Wyandotte

I do not free range and only have hens no rooster. My friend does free range with rooster and she has same problem with this breed. I don't know how this breed will do if it is the only hen type in the flock. I tried all the different ways to integrate nothing works. I have 7 golden comets and 4 silver laced and 2 golden laced wyandottes. If you have other chickens avoid this breed.

I currently own two Wyandottes and did own another. They are one of my favourite breeds. They are chatty and quirky, fun to watch. And not to mention the gorgeous coats. I am yet to 'collect' i blue/lavender laced girl! I absolutely adore Wyandottes. No cons here.

This was one of my girls.

We have our gold laced Wyandotte and she has blossomed into a beautiful bird.
At first she was shy and didn't want any human interaction at all.
She has finally got her confidence and free ranges all day and quite late into the evening.
She has attached herself to me and sits by the backdoor like a puppy dog waiting for me to go and see her & follows me everywhere 'talking' to me (that's very sweet)
However, this is a good and bad aspect, she can be noisy. She produces a 'warning call' to the rest of the birds if she thinks there is a predator, unfortunately it is usually only a butterfly!
Not a great layer but it doesn't matter as she is so loveable and funny even the kids play with her.
Definitely a family favourite & a great pet. You might get a few eggs too!

i have 2 silver laced bantams i bought about 9 weeks ago. they have started laying but they are so noisy not just when they lay either. they are with 3 sussex 3 marans and 4 orpingtons. they make a racket when they start. and one is worse than the other. with the weather getting warmer in the uk and with me having neighbours that are out all day and night in the garden im on pins i have been out to try and shut the din up about 6 times today already. there like moaning old women!. i would think twice before getting these for the garden. im wating to get a allotment so if they carry on they will have to go up there. not the friendliest of birds either

To be 100% transparent, my chicks are only 2 months old. I hope they will improve with age. But we hatched 9 chicks and 3 were Silver Laced Wyandottes. They are scared to death of people, and when they got in the wild area in the backyard, I could not catch them. They refused to come when called and I had to chase them out of the blackberry brambles towards their coop. Even before that traumatic incident, they were difficult to handle, struggling fiercely when held. Most of our chicks and chickens alike may not be easy to catch, but are fine once in your arms. Our 3 Wyandottes scream like I'm pulling their feathers out, flap, writhe, and just generally go nuts (their other chick "siblings" are just fine, so I do think it's THEM as opposed to something we do/did).

I kept them locked in a dog crate in the chicken run for a week, and fed them out of my hand several times a day (forcing them to associate me with food), and NOW they come when they are called, but I still can't get near them.

They are gorgeous, especially one that is very white with black specks. I fear that one might be a rooster. The other 2 are mainly black with white and are getting prettier by the day. I have read they are good layers, so I look forward to that as well. We have enough chickens that I don't NEED to handle these guys. Others will enjoy my cuddles, and cuddles from the kids too. I'm just surprised how anti-social these little ones are.


I like this picture because it looks like the white one (one I suspect is a roo) is standing on the black one's head. But it also got both chicks in the picture at once. I marked this one because I think she's meaner than her practically identical sister. I needed to be sure, so now I'll keep my eye on her. I think I'll name her Cruella. Oooh, I like it.

I have five and a half Wyandottes: Three blues, two blue-laced reds, and a hybrid. The three blues are the finest chickens I've ever owned- ridiculously friendly, cold-hardy, and pretty to boot. I'm not sure if it's just a Wyandotte thing or a progenitor of my flock thing, but the three blue hens are #1, #2, and #3 in the pecking order, so they seem to be very assertive. I originally had 4, but my favorite (Javert) was killed by a dog. She would run up to me and step into my hands so I could love on her, and climb up onto my lap and fall asleep. A blue hen I still have (Lily) meanders over and jumps into my lap for a good amount of time to hang out. A third (Goose), and the current most dominant hen jumps onto my back at any opportunity. Thats what I mean by aggressively friendly; I can't be in the coop for more than a couple minutes for one of them wants to jump on me. Goose even raised her chick to jump on my shoulder with her, so now I have an adult half-wyandotte half-EE following me around all the time too.

Depending on your situation, another pro/con is Goose seems to go broody once every couple of months, last in December, and now again in May. None of my other Wyandotte hens have yet. Wyandotte eggs have a great hatchability rate too, even when covered by an EE rooster instead of a Wyandotte roo.

Now, friendliness is probably correlated to how intensively you raised them to like humans. My BLRW hens were raised in the shed over winter as opposed to my room in the spring. One BLRW is skittish and hard to catch, the other less fearful but still stand-offish. Bribing them with oatmeal seems to work temporarily, but their temperaments probably just have to due with me never socializing with them when they were young.

I've read reviews saying that Wyandottes aren't heat-tolerant but all of my blues have survived the southern heat in the dead of summer and pretty young ages. Provided you give them shade and water, they'll be fine.

I had a Splash Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and she was fantastic. She took longer than the other girls to get to her POL. I got her when she was three months old on April 1st, 2012 from a private breeder here in Tucson and she didn't lay her first egg until September. But we loved her and she was a utter sweetheart and just a fantastic hen. She passed away last summer, she went broody in July and stressed herself out trying to get out of the broody bin. I would definitelyy get another Wyandotte someday. R.I.P. Hawkeye

I currently have three Wyandotte hens (two golds and a silver). I used to have another silver, but she died. They're very good layers, and lay so much that I can't figure out what to do with all the eggs. One of them sometimes goes broody, but not to the point where you can't collect the eggs. They have beautiful feathers (particularly the golds). Wyandottes are perfectly fine in cold most times and mine are usually ok in heat, as long as it is under 90 degrees. I've don't have many issues free ranging them, but they won't go back to the coop on their own. You sort of have to herd them back in, as they will stay out after dark. My chickens have very... odd... personalities, which some people like and some people don't.

