Wyandotte temperaments

[Auntiejessi3]

Yeah, my guess was it's just a different breed having its own quirks. But the 4 of them have a LOT of individual variation between them, too, so maybe that's a factor, too... They cover the entire spectrum of friendliness with humans - from one extreme, where my favorite of the 4 was very social and friendly with people from the start, seeks me out and snuggles with me etc., through a couple of intermediately friendly ones, to the least friendly that won't let me touch or even get near her, and will scream and protest if I try to hold her. All 4 spent the first month of their lives in our house being handled every day by all family members, and while the two middle ones did warm up to humans through exposure, the last one never did, so that seems to be just individual variation. Like with the Barnevelders. Nothing beats the Orps, they are always best all around, especially Papa's

My big dilemma now is whether to care about the in-fighting when picking which of the Wyandottes stays. The two that I want to keep (the most human friendly) don't get along. But they are confident within the main flock, so maybe it doesn't matter.

I'd say keep the ones you like and they will find their place and friends within your flock. IMO there is nothing worse than having a bird in your flock that just doesn't do it for you or your flock.

 

[K0k0shka]

Careful! Next thing you know you'll be neck-deep in breeds and the standards of perfection for each. It's a slippery slope to full-on "opening a hatchery" from there.

Hahaha. Good thing I don't have the space (or time) for that, otherwise... who knows where I might end up!

 

[MiMito3]

I only have one Wyandotte, a SL and she is the bully out of 9 hens. Just ornery. And noisy as all get out. Not a fan even though she’s a beautiful chicken.

 

[K0k0shka]

I'd say keep the ones you like and they will find their place and friends within your flock. IMO there is nothing worse than having a bird in your flock that just doesn't do it for you or your flock.

Oh absolutely. My space and time are very limited, so any bird that gets to stay has to earn it. So my options here are keep the two I like, or don't keep any at all... I'm not putting up with antisocial chickens.

I have a new layer of complication now. The super friendly Wyandotte that is definitely on the "keep" list is having some serious health problems right now that she may or may not live through... So I have to decide if the other friendly one I wanted to keep would be fine eventually being left as the only one of her peer group, if her buddy doesn't make it. I don't want to keep a third just as filler, the others aren't friendly enough. I recently had a lone pullet with no peers, because all the rest ended up cockerels and I had to eat them. She was hatched and raised with the flock and integrated, but she was too submissive and skittish and invited hostility from everyone else. She was very depressed and miserable, hanging around the periphery too afraid to join whatever they were doing. She was too timid to vocalize, too - I first heard her voice when she was about a year and a half old. So I don't like to leave lone chickens with no peers, even if they are otherwise integrated with the flock. But unlike her (she was an orp), the Wyandottes are confident with the flock and insert themselves actively into every situation, so I'm hoping that if I end up with just one, she won't be a miserable outsider like that orp was.

 

[casportpony]

Is it possible that she's not feeling well? I've noticed that when one of mine drops to the bottom of the pecking order it's because they aren't feeling well. Is she molting?

 

[Insnesnakos]

I only have one Wyandotte, a SL and she is the bully out of 9 hens. Just ornery. And noisy as all get out. Not a fan even though she’s a beautiful chicken.

I also have one Wyandotte! She's beautiful but gets bullied by the australorps. They peck her and chase her when there's food so I try to give her some to make up for it

 

[K0k0shka]

Is it possible that she's not feeling well? I've noticed that when one of mine drops to the bottom of the pecking order it's because they aren't feeling well. Is she molting?

