My 25 Year Breeding Program: Buff Wyandotte Bantams

About 27 years ago, I discovered the wonderful breed of Wyandotte bantams. They were just what I had been searching for in all respects. They were cold hardy (heavy feathered with a Rose comb). They had what I found to be a very pleasing body type with all of those curves and a short, strong head. Last but certainly not least, they are enjoyable to work with because mean ones are few and far between. I started with Blacks compliments of a good friend who sent me some hatching eggs. A few years later, I added Whites and enjoyed them too but I really hankered for Buffs. I think that the Buff color is perhaps the most beautiful of all of the solid colors. The problem was that I couldn’t locate any of any quality. It took about three years before I finally got some at the Columbus Show. There were 5, two males and three females, ages unknown. Each and every bird had multiple disqualifiable defects: side sprigs, split wings, stubs that would have looked good on a Cochin, etc. I determined though, that any start was better than none.

 I set every egg that they layed that year and hatched 104 chicks. When the culling was over the following summer, I had 4 birds to work with that I considered to be better than their parents. After hatching almost another 100 the following year, I knew that I needed some outside help. I contacted Warren Tye from Utah who I had met a few years earlier. Warren raised some of the best Buff Orpington bantams in the country. Warren sent me two males that were too short backed for him. I consider those birds to be the turning point in my breeding program. Leg color was a relatively short-term problem but I am still fighting to improve comb quality, particularly in the males. Rose combs are dominant but the quality of the resulting Rose combs was the issue.

I admit that I gave some thought to following the advice I had been given by several breeders and cross my Buffs with good White Wyandotte bantams so quickly improve the type. I rejected that notion, however, because I believed that such a cross would cause serious and long-lasting color problems. I have never regretted the decision to avoid that cross. Most of the time, the easiest path is not the best long-term.

 The difference those birds made in fertility and other breeding points was amazing, however. When I located and purchased a Buff Wyandotte male from Jerry Tom a couple of years later, he constituted the last new blood I would add for well over a decade.

 One thing was obvious to me, however. I have limited space to rear young birds and I was going to have to hatch Buffs in large numbers for quite a few years. That meant that the Blacks and Whites had to go as much as I loved having them. I liquidated both flocks but promised myself to re-acquire the two colors when the needed number of Buffs each year became manageable. That did not happen for about 8 years.

 During that time, I tried to hatch 75-100 Buff chicks each year. I culled the males in particular heavily, keeping 1 in 10 or less most years. My principal concerns were comb quality, size, and even color in all sections. I did not worry about the exact shade of Buff as long as the bird was even in color.

 In recent years, I have hatched 40-50 Buff chicks each year and the cull rate in males has dropped to about 1 in 4 birds that would be acceptable. The female cull rate is probably 1 in 2 or maybe a bit less.

 My main concerns today are improved head type (comb and width of skull), tail carriage, leg length, and, of course, maintenance of sound color.

 I have been very gratified to see an increasing amount of interest in the Buffs from other fanciers. Since the best birds are in great demand, I try to avoid selling to fair exhibitors and try to get the better birds in the hands of breeders. I can honestly say that even though I have not won a single starred win with the Buffs, no other breeding program has provided me with a greater amount of satisfaction.

 I believe that any poultry fancier who has derived the amount of pleasure from the hobby that I have over a long period of time owes the fancy something in return. That debt can be paid in many ways including working as a volunteer in a poultry organization such as the APA or ABA or becoming involved with a local poultry club and helping to put on a show. Working to improve what I would refer to as a heritage breed or variety is certainly a worthy way to leave the fancy better (even in a small way) than one found it.