I HATE DELAWARES-THEY KILLED ELSA

baymule

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I ordered 50 Delaware chicks, straight run, a couple of years ago. Big mistake. I thought I would get a 50-50 mix of male/female--WRONG! We processed 33 roosters and had 11 pullets.Six of them were murdered by the others. Those were the meanest durn chickens I ever had-and they haven't got any better. This fall would be their second molt, and I planned on slaughtering them, but they won't make it that long.

Those murdering witches killed Elsa today. Elsa was a pure white Easter Egger with the muffs, laid a green egg and was so sweet. The grand daughter #1 could pick her up and carry her around. I opened the coop this morning to see blood on several of the hens. I saw that Elsa was their target and scooped her up. Her beak was open, panting and in shock. They had started dragging her intestines out, literally eating her alive. She died later. I hate them. I'm going to kill every damned one of them. It's all I can do not to kick those Delawares like footballs. I am angry. I am furious. I am sickened over what happened to my Elsa. :hit

They have killed other hens before, but never a white one. Racist chickens. They normally made the black and red hens lives miserable, sometimes I found a dead one. Elsa was safe because she was white like the Delaware hens. Or so I thought. Elsa and Dottie, an old SLW, were the only ones I was going to keep from that coop.

I didn't get full production from that coop and lately, the witches have been eating the eggs. I was already aggravated with them, but now, with Elsa dead, they are doomed. I'll can them and we'll have Mean Old Hen soup. Since Dottie fell in there with them and started eating eggs too, into a jar she will go. I'm done. I will never, ever have Delaware chickens again.
 

AMKuska

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I understand your pain. I lost my favorite silkie to a raccoon this last fall. I STILL have a trap out for that thieving bugger. -.-

Sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do.
 

flowerbug

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maybe proximity to DC influenced them? sorry for loss. enjoy soup. love the name of it. maybe it will be tender unlike them...
 

Nyboy

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:hugs I was surprised how attached I had become to one of my hens. She would follow me around the yard like a puppy. When getting chickens I did a very smart thing I listened to the chicken farmer. He asked me why i wanted chickens, I told him pets that would eat ticks, he told me the breed I wanted was very feisty. He told me to get golden comets. He was right they where gentle egg laying machines. Once they started laying they didnt stop even in winter which no extra light.
 

baymule

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Delawares are good foragers, they range as far as the fence will let them. The Golden Comets I had wouldn't go very far from the coop and would only go far if we were working outside-they came up to see what we were doing. LOL Delawares lay a nice big brown egg, but they are so aggressive to each other and other chickens that they just aren't worth the headache.

On the good side, they are a big chicken and I should get quite a bit of meat from them. My grand daughters LOVE Mamaw's chicken soup and broth. This past winter the whole family was sick and I took jars of chicken and broth. Our son in law had recovered, being the first one to be sick, so he made soup. My daughter spent the whole weekend laying on the sofa or in bed, eating chicken soup and broth. Nothing gets them well like Mamaw's broth and chicken.
 

seedcorn

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Understandable. They are doing what they are raised for. Kill or be killed. Enjoy the soup as I would have offed them at the first dead hen.
 

so lucky

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I haven't had any experience with Delawares and now I know I won't. I found the Easter eggers to be friendly, also the Speckled Sussex.
I'm sorry for that terrible loss, Bay.
 

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