Swedish Flower Hen Thread - Page 116

Icatty, the Aloha chickens sound like a good choice for crossing.  I also think a mille flour leghorn or speckled sussex might work. Your gang is adorable!  

 

I just set my first batch of eggs from my SFH... I also set a few BBS Orp/SFH cross eggs. 

The Swedish gang free ranging. The roosters are great at keeping a watchful eye on the girls.
How about a Spitzhauben for crossing? They're about the right size. Pictured hereare 2 SFH pullets,
my Spitz and of course, the handsome cockerel "Sorrel".

Mottled Javas would probably work well for an outcross too, they're around the same size, single combs and yellow skin.

 

I personally wouldn't outcross to anything that doesn't have yellow skin.

 

 

I agree with the Mottled Javas.  This is a pic I found while searching for pics of Swedish Flower Hens and thought this hen would be a good example of what I would be working towards while breeding these birds. 
 

 

Here's an update!  My five hatchlings are now one week old!  Feisty and very individual personalities. 

 

sfh11 - what bird is this a pic of?  A Swedish hen?  She's lovely!  That's pretty much the sort of thing I've been going for, as well . . . through a different route.  LOL.  

 

Just wanted to pop in here and mention the Aloha program since there are conversations going on about out-crossing.   The Aloha Project was started in 2008 to try and re-create the Swedish Flower in the US.  (Before Greenfire actually shipped the "real thing" over here!)  So the goals are very similar, except Alohas are to not have crests.  

 

If the above is a Swedish, this is the closest I've come to that so far using 100% American bloodlines (no Swedish blood in this hen.)  This hen matured last Fall, and now I'm raising her chicks.

 

 

Above:  Aloha hen.  (No Swedish Flower)  Size is still a tad small.  Still getting gray and pink legs, and some unusual combs in the process.  

 

But, there is hope on the size issue!  My newest generation hen is actually BIGGER than the PURE Swedish Flower hen shown to the left:

 

 

The hen on the left is a pure Swedish Flower, to the right, half Sussex, half Aloha.  The Aloha x Sussex cross hen will likely be crossed to this rooster (when he matures) to lighten the base color of her background - hopefully to bring it from the dark mahogany up to the light color seen on the Swedish:

 

 

(Note his yellow legs and lighter body color.)  

 

If it all works, it might make something that is large in size and would appear very similar in appearance to the Swedish Flower photo that sfh11 shared, but please note it would not contain any Swedish bloodlines.  I won't see the results until this rooster is mature, so the earliest we could see the offspring of these two birds would be September, 2012.

 

I do have a couple of pure Swedish Flowers and I'm going to start crossing with Alohas this summer, to see how the two strains blend.  It will be interesting!

 

Anyway, keep in mind if you start outcrossing, that the dark Mahogany color of the Sussex and especially anything black mottled (found in Mottled Javas and Exchequer Leghorns) are very dominant genes.  The result will be dark brown or black mottled chicks - ALL of the chicks will be dark.  So if you start outcrossing, keep this in mind . . . be prepared for a lot of Sussex clones and black mottled everything the first generation, if you choose to do this.  You'll totally lose those light golden tones.  It takes a very long time to bring the light colors BACK again.  Trust me on this - I've been working on this project four years already!  Ha ha.  It will take you several years of hard work to turn a Mottled Java (black base color) into a hen with a light background (as seen on the top pic.)  So keep that in mind.    

 

Now back to your regular Swedish thread . . . lol.  

Very cute babies, all so different. My first impression too was they were feisty. Then I realized it's
more because they aren't fearful and have an outgoing personality. While most chicks run from my
hand when I put it in the brooder box, my SFH chicks would run TO my hand, often pecking at it in
a curious way. They do have a lot of spunk! Thanks for sharing

I am a new Swedish Flower Hen owner!  Four chicks!  Here are pictures of two.  I know the brownish one is a typical look, and I have two of those, one sort of caramel colored with darker patches, and this lighter pretty one!  The picture didn't capture her creamy color, and two-toned head, with two darker yellow patches on the body.  This brown one got tail feathers w/in a week, but at 4 weeks now, seems to have a comb!  What should I think?  These are two-week old photos.

I am so excited!

If you post more recent photos, we might be able to help you.  I haven't been able to tell gender by how they feather.  They are very cute! Congrats!
 

Hello. I LOVE looking at all the pictures. I just got some day-olds last weekend, here are pics from the first day.