She's too young to have a real molt (6 months old). She's currently not feeling well, as she's been having crop problems for the past week, but she's been in a crate in that time. The pecking order reshuffling happened several months ago, way way before she started feeling unwell because of her crop. Unless whatever is causing the crop problems is something deeper that started months ago... but I didn't notice any change in her behavior until last week. Up until then she was very active, at the front when treats were being handed out (moistened crumble), etc. The pecking order reshuffling that put her at the bottom happened while I was away for a month. My husband didn't hang out much with the chickens (beyond basic care) or observe their behavior closely, so I don't know what happened exactly. Things were different when I came back, and suddenly that pullet was at the bottom, when she's the largest and had better standing before. It bugs me that I missed so much time with them and potentially something I could've caught, but it is what it is. The older flock members don't target her any more than they harass the rest of her peers, and even that is minimal pecking order stuff. It's just a couple of her peers. I've noticed that they've formed alliances based on color. Between the 4 Wyandottes, which used to get along equally well with each other, now it's the gold laced against the splash laced red, with the additional wrinkle of one splash laced red pecking her twin sister - the pullet in question, the other splash laced red. Too much drama... I'll stick with orps in the future.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I only have 1, a blue laced gold. She gets along great with her 2 flock mates (both mosaics). Her sons are always mild tempered too.

 

[Chickin Fairy]

I have two jerk-faced Wyandottes in a flock of Easter Eggers and Bantams. The Wyandottes are in the middle of the pecking order, lower than the EE's but above the Bantams. One of them constantly chases my smallest bantam, but I raised a bantam rooster and second bantam hen this year and things have calmed down.

My roo leaves the Wyandottes alone, but does fancy the EE's. And I will say my Wyandottes are by far my most consistent layers in my flock.

 

[BiggDeal]

This is my first year with Wyandottes. I also have several generations of Orpingtons (some breeder English and some hatchery buffs), and some Barnevelders. Each new batch is either hand-raised in my house and integrated at 5 weeks old, or raised by a broody with the flock. I'm noticing a clear difference between the Wyandottes and all the others... With all the others, the chickens within a peer group are very well bonded with each other and get along great, forming micro-flocks within the flock. There might be some minor squabbles, but on the whole, they get along with their peers better than with the older or younger chickens. All except for the Wyandottes... There are 4 of them and they were hand raised in my house, and got along fine as chicks, but as they got older, I noticed more and more internal tension within the group. They are 6 months old now and peck at each other for no good reason. Alliances shift often and I just can't tell who's friends with whom. I haven't seen this much internal drama in my other peer groups at all! So I'm assuming it's a breed thing? Another thing that stands out about them is that they integrated themselves with the flock much better than the others. I also have a small batch of hatchery buff Orps that are the same age and were raised by a broody with the flock, so they've been "integrated" since the start, yet the house-raised Wyandottes are accepted much better by the flock (the buffs are too timid and invite bullying).

That was the background context. Now, my real question. I want to keep 2 of the 4 Wyandottes. Since these will be pet chickens, my preference would be for the 2 that I like best - the 2 most human-friendly - rather than the 2 that get along best. But my 2 favorites aren't friends Lately one has been acting a bit jerky with the other, though that's a new development. Nothing major, no blood and no plucked feathers, just being a butthole. How much should I care about that when picking who stays and who goes? Flock cohesion is important, but being docile with humans is more important, to me. Will they grow out of this phase? The other 2 Wyandottes, as well as the buffs, will go to the freezer soon, so at the end it will be the 2 friendly Wyandottes and the older hens. Maybe they'll re-bond once they find themselves the only ones left from their peer group, in a flock of grumpy aunties?

Picture: my most favorite from the Wyandottes, in my lap here, went from the very top to the very bottom of the peer group for reasons completely lost on me (she's the largest and most outgoing, so that development baffles me completely). I don't want her to feel excluded or stressed, but I really want to keep her... Will her sister (the gold laced in this photo) come around when it's just the two of them vs. the older hens?

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Wow my Wyandottes are so friendly and get along with the others clearly my one is one of my “ lead” chickens and very friendly she always comes up to me and likes to be talked to and petted my sex links are my most aggressive ones I think but they aren’t that bad either my buffs are docile and my silkies are docile