BREEDING LACED WYANDOTTES. 



3 '9 



laced pullets, and faulty-topped cockerels. In 

 fact, one of the best Silver pullets ever shown 

 was bred from a cock very bad in top-colour. 

 From this experience I deduced that top-colour 

 in cocks does not affect the sound lacing in 

 pullets bred from them, and in choosing my 

 pullet-breeding cocks, I never regard the top 

 colour now. 



" Another important item needs to be noted, 

 namely, that pullets bred from a standard- 

 breasted cock often run light at the throat. It 

 will be found that the best breasted cockerels 

 often have their own sisters with light breasts. 

 An observant breeder, then, will not choose 

 perfect-breasted hens to put in his cock-breeding 

 pen, but those that are inclined to run light, and 

 mate them to a perfect breast-laced cock on the 

 dark side. It was this mating that produced my 

 1897 champion silver cockerel. 



" But the chief point to regard, or rather to 

 disregard, in cock breeding, is the cushion 

 of the hen. This may be as mossy as a 

 pepper-castor, and yot the bird be a splendid 

 cock-breeder. In other words, the feathers on 

 the back of the female have no influence on the 

 progeny of cockerels in the saddle hackle ; they 

 influence top colour in no sense whatever. This 

 should be apparent. The feather on the hen is 

 laced on the back ; the feather on the saddle of 

 a cock is purely distinctive of the male, and finds 

 no counterpart on the cushion of the female. 

 Practice bears out the theory, and in breeding 

 for cocks, mossiness in the hens mated up never 

 troubles me, nor do I find the top-colour in the 

 young cockerels bred from such is discoloured 

 because of the faulty cushion. Cocks bad in top- 

 colour are the outcome of sooty, brassy, or smoky 

 neck hackles of the female, together with the 

 already faulty saddle of the sire. 



" To breed good cockerels, I therefore choose 

 (i) A standard cock of the heavy laced stamp. 

 (2) He must be free from white in tail. (3) A hen 

 with a well-laced breast on the light side, per- 

 fect wings, with a good black tail. But (4) do 

 not regard mossiness on cushion ; in fact, she is 

 better for being dark near tail. (5) Comb, legs, 

 shape, to be standard quality in each. Thus 

 many a champion show cock has been bred from 

 birds, none of which would gain a first prize in a 

 second-rate show. 



" Pullet-breeding is a question I should prefer 

 to have been treated by an abler pen than mine. 

 That the art is not theoretically or surely dis- 

 covered, is apparent from the fact that nearly 

 every year the best pullets come from different 

 yards, and from those, too, whose record for first- 

 class birds has not been eminent. Breeding 

 is a trifle flukey with most breeds, but that of 



Silver-laced pullets is uncommonly so. With a 

 certain amount of diffidence, then, I simply offer 

 the fruits of my own experience. It was just now 

 remarked that standard-breasted cocks mated 

 with standard-breasted hens are inclined to throw 

 light-breasted pullets, and I wish now to empha- 

 sise that remark. In choosing a pullet-breeding 

 cock I always select a dark-breasted cock, and 

 that from a pullet-breeding strain. It is no use 

 buying a cock for breeding pullets from a strain 

 that has been used for years in producing ex- 

 hibition cocks only, because the females in such 

 a yard will most probably never have seen a 

 show pen. Again, breeders always try to obtain 

 the clean lacing of show pullets right into the 

 tail. To produce such we must not regard too 

 closely the exhibition points of the sire, and I 

 would have no scruple in using a cock that had 

 white in tail, and for choice would prefer one, 

 especially if there were under the cock's saddle a 

 number of clear laced pullet-feathers running 

 into the white in tail. But whilst unorthodox 

 in these points, I like to be very particular as 

 to fluff. A dark fluff is always correct, both 

 for show and breeding purposes. A light fluff 

 and peppery thighs largely account for double 

 lacing, horse-shoe lacing, dulness in black, and 

 other evils amongst the progeny. 



" There is only one thing to be considered in 

 the female we breed from to produce pullets. 

 That is, to get as perfect a show bird as you can. 



" Two practical hints may be added. Don't 

 cross strains too much, unless you find that 

 through continual in-breeding you are getting 

 weak, and require more stamina in your stock. 

 Then introduce new blood in the female line. 

 And always have a few old birds in the breeding- 

 pen. Young stuff breed bad feathers, lanky 

 chickens, and narrow, long backs."* 



American practice among some breeders is 

 changing rather in the direction of more pre- 

 ference for single mating ; and some of them 

 differ a little from the above in one or two de- 

 tails. In many American cocks, the wing- 

 coverts or bar-feathers, instead of being laced 

 entirely round, with the open centres, resem- 

 bling other laced feathers but somewhat heavily 

 laced, are black over the upper half of the 

 feather, and only open in the centre on the 

 lower half. The effect on the surface-pattern or 

 " bars " is the same ; but such an extra portion 

 of black on the part of the feather which is 

 overlapped, must somewhat alter the balance of 

 colour in breeding. It may be partly owing to 

 this fact, that many American breeders find it 



* Capital object-lessons in what is required for cockerel and 

 pullet-breeding pens of Laced Wvandottes will be found in two 

 coloured plates published by The Fcalliered World, London, in 

 November igoS and 1909. 



