The Wyandotte Thread

[stitch_b]

Hi everyone I really love looking at all the pix! Hopefully ill be able to contribute soo. I am planning on picking up a chick within the week. I was wondering if anyone had tips for picking them out as chicks. Id like to get a a pullet to add to our backyard flock

. Are there any behaviors I should look for or any morphological differences? Im planning getting a blr hopefully around 1-2 weeks old. Anyone got any tips??

 

[SChunn]

Hi. I'm new here and just got 6 GLW last week after alot of searching. My babies are about 5 weeks old and I love them already. I also have 6 barred rock pullets. The barred babies are a bit more friendly than my dottes, but they are coming around. I will be adding some SLW in the spring or maybe sooner if I can find some nice eggs to hatch. I wanted to stick with only wyandottes, but it's sort of a family flock and the rocks are for my brother. My SIL also bought 3 cochin(1 frizzle) 2 polish and one mystery chick that may be a welsummer. I also have 4 guineas and a RIR that I think is really a sex link. Kinda alot for a first flock, but we eat alot of eggs so it should be ok. I think that 3 of my dottes are roos, so we'll have to see who turns out the best to se who stays. Anyway, I will post a few pics if I can figure it out.

 

[SChunn]

I hope this works. Two of my GLW chicks. One roo and one pullet I think. Three of the babies have very pink combs. Thre others have black combs that are not growing, but one of these three hs pink at the top of the comb. I hope it's not a roo....

 

[SimplyMe_AngieD]

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These are very cute! Thank you for sharing!

 

[turbo]

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Look out! That GUINEA is after you!!Run little chicks...run...

 

[gilavina]

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I am working my way through the Wyandotte thread and thought I'd jump in (without reading all the way through to the end

) and say that birchens do still exist. My dad has had bantam Wyandottes for as long as I've been alive (thirty plus years). Among his favored colors are blues and birchens, both of which he has. He has pretty significant health issues, so I moved back to NE a couple years ago and have been working on his birds again. I've had to do alot of test mating to see which ones carry the birchen gene and last year had a great year of success. I'm still working on them, and am starting with small numbers in the birchens, but at one time both his blues and birchens were pretty tuned in. I think its gonna keep getting better. Good thing I paid attention to all the things my dad taught me growing up

I raise several other breeds of birds, but besides my dad's bantam wyandottes, I raise columbian wyandottes (lefeber stock) and this spring ordered a mix of standard wyandotte chicks through Paul's poultry. The SL went to my mom's pen of SL and I held back a good start in partridge, blues and columbians. I have a BLR pullet that is turning out nicely and two silver penciled pullets. I am now on the hunt for a BLR cockerel and a SP cockerel. It is not an easy task. If anyone has a heads up on a good breeder of both or either in the surrounding area from me I'd much appreciate it!

Oh...and I have some standard Blue wyandottes I picked up at sale in kansas and some of the chicks out of the hatch are starting to develop birchen markings. Most noticeably a black cockerel. We'll see how it goes and will have to do some more test hatchings to see what might lie behind them, but am happy to be back in birds again. Particularly the Wyandottes...they will always have a spot in my heart about a mile wide

 

[GoldenPuppy]

I just got some new pictures of my BLRWs who are just over 13 weeks old.

This is Rockefeller, a cockerel.

Another picture of The Rock.

Here is his pullet, Szevlana.

Another pullet, Inga.

The gang perched on top of the stall door.

 

[SimplyMe_AngieD]

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Very pretty birds. I have GLW, but I think I now NEED to find a few BLW!!

 

[WyandotteTX]

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I am working my way through the Wyandotte thread and thought I'd jump in (without reading all the way through to the end

) and say that birchens do still exist. My dad has had bantam Wyandottes for as long as I've been alive (thirty plus years). Among his favored colors are blues and birchens, both of which he has. He has pretty significant health issues, so I moved back to NE a couple years ago and have been working on his birds again. I've had to do alot of test mating to see which ones carry the birchen gene and last year had a great year of success. I'm still working on them, and am starting with small numbers in the birchens, but at one time both his blues and birchens were pretty tuned in. I think its gonna keep getting better. Good thing I paid attention to all the things my dad taught me growing up

I raise several other breeds of birds, but besides my dad's bantam wyandottes, I raise columbian wyandottes (lefeber stock) and this spring ordered a mix of standard wyandotte chicks through Paul's poultry. The SL went to my mom's pen of SL and I held back a good start in partridge, blues and columbians. I have a BLR pullet that is turning out nicely and two silver penciled pullets. I am now on the hunt for a BLR cockerel and a SP cockerel. It is not an easy task. If anyone has a heads up on a good breeder of both or either in the surrounding area from me I'd much appreciate it!

