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 Uses: Utility (meat) / Exhibition.
Eggs: 80 - 180 tinted. Origin: America.
Weight: Cock: 4.08Kg min, Hen: 3.17Kg min.
Bantam Cock: 1.7Kg max, Hen: 1.36Kg max.
Colours: Barred, Black, Blue, Blue Laced, Buff, Buff Laced, Columbian, Gold Laced, Partridge, Blue Partridge, Silver Pencilled, Silver Laced, Red, White (Standardised UK) Blue Laced, Cuckoo, Violet Laced, White Laced Buff (Bantam only)
Useful to know: Docile and a good choice to have around with children. Available in Bantam size.
Photo: Barred Wyandotte Bantam owned by N.Wilton.
The Wyandotte Chicken originated in the Eastern United States of America. It is thought that several breeders were trying to create an attractive Silver Laced large fowl that was a good utility bird. After some attempts to standardise their individual creations, all of which were slightly different, common ground was eventually found between the breeders and a provisional standard was drawn up. The first Silver Laced Wyandottes were recognised by the American Poultry Association a few years later in 1883.There are currently 8 standardised colour varieties in America.
The Silver Laced Wyandotte reached England shortly after being standardised in America and it was here that breeders realised they could not obtain perfectly marked birds when breeding stock in a single pen. The American Poultry Association Standard called for a white back and shoulders on the males and this could not produce females with perfect black and white lacing.  Double mating was introduced where two pens were used, one with 'cock breeders' and one with 'pullet breeders' that would each produce their respective correctly marked birds.
Many other colours of Wyandottes soon followed, some even being popular enough to have their own breed club and commercially, farmers used a separate strain of the White Wyandotte as a utility bird from the 1920s onwards. These were short lived though and were no longer of use as egg producers or table birds once Hybrid Chickens were introduced in the 1950's.
The breed is very popular and new colour varieties are still being created today. One of the most recent is Chocolate Partridge which has been created by Grant Brereton, from an original project started by the late Dr. Clive Carefoot. A trio of Chocolate Partridge Wyandottes were on display at the Poultry Club National Exhibition in Stoneleigh 2009.
Photo Right: Silver Laced Wyandotte Bantam (pullet).
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