55 flowery hens

[Wynn_B]

Hello all, newbie here just started with my backyard flock of 20 about a year ago with mixed breeds of chickens. Everything is going great with them and I’m always wanting to get more. But I’m interested in breeding only 55 flowery hens in the future. My question is, does anyone have anymore information such as

Weight of hen and rooster:
Food consumption:
Egg production:
Size of egg:
Temperament hen and rooster:
Cold and heat hardy:
Or any relevant information:

I learned about them on GF page and would like if anyone would share their own experiences. Thanks!
Pictures are always welcome!

P.S. would be nice if they would give them their own breed page/article like all the other well known breeds!

 

[Kiki]

This post has some answers to some of your questions:
Post #341 of 592

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Per Kiki's link maybe @paintedChix can help you

 

[paintedChix]

Well, THANK YOU, Texas Kiki & HenOnAJuneBug!!!

As to the OPs original ?s - our birds are very "flighty", but since they've started laying they've "quieted down" some... I don't know how to describe it... I do like them.

Here are some of my experiences - may be different for other folk.

Weight of hen and rooster: haven't weighed them yet. body type/shape like a Leghorn, feel they'll weight about the same? I now have a scale and will try to get some weights. Mine are right at a year old now.
Food consumption: haven't kept a real good track on it, to be honest. They do seem to eat less overall than some of the other birds. I have a feeling, when I am able to "tractor" them around, they'll even eat less...
Egg production: I have 8 pullets (hens, now?). They started laying in January, but I'm still not getting 8 eggs a day. Will get better at tracking it and see how close to that we get this next week... I was totally freaked out by the fact that they were 11 months old before they started laying!! BUT, OMG, these eggs are HUGE!



Size of egg: They aren't as large around as the Bielefelders' eggs, but they are a little taller. I'm ordering an egg scale this weekend, and again, I'll post what kinds of weights I'm getting on the eggs. The will tell us what size they are "officially".
Temperament hen and rooster: Not really friendly. Aloof BUT it could be because of a lack of handling. They weren't handled much in their 1st 12 weeks by the breeder I got them from. I also didn't handle them much, but they were the first to stampede from us in panic. The pullets were brutal when a pullet of a different breed followed me into their pen/coop (but I've heard others can be/are as well). I didn't realize the one girl was in the wrong pen until the next day (about 12 hours?) - they'd pecked her badly. She had no feathers left on the skin of her head and they'd "peeled" the skin from the top of her skull and 1/2 way back down her neck. That pullet lasted about 2 days in a separate pen w/ food & water and then passed The hens, when you do get them caught, do calm down and will sit on your leg or knee while you stroke them but as soon as turned loose will leave and put much distance between you and them. The roosters - the same way. I'm down to 1 roo out of 4. He is very careful of his girls but he does not approach me - either in an aggressive manner or a good, friendly manner. Personally, as long as he doesn't become aggressive, I'm fine with that! They are supposed to be good forages and great w/ predators (few if any losses). I was afraid to turn them loose to free range - thinking they'd just disappear w/ how flighty they were. Can't wait to get some of our tractors built, as I plan on getting them out of their coop run on regular grass/pasture.
Cold and heat hardy: Even though they have great big single combs, they are a breed I've had the least comb issues with. Understand we don't get quite as brutal long, below freezing temps, but we do get below freezing for short periods of time. I've had some issues w/ both the Bielefelders and the CLBs combs, but not w/ the 55 "Flo's". This group was about 12 weeks old when I purchased them and had never been out of a brooder arrangement. I put them in a rabbit cage, on grass w/ a puppy X-pen for a run. They seemed to lay and pant a lot at first. They were the only ones I noticed this on. Then they moved to a larger pen and didn't notice so much and by the time the main heat hit in the summer, they did great! Don't really know anything else yet.
Or any relevant information: Honestly, these were our easiest birds to care for this past year. They seemed to be the most hardy of all our breeds (I went a LOT crazy in 2018) and we had the fewest losses w/ this group. Think the losses I did have (3 cockerels) were due to overcrowding and bad weather during the two hurricanes we got smacked by. Very pleased overall. Was very disappointed that I didn't have any hatch w/ my first attempt at hatching BUT these pullets had been laying the shortest amount of time and I was warned that could happen. I also had a power outage where our actual house temps dropped to 50* and some humidity issues right before lock down, too. Hoping to fix that and really looking forward to hatching some of these birds. If I do narrow my breed focus down to 1 breed w/ white eggs - this would be it.

