Blue Laced Red Wyandotte THREAD!

[Farmer Viola]

Hey, no problem! BTW, love your username. We have a houdini chicken. She's the smallest of all our Black Australorps and can get out/in anywhere; a true master. She's the only BA we have that earned herself a name.

If anyone could check this link out and give me their opinion on our wyandottes I would really appreciate it. I am only trying to learn what is good and acceptable and what we should work on. We aren't showing or anything(yet), we are just looking for pretty backyard birds, however, there is no reason NOT to work towards the proposed standard, IMO. I have Foley's book, as well as the APA's SOP Wyandotte book, but I wanted to see if my understanding is correct or if I am missing something.

Here's the link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/279470/the-wyandotte-thread/11440#post_16061188

TIA

I am no expert, but from your post over in the Wyandotte thread it seems like you are mostly focusing on color and lacing - which is easy to do with such beautiful birds! it's the most eye catching and obvious thing to judge and I do it too. BUT here is what I have learned...

you want to build the barn before you paint it, so to speak.

that means focus on the body type (physical structure) before worrying about color. type is #1, size is #2... color would be further on down that list.

also, 4 months is very young to judge their color and lacing. this will probably continue to change as they mature - Wyanodottes are considered mature at 12-16 months. breeding before that is common, but a bit of a gamble in what results you'll see. Some say you can't actually tell until after their first full molt (2yrs in my experience) because their color can change again! but who has the patience for that!

to judge type, photos from the side are needed (from down at chicken level). side, front, back, and top-down would be the best to judge.

 

[Kelson]

I see hackle and saddle feathers on the 1st photo - looking like a cockerel to me
2nd photo for sure a pullet. they can be pink faced, too!

Well I was referring to the one that was looking boyish is just pink in the face, I have some pullets that are redder in the face then 'he' is.
I was afraid someone else would agree they see the hackles though. I'm just thrown off by how old 'he' is. now to figure out what to do with him. I already have too many boys running around and this one is so sweet.

 

[Blue Smoke]

7 months and my BLRW's are starting to look promising. There are some culls in there, but what won't make for good breeders will still make for pretty layers.

Pardon, there is a little molting going on. These girls just started laying so I'm kinda chomping at the bit, having thoughts of hatching more chicks out and it's not even Thanksgiving yet!

 

[Blue Smoke]

Oops, forgot a few of the blue pullets.






I feel like I have a decent start at least. My grand scheme is to put the black cockerel with 2 of the 3 splash pullets and really cull heavily, I know the blue supposedly gets washed out if using splash for breeding, so I'd only choose to keep the best of them. Then pair the blue cockerel with the best blue and black pullets. I also hope to buy more quality birds in the spring.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Oops, forgot a few of the blue pullets. I feel like I have a decent start at least. My grand scheme is to put the black cockerel with 2 of the 3 splash pullets and really cull heavily, I know the blue supposedly gets washed out if using splash for breeding, so I'd only choose to keep the best of them. Then pair the blue cockerel with the best blue and black pullets. I also hope to buy more quality birds in the spring.

Lovely birds.

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

I feel like I have a decent start at least. My grand scheme is to put the black cockerel with 2 of the 3 splash pullets and really cull heavily, I know the blue supposedly gets washed out if using splash for breeding, so I'd only choose to keep the best of them. Then pair the blue cockerel with the best blue and black pullets. I also hope to buy more quality birds in the spring.
[/quote]

I don't think that you need to worry about the splash getting lighter if you cross them with a black. I think that one counters the other as a splash will lighten but a black will darken so the resulting blues should be just mid-blue. At least that's how I understand it.

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

I am no expert, but from your post over in the Wyandotte thread it seems like you are mostly focusing on color and lacing - which is easy to do with such beautiful birds! it's the most eye catching and obvious thing to judge and I do it too. BUT here is what I have learned...

you want to build the barn before you paint it, so to speak.

that means focus on the body type (physical structure) before worrying about color. type is #1, size is #2... color would be further on down that list.

also, 4 months is very young to judge their color and lacing. this will probably continue to change as they mature - Wyanodottes are considered mature at 12-16 months. breeding before that is common, but a bit of a gamble in what results you'll see. Some say you can't actually tell until after their first full molt (2yrs in my experience) because their color can change again! but who has the patience for that!

to judge type, photos from the side are needed (from down at chicken level). side, front, back, and top-down would be the best to judge.

Thanks for the input! I have been told that type is the most important thing. I was mainly curious as to the color and lacing in particular at this point, since they have all feathered in so nicely compared to some I have seen at this age. I guess it was the only thing I could even hope to study right now. I'm not making any decisions, just trying to learn. We will be keeping all of our pullets and all of our cockerels until we are beyond certain which ones need to be culled or sold as pretty backyard layers.

Patience is key with this breed, isn't it! Thanks again!

@Blue Smoke Your birds are very lovely, indeed!

 

[Farmer Viola]

Thanks for the input! I have been told that type is the most important thing. I was mainly curious as to the color and lacing in particular at this point, since they have all feathered in so nicely compared to some I have seen at this age. I guess it was the only thing I could even hope to study right now. I'm not making any decisions, just trying to learn. We will be keeping all of our pullets and all of our cockerels until we are beyond certain which ones need to be culled or sold as pretty backyard layers.

Patience is key with this breed, isn't it! Thanks again!

@Blue Smoke Your birds are very lovely, indeed!

Well, I guess I'm not entirely sure about the color and lacing. I do think they still have the potential to change!

Personally I am growing out 2 separate lines right now and in 1 of them, I see similar lacing/color issues to yours in the pullets only. The cockerels don't have the issue at all. Mine are young still, I think 6 months, so I'm also hoping they might grow out of it. If not, I'm not sure how to proceed, either...

One idea I have is to pair the poorly laced birds with a well laced black cockerel to try and improve the lacing. Black is known to bring back in thick, solid lacing, while breeding to splash is known to dilute the mahogany and possibly(?) muddle up the lacing in general.

Is it possible the parentage of yours could have been splash? Even with generations of blue to blue breeding, I think sometimes you still want to breed back to black so often to improve lacing. I don't have direct experience here but this is what I've learned from others

 

[RobG7aChattTN]

does anyone have pictures of each chick at hatch for blue, black and splash? Murray Mcmurray has a video of chicks o their webpage for their BLRW and the chicks look weird to me. I have never seen any of these chicks that weren't chipmunk.... Are the splashes different?

The splash chicks often just look like shades of cream and grey instead of clearly defined stripes.

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

Well, I guess I'm not entirely sure about the color and lacing. I do think they still have the potential to change!

Personally I am growing out 2 separate lines right now and in 1 of them, I see similar lacing/color issues to yours in the pullets only. The cockerels don't have the issue at all. Mine are young still, I think 6 months, so I'm also hoping they might grow out of it. If not, I'm not sure how to proceed, either...

One idea I have is to pair the poorly laced birds with a well laced black cockerel to try and improve the lacing. Black is known to bring back in thick, solid lacing, while breeding to splash is known to dilute the mahogany and possibly(?) muddle up the lacing in general.

Is it possible the parentage of yours could have been splash? Even with generations of blue to blue breeding, I think sometimes you still want to breed back to black so often to improve lacing. I don't have direct experience here but this is what I've learned from others

Understood. I guess it is possible that their parents were splash. The breeder we got them from has all three varieties.

I was looking through your albums just now and your birds are very pretty. That's one thing I love about the BLRW, they are always beautiful, but your birds show great potential, IMO. I was wondering why you chose Karl over Napoleon.

What kind of camera do you have? Those pics are very nice!