Arizona Chickens

[CrazyChixLady]

Thought I would share that on the Arizona Backyard Farmers group in Facebook is a person giving away Golden Campines for free to anyone willing to continue the breeding program. She said there are only 500 breeding pairs and that they are endangered. See the post by Mimi'sand Poppi's Farm.

 

[Demosthine]

Anyone familiar with Buttercups? I have a Roo and was wondering how close to standard he is. Just curious...

I can't answer your questions, but I can say he is a real stunner! How old is he? Neither of my two heritage roosters have a tail that fancy, but they aren't quite a year old yet, either. I absolutely love that first pose! Mind sending it to me in the original size? I think I'd like to print it out and frame it, along with a few others I've started accumulating. It'll make a great decoration.

 

[alohachickens]

I was hoping someone might have some fertile eggs available. If not, I think I'll go get some Trader Joe eggs and process any cockerels and sale/trade any pullets I get out of the deal.

I have fertile eggs! I'd happily give anyone on here as many eggs as they want, if they let me pick a hen or two (and maybe a rooster, if you are in an area that allows them) out of the chicks hatched. I'm always trying to improve my breeding stock, but to be honest, out of every 10 chicks I'll only get one that I consider OUTSTANDING. Problem is they need to get raised to about four months to see what sizes you have really got. (Though a lot can be culled before then for other traits.)

I haven't been able to hatch and raise nearly as many chicks as I wanted to the last couple of years, been traveling a lot. I need to raise at least 150 chicks to get the best flock!

Photos on Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/sommerprosser/aloha-chickens/

The Blog here:

http://alohachickens.blogspot.com/

I'm breeding an Amerian version of the Swedish Flower Hen. When done, will be earlier to mature than the Swedes and come in even more colors! Right now they are looking fabulous but are still a bit small (like Leghorn size) and there is a lot of variablilty in body type:

 

[pipemum]

aloha, I've read through your blog a couple of times and your chickens are beautiful. I'd be interested in hatching out eggs in a couple of months, and you can have any and all chicks that hatch! I could probably raise about 8-10 chicks until 4 months.

 

[alohachickens]

aloha, I've read through your blog a couple of times and your chickens are beautiful. I'd be interested in hatching out eggs in a couple of months, and you can have any and all chicks that hatch! I could probably raise about 8-10 chicks until 4 months.

That would be awesome but note, I wouldn't even need ALL of them back, LOL. Out of 10 chicks probably just two would work for the program! The rest would be great for sales, I was just about to put some "culls" from the program on Cragislist:




As you can see, these hens are beautiful, and I think they are going to sell great when I get the ad up. They are getting culled for silly reasons, like the ones that look like pure Speckled Sussex, well they are only half, and I still have the parents and the parents are bigger. I figure if I'm going to work with something that looks exactly like a Speckled Sussex I'd rather have it be as big as possible. LOL.

I have other hens with more white, or with the yellow legs that I am breeding for, so these other ones will get culled. Even though actually they are quite nice! It's not so much that these ones are BAD - it's that the good ones we got from this batch are so GOOD! Finally after all these years we are making some real progress.

Here are some of the "keepers" for comparison:


The above hens were from the same batch, but I'm keeping the hens with lighter more "orangey" colors and the yellow legs.

So you'd likely get some cute hens, even the ones I didn't need. If I had someone who wanted a small batch of chicks to raise, I'd probably set up a breeder pen with a specific rooster so I could try for a "specialized" cross. Please email me a couple weeks beforehand so I can set it up! (It takes two weeks for one specific rooster's DNA to get in all the eggs of a breeder pen.)

Like right now I have my cute tiny rooster "Pumpkin":


I'd love to put him in with a few of my biggest girls and have someone raise a small batch of eggs that I know would all be his, that way I could see who got the best size of the batch.

I have lots of possible little "mini pens" that I could set up. But when I raise chicks I don't have the luxury of raising only 10 at a time. I cull so heavy, when I raise chicks, I keep a BIG batch (like 35 at a time) because if you only keep 1 in 10 for the breeder pen, you kind of have to start with a whole lot of chicks. LOL!!!

On years when I'm not traveling, I would raise about five or six "batches" but last year I only was able to raise two batches - maybe 60 some chicks total? I kept about 8-10 new youngsters for the breeder pen, from my own stock, plus I added two "outside" Speckled Sussex from Ideal and a couple of hatchery NHR that will hopefully add size to future generations.

 

[alohachickens]

Oh, also want to note, if anyone on here just wants chicks to raise (and you don't have an incubator) I'd be happy to give you hatched chicks. Right now a friend has given me a giant cabinet incubator on loan, and as long as he lets me borrow it, it's going to be really easy for me to hatch as many chicks as anyone on here could want to raise.

They'd have to be raised to about four or five months to get the "true" adult color and size on them, but if you have room to raise some and would like free chicks, give me a holler. I'd just want anything back that might work for breeding program.

 

[City farm]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to BYC and chicken keeping and was recently directed to this thread. I'm glad to know that there are so many chicken lovers out there!

BYC has been an incredible help to us and I'm so happy to be part of such a great forum. I'm starting at the beginning of this thread and reading it through, but I thought I'd better say hi before finishing it since it's so long.

Glad you were turned onto this great Fourm.. What breed do you have?

 

[City farm]

Question, do chickens molt this time of year? I have one that is loosing Lots of feathers. I see new pin feathers coming in but I worry about her getting cold without her undercoat this time of year. I see no lice or anything. She is eating normally. There is no broken skin or blood. You have to look close to see it but around her butt, under her wings and lower neck that there is no undercoat. You see bare skin. I live in Gilbert so it is not real cold yet.I just worry if this is normal. Will I need to buy her a sweater? LOL

Dose she look like this?

Bet they get cold durring the winter..

 

[chicksurreal]

Glad you were turned onto this great Fourm.. What breed do you have?

Thanks!

Right now we have 14 Silver Spangled Hamburgs, 1 Black Andalusian Cockerel and 1 Cuckoo Marans cockerel.

We're making plans to build another coop (bigger) by spring so we can get another 30-40 chicks. I'm interested in the Dominiques and several other breeds.

I never knew that a person could become addicted to chickens! I love them!

 

[chicksurreal]

Here's a recent picture of our little flock.