These pics make my heart go "pitter-patter" and my mind think "Uh La La" when I see them... I wish my pics weren't all so washed out looking of these guys(mostly gals)!

 

[Wynn_B]

Well, THANK YOU, Texas Kiki & HenOnAJuneBug!!!

As to the OPs original ?s - our birds are very "flighty", but since they've started laying they've "quieted down" some... I don't know how to describe it... I do like them.

Here are some of my experiences - may be different for other folk.

Weight of hen and rooster: haven't weighed them yet. body type/shape like a Leghorn, feel they'll weight about the same? I now have a scale and will try to get some weights. Mine are right at a year old now.
Food consumption: haven't kept a real good track on it, to be honest. They do seem to eat less overall than some of the other birds. I have a feeling, when I am able to "tractor" them around, they'll even eat less...
Egg production: I have 8 pullets (hens, now?). They started laying in January, but I'm still not getting 8 eggs a day. Will get better at tracking it and see how close to that we get this next week... I was totally freaked out by the fact that they were 11 months old before they started laying!! BUT, OMG, these eggs are HUGE!

View attachment 1680697 View attachment 1680698 View attachment 1680699 View attachment 1680700

Size of egg: They aren't as large around as the Bielefelders' eggs, but they are a little taller. I'm ordering an egg scale this weekend, and again, I'll post what kinds of weights I'm getting on the eggs. The will tell us what size they are "officially".
Temperament hen and rooster: Not really friendly. Aloof BUT it could be because of a lack of handling. They weren't handled much in their 1st 12 weeks by the breeder I got them from. I also didn't handle them much, but they were the first to stampede from us in panic. The pullets were brutal when a pullet of a different breed followed me into their pen/coop (but I've heard others can be/are as well). I didn't realize the one girl was in the wrong pen until the next day (about 12 hours?) - they'd pecked her badly. She had no feathers left on the skin of her head and they'd "peeled" the skin from the top of her skull and 1/2 way back down her neck. That pullet lasted about 2 days in a separate pen w/ food & water and then passed The hens, when you do get them caught, do calm down and will sit on your leg or knee while you stroke them but as soon as turned loose will leave and put much distance between you and them. The roosters - the same way. I'm down to 1 roo out of 4. He is very careful of his girls but he does not approach me - either in an aggressive manner or a good, friendly manner. Personally, as long as he doesn't become aggressive, I'm fine with that! They are supposed to be good forages and great w/ predators (few if any losses). I was afraid to turn them loose to free range - thinking they'd just disappear w/ how flighty they were. Can't wait to get some of our tractors built, as I plan on getting them out of their coop run on regular grass/pasture.
Cold and heat hardy: Even though they have great big single combs, they are a breed I've had the least comb issues with. Understand we don't get quite as brutal long, below freezing temps, but we do get below freezing for short periods of time. I've had some issues w/ both the Bielefelders and the CLBs combs, but not w/ the 55 "Flo's". This group was about 12 weeks old when I purchased them and had never been out of a brooder arrangement. I put them in a rabbit cage, on grass w/ a puppy X-pen for a run. They seemed to lay and pant a lot at first. They were the only ones I noticed this on. Then they moved to a larger pen and didn't notice so much and by the time the main heat hit in the summer, they did great! Don't really know anything else yet.
Or any relevant information: Honestly, these were our easiest birds to care for this past year. They seemed to be the most hardy of all our breeds (I went a LOT crazy in 2018) and we had the fewest losses w/ this group. Think the losses I did have (3 cockerels) were due to overcrowding and bad weather during the two hurricanes we got smacked by. Very pleased overall. Was very disappointed that I didn't have any hatch w/ my first attempt at hatching BUT these pullets had been laying the shortest amount of time and I was warned that could happen. I also had a power outage where our actual house temps dropped to 50* and some humidity issues right before lock down, too. Hoping to fix that and really looking forward to hatching some of these birds. If I do narrow my breed focus down to 1 breed w/ white eggs - this would be it.

These pics make my heart go "pitter-patter" and my mind think "Uh La La" when I see them... I wish my pics weren't all so washed out looking of these guys(mostly gals)!

View attachment 1680710 View attachment 1680708 View attachment 1680706

View attachment 1680715 View attachment 1680716

Thank you for all that information, I really appreciate it! awesome pictures of them they look great!

