CHAPTER XV 



WHITE WYANDOTTES 



The Whites appear as sports of the original Silver Wyandotte — The 

 early breeders — How A. C. Hawkins bought up almost all the stock 

 in the country and started a boom on the variety — Well-known breed- 

 ers down to the present day — Defects found in the variety — How to 

 mate \Vhite Wyandottes — Washing for the show 



White Wyandottes were recognized as a Standard variety in 1888, 

 but from the earliest history of the Silver Wyandotte, white speci- 

 mens had occurred in the best flocks. Perhaps these white chicks 

 traced back to the White Cochin blood that Fred A. Houdlette knew 

 to exist in his strain of Silver Wyandottes. In some cases, however, 

 the white sports were not bred pure, for according to I. K. Felch, 

 these "nearly white specimens" of the Silver Wyandotte "were 

 mated to Rose Comb White Leghorns and the progeny offered as 

 White Wyandottes." 



Theo. Hewes has told of the mating of Rose Comb White Dork- 

 ings on Silver Wyandottes to produce White Wyandottes. The 

 writer, however, as late as 1904 saw white sports in a well bred 

 yard of Silver Wyandottes (the yard of Ed Hungerford, Concord, 

 Michigan), and it is reasonable to believe that the original Wj'an- 

 dotte offered a fertile field for the propagation of the White variety. 



Early history. J. H. Drevenstedt, an authority on the Wyan- 

 dottes, states that some breeders had begun to exploit the white 

 sports "as early as 188S as a promising new color type of Wyan- 

 dotte." The names of three breeders came out prominently in this 

 connection — Messrs. Fred A. Houdlette, of Massachusetts, and 

 George W. Towle and B. N. Briggs, of New York state. The white 

 chicks were at first considered culls by the Silver breeders. They 

 were the first to go into the pot. But about the time the Silver 

 Wyandotte was elevated to the rank of a Standardbred (1883), the 

 white chickens were given serious attention. They soon enjoyed a 

 great boom. Towle and Briggs were principally instrumental in bring- 

 ing the variety to the favorable attention of the public. 



A. C. Hawkins, of Lancaster, Massachusetts, who was a leading 

 breeder of Barred Plymouth Rocks and Silver Wyandottes, now 

 became interested in the new White Wyandottes and nearly cornered 

 the market on them. This phase of the breed's early history is told 

 in the following article written by Mr. Hawkins for the Reliable 

 Poultry Journal of December, 1905: 



Thirty-three years ago, in 1872, in the little town of Tru.-cton, New York, the 

 first White Wyandottes of which there is any record were hatched from Silver 



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