The Aloha Chicken Project

we have a chick! it hatched about 8:30 this morning, it took 4 hours from pip to walking around peeping loudly. i'll post a picture soon, just got my computer up and running again.

Yay!!!

I get the SFH thing and I do have some chicks. But I was wondering, what standard are you shooting for? How will you know when you've achieved it?

Being new to SFH's I don't know if they have a SOP or not. I just liked the fact that they were imports from Sweden, and the poofs on their heads. I wasn't thinking about a standard in appearance or laying numbers or meat or any of that.

I would like to help but Lord have mercy, I just have to many chickens now.

I wish you success,

Rancher

this is a nice looking breed

Quote:
This is designed more to be of a "type" than a show breed, like Easter Eggers are a "type" different from Ameraucanas, which are a breed. Unless the APA standards could be left kind of vague on the color? Then these could maybe become an actual approved breed someday.

I don't have a problem locking down body type - the body should be like a Buff Rock, New Hampshire Red, or Sussex. But preferably with yellow legs (Sussex has pink) and a longer rooster tail (More like a Sussex roo tail and not like a stubby Buff Rock tail.) Body, actually, would be like a non-crested Swedish Flower Rooster or Hen, which is what the breed was supposed to mimic anyway!

However, I'd want the color part to be left open so people wouldn't feel boxed into one or even a few colors. Color would have to be left as "Any combination of color(s) and white, with the overall pattern to be as bright and bold as possible." It would be nearly impossible to judge "fairly" as it really is supposed to be like art. If someone prefers a Monet that doesn't make a Van Gogh any less beautiful.

But to keep it practical:

Weight: Hens - 6.5 to 8 pounds, with preference to the largest size. Roosters 8 to 10 pounds with preference to the upper range.

Leg color: Yellow

Comb: Single upright

Dual purpose. Multi color. Practical farm bird.

Color: Ideally a 50/50 mix of colored areas and white, with some variances (more or less white) encouraged within each flock. No color preference, with the note that black and white and barring should be handled carefully within a flock, because those colors have a tendency to dominate other colors. For this reason I suppose if these were in the show ring, a roo with no barring and very little black would place higher, because they would allow the hen's colors to pass through to the chick more easily, and thus would be more valuable for raising a rainbow of colors within one flock.

I'll know when I get there, because it would be a lot of the colors seen here, but on a big, robust, farm-chicken body!

this is what i estimate my daily hatch was:
12/24 - 9 eggs hatched
12/25 - 11 eggs hatched
12/26 - 3 eggs hatched
total - 23

out of 33 set for lockdown, from the 42 since day one. i guess 55% hatch rate isnt bad for the first time.

here are a few pics of our newly hatched alohas. there are a lot more posted in the chicks for christmas thread, i didnt want to double post a whole lot.






thank you alohachicks, this has been an amazing adventure

the life of a chick. Eat... Sleep... Poop... have a crazy lady watch you 24/7
alohachicks, i'm curious, what does BFF mean that you wrote on some of the eggs? the only one i can really interpret is the SSX, what were the others? i thought i might be able to figure them out but i cant.
i seem to have 2 favorites already, they're both pictured above. they are the biggest chicks so far - i'm actually hoping one will be a roo and as big as cheeto. i'll keep you posted!

BFF (or "Buff") was for chickens in the main pen - where Cheeto (a large BUFF guy) was lording over the hens! So most likely those eggs are Cheeto's kids.

However, that big pen also had several other roosters, so we can't say for sure they are all Cheeto's babies.

"Flame" is second in command:

http://alohachickens.blogspot.com/2011/11/beautiful-boys-flame.html

I saw that "Cinnamon" had formed his own mini-flock of three hens and strangely the other roosters were allowing it? It included one Speckled Sussex hen. The cross between those two would actually be a good one! Cinnamon has limited mottling and yellow legs:

http://alohachickens.blogspot.com/2011/11/beautiful-boys-cinnamon.html

Flame's only flaw is his pink legs, so if you get a Sussex-looking chicken with yellow legs, thank Cinnamon for that.

The "SSX" eggs were from a small pen that had several LARGE buff hens (that carry mottling) in with a Sussex roo. That pen did not mix with the main pen, and those are "for sure" babies by the Sussex rooster because he was the only one in there.

Today I am culling three roosters. One is Cheeto's little brother who was a backup in case anything happened to Cheeto. Now that Cheeto's chicks have hatched in three places, my place, yours, and partner Derek's, I feel safe letting his "understudy" go. Derek is coming by to pick up Cinnamon and Mocha. They will be kept safe at his place, and may be used in the program again later this spring, but since I'm traveling a lot this month, my chickens will be stuck in the coop and it's kind of tense having five roosters in one pen, even if it is a larger pen.

I will be traveling for 17 days in January, on two different trips, very nervous about leaving my chickies! I hate that the flock won't get any free range time while I'm gone, so I wanted to make things as peaceful as possible.

I am also re-homing three hens at a dear friend's house. She has a wonderful shady garden for them to roam in. These hens are nice but all have flaws. I feel by culling everything I can possibly part with before I start my traveling, it will open up more room in the coop.

It still leaves me with three roosters and 16 hens, though. And three turkeys, ha ha. Not to mention the three unique breeder pens at Stephen's farm that we haven't even collected eggs from yet!

Oh - and congrats on getting 23 chicks! It's still a good number!

Some of those eggs were starting to get a bit old . . . so I'm sure that affected things, too. If you hadn't taken them they were on the verge of going to waste, since due to my upcoming travels I haven't been able to hatch anything this month, wahhhh!

alohachickens-
Your mystery color looks JUST like my Callie (now with MaBo) did when she was littler. She was pretty homely for a while, but she's pretty good looking now.