 

[Kiki]

Well, THANK YOU, Texas Kiki & HenOnAJuneBug!!!

As to the OPs original ?s - our birds are very "flighty", but since they've started laying they've "quieted down" some... I don't know how to describe it... I do like them.

Here are some of my experiences - may be different for other folk.

Weight of hen and rooster: haven't weighed them yet. body type/shape like a Leghorn, feel they'll weight about the same? I now have a scale and will try to get some weights. Mine are right at a year old now.
Food consumption: haven't kept a real good track on it, to be honest. They do seem to eat less overall than some of the other birds. I have a feeling, when I am able to "tractor" them around, they'll even eat less...
Egg production: I have 8 pullets (hens, now?). They started laying in January, but I'm still not getting 8 eggs a day. Will get better at tracking it and see how close to that we get this next week... I was totally freaked out by the fact that they were 11 months old before they started laying!! BUT, OMG, these eggs are HUGE!

View attachment 1680697 View attachment 1680698 View attachment 1680699 View attachment 1680700

Size of egg: They aren't as large around as the Bielefelders' eggs, but they are a little taller. I'm ordering an egg scale this weekend, and again, I'll post what kinds of weights I'm getting on the eggs. The will tell us what size they are "officially".
Temperament hen and rooster: Not really friendly. Aloof BUT it could be because of a lack of handling. They weren't handled much in their 1st 12 weeks by the breeder I got them from. I also didn't handle them much, but they were the first to stampede from us in panic. The pullets were brutal when a pullet of a different breed followed me into their pen/coop (but I've heard others can be/are as well). I didn't realize the one girl was in the wrong pen until the next day (about 12 hours?) - they'd pecked her badly. She had no feathers left on the skin of her head and they'd "peeled" the skin from the top of her skull and 1/2 way back down her neck. That pullet lasted about 2 days in a separate pen w/ food & water and then passed The hens, when you do get them caught, do calm down and will sit on your leg or knee while you stroke them but as soon as turned loose will leave and put much distance between you and them. The roosters - the same way. I'm down to 1 roo out of 4. He is very careful of his girls but he does not approach me - either in an aggressive manner or a good, friendly manner. Personally, as long as he doesn't become aggressive, I'm fine with that! They are supposed to be good forages and great w/ predators (few if any losses). I was afraid to turn them loose to free range - thinking they'd just disappear w/ how flighty they were. Can't wait to get some of our tractors built, as I plan on getting them out of their coop run on regular grass/pasture.
Cold and heat hardy: Even though they have great big single combs, they are a breed I've had the least comb issues with. Understand we don't get quite as brutal long, below freezing temps, but we do get below freezing for short periods of time. I've had some issues w/ both the Bielefelders and the CLBs combs, but not w/ the 55 "Flo's". This group was about 12 weeks old when I purchased them and had never been out of a brooder arrangement. I put them in a rabbit cage, on grass w/ a puppy X-pen for a run. They seemed to lay and pant a lot at first. They were the only ones I noticed this on. Then they moved to a larger pen and didn't notice so much and by the time the main heat hit in the summer, they did great! Don't really know anything else yet.
Or any relevant information: Honestly, these were our easiest birds to care for this past year. They seemed to be the most hardy of all our breeds (I went a LOT crazy in 2018) and we had the fewest losses w/ this group. Think the losses I did have (3 cockerels) were due to overcrowding and bad weather during the two hurricanes we got smacked by. Very pleased overall. Was very disappointed that I didn't have any hatch w/ my first attempt at hatching BUT these pullets had been laying the shortest amount of time and I was warned that could happen. I also had a power outage where our actual house temps dropped to 50* and some humidity issues right before lock down, too. Hoping to fix that and really looking forward to hatching some of these birds. If I do narrow my breed focus down to 1 breed w/ white eggs - this would be it.

These pics make my heart go "pitter-patter" and my mind think "Uh La La" when I see them... I wish my pics weren't all so washed out looking of these guys(mostly gals)!

View attachment 1680710 View attachment 1680708 View attachment 1680706

View attachment 1680715 View attachment 1680716

Thank you!

 

[nicalandia]

The 55 flowery hen autosexing breeds must be the most sexually dimorphic of all of the breeds

 

[Kiki]

The 55 flowery hen autosexing breeds must be the most sexually dimorphic of all of the breeds

I didn't know this until @paintedChix 's pictures.