cocks.
Nearly all Welsummers in the US are direct descendants of this specific
line. However, Bjorn Netland brought in another line from Germany via
Canada, and being a close friend of Mr. Barber, swapped birds with him. Not
many people get birds from Bjorn, he keeps them for his own enjoyment and
not as something to sell.
Mr. Barber is the only person I personally know of who had birds from Bjorn,
and therefore his personal flock (which I now have) is one of the few (other
than Bjorn>s) that includes both lines of Welsummers (so that it has had the
benefit of a same-breed outcross in recent years). The leaner, faster hens
are more typical of the ones Bjorn imported, the big fat ones are like the
original stock.
Many breeders got Welsummers either from Mr. Barber or via Stromberg>s,
which brokers many breeds. Duane Urch and Sand Hill Preservation Center are
among those whom I was told had Mr. Barber>s line. I haven>t seen eggs from
Urch>s, but know Glenn Drowns has done a very good job of selecting to
maintain egg color.
I have been selecting for several years for DURATION of egg color as well as
depth and evenness, and am pretty happy with results. Although I have
gotten some Marans chicks that are supposed to be out of real dark eggs,
they are much too young to lay yet, and so far my experience is like that of
my customers: the Welsummers don>t lay "the darkest eggs in the world" but
as dark egg laying breed in the US go, they lay a higher percentage of dark
eggs than other dark egg breeds, the darkest eggs are darker than the
darkest from other breeds, and they keep the dark egg color longest into the
laying season.
People who bought Welsummers from me and then spent small fortunes last year
on Marans from other breeders (even longtime Marans breeders) emailed me to
say the Welsummers do a better job. The "Golden Door" celebrity spa in
California buys organic Welsummer eggs from my birds rather than Marans
eggs!
I will never forget sending Rip>s chicks to him. Rip got Welsummer chicks
from me that arrived in Florida hours after the planes were grounded for
9/11. They came down to his area from the airport in Jacksonville by truck,
and his PO stayed open to receive them and get them to him. When I think of
problems with the USPS and how mad they make me when they are careless of
live mail, I remember Rip>s chicks and realize there are two sides to the
USPS.
My Welsummers started laying Feb 2 and kept it up at an excellent rate till
they all totally quit 2 weeks ago to moult.
I hope never to be without some of Mr. Barber>s birds, I am constantly
grateful for the legacy.
laurie (Mother Mastiff) |
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Hankinson
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 10:32 pm Post subject: Re: US Welsummer line |
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Laurie,
Thanks for the reply, it>s nice to know the lineage. I am going to maintain
the line, without any experiments, but perhaps a cross back to more of Rip>s or
your birds if it seems like a good idea for maintenance. I am building my flock
from one roo and two hens (perfect birds), because a team of coons managed to
kill seven of them when they were young. I thought I had everything arranged,
but they played tag team on opposite ends of the pen. I don>t know my genetics
well enough yet to know if my gene pool is large enough or if they would 'run
down' or anything. I can at least establish them well from what I have.
Burl |
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