The Wyandotte Thread

[NanaKat]

Amen!
On the first cull for the older juveniles only keeping 25 out of 255 chicks hatched from late January to April 1
75 CW chicks this year narrowed down to 5 pullets and two cockerels
50 Birchen Wyandotte narrowed down to 3 pullets and two cockerels
25 Blue Columbian Wyandottes, narrowed down to 3 pullets and one cockerel
30 Blue Wyandotte only keeping one Blue pullet and one Blue cockerel
75 Cochins narrowed down to 3 Black pullets, 3 Blue pullets, 1 Black cockerel and no Blues.

And with the last clans to hatch from the end of April thru May, I will be even more selective.
I'm limiting the hatch from the new pens because of the heat we get in June thru the summer. It is really hard on young birds.

 

[Texasmja]

Dang you hatched a ton of chicks this season! I guess your birds have good fertility. I would love to see pictures of who you have chose to keep.

Amen!
On the first cull for the older juveniles only keeping 25 out of 255 chicks hatched from late January to April 1
75 CW chicks this year narrowed down to 5 pullets and two cockerels
50 Birchen Wyandotte narrowed down to 3 pullets and two cockerels
25 Blue Columbian Wyandottes, narrowed down to 3 pullets and one cockerel
30 Blue Wyandotte only keeping one Blue pullet and one Blue cockerel
75 Cochins narrowed down to 3 Black pullets, 3 Blue pullets, 1 Black cockerel and no Blues.

And with the last clans to hatch from the end of April thru May, I will be even more selective.
I'm limiting the hatch from the new pens because of the heat we get in June thru the summer. It is really hard on young birds.

 

[NanaKat]

As chicks start to feather out, how soon can you identify those that will have good lacing?

I like to wait until they are 6 weeks old and older. You can see if there is any shafting going on which I cull. You can see leg color as well. You can also tell the edging on the wing feathers.
Separate into three pens (or leg band with a different color) Keepers, maybes and No.
Freeze the "no" chicks when old enough to go to freezer camp.
Watch the Maybes while they grow for late-bloomers and sell or use as layer replacements or freeze.
Really look over the keepers as they grow. Some may look different in 3 months and you may decide not to keep a few....depends on whether you can afford to feed them over the winter.

Wyandottes are slow developers and good birds with no faults are your keepers.

 

[NanaKat]

Dang you hatched a ton of chicks this season! I guess your birds have good fertility. I would love to see pictures of who you have chose to keep.
Quote: Yes, We had such an odd winter this year that I set the breed pens in early January and began hatching. My two incubators have been going non stop since then and a friend/mentor who has an incubator that holds 600 eggs has been "helping" me. My Little Giant was only getting 45 - 55 % hatch, the Hovabator was getting 75% while Carl was getting close to 90%.. The hens have been going thru an early molt in early April so the egg count dropped, but is back up again so I'm going to collect until the second week in May from the newest pens and then wait until early fall for 2 or 3 hatches.
My feed bill has been huge!

I have the Maybes in a pen with the Keepers until a sale this weekend. I'll get some pictures Sunday and post them. I have a few of the maybes that will go in to the layer flock just because they are nice pullets with good type...just not the color I want for the breed pens. Will try to do some comparison photos for the novice folks.

 

[el pollo rey]

I have new blrw and GL chicks. One is an obvious splash

But would this chick be considered a splash or just a light blrw? Or GL?

Here they all are so you can see the color variations.

nice

 

[delisha]

I would be very interested to see your pictures as well

I find this line of birds I have here change feather patterns so often as they grow.

 

[K Epp]

I have no problems with it.

I have way too many to name anyways. LOL

I've got 50 or so and the naming has stopped, I went over board for each type of chicken I wanted I bought 5 or 6 figuring some would die. Lets just say I'm ery good at raising baby chicks in the dead of winter... LOL Now I'm finding homes for the extra.

 

[Texasmja]

Yes, We had such an odd winter this year that I set the breed pens in early January and began hatching. My two incubators have been going non stop since then and a friend/mentor who has an incubator that holds 600 eggs has been "helping" me. My Little Giant was only getting 45 - 55 % hatch, the Hovabator was getting 75% while Carl was getting close to 90%.. The hens have been going thru an early molt in early April so the egg count dropped, but is back up again so I'm going to collect until the second week in May from the newest pens and then wait until early fall for 2 or 3 hatches.
My feed bill has been huge!

I have the Maybes in a pen with the Keepers until a sale this weekend. I'll get some pictures Sunday and post them. I have a few of the maybes that will go in to the layer flock just because they are nice pullets with good type...just not the color I want for the breed pens. Will try to do some comparison photos for the novice folks.

We have had great fertility here also, I have been hatching since January also. I have been selling them like crazy and finally kept some back for myself to grow out. My oldest are 6 weeks, and from what few I kept they are really looking nice so far. I have about 50 chicks right now ranging from 2 weeks - 6 weeks. I have a few in the bator with some turkeys that are due next week. I may put them out with a broody BLR hen I have sitting on some duck eggs she stole.

 

[jockeyeba]

I believe this 6 week old is a BkLW? the WR/W behind is from the same hatching & it's a roo for sure The 2nd pic is 2 weeks old-what does it look like it's going to be? I have a GL pullet & a BLR pullet in with a BkL & a BLR roo, didn't mark which pullet laid which egg that I hatched ( I'll do better next time :/ ) Help

 

[ki4got]

Well I was beginning to wonder if I had the most unfriendly wyndottes ever. My SL I got at point of lay. She will walk around near, but doesn't want to be touched. wont eat out of my hand like the other chickens. I bought two GL chicks and they seemed to be acting the same. The are 3months old now and I have started introducing them and some other chicks the same age into the flock. I was walking by doing chores and one of them flew up about waist high and was up against me just flapping her wings. I thought is this thing trying to flog me. I put my hand down and scooped her up and she pro ceded to move to my shoulder. She has decided to be a pet. I sat down to hold her a minuet and the other GL and a mixed roo that's about the same age all came over and climbed up. I thought to my self Central Park has the Pigeon lady , I'm now the chicken lady. lol I know that its not that unusual, but this was a first for me.

each bird/breed is going to be an individual... only my sfh rooster and my older silver grey dorking rooster LIKE to be handled. the rest will get under foot and practically trip me when it's breakfast time, but don't like to be held at all. that's fine. occasionally i'll have a shoulder surfer too, but that's entirely random.