Building and working with Columbian Patterned Birds

[wny egger]

huh,it turns out the brown feather was only a smear of poop..

...i washed it off and noticed there were a couple who sleep under the perch..and they were showing brown too..lol


nice looking birds denn..cackle is were i got mine from as well..i was very happy with them ..

Cackle Hatchery Columbian Rocks

Three months old.

 

[denn1948]

huh,it turns out the brown feather was only a smear of poop..

...i washed it off and noticed there were a couple who sleep under the perch..and they were showing brown too..lol


nice looking birds denn..cackle is were i got mine from as well..i was very happy with them ..

I bought from Cackle because they are the only hatchery that shows their breeding flock.

 

[Rancher3535]

The problem as a breeder that I have found with Cackles birds is the bunch I purchased had a lot of flaws or DQ's. So much depends on what you want to do with the flock...just have them...build a good line of them...or ? Over my 30 plus years of breeding Columbian Wyandottes I have tried to see if any of the hatchery birds would help my line. Here is what I found not only with the Cackle birds but also with Meyers, Murray McMurray and others...

1. The major one was inverted spikes.
2. Poor coloring, under color and poor lacing on neck and tails. Your last picture of the chick is pretty washed out and typical of most of the columbian wyandottes from commercial places. The 4th and 5th are not bad. As they grow need to look at their under color and wing color.
3. Small birds (not up to what most would think a wyandotte should look like)
4. Very tight feathering and pinched tails.
5. They say they lay a large egg but that is not what I found with them. Usually small or lower side of medium.

Not trying to discourage you by my comments just want you to look out for these problems should you decide to use them as a breeding flock. I heard from others that have purchased them and they all seem to like them and have not seen some of the problems. The commercial guys have mixed columbian rocks in their flocks which has caused some of the DQ problems when showing and caused the wrong confirmation in them.

Keep in touch and good luck with your babies. Share pictures with us as they grow. I do love this pattern in birds and the person with the rocks has some pretty nice coloring in them.

 

[denn1948]

The problem as a breeder that I have found with Cackles birds is the bunch I purchased had a lot of flaws or DQ's. So much depends on what you want to do with the flock...just have them...build a good line of them...or ? Over my 30 plus years of breeding Columbian Wyandottes I have tried to see if any of the hatchery birds would help my line. Here is what I found not only with the Cackle birds but also with Meyers, Murray McMurray and others...

1. The major one was inverted spikes.
2. Poor coloring, under color and poor lacing on neck and tails. Your last picture of the chick is pretty washed out and typical of most of the columbian wyandottes from commercial places. The 4th and 5th are not bad. As they grow need to look at their under color and wing color.
3. Small birds (not up to what most would think a wyandotte should look like)
4. Very tight feathering and pinched tails.
5. They say they lay a large egg but that is not what I found with them. Usually small or lower side of medium.

Not trying to discourage you by my comments just want you to look out for these problems should you decide to use them as a breeding flock. I heard from others that have purchased them and they all seem to like them and have not seen some of the problems. The commercial guys have mixed columbian rocks in their flocks which has caused some of the DQ problems when showing and caused the wrong confirmation in them.

Keep in touch and good luck with your babies. Share pictures with us as they grow. I do love this pattern in birds and the person with the rocks has some pretty nice coloring in them.

I have 16 Colombian rocks just hatched from Scott from Cartersville. I'm processing all the cackle males this week. They have knocked knees their tails droop and other problems . The birds are good size for 13 weeks old

 

[denn1948]

These are Columbian rocks hatched memorial day. A little over two weeks ago. From Yard full of Rocks.

 

[denn1948]

These are 17 weeks now from the post above this post. They are growing out great.

 

[NanaKat]

Yardfullofrocks has some lovely Columbian Rocks. He posts on the SOP thread as well.

 

[MaryOos]

I am a first time chicken keeper. Due to minimum order rates I ordered 5 dominiques, 5 faverolles, and 5 Columbian Wyandottes. The dominiques were by far the most agile and quickest to develop. They were also all little nipping monsters. They all looked identical except for a white mark on each head. The faverolles were not far behind in feather development. They all looked and acted identical (very shy) and were most prone to have pasty butt.

