Welsummer

Our line of Welsummer are by far, the friendliest breed we have on the farm. They are the first to figure out who butters their bread and readily come to us when we call them with treats. In addition to breeding to the APA standard for the breed, our breeding program emphasizes egg color, size and lay rate.These beautiful birds are also well known from their role in American advertising. The Kellogg's Corn Flake Rooster, "Cornelius" is a Welsummer.

Below is a sample of the eggs laid by our Welsummer flock. As you can see our hens can lay a wide variety of speckled egg patterns to super dark solid browns. Often times the darkest of our Welsummer eggs can be compared to those chocolate eggs that the Copper Marans are known for. Even with their ability to lay such heavily colored brown eggs, our Welsummer have a higher lay rate than Marans and lay a large to extra large egg. Eggs from one year old hens average 2.09 oz (59.2 g) meeting the USDA "large" classification. Eggs from adult hens consistently hit the extra large USDA weights. The Welsummer eggs are by far the most popular at the farmer's market. The dark spots bring a certain individual charm to each egg with no two being the same. An individual hen will lay the same general egg pattern throughout her life, so you can select for more or less spots, or large or small spots on eggs using trap nesting or simply only hatching the eggs with patterns you like.

Another great thing about Deer Run Farm's line of Welsummers is that they can be sexed at birth. The female has what we like to call "eye liner", the dark line extending beyond her eye towards her ear that is dark and very well defined. On the male, that same line is light and blurry. Similarly, if you look at the triangle on the top of their head, on the female it is dark and clearly defined, the male's triangle is lighter and the edges are not clearly defined. In both of the chick photos below, the female is on the left, and the male is on the right. If you plan on doing your own breeding, it is highly advisable you grow out all the cockerels and select the best two to keep as breeders. The male if very important and under ideal conditions, should not be judged until one year of age.