The Aloha Chicken Project - Page 26

Originally Posted by karenS 

Hey guys, I'm so psyched about the hatching eggs. Haven't scored an extra bator yet, but still looking and trying.  Today, I got 2 NHR pullets from Atwoods for my group! So, I have 50 Sussex, straight run, to choose the best pullets and rooster from, 10 Buff Orp pullets (I'll keep the best 5 or so), 10 Red Star (will only hatch a couple of these X SSX for fun, not breeding), and now 2 NHR.  Can't wait for the chicks to grow up but also loving the little stage! Loved the pics of Derek's birds! Gotta run.

Originally Posted by alohachickens 

Oooh  . . . handpicked extra bright Sussex hens crossed with Buff Orp and NHR?  I've dreamed of getting 50 Sussex hens to hand-pick only the brightest and most speckled ones!  But my place is too small - don't have the room.  I love watching the birds and trying to guess which ones will be the keepers. There is one long legged SSussex who is just getting his breast feathers in and there's tons of white!!!!! There are some that look to be pullets who are very light carmel with spots and one has tons of spots, just perfectly placed and not tiny. There are others that are really, really dark and so I'm thinking, hmmm, not so much.

 

A lot of the Sussex around here (including my pure Sussex) are really "blah" with teeny white dots.  Zzzzzzzzz.  But I've seen a few random Sussex hens, photos of hens that people share on here, where the hens have big blobs of white on 'em.  Stunning!  I hope you share photos of the Sussex as they grow, so we  can all see how much they vary in color.  I'll try to get some pics tomorrow. They're speedy little things so it's a challenge but I'd really like to know what you think about them.

 

NICE!!!!  Your Aloha flock is gonna rock!  (Someday.)  Ha ha ha! Thanks! I just tried to follow your recommendations on your website. Very helpful.

 

And don't worry, just two NHR pullets is plenty.  They lay like crazy, you'll get tons of hatching eggs just from those two hens when they go into full gear. I was just so excited when I spotted them. I'm glad they're really good layers -- that'll be helpful for increasing egg production too.

 

I have five NHR and five Buff Rock chicks on special order with a local feed store!  They are going to be here tomorrow!  Going to keep two of the NHR hens and one Buff Rock hen for myself, and share the rest of the pullets with my "project friends" out here, so they can get their Alohas bigger. Awesome! That's exciting!! I really like the idea of adding in the Rocks for size. Don't they have a decent temperament as well?

 

What would happen if a White Rock was crossed with a Speckled Sussex? I realize the first gen would be solid but would it be white or would it dilute the colors of the Sussex? Does white fade colors? Are you using a Buff Rock in order to keep the richness of color? I've thought of buying a book on breeding chickens but I'm not sure my tiny little attention span could handle it.  Do you think it would be worthwhile? I really can focus when I must.

 

 

 

 

Originally Posted by tazcat70 

Karen, I am in Wichita also.  Jim (Mrheinz) just informed me of what is going on. 

Originally Posted by karenS 

No way!

 

Okay, tazcat70, do you have an incubator lying around, hoping for something to do? Laree and Alohachickens are sending hatching eggs via road trip (read: great hatch rate!) on 3/9 -3/10.  It would be great if we could work on the project together! I've got plenty of birds and will be rehoming the extra hens, so if you're interested in working on the project, I'll be happy to give you whatever you would like of my excess. As it stands, I only have a 48 space incubator and DH isn't too thrilled about the idea of a Sportsman set (incubator and hatcher) at the moment. He can probably think of a million wordworking tools he'd rather have for the money. Oh well. Maybe next year?  

 

Originally Posted by alohachickens 

Nope, no breeders out there yet.  Let me know if you want to try.  

 

I'd highly suggest buying some "live" Buff Rock, Sussex, and NHR pullet chicks to go with these, though.  I've often had hatch rates of just two or three chicks out of 24 eggs shipped to me!  

 

So, the odds of hatching out ONE colorful Aloha rooster aren't bad . . . you could mix him with the "outside" breed hens and add the color that way.

 

But, it's going to be really hard for anyone working on this to get a lot of good hens using ONLY shipped eggs.  I usually have to hatch out 10 chicks to get one decent hen.  Half or more of the chicks are roos, then you get several "plain" hens for every really colorful nice one!  Considering how awful shipped eggs tend to hatch . . . you can see the problem.  Not to mention, these are going to need size improvement anyway!

 

However, if you're willing to buy a few good "outside" breed hens, all you would need is ONE good Aloha rooster to get started.  THAT could work using only shipped eggs! 

Originally Posted by karenS 

No way!

 

Okay, tazcat70, do you have an incubator lying around, hoping for something to do? Laree and Alohachickens are sending hatching eggs via road trip (read: great hatch rate!) on 3/9 -3/10.  It would be great if we could work on the project together! I've got plenty of birds and will be rehoming the extra hens, so if you're interested in working on the project, I'll be happy to give you whatever you would like of my excess. As it stands, I only have a 48 space incubator and DH isn't too thrilled about the idea of a Sportsman set (incubator and hatcher) at the moment. He can probably think of a million wordworking tools he'd rather have for the money. Oh well. Maybe next year?  

Meant to say, via notinoz who is making a road trip to KS and has so generously offered to bring hatching eggs. Too excited to be coherent! Sorry, notinoz, can't tell you how grateful I am that you're bringing the eggs back to Oz!

 

Originally Posted by alohachickens 

Karen S - Can't wait to see the Sussex pics.  The fact that you are already seeing some color variations is very exciting!  

 

Where did you order your Sussex from?  Ours, in AZ, generally come from Privett Hatchery in NM.  It's the closest commercial hatchery to Phoenix so most feed stores order their supply from that location.  Their Sussex tend to be very dark with very small white dots.  I check Craigslist periodically and sometimes find adult Sussex hens on there, but they rarely have any variation.  I've heard Cackle and Ideal can show some more variation in their Sussex stock.  

 

Mr.Heinz lives in Iowa and has wanted to get some Aloha eggs for a few months now!  But I didn't have many eggs to spare (the girls only REALLY started laying about a month ago) and the ship rate on shipped eggs is so dismal . . . especially with MY lousy egg-packing skills.   Ha ha!

 

I gues MrHeinz and Tazcat know each other via BYC?  Hopefully one way or another we can figure out a way to stock more folks in the Midwest with some Alohas, ha ha ha!