The Columbian Wyandottes were the easiest and friendliest chicks of the bunch. Not one of them looked like another. Colors ranging (on 2 of them) from mostly yellow with some pale grey rumps, 1 mostly black with some grey and yellow, and 2 were somewhere in between. One of the pale colored chicks grew much faster and had enormous feet and still retained her chick fluff. The other pale colored chick is the smallest of the wyandottes. Their feathers were super slow to come in. The palest seemed to be just a little slower in feather development than the darker colored chicks. They are now almost 10 weeks old. I kept 2 wyandottes, 1 faverolle, and 1 Dominique (plus 2 silkies and a polish) due to township limits. All the other breeds have been feathered out for a couple weeks already. The Columbian Wyandottes still have some yellow fluff on their heads, the feathering on their necks is very thin, and when they flap I still see some bare areas on their bodies under the wings.

The hatcheries say regardless of their chick color that they will look the same when grown. I am not finding that to be the case at all. I kept the lightest and the darkest of the 5 chicks. While they are both slow to feather, the largest and darkest has the traditional neck and tail feathers - black with white edges. The palest color chick is far smaller and her neck and tail feathers are black/ white horizontally striped. These feathers are as equally striped as the dominiques feathers. Has anyone experienced this?

I would also add here, that the darkest chick had a very different body type. She has always been very heavy, low in the tummy. She was very unbalanced and awkward feeling and had to be lifted differently than the others even. I am just finding this breed very perplexing. They are great birds but they are also very, very different from my other breeds and even from each other.

These are the 2 colors at 17 days old. The darker colors got back and tail feathers ahead of the lighter colored wyandottes.









the dark one at 9 weeks with white edged black tail feathers-


the light one at 9 weeks who has black/ white stripe tail feathers (sorry no tail pic) but yo can see she has precious few of the colored neck feathers.-

 

[draye]

Except for this last post there us not much movement on this thread anymore.

Is there anyone out there still working with tge Columbian pattern?

I have a young, Easter hatch cockerel coming up that is looking pretty good, just wondering if I have anything thing here that would work in developing a Columbian Naked Neck.

Hens that I have are: Wheaten, Blue Wheaten, Red, Light Red ( hatchery BlackTalied Red), Dominant White split to Wheaten, Silver, and not sure if they'd be Black/Blue Coppers or Black/Blue Wheaten ones. Also have a couple of Barred NN pullets coming up.

 

[Diannastarr]

HI EVERY ONE, I love the Columbia pattern sooooo much they just fascinate me & at present we have a few Columbia wyandotts, all sooo very pretty indeed, but im worried they are still very flighty & not at all like my SLW, those are such fun birds not shy at all & a total hoot to have around, so for my next Colombian pattern breed i was looking into Colombian rocks, or some other Colombian pattern breed...?? but worried about temperament, since we also have BR & they can be mean...lol.. we have Australorp chicks & plan on breeding a few blue Aussies we have blue Aussie hen & 17 black Aussie chicks to breed to our great splash roo, & plan on some blue chicks in the future but dont want any of our Aussies picked on, so that's why i was looking into light Sussex hoping for a sweeter temperament-ed Colombian pattern breed in them...? but we also want good egg layers to go with our Australorps, for our eggs business, & what a beautiful flock they all would make..! the jet blue black or gray Aussies with an amazingly beautiful group of the Colombian pattern birds, my question is does any one know which of the Columbia pattern breeds would have a sweet temperament plus also being good layers in any of the Colombian pattern breeds...? i would really appreciate it if any one knows, which of the Colombian pattern breeds...? i should be looking into, then i can start looking around for some chicks, o and if any one knows all of the Columbia pattern breeds & could list them .? that would be great or if you have any suggestions that would be great as well..! I have been looking around on line and there is not much info out there either, so thank you kindly to any one for any help you could give me, i would really appreciate it , so for now have a good one & take care Dianna Starr