The Wyandotte is an American breed of chicken developed in the 1870s. It was named for the indigenous

Wyandot people The Wyandot people, or Wyandotte and Waⁿdát, are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. The Wyandot are Iroquoian Indigenous peoples of North America who emerged as a confederacy of tribes around the north shore of Lake Ontario ...

of North America. The Wyandotte is a dual-purpose breed, kept for its brown eggs and its yellow-skinned meat. It is a popular show bird, and has many color variants. It was originally known as the American Sebright.

History

The Wyandotte was created in the United States in the 1870s by four people, H. M. Doubleday, John Ray, L. Whittaker and Fred Houdlette. The first type was the silver-laced, which was included in the ''

American Standard of Perfection The ''American Standard of Perfection'' is the official breed standard for the poultry fancy in North America. First published in 1874 by the American Poultry Association, the ''Standard of Perfection'' (commonly referred to as "the ''Standard''" ...

'' of the

American Poultry Association The American Poultry Association (APA) is the oldest poultry organization in the North America. It was founded in 1873, and incorporated in Indiana in 1932. The first American poultry show was held in 1849, and the APA was later formed in resp ...

in 1883; it was taken to Britain at about the same time. It had previously been known as the Sebright Cochin or American Sebright. The origin of the breed is unknown; it is thought derive partly from spangled

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

s and dark

Brahma Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp ...

s – the Hamburg for the rose comb and the Brahma for the color pattern. The gold-laced Wyandotte was produced by breeding silver-laced hens with gold-spangled

and partridge

Cochin Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

cocks, the white Wyandotte was a

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

of the silver-laced, and the buff variant came from crossing the silver-laced with buff Cochin stock; the black variant was also a sport, of both the silver-laced and the gold-laced. The partridge Wyandotte came from crossing the gold-laced with

Indian Game The Indian Game is a British breed of game chicken, now reared either for meat or show. It originated in the early nineteenth century in the counties of Cornwall and Devon in south-west England. It is a heavy, muscular bird with an unusually ...

, partridge Cochin, gold-pencilled Hamburghs, and a strain called "Winnebago". The Columbian was the result of a chance crossing of white Wyandottes with barred

Plymouth Rock Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the ''Mayflower'' Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in December 1620. The Pilgrims did not refer to Plymouth Rock in any of their writings; the first known writt ...

birds; it was named for

Columbian Exposition and World's Fair The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, h ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, in 1893. The first Wyandotte bantams were added to the ''Standard of Perfection'' in 1933. In 2015 the Wyandotte was listed as "recovering" by the American

Livestock Conservancy The Livestock Conservancy, formerly known as the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC) and prior to that, the American Minor Breeds Conservancy, is a nonprofit organization focused on preserving and promoting rare breeds, also known as "h ...

; in 2016 it was no longer considered to be in danger and was removed from the priority list. In Germany it is listed in category IV, "alert", on the

Rote Liste The , full name , is a red list of threatened breeds of domestic animal published annually by the Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen, the German national association for the conservation of historic and endanger ...

of the

Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung alter und gefährdeter Haustierrassen The or GEH is a German national association for the conservation of historic and endangered domestic animal breeds. History The GEH was founded on 5 December 1981 in the Rottal, in Lower Bavaria in southern Germany. It has about 2100 memb ...

Characteristics

The Wyandotte is a fairly large bird, with weights for adult birds in the range . The body is of medium length, broad in the back and with a deep, full and well-rounded breast. It is clean-legged and fairly close-feathered, and has a broad skull with a rose comb. The skin and shanks are yellow, and the ear-lobes, face and wattles are red. Silver-laced Wyandotte cocks may occasionally display

hen feathering Hen feathering in cocks is the occurrence of a genetically conditioned character in domestic fowl (''Gallus gallus domesticus''). Males with this condition develop a female-type plumage, although otherwise look and respond as virile males. Hen-fe ...

. In the United States, nine color varieties are recognized by the American Poultry Association: black (1893), blue (1977), buff (1893), Columbian (1905), golden laced (1888), partridge (1893), silver laced (1883), silver penciled (1902) and white (1888). For bantams, the same nine colors are recognized, with the addition of buff Columbian. In Europe, the

Entente Européenne Entente, meaning a diplomatic "understanding", may refer to a number of agreements: History * Entente (alliance), a type of treaty or military alliance where the signatories promise to consult each other or to cooperate with each other in case o ...

lists thirty colors. The

Poultry Club of Great Britain The Poultry Club of Great Britain is a registered charity founded in 1877. Its stated purpose is to "safeguard the interests of all pure and traditional breeds of poultry including chickens, bantams, ducks, geese and turkeys". The club mai ...

recognizes barred, black, blue, blue-laced, blue partridge, buff, buff-laced, Columbian, gold-laced, partridge, red, silver-laced, silver-pencilled and white.

Use

The Wyandotte is a dual-purpose breed, raised both for eggs and for meat. It matures moderately rapidly, and hens are good layers of large brown eggs. It is a popular show bird, particularly in Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyandotte (chicken) Chicken breeds Chicken breeds originating in the United States Animal breeds on the GEH Red List