Golden Lace Wynadotte with a single comb.

[Mrs. Turbo]

Many wyandotte breeders will use a single combed bird in their breeding pens.

I have to agree with Jake.... I will also add that this statement is a rumor when it comes to serious breeders. All the top Wyandotte breeders and exhibition Wyandotte breeders I know do not use single comb in their breeding flocks. This is a breeding tool used by hatcheries to increase their fertility and production.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Yes, it does happen and tends to be more common in hatchery birds than in birds from a good breeder (although birds from a breeder can occasionally have a single comb as well). IMO, it does not make them "not" a wyandotte, it just means that they are a wyandotte with a disqualifying fault. For a back yard flock, it doesn't matter one way or the other really unless you find single combs morally objectionable. For breeders, they have to decide if the recessive single comb is something they want to deal with or if one of their goals is to totally eliminate this trait from their flock.

Gertrude, my single comb silver laced wyandotte that I got from MPC. I will admit, I was disappointed when she was a few days old that she had the wrong comb type, but I've gotten over that now. Sure, her comb is wrong...but her lacing is also horrible from a show/breeder standpoint too, and I'm sure her type is horribly off. But I have no intention of breeding her, ever, and if for some reason I did it would just be to perpetuate my own backyard flock (and most likely with a rooster of an entirely different breed, making the chicks mutts anyway). She lays me a large brown egg almost every day and since that's the reason I got the chickens in the first place she's good enough for me. Now if I could just get her to leave everyone else's feathers alone, she would be perfect.

 

[cochinman2005]

Mrs. Turbo :

Many wyandotte breeders will use a single combed bird in their breeding pens.

I have to agree with Jake.... I will also add that this statement is a rumor when it comes to serious breeders. All the top Wyandotte breeders and exhibition Wyandotte breeders I know do not use single comb in their breeding flocks. This is a breeding tool used by hatcheries to increase their fertility and production.

I would say it's more than a rumor. However, this discussion is evolving away from the OP's question, to which I was offering my opinion (which of course you are free to disagree with). If you don't want to use a single combed bird that excels in every other aspect of breed characteristics then don't. Not such an easy choice when working with some of the rarer varieties.

To illustrate my point. Let's say I have a perfectly typed Buff Wyandotte Bantam, good tail angle, well shaped tail, but she has a single comb. On the other hand I have another female with a flat back and bunny tail, but is rose combed. I decide to use the rose combed female, and produce 30 chicks that mature into birds that look just like the original female, flat backs, bunny tail, rose comb. What did I just gain? Nothing. On the other hand, however, I use the single combed female, and produced in the f1 generation 30 chicks that carry the much better type of the single combed female, good tail angle, good tails, all have rose combs, although a percentage may be poor rose combs. I cull for poor combs, paying attention to overall shape, leader shape and length and whether it follows the contour of the head. What did I gain? Plenty IMO. Certainly, I'll have to deal with single combs in the future and some Rose Comb flaws, but I'd rather deal with that and have good body type than have a poor typed, poor tailed bird with a rose comb, just because I didn't want to use a single combed bird. I would say that is the mark of a top breeder. You have to know when something is beneficial and when it's not.

As for hatchery tactics, I wouldn't know about that.​

 

[featherz]

My MPC SLW has the correct comb but ugly lacing. You win some, you lose some.

 

[xxIsabellaxx]

Quote:
Thanks. I think you silver laced wyandotte is beautiful.
I was dissapointed about my Golden laced, Goldie Locks. Everything else on her is to the standard of her breed.

 

[xxIsabellaxx]

Quote:
Thanks. I think you silver laced wyandotte is beautiful.
I was dissapointed about my Golden laced, Goldie Locks. Everything else on her is to the standard of her breed.

This is my old silver laced wynadotte Lacy who dies in 09'

 

[youngbiddy]

I've got a single comb GLW roo from MPC, and his son grew a rose comb.

I'm not using the SC GLW in any breeding program, that guy hatched last summer because one of my girls went broody in a clutch of mixed eggs in my layer flock. It was cute, I didn't have the heart to deny her.

 

[xxIsabellaxx]

Heres a photo of her. Her name is goldie locks. she will be a year in june.

BTW thats Lorretta her coop mate she's a buff brahma bantam.

 

[xxIsabellaxx]

Quote:
The rooster in the picture..is Beautiful.

 

[Jake Levi]

Cochinman your hypothetical example is just that, hypothetical, and also, highly unlikely.

A single comb is a major fault, so why breed it?

Its like saying 'a lesser evil', but why accept any evil?

The Standard of Perfection exists to define breeds and to provide guidance on what to breed for and what to breed away from.

Most judges will flatly say that a single combed bird isNOT a Wyandotte. Thats unlike the RIRs which exist in both varieties even though the SOP says the RC is the one. But the RCs are coming back much stronger then before.

There is a good reason for going with the RC over the Single Comb in that it provides more winter hardiness .

Hatcherys usually say right up front that their birds are not show birds, i.e. bred to the Standard of Perfection. A hatchery bred bird is just that, a hatchery bred bird. Heritage flocks of Wyandotte breeders will also say right out that a SC showing up in a flock means that it isnot bred pure as it takes two genes, one from each parent to produce a SC, SC is recessive to RC, and to get a SC in a RC flock means at least two of the parents werenot pure Wyandotte, the rooster and the hen, if the flock is using a rooster that carrys the SC then that flock isnot purebred, by definition.

The birds could look like Wyandottes in many characteristics, and be a nice home flock, but, they arenot pure Wyandotte.