Bielefelder X Delaware Broiler Sex-links, AKA Delafelder Breeding Project

AZHomesteadPoultry

In the Brooder
Nov 17, 2024
17
38
49
This has been a really fun journey, and I’d like to share it with you while also keeping a short account of my experiences. I’ll try not to be long-winded, but I’m enjoying myself, so I hope you enjoy this as well.

My current breeding project involves crossing Bielefelder roosters with Enhanced Delaware Broiler hens, aiming to create a well-tempered, heavy-framed, true dual-purpose chicken. This endeavor began with a small flock of McMurray's Enhanced Delaware Broilers, purchased as 25 straight-run chicks. These birds grew quickly, developed excellent conformation, and achieved impressive weights, with hens averaging 7–8 lbs and roosters reaching 9–10 lbs—truly big, beautiful, and tasty! From this initial flock, I retained my two largest roosters and five largest hens, which consistently laid jumbo eggs, averaging three per day.

After about eight months, I started having problems. Two of my five hens would roost high outside their coop, then fall to the ground with a resounding thump, injuring their legs and, I later discovered, their keel bones. To prevent this, I lowered the roosts and blocked access to the coop roof. Around that time, my main rooster suddenly died. Upon examining him, he appeared perfectly healthy: no fluid in the lungs, tumors, or discolorations—just good-looking meat, appropriate fat deposits, and no unusual odors. Fortunately, my backup rooster was just as beautiful and large.

About two weeks later, this rooster turned aggressive—becoming, quite literally, a demon. Undeterred (and despite the “T-rex” living in my coop), I later hatched another 20 chicks from this brood stock (yes, I know breeding aggressive roosters is generally discouraged). The chicks grew just as fast as their parents, but the rooster’s aggression worsened, culminating in torn overalls and a painful bite mark on my forearm. After that, “Colonel Sanders” went into the stew pot and was, in fact, finger-licking good.

After the timely demise of the tyrannical rooster, I decided not to keep any male chicks from his line. Only after selling his offspring (keeping three hens) did I discover that McMurray’s had experienced an avian flu outbreak, destroying their Delaware breeding stock and making them unavailable for the foreseeable future. This led me to consider another breed: the large, beautiful Bielefelder.

By the spring of 2024, my flock had grown with the addition of 15 birds from Hoover Hatchery. Careful tracking of their growth rates and weights resulted in a final selection: one Bielefelder rooster, three Bielefelder hens, three Starlight Green Egger hens, and the three Delaware broiler chicks I had retained. So far, so good with this rooster. He’s calm, friendly, and very helpful with the hens—I can’t complain about his personality (10/10). However, his physical characteristics are lacking for his breed, a trait he shares with the Bielefelder hens. He’s narrow in the pelvis, light for his breed, and doesn’t have the long, wide back that Bielefelders are known for. He does have excellent plumage, wattles, and comb, but after having a devil rooster, I was more than happy to keep him.

In October 2024, I began hatching chicks with the goal of creating a Bielefelder-Delaware cross. I wanted to see if I could develop a cross that would match the performance of the original Delawares or, at a minimum, surpass my strain of Bielefelders. I also wanted to observe the sex-linking and the resulting color patterns. My first hatch yielded 31 chicks from 34 fertile eggs out of 40—not bad for a 1:9 rooster-to-hen ratio. I donated these chicks to a local market farm. This hatch contained about a dozen “Delafelder” crosses, with the remainder being a mix of Bielefelder and Green Egger, which should be excellent egg layers like their parents.

Since then, I have hatched another 100-plus chicks by request, retaining a few for myself and sending the others to local owners here in Southeast Arizona. It’s been really fun and rewarding to watch these little guys grow. I’ve been raising mine on a 24% starter-grower feed from Dumor, which seems to be working great so far. I’ve been weighing my chicks weekly for four weeks and will switch to weighing them every four weeks until butcher day. I plan to include detailed weights and carcass photos around butcher time in March.

These birds have performed admirably so far, with all the chicks easily hand-taming and growing at an impressive rate. Next week, I'll receive another 25 Delaware Broilers from McMurray's, which will allow for a direct comparison with my Delafelder crosses. To facilitate this comparison, my current non-Delaware hens will be rehomed or processed. I plan to raise all the new Delaware's and meticulously document their progress alongside my existing crosses.

Included are sever photos i've taken along the way and they are as follows
1. My original flock of Delaware's
2. Colonel Sanders in a pot
3. Big Delva my 8.5 LB Delaware hen
4. Wobbles my Bielefelder Roo
5. Three chicks, Back Left Delafelder Hen, Back Right Delafelder Roo, Front Bielefelder x Green egger.
6. 3.5 week old Delafelder Hen
7. 3.5 week old Delafelder Roo
8. 6.5 week old Delafelder hen
9. 6.5 week old Delafelder hen
10. 6.5 week old Delafelder Roo
11. 6.5 week old Delafelder Roo
12. 6.5 week old Delafelder Roo

Thanks for reading!
 

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This was so fun to read! Thanks for sharing. Those are some good-looking birds and I'm interested to see how your project develops. I've always had my eye on those Enhanced Broilers (but I just can't do dual purpose until I get some land) so it's interesting to see how they cross with other breeds.


Keep us updated!
 
This was so fun to read! Thanks for sharing. Those are some good-looking birds and I'm interested to see how your project develops. I've always had my eye on those Enhanced Broilers (but I just can't do dual purpose until I get some land) so it's interesting to see how they cross with other breeds.


Keep us updated!
I live on a normal city lot (luckily just outside city limits). the big chickens are easier to keep in small yards since they are less flighty and too heavy to fly much hahaha
 
just got some photos from one of my chick customers. She's added a few egg laying mixes but you can see my Sex-links clear as day!
 

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I live on a normal city lot (luckily just outside city limits). the big chickens are easier to keep in small yards since they are less flighty and too heavy to fly much hahaha
Nice. Yeah, I'm in the city of Cleveland and we have a rooster ban. Doesn't make breeding very easy when I can't have males! Lol
 

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