The Wyandotte Thread

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Crazy! Awesome he made it. Beautiful guy. That happen to some kittens that were born in a hay stack. 2 of 5 did not make it but the ones that did were fine. Creepy thing to witness and deal with.

NanaKat said:
Dracoe has posted some sketches of the ideal Comb... really nice sketches too.

I have nice type and color in the Columbian pens. And have made progress in the Blue Columbian and the Birchen pens.

Here are some photos for comparison from my flock both good and bad combs. I'm culling the bad combs by the way.

The first is a Birchen Wyandotte project bird. Several views of his comb which has nice size, and texture. His wattles also have the fine grained texture. The tip of the comb could lay closer to the contour of his head, but otherwise it is a nice comb. Even though he has three white feathers in his tail, he will cover a test pen of three nicely marked Birchen hens in the Spring.

He is standing with his rear against the fence so it has thrown off his stance.

A Columbian Wyandotte 8 month old cockerel in the keeper pen has a nice small finely textured comb and wattles. He is on the watch list to see if he develops the wide chest I want for a breeder. The point fits the curve of his head and has a nice tip

These three are young cockerels about 6 months of age. The one the left front has a small comb while the cockerel behind has a fleshy comb that is smooth textured. I suspect it will get too large by 8 months. The one on the right has a fork in the tip with three spikes.
Wattles are too small on the two in front at this point. The two on the left will be watched for the next two months to see if the type fills out and if the color improves. The one on the right goes in the freezer soon.

Now for some really BAD substandard combs:
This Columbian Wyandotte has really nice type and color but his comb is lacking due to the sprigs on the side of the tip. The texture in the front of the comb is nice, but as the comb follows the contour of his head, it becomes more bumpy. The wattles have nice texture, but have too many folds for my taste.

And this Birchen cockerel has way too many dimples and flesh. He also has nice type and color. The tip of the comb has notches on the tip that are not acceptable.

Chicks at 8 weeks will begin to show the contour in their combs..especially in the tips of the combs. I will take some photos of some 12 - 16 week olds that exhibit good and bad combs tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Wow, some of those combs are incredible. I would like to see the rest of them :) The Birchen are looking awesome.
 
Lizzie
400
and NOLA
400
 
NanaKat said:
Dracoe has posted some sketches of the ideal Comb... really nice sketches too.

I have nice type and color in the Columbian pens. And have made progress in the Blue Columbian and the Birchen pens.

Here are some photos for comparison from my flock both good and bad combs. I'm culling the bad combs by the way.

The first is a Birchen Wyandotte project bird. Several views of his comb which has nice size, and texture. His wattles also have the fine grained texture. The tip of the comb could lay closer to the contour of his head, but otherwise it is a nice comb. Even though he has three white feathers in his tail, he will cover a test pen of three nicely marked Birchen hens in the Spring.

He is standing with his rear against the fence so it has thrown off his stance.


A Columbian Wyandotte 8 month old cockerel in the keeper pen has a nice small finely textured comb and wattles. He is on the watch list to see if he develops the wide chest I want for a breeder. The point fits the curve of his head and has a nice tip.







These three are young cockerels about 6 months of age. The one the left front has a small comb while the cockerel behind has a fleshy comb that is smooth textured. I suspect it will get too large by 8 months. The one on the right has a fork in the tip with three spikes.
Wattles are too small on the two in front at this point. The two on the left will be watched for the next two months to see if the type fills out and if the color improves. The one on the right goes in the freezer soon.


Now for some really BAD substandard combs:
This Columbian Wyandotte has really nice type and color but his comb is lacking due to the sprigs on the side of the tip. The texture in the front of the comb is nice, but as the comb follows the contour of his head, it becomes more bumpy. The wattles have nice texture, but have too many folds for my taste.






And this Birchen cockerel has way too many dimples and flesh. He also has nice type and color. The tip of the comb has notches on the tip that are not acceptable.






Chicks at 8 weeks will begin to show the contour in their combs..especially in the tips of the combs. I will take some photos of some 12 - 16 week olds that exhibit good and bad combs tomorrow.
Click to expand...

thumbsup.gif
great pictures!! This really gives an awesome visual..good & bad. For those of us "new" to the show. Thank you, anything that helps educate is so appreciated!
 
NanaKat said:
Dracoe has posted some sketches of the ideal Comb... really nice sketches too.

I have nice type and color in the Columbian pens. And have made progress in the Blue Columbian and the Birchen pens.

Here are some photos for comparison from my flock both good and bad combs. I'm culling the bad combs by the way.