Oh...and I have some standard Blue wyandottes I picked up at sale in kansas and some of the chicks out of the hatch are starting to develop birchen markings. Most noticeably a black cockerel. We'll see how it goes and will have to do some more test hatchings to see what might lie behind them, but am happy to be back in birds again. Particularly the Wyandottes...they will always have a spot in my heart about a mile wide

Nice to hear there are some of this variety still out there. I hope you continue to improve them and share when you can. Would love to see some pics if you get the chance. I can say I have never seen a Birchen Wyandotte and I have seen ALOT of wyandottes hahaha!!!
I am still searching for help with the White Laced Reds. My two old girls laid all summer long two summers ago when I didnt have a male and this past spring and summer decided to stop when I had a male GL in with them.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I am working my way through the Wyandotte thread and thought I'd jump in (without reading all the way through to the end

) and say that birchens do still exist. My dad has had bantam Wyandottes for as long as I've been alive (thirty plus years). Among his favored colors are blues and birchens, both of which he has. He has pretty significant health issues, so I moved back to NE a couple years ago and have been working on his birds again. I've had to do alot of test mating to see which ones carry the birchen gene and last year had a great year of success. I'm still working on them, and am starting with small numbers in the birchens, but at one time both his blues and birchens were pretty tuned in. I think its gonna keep getting better. Good thing I paid attention to all the things my dad taught me growing up

I raise several other breeds of birds, but besides my dad's bantam wyandottes, I raise columbian wyandottes (lefeber stock) and this spring ordered a mix of standard wyandotte chicks through Paul's poultry. The SL went to my mom's pen of SL and I held back a good start in partridge, blues and columbians. I have a BLR pullet that is turning out nicely and two silver penciled pullets. I am now on the hunt for a BLR cockerel and a SP cockerel. It is not an easy task. If anyone has a heads up on a good breeder of both or either in the surrounding area from me I'd much appreciate it!

Oh...and I have some standard Blue wyandottes I picked up at sale in kansas and some of the chicks out of the hatch are starting to develop birchen markings. Most noticeably a black cockerel. We'll see how it goes and will have to do some more test hatchings to see what might lie behind them, but am happy to be back in birds again. Particularly the Wyandottes...they will always have a spot in my heart about a mile wide

Nice to hear there are some of this variety still out there. I hope you continue to improve them and share when you can. Would love to see some pics if you get the chance. I can say I have never seen a Birchen Wyandotte and I have seen ALOT of wyandottes hahaha!!!
I am still searching for help with the White Laced Reds. My two old girls laid all summer long two summers ago when I didnt have a male and this past spring and summer decided to stop when I had a male GL in with them.

I am hoping if I can get my the rest of my Marans sorted this week I will be moving onto culling in the wyandottes. That process goes quite a bit slower as the bantams...minus the columbians are my dad's. He's legally blind and in a wheelchair...so its a lot of describing and explaining...and him handling each one and me describing some more. He trusts my judgement on selecting birds, but I really want to make sure he feels like he is part of the process, no matter how aggrevating it may get for me at times. Wyandottes have been a huge part of his life for as long as I can remember and have always been his main focus in poultry and I want to learn as much from him as I can while I still have him. And I want to carry on the wyandottes because of how much he taught me to appreciate them growing up.
The hardest time I'm having at the moment is with the birchens coloring. The pattern itself is great, but since I'm working to sort out who carries the gene through the test mating its slow going and I seem to get more of the ones that have the split for gold and silver which is more of that yellowish cast to it. I'm trying to work away from that, but won't know if I'm making any progress til next season when I hatch from what I cull down to this fall. Its a lot of work. I guess I never really thought about the birchens being that rare. My dad has just always had some floating around since I was a kid. I'm particularly interested in the standard boy that's exhibiting the birchen pattern...so far he is developing a really good silver color!
I'll post pics when I get a chance...hopefully sorting and culling will go smoothly!
The white laced reds sound really interesting! Hopefully they'll crank out some hatching eggs for you cause I think that sounds like a beautiful project! have you posted pics of them on here before?