Wyandottes do have some problems, though. They're not exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, for one thing. Half the time mine forget what a door is and will proceed to walk around it and start pacing trying to figure out their way through the wall. My hens are also aggressive, often pecking and plucking feathers from each other. I find it kind of strange that they seem to think the bunny is their leader... These birds are wary and skittish around humans and do not like to be handled, at all, ever. Really a shame, considering how nice and soft their feathers are. Another issue is that some feed stores are not knowledgeable about the breed at all. I was trying to buy the bantam variety, but they sold me standard. If you plan on buying Wyandottes from a feed store, buyer beware!

I personally would not get these birds again. If I ever decide to expand my flock, I plan to try Sebrights, Old English Game Bantams or Japanese Bantams. However, if you're interested in giving a new breed a try and don't mind taking a risk, go right ahead. Some people really like them, and you could be one of them. Mine could just have a few screws loose, I don't know.

The Wyandotte bantams I've kept over the years have convinced me they're the most versatile chicken around. While not popular in the south except maybe for show purposes, the Wyandotte is a friendly, no-nonsense bird, a fine layer of almost brown eggs, and probably the world's best mother (except for maybe the games). If you want a hen that will set eggs for you ("go broody"), you can't beat a Wyandotte bantam. They can be convinced not to set, however. They're also totally cute.

We have a silver laced wyandotte, and she is sweet. Never mean, but she is like the side kick to the bossy girl (our barred rock). She doesn't lay particularly well. Medium sized tinted eggs. Im not disappointed that we got her, but I don't think that we'll really go for this breed again unless it just comes along.

I have 3 Wyandottes, two Columbians and one White I also have one Speckled Sussex. The Columbian Wyandottes run the flock-they aren't mean or bossy, but they are protective of the other hens. All my chickens are good layers and are friendly. One of my Columbians hopped my neighbor's chain link fence and he was shocked to see it come running to me-she then turned her back towards me so I could easily pick her up. He was sure that he was going to have to help me catch and corner her to get her back over the fence. I will admit that our White is not the brightest in our flock-she is constantly getting herself into trouble and she for some reason likes to lay on the coop floor instead of roost-I've checked her feet thinking maybe there's something wrong, but I think she just prefers laying down.

Love my girls!! I have 2 BLR and 2 Columbian's, they are all good layers, all are friendly with the exception of a mood swing every now and then.

We have had 8 Silver-Laced Wyandottes as part of our flock. These birds are very attractive, good at handling both hot and cold conditions, and pretty good layers! These were some of the birds we originally chose to make up our first flock (half Barred Rock and half Silver-Laced Wyandotte). They were/are great birds, but there is something peculiar I would like to mention in case anyone is considering "free-ranging" them. These birds are a prime selection for predators (mostly dogs)! Out of the 33 chickens we've owned in the past few years, we have lost 8 Silver-Laced Wyandottes to predators, and those 8 have been our only losses to predators. We had 7 Barred Rocks (same age, similar size, and similar coloration) and 1 Black Australorp out with the Wyandottes during the "massacre", but our other birds were smart enough to get back in their coop, fly into small shrubs, hide-out in our garage etc, except for the Wyandottes! I have one remaining Wyandotte from the "massacre" that I still allow to free range with the flock in the evening, but I just thought it would be worth it to mention that these birds seem to get picked on by predators more than any other breed I've owned. To end on a positive note, these birds our a very good breed, but my recommendation for new flock owners or people trying to expand their flock is that they should be extra cautious when free ranging.

I have one Silver Laced Wyandotte, her name is Lydia. She is beautiful, and she lays nice big eggs. One of my favorite moments with her was when she was a baby, she always climbed onto my head. They are cold-hardy, and nice. They are a great breed.

Overall I would recommend these chickens.I bought 2 SlW's one turned out beautiful and the other one turned out pretty good but not as laced and stuff.They lay nice eggs.They aren't as friendly but are pretty good.They should lay more in the summer because it is winter so they won't lay as much.They cool chickens~!

We ordered 4 from McMurray Hatchery, along with 4 Rhode Island Reds, 4 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Buff Rocks and we got two Roosters, one being the exotic. Being raised together, we don't have any problems. They are strong hearty birds, good layers and friendly. They free range during the day and put themselves into the coop at sundown where I lock them up from predators, we have foxes here in Utah. They were afraid to walk on the snow at first and preferred our horse barn, but since it's their first winter, I expected hesitations. Love them and would recommend them.

My Wyandottes are very nice, good looking chickens. They are actually the only breed I have so far that lets me hold them without complaining (other then the Australorp and Orpingtons). So far, I see nothing bad about them.

They are a bit shy though. When I get into the coop they always stand in the back waiting for the others to go first. They also don't peck at me, unless I have treats in my hand.

I highly recommend these for a laying flock.

GLW are beautiful birds, but mine stopped laying when they were 26 months old. I expected a heritage breed to lay much longer than this! (purchased from Healthy Chicks and More)