Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

Ontario Chick wrote: ↑

Wed May 08, 2019 12:21 pm

Just a heads up, if you purchased your original breeding stock from a breeder, the Performance Poultry Wyandottes are going to be "production birds" so not necessarily the same quality.Give them time to develop before you introduce them in to your breeding flock.Breeding birds of the same breed & variety from different lines , is almost the same as crossbreeding, so results may vary

We are very grateful for your advise Ontario Chick. All of our birds came from the Bedrock and Brambles Farm near Huntsville. I saw a few single combs in them and our current rooster has one or two white feathers in his tail feathers so chances are these weren't show quality birds to start with nor were we looking for them at the time. The folks up there didn't sell them to us as show quality either and made a point to say as much - they are just resilient free range birds and they have been all of that for us so we are very happy with them. If I recall correctly they may very well have purchased them from PP. Back then our first try at a flock was a disaster and all the available Wyandottes were sold out around here so we headed up to Huntsville in July as our "Reboot" attempt. I agree with you in that the PP ones will be kept separate until they have put on a few weeks worth of weight and size. I have a 3 x 4 foot brooder I keep in the house and the 10x13 foot coop outside has a separate wired area in it where they can be moved to and be seen by our flock but not harassed. The few pullets we raised so far this year spent a week in the coop and are currently free ranging with the flock without issue.

Hope the hatch goes well!

Reboot wrote: ↑

Wed May 08, 2019 12:59 pm

All of our birds came from the Bedrock and Brambles Farm near Huntsville. I saw a few single combs in them and our current rooster has one or two white feathers in his tail feathers so chances are these weren't show quality birds to start with nor were we looking for them at the time. The folks up there didn't sell them to us as show quality either and made a point to say as much - they are just resilient free range birds and they have been all of that for us so we are very happy with them. If I recall correctly they may very well have purchased them from PP. Back then our first try at a flock was a disaster and all the available Wyandottes were sold out around here so we headed up to Huntsville in July as our "Reboot" attempt. I agree with you in that the PP ones will be kept separate until they have put on a few weeks worth of weight and size. I have a 3 x 4 foot brooder I keep in the house and the 10x13 foot coop outside has a separate wired area in it where they can be moved to and be seen by our flock but not harassed. The few pullets we raised so far this year spent a week in the coop and are currently free ranging with the flock without issue.

In the end it's luck of the draw, few years back somebody asked me to evaluate their Wyandottes which they purchased from PP.
By that time they were 5 or 6 month old so the type was becoming pretty obvious. they got some Gold laced and some Columbians.
the Columbians were absolutely dreadful, but the Gold laced accept for being a bit "leggy" looked very good.