Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[redhen689]

Am I the only person raising Swedish Flower Hens in Massachusetts? I need to add to my gene pool.

I live in PA, but often drive to NJ and sometimes drive into NY. I might be willing to swap a bird or two with you... but mine are just 13 days old... So we'll have to wait and see...

 

[jlynnet]

Here are some of my 3 month old Swedes. I have too many boys!!

 

[SunnySkies]

I live in PA, but often drive to NJ and sometimes drive into NY.  I might be willing to swap a bird or two with you... but mine are just 13 days old...  So we'll have to wait and see...

Well, depending on where you are in PA, and when you are next going to NJ or NY, I might be able to bring a bird or two that far and you take them from there...

Nope, I sent some to NH.  

My bad. Sorry.

 

[lalaland]

There are supposed to be 3 swedish flower hen chicks , eggs from the first generation of sfh from GFF, pink and purple line in this mixed batch of 17 chicks I have.
these might be them....any thoughts? I posted a pic a couple of weeks ago of one of them with only wing feathers, here they are at 5 weeks

the above chick has the most obvious white feather tips


and

pink legged, crested....

 

[BrendaChick]

I would love to buy the blue rooster from you. What is your price and can you ship it to Massachusetts?

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

OK - so my Silkie (Darth 'Bator) got the very last of the Gunnar eggs - most laid a week or more after he died (the rest were sold to help cover the vet bill) and only one started to develop. Well - 'Bator's last brood of 5 chicks kept trying to help their mamma brood the egg, and it was getting knocked all over the place and pooped on by mamma's little helpers. Finally I put 'Bator in one of the isolation areas in my trailer coop (thank goodness for those!).

Anyhooo, I figured there was a good chance the egg wasn't going to hatch after all it had been through. I hadn't seen any movement when I candled it... but I left it under her and now I have located some BCM chicks locally that I can slip under Mamma so she has some babies to raise (and I'll get eggs for my 3 other broodies - yeah - you read that right).

So on a whim I went out in the dark tonight and candled that poor, pooped-on, beaten up, rolled around, well loved egg... and saw an internal pip and the chick breathing!!!

I am REALLY hoping that Gunnar's last chick will be the Mille Fleur-colored SFH pullet I've been wanting so badly. (The last one turned into a cockerel - LOL!) Like a dummy I sold his other MF babies. So everybody keep your fingers crossed for a healthy Mille Fleur Gunnar daughter! She'll be cherished!

Just in case it isn't (I haven't read everything between this post and today) you apparently sold me a massive batch of pullet eggs. I had 2 blue cockerels and everything else looks like girls! I am going to keep a few but if you want one of my mille fleur patterned girls let me know if you're coming out my way again this summer.

 

[RedRidge]

I haven't even begun to try to sex mine yet... at what age are you all beginning to determine sex with the SFH?

 

[ivyrash]

These three SFH's are all the same age. I bought them as day old chicks all from the same person. I think there are two roosters and a hen but the reddish rooster is so much bigger and more developed then the light colored one. Is that normal? I don't find anything wrong with him, he just seems to be filling out slower. He also has those little head feathers that made me think he would be crested but they have never filled out, do you think he will be crested? They are 15 wks. old now.

My other question is, would it be ok to feed raw fish parts to the SFH? My husband fishes a lot so we always have the heads and stuff left over after cleaning them but I wasn't sure if it would be ok or not.

I also have some older SFH and I'm sure I will have at least one rooster to rehome in the near future. Just waiting on everyone to fill out to decide who to keep. I'm in NE Kansas if anyone is looking for some different blood.

Light rooster


Hen


Reddish Rooster

 

[PugBug]

I haven't even begun to try to sex mine yet... at what age are you all beginning to determine sex with the SFH?

I got mine when they were 3wks old, it was pretty obvious that 2 were going to be roos at that time. 2 others developed a bit slower, but by a little over 4wks old I knew 2 more were boys & the rest girls. Sometimes they just have 'that look' before you ever see physical signs LOL Mine are now almost 6 mo old & just today separated the 2 roos I'm not going to keep. Funny I just realized while typing this that the 2 I am keeping are the 2 I knew were boys when I got them...

 

[PugBug]

These three SFH's are all the same age. I bought them as day old chicks all from the same person. I think there are two roosters and a hen but the reddish rooster is so much bigger and more developed then the light colored one. Is that normal? I don't find anything wrong with him, he just seems to be filling out slower. He also has those little head feathers that made me think he would be crested but they have never filled out, do you think he will be crested? They are 15 wks. old now.

My other question is, would it be ok to feed raw fish parts to the SFH? My husband fishes a lot so we always have the heads and stuff left over after cleaning them but I wasn't sure if it would be ok or not.

I also have some older SFH and I'm sure I will have at least one rooster to rehome in the near future. Just waiting on everyone to fill out to decide who to keep. I'm in NE Kansas if anyone is looking for some different blood.

Light rooster


Hen


Reddish Rooster

The 'light' one is crested, just a very tiny crest. To be honest, & I am not claiming to be an expert- but it does not look like a 100% SFH to me. Something about the barred looking coloring- this is not something I've seen in SFH's, the head looks different too. It looks more like my Basque roo that's about the same age as this one here. The other 2 do look SFH to me. Is is possible it's a mix? Maybe someone else can chime in on this???
As to your question on the fish, yes you can give it to them. If they won't eat it raw, you can always boil it all down & give to them- excellent source of extra protein! Personally I boil it down & then add to the fermented feed that I already give. Also boiling it down good softens everything making it easier to digest.