I HATE DELAWARES-THEY KILLED ELSA

canesisters

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Like any other breed of any other creature - there are certain 'set in' tendencies and there are exceptions to these. And the expected tendencies can be accentuated or downplayed by environment and such.
I have several rose-comb Rhode Island Red hens who aren't particularly social (with me) but aren't mean to any of the other birds. I don't know if the rose-comb breeding may tend toward a less aggressive attitude?? I have a very large rooster from the same lines that escaped the canning pot because he was hatched with one eye... he was just so pitiful and had worked so hard to gain a place in the flock... :rolleyes: Well, he's got to be every bit of 18lbs now and I can easily walk up to him, pick him up and tote him around.
 

catjac1975

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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.
That is the worst experience with chickens that I have ever heard of. Sorry you lost for favorite hen. I hope they are extra tasty when you eat them. I have columbians Wyandottes that are a nice bird. But, they look a lot like the Delawares and I bet you are too traumatized to try a look a like. The hens are nice, but the roosters have come at me a few times. When I turn my back on them they hit me in the calf. With pants it has not been bad at all but if they get me with shorts they will go to soup.Mt most gentle birds have been Any Cochins or any Orpingtons. No to RI Reds.
 
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