GOLDEN LACED WYANDOTTES 187 



duced by a Partridge Cochin-Brown Leghorn cross. This was the 

 foundation blood of the Winnebago fowl. The males of this stock 

 were large black-red fowls. "Some of the males/' wrote McKeen, 

 "had black breasts, others (and these pleased me the most) were 

 a deep reddish bay, all but the tail, which was a very shiny, 

 greenish-black. They were rose-combed, legs clean and yellow." 

 The stock had good size and unusual stamina, and from the de- 

 scription were similar to the Rose Comb Rhode Island Red of 

 today. They were free from Game blood a point that was overlooked 

 by many early breeders of Golden Wyandottes, who assumed that 

 the vigor of the race, as well as some features of their type, must 

 have come from Game blood in the old Winnebago fowl. 



In 1880 McKeen produced from this stock of Winnebagoes "a 

 beautiful cockerel of glossy golden and black, the golden predomi- 

 nating." He now conceived the idea of crossing this cockerel on 

 some of the females that he had raised from the Whittaker Silver 

 Wyandottes, or, as they were then called, American Sebrights. 

 McKeen also tried to produce what he wanted by crossing a Silver 

 male on red Winnebago females, but this produced chicks that 

 were all, or nearly all. silver colored. When the Winnebago male 

 was crossed on the Silver females, the cockerels came Silver and 

 the pullets Golden. "Strange, is it not," wrote McKeen, "how the 

 males take the color of the dam and the females the color of the sire?" 



Progress in the variety. The male Golden Wyandotte has con- 

 tinued to exert a great influence on his female get. To illustrate 

 this point, we shall tell in some detail the history of a Golden Wyan- 

 dotte pullet that was shown at Boston in January, 1920. She was 

 not awarded a prize. Every exhibitor there saw her and talked about 

 her. The judge is reported to have said that she "was first or nothing," 

 and then he decided that her red ground color was of too rich a 

 shade of color, for the Standard calls for "golden bay." He left 

 her out of the ribbons. Later in January she won first at the National 

 show in Chicago under Walter C. Young. 



This pullet was bred by Ira C. Keller. She traces back to the 

 hen that was first at Chicago, 1918, first at New York, 1919, and first 

 at Boston. 1920, as a five-year-old. This hen was mated to a cock 

 that was about as near to Standard plumage as you can get very 

 open in lacing, but strong in wing. Twenty-four chicks were hatched 

 from this mating in 1918, and Mr. Keller had a streak of luck, for 

 he not only raised the whole twenty-four, but fifteen of them were 

 pullets and nine were cockerels. Every pullet was a good one, not 

 a poor one in the bunch, and they ran so uniform that they were 

 like peas in a pod. 



The first pullet and the four pullets in the first pen at the club 

 show, Chicago, 1919, were from this lot; the second pullet and the 

 four first pen pullets at New York in 1919 were also from this 