The first is a Birchen Wyandotte project bird. Several views of his comb which has nice size, and texture. His wattles also have the fine grained texture. The tip of the comb could lay closer to the contour of his head, but otherwise it is a nice comb. Even though he has three white feathers in his tail, he will cover a test pen of three nicely marked Birchen hens in the Spring.

He is standing with his rear against the fence so it has thrown off his stance.


A Columbian Wyandotte 8 month old cockerel in the keeper pen has a nice small finely textured comb and wattles. He is on the watch list to see if he develops the wide chest I want for a breeder. The point fits the curve of his head and has a nice tip.







These three are young cockerels about 6 months of age. The one the left front has a small comb while the cockerel behind has a fleshy comb that is smooth textured. I suspect it will get too large by 8 months. The one on the right has a fork in the tip with three spikes.
Wattles are too small on the two in front at this point. The two on the left will be watched for the next two months to see if the type fills out and if the color improves. The one on the right goes in the freezer soon.


Now for some really BAD substandard combs:
This Columbian Wyandotte has really nice type and color but his comb is lacking due to the sprigs on the side of the tip. The texture in the front of the comb is nice, but as the comb follows the contour of his head, it becomes more bumpy. The wattles have nice texture, but have too many folds for my taste.






And this Birchen cockerel has way too many dimples and flesh. He also has nice type and color. The tip of the comb has notches on the tip that are not acceptable.






Chicks at 8 weeks will begin to show the contour in their combs..especially in the tips of the combs. I will take some photos of some 12 - 16 week olds that exhibit good and bad combs tomorrow.
Click to expand...
 
Phase 2 of comb pictures:
These photos document some of the diverse combs found on juvenile Wyandotte (ages 12 - 18 weeks) that are obvious faults.
In addition, I've included pictures of minor issues that are not in the ideal in the juveniles and what the adult version could become.

I hope this is helpful and I invite any critique and correction as I am learning too.

When culling, you obviously look for body type first and then look at color because combs and leg color can be corrected later. So sometimes, you might keep a bird that has great vigor, type, stance and leg color with a minor comb issue that you know can be corrected by utilizing the right complementary parent.

Again, these examples come from my Columbian Wyandotte pen and Birchen Wyandotte project pens. These young birds were the last groups to hatch in May and June so culling for combs will be a definite consideration.

This first group are definite culls:
The left comb has a big depression in the front and numerous bumps on the tip. I expect it to look like the older cockerel posted in the pictures yesterday. The comb on the right is much too black on the beak and there is a bump beyond the tip of the comb that will grow larger.


The comb on the left has three separate tips to the comb. The comb on the right has a defined upturned tip like a horn



This tip on the left is an embedded tip...smaller than the one above but still unacceptable as the flesh will grow up around it. The comb on the right has notching that could turn into sprigs since this is a cockerel. A pullet might not sprig.



A definite cull...sometimes a single comb chick will pop up even in a closed flock. He goes in the freezer soon.



Some nice looking combs worth keeping:
Pullet on left and cockerel on the right



Cockerel with a nice shaped, comb and wattles. Will be watching the texture over the next few months. And on the right a pullet with a good comb



Sometimes you have to hold judgment for a few months:

These two combs are darker than I would like but may pink up as these two grow. A CW cockerel and a Birchen Pullet.



This pullet will be a watch for the next two months. There is a break in the line of the tip that may or may not flesh out. See the first hen picture below for an example of what I mean.




These hens are in the laying flock because while they had great type and leg color, they had some minor issues with combs that I wanted to watch. They have an opportunity to go into a test pen with a complementary rooster to see if improvement can be made on the combs.

An slight separation in the comb tip on the left and on the right a rough tip with bumps on the comb


A notched tip and a nice shape but rough textured comb


Her comb has an uneven bump near the tip. She has great type and nice color on her legs.


This Blue hen has a nicely shaped comb with good texture on both the comb and the wattle. The CW has an acceptable comb although it is somewhat rough.
 
Last edited:
A few pictures from the Birchen project: The hens are now laying and were hatched January to March ....seems I had pullets in the early hatches and more cockerels in the later ones. Saved back three hens fom this hear and have to make a decision on the cockerels in the next few months. The hens all have yellow under black legs, but the cockerels have yellow legs.







You can see these guys are several months younger than the hens but the yellow legs stand out. There is a Blue Birchen in that first picture.



Then here are the two saved from the Blue Columbian pen this year.




 
LittleMissPurdy said:
NanaKat- again, great pics! The girl with the totally "black" comb,(8th-down), she MAY "pink-out"...so there can be a chance for a darker comb to become red/pink? How long do yo usually wait it out?
Click to expand...
If by Point of Lay she hasn't turned a pink or red, she won't go into a breed pen. She will become a member of the layer flock.
 

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