Silver-Laced Breed for the Heat?

[3KillerBs]

Since it came up in another discussion,

The Silver-Laced pattern makes for some of the prettiest hens in existence. But the commonly-available Silver-Laced Wyandottes and Silver-Laced Cochins are not exactly well-suited to hot climates, especially hot, humid climates. They may make it through an extended period of 95-95 weather, but they can't be said to exactly thrive in it.

Flipping through a few hatchery catalogs, I'm not seeing any Silver-Laced birds in dual-purpose or Mediterranean types with clean legs and big single combs to help them cope with blistering heat and humidity.

Am I missing something that should be obvious or have hot-climate people never bred this color pattern as a variety in their breeds?

 

[3KillerBs]

So, I've ordered SLWs in my Ideal order to arrive next week and will have at least a casual stab at creating a single-combed, Australorp-adjacent bird with this color pattern.

 

[K0k0shka]

There's something I've been wanting to do, but never got around to it, and now your thread might just push me to try harder I want to see if there's a way you can tell boy from girl at this young of an age based on the comb (for single combs specifically). I have noticed significant differences from chick to chick when freshly hatched. Just with this batch I have right now, which are all supposed to be high quality Lavender Orpingtons (so all single combs), some hatched with real little combs with points on them and everything, yet others have pretty much nothing up there, just what looks like flat skin, or the tiniest hint of a central line where the comb would someday rise from, but no points or any definition at all. In previous hatches, I've had chicks that came out of the egg and my first thought was "oh man, well THAT's a boy!" - that's how prominent their little points were. And it did turn out to be a boy! But I never put in the work of photographing and tracking all of them. It will be hard to tell these guys apart now because they are all the same breed and all look the same... but I want to try.

 

[Windrider]

I think I mentioned before that I thought the Double Laced Silver Barnevelder would look beautiful in your flock! Not exactly the crispness of the single laced, but easily some of the most beautiful chickens out there. And you get nice dark brown eggs, too!

@K0k0shka got some real beauties as hatching eggs from Blue House Farm.

 

[K0k0shka]

There is silver laced orpingtons

They don’t do well in the heat though. Mine pant the worst of all my chickens, and I’m in the North. They are too large and fluffy. Like I said earlier in the thread, my (double) silver laced Barnevelders do great in the heat. They handle frigid temperatures very well, too. They have single combs, but their combs are tiny.

 

[K0k0shka]

@K0k0shka got some real beauties as hatching eggs from Blue House Farm.

Mine are real beauties for sure! They are small and lightweight, and do very well in the summer. I know I'm in the north but summers get brutally hot over here, and humid, too, because we're by the ocean. My Silver Laced Orpingtons look pathetic in the summer, with all that fluff - panting, with their wings out, while the Barnevelders look unbothered. I had a good hatch rate on my shipped eggs from Blue House Farm - something like 50-60%, which is great given that they flew from NC to MA. And I had a really crappy styrofoam incubator at the time. With a shorter trip and a better incubator, I'm sure they'll be even more successful! The breeder was great to work with, prompt and professional and very nice. I'm very happy with my experience overall.

 

[K0k0shka]

Rose combs are so much wider than single combs, I've been able to see the difference on just-arrived chicks, if I pick them up and look at the head. Sometimes I can see it if I just sit by the brooder and watch them for a while.


I would be too. I like the laced feathers, but not the rose combs.

I only have limited experience with non-single combs, and from what I remember from last year's brood, the chicks that ended up with rose/pea combs didn't have any points when they were chicks, it was just flat on top. I just hatched a bunch of Lavender Orpingtons a couple of days ago, and interestingly (disappointingly) some of them have completely flat combs, like flat against the head and smooth, while the rest have very visible little points. I want to keep 1 or 2 from this batch, and I'll be so disappointed if for some reason my favorites end up with "tumor combs" They squirm too much for close-up pictures, but I'll try to get some.

 

[3KillerBs]

Be sure to post pictures of the results! I'm a traditionalist, and a big fan of the good old single comb. The other types just look like different shapes of tumors to me

I like Brahma pea combs. They suit the heavy "dinosaur" head with the brow ridges.

 

[NatJ]

The breeders ive seen to has been breeding for years and have never had fertility issues

My understanding is that fertility is no problem with small breeding groups, but it is for big hatcheries (hundreds of hens and a relatively small number of roosters.) It means they need to keep a larger number of roosters with the same number of hens to ensure fertile eggs.

But I think the real reason hatchery flocks have some single comb birds is because removing the ones that carry the single comb gene is too much bother. They would have to test-mate every single breeding bird one year, cull all the ones that carry single comb, and only breed from the ones that are pure for rose comb. It's easier for them to just breed from birds that show a rose comb, and not care if it carries the not-rose gene; they will still get large numbers of chicks with rose combs.

 

[3KillerBs]

Sorry if I missed this from earlier in the thread... are you aiming for laced Australorps...?

If I'd have been able to discover a silver-laced breed that was suitable for the heat I'd have found it much easier to just buy some.

But in the large fowl breeds it's just Wyandottes and Cochins.

I couldn't possibly achieve a new color variety that would merit inclusion in the SOP, but I can probably achieve something silver-laced and Australorp-adjacent.