Ross Acres (Ross Bantams) Exhibition Bantam Wyandottes

[RossAcres]

Stole this idea from The Moonshiner!

I show bantam Wyandottes and absolutely love the breed. On this thread, I will be sharing pictures of my Wyandottes and stories of my adventures with them. At this point in time, I have Partridge and White Wyandottes. Follow along to see what it's like raising and exhibiting Wyandottes!

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Follwing!

 

[RossAcres]

So, on my other thread similar to this one, I started off by explaining my struggles with incubating and hatching call ducks. But with Wyandottes, it was SO EASY this year. I could barely keep up with all of the chicks I hatched from my Wyandottes. The hatch rate was around 80% and fertility was pretty darn close to 99%. I didn't even have to pluck any vent feathers. If you didn't know, a lot of breeders of fluffier breeds pluck the vent feathers of their males AND females to ensure proper contact of the cloaca when breeding. The fluff near the vent can make it hard for the semen to reach the oviduct, so plucking the feathers helps ensure that process happens. I kind of forgot to pluck them at the beginning of hatching season, but realized quickly that I really didn't need to. I had a pretty crappy amazon incubator at the time, because my other nice incubator bit the dust. Even with the terrible quality incubators, I was getting 98% hatch rate. I was so shocked. I then got a higher quality cabinet incubator, the hatching time CT60. That changed the game even more. I was hatching out more than I could handle. At the end of the season, I hatched over 120 from just one pair. Most of them went to different homes, since they had defects that were not good for my breeding program. There was nothing really wrong with those chicks, they just weren't good for showing.

Now I am in the process of growing out the chicks that I kept. I had a decent ratio of males to females, about 55% males to 45% females. I'm getting them used to show cages and physical handling. They are looking pretty good so far. One thing I love about one of my males is that he is a GREAT rooster. He's kind, curious, caring, and polite. I try to breed that into my program, since it makes for a better bird overall. Unfortunately, I had multiple cockerels come out with a terrible attitude and aggression. I got rid of those because I don't want that in my breeding program, not matter how close they were to show quality. But there is one cockerel in my growout pen that is just like his father. He is calming down quickly, he's curious instead of scared, and he's kind. I'm very excited to see how he finishes out. I would love to keep him for next year's breeding program.

Stay tuned for pictures of some of my Wyandottes!

 

[RossAcres]

Here are some pictures of me and my Wyandottes.

My sweet wyandotte rooster

One of my wyandotte hens

 

[RossAcres]

Today I'm reading the ABA Standard of Perfection, since it's about time for me to start critiquing my grow outs. I'll be completely honest, reading the SOP can be anxiety-inducing for me. I think it's because I don't want to start seeing the birds I think I like be worse than I thought, according to the standard. Also, I'm still relatively new with Wyandottes, so I'm always afraid I'm going to judge them incorrectly.

Funny story on that. I bought a pair of Partridge Wyandottes from Chris Hall, a BIG name in Wyandottes. He was selling his "culls" (birds that weren't fitting for his breeding program) and I bought a pair to start off with. Well, I decided to enter them into a few shows. One of the shows I entered them in, Mr. Hall was also shwoing his partridge Wyandottes. I ended up getting best of breed over his birds, as well as the other varieties. He looked at me and laughed. "I think I sold you the wrong birds." I laughed, but I kinda felt bad for beating him with his cull birds. That goes to show that we can make errors when selecting our "best" birds.

I also did something similar this year. I had a super aggressive rooster that I did not want in my breeding program. He even ripped a hole in my scalp. I wanted him gone and gave him to the first guy that wanted him. Well, somehow that guy calmed that rooster down over the weekend and his kid won grand champion of the junior show with the aggressive rooster. It just happens that way sometimes.

 

[RossAcres]

So I didn't study the SOP as much as I should have yesterday. I want to take detailed notes to see if that helps with my understanding. I focused mainly on the shape of the males head. The comb should be wide at the base, slowly tapering to a point at the end. It should sit tightly along the skull the entire length. There should be small spikes on it, but no indentions or wrinkles.

When I did my daily handling of the male growouts, I noticed that I have some boys with surprisingly well-shaped combs. Though, at their current age, I cannot tell if the comb will fill out correctly without indents or wrinkles. That will take a little while longer.

I have one male that I really like so far. He has a good, round head and a very nice comb. He holds his tail higher than his fathers, which is a good thing. I'm not sure what the exact angle should be, but I'll look it over today or tommorrow.

When it comes to my females, the combs are looking rough. They are flat, not filled out, and have different issues in shape. I'm surprised by this, as their mother is a very good example of a partridge wyandotte. She has won Reserve RCCL multiple times. Her comb is darn near perfect. So I'm curious as to why her daughters are throwing sub-par combs. I will get pictures today, if I remember

 

[Rose_adamaj]

Follwing!

Me too

 

[RossAcres]

I turned off all three of my incubators this morning. I never realized how quiet my office is until I turned them all off. I may turn them back on for white noise lol.
I hatched a ton of partridge Wyandottes and 7 call ducks. Not a great hatching season, but it happens. Now I need to do my end-of-season cleaning of the incubators and put them in storage so I'm not tempted to hatch anything. Hatching season starts back up around late December. For now, it's show season. I'm excited to show what I've worked hard on this year. I'll update soon with pictures of this year's prospects.

 

[RossAcres]

Went to the Putnam County Fair last weekend. My friend wanted me to bring some ducks to add variety to the show. I decided to bring a few Wyandottes too. My white Wyandotte pullet got Reserve Show Champion, as well as Best RCCL and other awards. Band#11 cockerel got Reserve RCCL. It was an exciting and fun weekend.
Show Champion was my snowy call duck drake.

 

[Rose_adamaj]

Congratulations! That has to be an amazing feeling to win Show Champion