The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

Oh, and last but not least, this is a new photo of "Butterscotch". Butterscotch is one of two "Pumpkin" colored mottled roosters. These two roosters hatched from Aloha lines are both a strange all over orangey color. Not one trace of black, anywhere. In the background are two pure Speckled Sussex hens, for size and color comparison. Larissa has the other pumpkin-mottled rooster at her house, he's in a breeding pen with a few Sussex hens and a few really nice (but small) Aloha hens. We are hoping to reproduce this color but improve size and get rid of the gray legs. The fact it has shown up twice now on these two roosters is promising. "Butterscotch" has more white mottling than "Pumpkin" but otherwise they are pretty much identical.



Check out his gorgeous orange tail. So unique!

 

[alohachickens]

Notinoz, this chick is probably showing the faintest remnants of the "double comb" thing that has been going on with Alohas. It seems to be improving as we introduce more and more single comb breeds into the mix . . . it's almost like the combs are a zipper closing shut from front to back . . . and your comb has almost "zipped" closed, ha ha!

I am very much liking the golden tones and lack of black on this chick. He/She is also showing a good amount of white! Enough to be seen at this age and yet not a ton - some of the chicks I culled to my neighbor at this age were showing a ton of white, and other buff chicks here that were showing mottling, the mottling has now faded away.

I've really been having issues combining the Buff color with Sussex type Mottling. I wonder what is going on with that? Does the Buff + Mottling just not like to play together? I recently read that "Merle" color which causes a marbled spotting pattern in dogs, simply does NOT show up in the golden/buff dog coat color! Wow! That was news to me. Well, there are still lots of chicks to hatch this spring. Will have to wait and see!

thanks to you both for trying to help out, its very strange and yes frustrating.
i was thinking about it last night and maybe its because i was adding pictures that i had uploaded to my profile (i guess). so i am going to try one more time and just insert the pictures straight from my computer. if it doesnt work at least you can see the chicks when you quote it.

this is the one i was talking about with the circle on the top of the comb. i dont know if its roo or hen but the coloring is very nice with yellow legs so something to look forward to


same chicken different light

 

[runsw/scissors]

I am building a new coop (well really my son's father is; *ahem* ) and will have room if you need more breeders for your program.

They are lovely splashy critters!

 

[notinoz2007]

ah ha! it worked, finally got this last picture to load. this is the one i wanted to show you. good color, very good size compared to the others i have AND yellow legs. is that darker wing featheingr what you call barring? one of these weeks when i have time i am going to seriously research genetics. anyway, the problem with this fella is that it is pretty mean. its the only chick with full tail feathers, because it has picked everyone else's tail. now that i have them in the bigger coop they spend more time dust bathing and less time picking so everyone feathers are starting to come in again. i'll probably see if i can get individual pictures this weekend. glad you're back, hope you had great fun.

 

[notinoz2007]

wow at butterscotch. he's purty.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Here are photos of two of the Thanksgiving hatch chicks. Top photo is Pepper, who is as big as the largest rooster chick in there. (She is two months old, and already almost the size of the smaller adult Aloha hens.) The other photo is of her sister, who is nearly as big but not quite. DARN all this barring!!!

These girls are stunning! If you don't want that barring feel free to send them to me, I want barring in my birds! I'd just love a flock full of birds like Pepper decorating my paddock.

 

[alohachickens]

I am building a new coop (well really my son's father is; *ahem* ) and will have room if you need more breeders for your program.

They are lovely splashy critters!

More breeders are always desperately needed. Where are you located?

 

[alohachickens]

It's not that I hate barring, it's just that the Barring tends to hide the Sussex type mottling. The chicks with barring + small spots look really cool until they reach about four months, then the spots kind of fade out against the barred background. Now, some chicks (the "Confetti" color ones) have larger "splotches" of white, instead of teeny dots, and those chicks - even the barred ones - stay flashy-looking until adulthood. But not the ones with the little dots of white, those are totally boring by four months.

I don't know enough about chicken genetics to say for sure, but I'm getting the feeling that the spotted pattern found in Exchequer Leghorns (which were used early in this breed) is a different spotting gene than the Sussex mottling pattern? I introduced both colors in the breed early on. Plus the original oddball Banty was spotted more like a Pinto horse than all over consistent tiny dots like the Sussex breed. Some Alohas have tiny dots like a Sussex, some have bigger checkered splotches that remind me of Exchequer Leghorns (see my avatar) and others have large patches of white, which I suspect may be both patterns on one bird? Maybe someone who knows more about chicken genetics can tell us for sure?

But because the teeny Sussex white dots of mottling fade away on adult barred chickens, and kind of "blend in" on the adults, I want to keep it minimal within the breed, which means not crossing two barred chickens together, because that can result in chickens that are dominant for the Barring and will produce 100% barred chicks. So far, I've done this by keeping only non-barred roosters. Not sure what I'll do now, with this very cool looking buff-spotted (yet barred) guy? I'd kind of like to try him on these half Sussex crosses for at least one round, and see if he lightens up their mahogany color . . . .

These girls are stunning! If you don't want that barring feel free to send them to me, I want barring in my birds!

I'd just love a flock full of birds like Pepper decorating my paddock.

 

[alohachickens]

Yes, we should keep an eye on him, of course! See what happens. He doesn't show much white now, though clearly he is mottled, and the Sussex-type spotting shows up really late. Remember I showed you some "culls" that I gave to the neighbor next door? One hen had "not enough white" when I re-homed her and now she's mottled up to be a GORGEOUS hen covered in spots! Ooops. Oh well, I like my neighbor and he's taking good care of the babies I gave him, and hasn't lost a single one yet, so it's all good.

Anyway, if he is noticeably bigger than the others, it could be rapid growth that led to the picking, so try diet supplementing, too. Sometimes they need a protein boost at a certain growth stage. I had one group of chicks that went nuts with picking, but I tried a different food on that batch of chicks and apparently it didn't have enough protein in it! When I went back to my regular Nutrena, they were fine. I've also done supplementing with plain yogurt and diced hard-boiled eggs. My friend Larissa just scrambles eggs and puts them out for the babies to pick through if they start doing this. I have had one that was just a snot and culled him; he was outright mean. But otherwise, they were simply growing feathers so fast they couldn't get enough protein in their bodies. At the first sign of any picking, I'd supplement the diet. Once the growing slowed, they stopped trying to eat each other!

ah ha! it worked, finally got this last picture to load. this is the one i wanted to show you. good color, very good size compared to the others i have AND yellow legs. is that darker wing featheingr what you call barring? one of these weeks when i have time i am going to seriously research genetics. anyway, the problem with this fella is that it is pretty mean. its the only chick with full tail feathers, because it has picked everyone else's tail. now that i have them in the bigger coop they spend more time dust bathing and less time picking so everyone feathers are starting to come in again. i'll probably see if i can get individual pictures this weekend. glad you're back, hope you had great fun.

 

[runsw/scissors]

I am East of Eugene in Oregon.