Silver Laced Wyandotte question

[Pele]

Hi all,

I figured this was a good place to ask about a cute little silver laced wyandotte I purchased about a week ago. I've started to worry myself now that her wings have started coming in that she's of poor stock and won't have lacing.

For all of you Wyandotte owners out there, is it your experience that the first baby primaries that come in on the wings are all black? Is this a sign that she'll have poor lacing? I'm praying she'll have good lacing, I'd be so devistated if she came out black with random splashes on her. I didn't buy a dalmation chicken!

Please let me know what you think.

 

[AinaWGSD]

A hatchery bird will never have "good" lacing. But they won't necessarily look "like a vulture with bleach spots" either. You'll be surprised at how much her feathers change as she matures.

This is my hatchery SLW, Gertrude, at a few weeks old when her wing feathers were coming in but not much else but baby down.

as you can see, they're mostly black with just a thin stripe of white along the shaft and a small spot of white at the ends.

Same bird a month later (almost to the day)

Still lots of black, but a lot more white than the very first feathers.

And this is her at about 6 months old.

Lacing isn't great, but it is definitely lacing and while she won't be winning any shows (in addition to the poor lacing she also has the wrong type of comb and while you can't see it in this picture her pupils are uneven with the left one almost half as small as the right) most people still think she's fairly pretty.

Hatcheries breed for quantity. They don't have the time that smaller breeders do to evaluate their breeding stock and select only those with the best lacing because each spring they have to get hundreds if not thousands of chicks hatched and shipped out. Patterns such as lacing are pretty challenging to breed even if you do have time to carefully select the very best breeding birds. It's not that the hatcheries are shady, it's just that you can't put out the sheer quantity that they are expected to produce and maintain a high standard of quality in the lacing.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
I'm sorry, but if she came from a hatchery the odds of her having the correct lacing is not good at all.

 

[KansasBoy]

Quote:
I'm sorry, but if she came from a hatchery the odds of her having the correct lacing is not good at all.

x2

 

[chicmom]

Going through the same thing....I bought six SLW from TSC, and of course they're hatchery birds, but each one is unique.....Some are mostly black with a tiny bit of white, and some are more white.....One has a single comb which is wrong....(that's a rooster). Non will be show birds, but what the heck, I'll enjoy them anyhow. (The prettiest SLW is not SQ, but she's sooo pretty, and I was glad she's a hen.)

You can always sell them if you get the urge to raise show stock.....Then you'll need to buy from breeders, of course.....Sometimes you can find nice birds at poultry shows.......

Good luck to you! It's amazing how chicks change as they grow......

 

[Pele]

That's terrible that hatcheries allow that much deviation. I didn't even want a show quality chicken, just one that had somewhat good lacing. I can't believe they could advertize that they even sell the breed if they foist off vulture looking birds with random bleach stains on them.

I'll keep and love this chicken because it's not her fault that the hatchery is shady, but man am I sad. Oh well, they all lay eggs I guess.

 

[trilyn]

Aina..she also has a single comb which is a huge no-no. But as you already pointed out, there is no way a hatchery could breed for proper lacing...it does take an astronomical number of birds to breed quality...she is pretty!

 

[Pele]

Quote:
Oh thank goodness! Phew you took a load off of my shoulders! My little girl is feathering in exactly the same as yours did. I love how yours turned out... that's exactly what I was hoping for when I bought her. I'm not in need of a 'perfect' chicken, but I wanted one that at least resembles silver lacing.

I'm going to go celebrate by cuddling her

 

[Aj1911]

most hatcheries dont breed for proper lacing, comb and tail (a wyandotte tail should be wide and kinda round not clam shell like the ones you get from hatcheries) or even good laying its why i'm moving away from hatchery birds

i've lost 2 birds from 2 hatcheries so far from genetic problems (internal laying, heart failure/kidney failure)

now one of my other GLW's is having problems all tho i suspect its either worms or internal laying (her abdomen is pretty large for it to be worms)

so imo its best to avoid hatcheries all together and go with people like foley's and pauls poultry

 

[take2tabs]

This is a view from the side of the back of my Silver Laced Wyandotte. Her feather tracings are unusual. I see no photographs of this color pattern of white feather shapes traced onto black feathers. Is this rare? Is there a name for it?