The Wyandotte Thread

[marquisella]

Quote:
I think rather that adding to the mix that is alread mixed up enough, breeding the best of what you have will get you further ahead.

I've had a closed flock for 5 years and just bred & culled for what I wanted.
It is working for me.

Sue

 

[americana-chick]

Quote:
I think rather that adding to the mix that is alread mixed up enough, breeding the best of what you have will get you further ahead.

I've had a closed flock for 5 years and just bred & culled for what I wanted.
It is working for me.

Sue

I am not trying to breed them to make them true to the breed or anything. Just wondered if anyone else has had this happen with mixing a white wyandotte with others and getting offspring that look similar to other varieties of wyandottes.
thanks

 

[colby318]

Mrs. Turbo :

the rooster is pretty cool looking....

We ran multiple experimental pens with the BLRWs. We tried the whites, blues, SLWs, and the RIR rose combs. Even with the genetic predictions, you just never know what your final outcome will be until you try it. I did get cranky a few times over the feed bill from growing out so many crosses in one year and we were building a new pen every week as the chicks grew, but the results have been positive in some of the crosses and some were a big waste of time and money. We are done with crosses and have raised 2 generations of BLRWs a year to get to our end result faster, but there’s always room for improvement.
I do agree that the white cross is not a great idea....been there.

And I benefit from all your hard work. The breeding stock you have for next spring is spectacular. And I noticed Jerry didn't turn his back on them for a second. He's knows I'd shove a couple of those hens under my coat. I'll probably settle on the black wyandotte and glw in the next 2 years. I unfortunately don't have quite the room that you do to diversify and experiment. I only have two breeding pens, a juvenile coop and the hen house for the fugly layers (they earn the feed money).
Colby​

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

A majority of the birds are a mix of something…..same with dogs. If there is something lacking in your birds like wyandotte type, color…..etc, there is nothing wrong with doing a cross as long as you keep good records. Same with call duck…..it you have a variety that is lacking in head size you do a cross to introduce that into your blood line. It is not going to come out of nowhere. We have a specific goal in mind with our line of BLRWs, not sure about everyone else, but when we put our BLRWs up against other wyandottes in a poultry show we would like them to have the body type and size of the SLWs and that will be very hard to do without making a cross. A few years ago we got the color down on them and now we are working on type and size while trying to hold on to the color at the same time. I know everyone will find what works for them

 

[americana-chick]

Mrs. Turbo,
I went to your website and was amazed! You really do have great looking birds.

I am ordering some BLRWs from Meyer, and although i know they wont be the best of qualitie i still love the color of the breed. I would be so lucky if my birds had the same plumage as yours!
Brianna

 

[elizabethbinary]

Wynadottes can be sexed young, hey? I have this four week old chick and it's standing like a boy these days but he's like my first self-incubated shipped hatched egg, yannow?

So I'm contemplating figuring out it's sex so if he's a boy I can get used to the idea of eating him.

Maybe I should look for more Wynadotte eggs here soon and hatch him some hens.

 

[BooBear]

elizabethbinary

well of the five boys I have one feathered at the same rate as the girls the other 4 feathered slower. The boys will definitely have pinker combs and get wattles. All 14 of mine are 11 weeks old and I just started noticing that some of the girls are getting their girly wattles in.
Also, the boys acted boyish and get more boyish behavior the older they get. Big Boy was the first to crow at 7 weeks old. At 9 weeks one of the black boys started crowing. The other 3 have not crowed yet. I don't think Big Boy or that black one allow them to.

Oh yeah, Dad and I read about vent sexing 2 weeks into having our wyandottes so we tried it on 4 of them: 3 girls and 1 boy (think it tramatized him a bit

). If you see a pimple like bump it is a boy and a hollow vent is a girl. Some may vary in looks a bit but it is pretty easy to do (kinda weird though

). You have to be very gentle with them when you do it as babies are delicate.

 

[turbo]

Quote:
I do have my personal pet project flock....known at home as the X-pen, this flock of BLRW are very big and typey and I love the red on them...I crossed Rose Comb RR on them about 6-7 generations ago and it took a long time and alot of chicks to get wyandotte type back in them, but it became apparent to me early on that I needed to cross something into them to get the size and heads that you see in exhibition SLW and Whites.

The Mahogany gene may be dominant, but in my experience with my birds there are some melanizers floating around in the mix that can effect your red background color, I still have trouble with the gold-brassy color in the hackles on the X-BLRW...but not nearly as bad as the regular BLRW....I think crossing the SLW on your BLRW can be a very effective tool in improving your BLRW...if you use a SLW rooster on your BLRW hens all of your pullets should carry the gold gene and look like BLRW....the cockerels would be useless...of course what you are suppose to get and what you really get is two different things...you never know what is lurking in the background makeup of your birds.


Jerry

 

[elizabethbinary]

Quote:
HEN!

Did a vent sex, which is way easier than it was on the goose! Yay!!!!

 

[hoppy]

Quote:
I remember the first time I vent sexed our 5 barred rocks, 3 girls 2 boys, well 12 weeks later, it was 5 boys. now I know you can color sex them and I'm sure that's what happened.

I have learned to wing sex the dottes at 1-3 days. so much easier, just need to mark them because after 4 days, you can't tell until they are older.