Best silver laced Wyandotte cockerel for breeding?

[KittyKat3756]

Hi all, I would appreciate help choosing the best (most standard compliant) cockerel out of these four. I'm not planning to breed for showing, more for re-newing my laying stock, but I'd rather pick the "nicest" bird to keep out of the four. I am guessing that pink and orange are the best choices, but I would like narrow it down to one so that I can offer the others for sale. Orange is a bit of a late bloomer: I had him down as a pullet when I first sexed them at 4 weeks old. All four birds are siblings and their colour looks roughly the same. They are about 20 weeks old at the moment.

Blue:


Pink:


Green:


Orange:


Thank you!

 

[donrae]

I'm not a Wyandotte person, and remember you can see the birds in person, I only have the pics you provided. That said, I'd to with orange.

Blue looks to be an easy out for me. His underliine isn't right. I don't know the correct terms to describe, but his underline isn't nice and rounded and smooth like the other boys. He's got that angle where it turns sharply back underneath him.

Pink would be my choice. He seems nice and rounded, and overall balanced with a proper length to his body.

Green---again, could be camera angle, it he just doesn't look as balanced. Kind of short-bodied, and it certainly could be age, but his legs look out of proportion, too long. He's young, and that could even out.

Orange....you said he's been slower to mature, so that would bump him from breeding imo. He also looks short bodied, not as proportioned as the pink bird. Again, not sure how to describe it, but his head isn't as appealing as the pink bird's.

I'd keep pink, then green, then orange and blue would be about equal to me.

Looking forward to seeing what others say, especially some good Wyandotte folks.

 

[KittyKat3756]

Green is probably the leggiest out of them, and that is correct that blue doesn't have a nice curve on the bottom. Something that I forgot to mention about orange is that his legs really are much more orange than the others have.

Am I just lucky that all of them are really good natured birds and don't crow that much (about once or twice per week total between all of them), or is that common for Wyandottes?

 

[WyandotteIndeed]

Well firstly, all are very nice birds. They are very "typey" in their shape and profile and have what appear to be appropriate combs, wattles and leg color (some slightly oranger or paler is not note-worthy). And you're right that blue and green are leggier, but at this age, they still have a bit of filling out to do and so often grow into those legs. With regards to shape and underline, blue and green are also less typical in their lack of roundness. They should have a classic "dumpy" shape.

So really just looking at feathering, I would throw out blue as he has too much black. You want the lacing to be clean and distinct with a very narrow black edge to each feather all throughout, including the undercarriage (except for the very bottom which is of course just black and downy). Also hard to tell from the photos, but the black should be very dark, glossy, and have a bit of a blue/green/purple sheen to it, not a dusky grey-blue like you would see in a blue or blue-laced red wyandotte.

Also watch for any muddling of black in the white area of the feather. This is common in production birds and usually appears less on the breast and more on the flanks and saddle. I'm seeing a few black "crumbs" in the white on the lower flanks and saddle areas of pink and green.

So just looking from your photos, I would say that orange would be my pick for breeding if I were only keeping one. He really has the nicest over-all shape and quality, with correct lacing and leg proportion. He does look to still have some growing to do so will get more tail and size, but at this point he clearly looks superior to the other three. And at 20 weeks, I don't consider being just a bit of a "late bloomer" to be a deficit. Maturing much later (or sooner for that matter) could be more problematic. Pink would be my second choice. Followed by green and then blue.

Lastly, and I can't tell from the photos, but you want to observe their movement, over-all action, and weight. Be sure that the one you decide to keep has perfect anatomy, leg scaling, beak position and size.

All that being said, you really do have a nice group of birds there and should not have any trouble selling the three "rejects" as quality birds.

 

[WyandotteIndeed]

PS. I love that wyandottes just don't crow a ridiculous amount. They are very mellow, good natured and amiable fellows, even when you have several together. (My hamburg boy on the other hand crows non-stop!).

 

[Emma-Leigh]

Orange looks like he has an upturned leader, not something I'd breed from. Pink would be my pick although they are all very nice.

 

[MrsBrooke]

Pink!

MrsB

 

[KittyKat3756]

Thanks for the help guys! So blue and green are out of the running and have been listed for sale now I'll hold onto pink and orange for the moment and will ask again with new photos if anyone shows interest in them before letting one go.

The black feathers are the correct (black with reflective green) colour on all of them. Unfortunately, they do have a flaw in that their legs are showing slight spots of feathering which is visible on pink and blue in the photos, although all of them show it.

 

[KittyKat3756]

The whole brood turned out to be bantams. About the time that I posted the photos, they stopped putting on weight and have since stayed the same size. Blue and green ended up a very tasty dinner, pink and orange are being advertised for sale alongside their sisters as I only want large fowl.

 

[frw1985]

Where do U get these birds or eggs however U obtained them.?
So sad to raise them thinking you will be getting eggs soon to find out you raised birds you didn't want.
So sorry this happened to you.