Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

I let the week old babies out night before last when it stopped raining.

Copper (BCMarans x BO) seems to be the chicks preference for mothering, much to the disgust of my BCMarans hen. They are a week old in these pictures and cute as buttons.



This is the other end of the hen in my avatar. She was taking exception to Copper coming over when she called the chicks. Most of the time they get along fine. Night before last they were all crammed into one nest box with all the chicks. I was a little concerned, but everyone was fine in the morning. Last night I physically moved Graycie to the other nest box along with a couple of the babies, and she stayed there.

 

[chicken danz]

@Deerfield Acres - Still very much being a NOOB (I like to say that I can now pretty consistently tell the chicken's head from it's feet) - I'm wondering about the Aloha breed. You are working hard on your breeding project. What drew you to that breed? What makes it unique? I pulled up some pics and they look pretty similar to the speckled sussex, just a lighter build, more erect tail? Searching for "aloha chicken" brings up some great looking recipes - made me hungry.

I processed out a roo last weekend. First time skinning and it went really well. Thanks @chicken danz and @Trish44 for the pointers. Start to finish in less than an hour. I don't mind plucking, but getting the water to the right temp is a major hassle.

I decided to poke into the intestines to look for worms. I didn't see anything that was clearly a worm. But (sorry if you just ate I did see these little white things. Part of normal digestion or bad stuff?
I think those could just be feather folicles. Hard to see but unless they were very young worms that would be my guess.

Kinda sad morning, my only leghorn died overnight. I noticed yesterday evening she was acting lethargic and made note to check her today. Then when I came inside after telling them goodnight, I looked at the egg stash in the fridge and had no white eggs. So, she'd not laid in a few days. I wish I would have checked to see if she was egg bound last night. Otherwise, I have no idea what got her. To wimpy to start cutting on her now that she's died. She was a little egg machine and I'm sad to loose her. I have a couple California Grays that will lay white (I'm told) that are growing out.

Some people just left who said they were just on the otherside of Leavenworth. Had I known in advance I could have had them meet you with your sussex. They were trying to leave when the subject of their location came up. If they hadn't had a long drive I would have asked them to do it anyway.
Sorry about your leghorn. Darn chickens have a terrible life expectancy. I guess that's why they lay so many eggs.

Sharol the broodies and chicks look very happy. It looks so dry there. I'm envious.
My enthusiasm was dampened today by getting out and realizing it was still a muddy nasty mess out there. It stinks so bad. I moved my poor lavenders to the building today. The gal that had been broody the longest was caked in mud and stunk like rotten eggs. She got a bath of sorts but still stinks. I didn't find any viable eggs under the hens. Many were at different stages of development but there were no live embryoes. Most had gone rotten. Their pen was knee deep in mud and slosh even after I had dug a trench to drain the water. They aren't happy about the move but just having dry feet for a while has got to be better for them. Little by little I am emptying the pens out there. I'd really like to get them all emptied but some of the breeding groups are too large to put in the building until I get the exterior pens built.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

zigzag45, It's been a long process and at one point, I almost decided to just go to Swedish Flowers but after getting them I realized I was on the right track with the Alohas.

I want a bird that is truly dual purpose, and is beautiful to look at. Alohas are a work in progress and along the way I have learned a ton. They were really small birds to start with so the goal was to size up. I knew nothing about the SOP when I started this little endeavor and I have done everything the hard way and figured out how to fail big, but I kept going and learned as much as I could. It's amazing how many different birds will start spangled and lose the spangles entirely as they mature. I tried crossing Alohas with Buff Rocks, Buff Cornish, Speckled Sussex, Buff Orps, New Hamps and German New Hamps. The only one to hold any kind of spots was the Speckled Sussex, but then it darkened the background of the Aloha too much. In the meantime, I realized it was going to take forever to get the bird to any kind of proper "type" using hatchery birds.

Then, I took advantage of finding some Swedish Flower hatching eggs close and hatched those thinking I maybe could use those birds to size up and return some of what I had been given through the program. At first, I thought, why am I working so hard on the Alohas when I have these beautiful, sweet Swedish Flowers? They are very loveable birds! However, as they grew, I found that the Swedish males were very slow to develop fully. They are a flatter breasted bird and when you want a bird for meat, it's nice to have a fuller breast. The hens tended to have a lot of gray, pretty but not the contrast of pure black, red or orange that I really love. There were also splash white birds. I wanted to be able to consistently breed an orange/red/lemon bird with white spangles. The Swedish also seemed less vigilant than all of my other birds in watching for hawks.

