Yes, you are absolutely correct!
The breeder hens are directly above and below the corn can (favorite treat!!) The other three hens in the pic are hatchery, the front on the right is from Mt. Healthy via
TSC and the other two are from Schlecht hatchery. I have another Schlecht hen not in the pic.
Here is my first hand experience (which is limited so I'm no expert and not claiming to be) my breeder birds (which were "culls" from his show flock) are large, beautiful, impressive birds. My hatchery girls are smaller, have less impressive lacing and I only kept the ones with rose combs. There were some from both hatcheries that had single combs (a DQ for Wyandottes). My roo is a great guardian of his girls but never bothers me at all. One of the hatchery roos a friend took got aggressive and is now stew (others already went to freezer camp). The breeder girls are very consistent in size, shape and lacing (a tribute to many, many years of hard work on the breeder's part). You can see the hatchery ones vary in lacing/color and their shape. One looks very "leghornish". I'll try and get pics of what I'm talking about. My hatchery girls out lay the breeders by FAR. Healthwise, I lost one of my breeder girls in May due to an infection caused by internal laying. My remaining hen is broody now for the second time (after breaking her twice during the cold in Jan and Feb). Hatchery girls are all doing fine and have shown no interest whatsoever in setting a clutch.
The bottom line for me is...........I wanted a heritage breed that I could use as my laying flock and by doing that would help keep that breed alive. I have discovered over the past year that Silver Laced Wyandottes are not that breed unless I want to keep a flock that is not representative of the breed according to the Standard of Perfection. To keep them to SOP, I will not have the "homestead" flock I had envisioned. The goals are too diametrically opposed. So, instead of replacing my hen I lost, I rehomed my roo last week and put my broody to work hatching some BR turkey eggs. I now have Auburn Javas and Icelandics, neither of which is in the SOP, but are historic breeds nonetheless. These will become my two separate projects. The SLW girls will stay and be the laying flock and the "incubator", each serving those purposes very well. Someone else mentioned that breeders of old would not "put up with the lack of production" but many show birds are not there for production, they are works of art. Many are the products of years and years dedication by breeders whose passion it is to keep these beautiful birds from becoming a thing of the past. What do you want out of your birds? Your goals may be different than mine and that's why there are so many different kinds of chickens. That's why there always have been and always will be. That is the bottom line for me.