Enter the Buff Sussex. So I learned that if you breed Buff (Columbian color pattern) to Speckled Sussex, you will end up with a few Mille Fleur Sussex. Thus lightening the background of a straight Speckled to cross with the Aloha and hopefully resulting in a Mille Fleur pattern with a light background. Having learned all about type and how that effects productivity and the health of a bird, I wanted to add Buff's for their width of body and impressive size. After all of these Sussex around the premises, I absolutely fell in love with them. The great big roundness of those birds just make me smile and when they run, forget about it I have to laugh! They look like little old ladies hiking up their skirts to run. It's so darn cute I can't stand it. So my line of Alohas will inevitably echo my preferences. My largest Aloha hen to date has been 4 lbs (the avatar) while the Buffs are 6 lb. hens with a 10 lb. rooster. We are aiming for 5 lb. hens so I'm thinking I will get there with my Sussex. The Buff rooster is very predator aware and has done a beautiful job protecting the hens. I need that around here because my birds are enclosed in an electric fence, so they aren't protected from the sky.

I purchased breeder Speckleds last year but Speckled Sussex tend to be less hardy than other birds and not one of them made it. So that delayed me until I could get some from Walt'z Ark this year, instead of the previous breeder. While I was at it, I threw in some Light Sussex to see if I can lighten the background color of the Alohas. Those chicks are growing out in the brooder. They are also said to be better layers than the Buff, although the Buff aren't bad at all.

So while I was waiting on the quality Speckleds, I have crossed the Buff roo with my Aloha and a hatchery Speckled with very even speckling, just to pass the time and see what happens. I have 15 growing out in the brooder but am going to choose the best 5 and sell the rest this week, based upon the overall width of legs, straightness of back, and the most white in the feathers. I want to cross the "keepers" back to the Alohas which have been sized up with Swedish and Buff, Dun, and Cinnamon Sussex crosses.

HEChicken is working on increasing egg size and frequency so she is crossing Exchequer Leghorns with German New Hampshires and working to create a white mottled bird. It's fascinating to see how each person progresses with their piece of the puzzle.

I am truly drawn to the challenge of creating a quality bird that is as beautiful, or more so to my eye, than the Swedish. I've been told it can't be done from where the program started, to not waste my time, etc. But, I believe it can be done and it can be done well. With today's trends, I think preserving these rare Sussex, along with creating a "trendy" bird is a great way to provide meat and eggs for my family. While a flashy bird will draw people in, as they progress in their understanding and knowledge they branch out and find what suits them. My ideal is a polka dotted Sussex. To be true to the program, the Aloha will ultimately be shaped more like a smaller, bit less rounded body, with a great plume of a tail. I am focusing right now on helping the program to size up with a proper carcass.

When I end up with my ideal Aloha, will I continue working on the program? I don't know. I will be very happy with creating my own ideal and contributing that way. I thought I may not continue when I added the Swedish but here I am, still plugging away. I guess I really enjoy the experimentation. Seeing what happens with different matings and I'm probably hooked for life creating different color strains that will breed true. Red Spangled, Black Spangled, Lemon Spangled, Buff Spangled... this could go on forever.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

sharol, I love the pics! The chicks are adorable and the mommas are round and fluffy and I love a fluffy bird!

 

[sharol]

Quote:
We aren't dry by any means, but lots dryer than you are. The chicken pen is a sloppy mess (of course it is in the low spot in the yard -- not the best planning on my part.) There are places that are ankle deep in water in the yard, and the garden is slush. On a brighter note, there was a mud turtle laying eggs in the yard when DH was mowing (boating?) late afternoon. It was really cool to see her drop the eggs gently into the hole she had dug and them move them around with her back feet before laying the next one. The web says that they will take 45 days minimum to hatch, but I'm going to keep an eye on her burrow. That sort of thing fascinates me.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh that is cool, Sharol. I used to go to North Carolina and spend time with my parents when the sea turtles were laying. They have a wonderful program to mark off the nests and then help the newly hatched babies get to the water without getting picked off by sea gulls and such. I loved the whole thing. Once while DH and I were in Mexico at a resort we watched a huge sea turtle come up on the beach, make a nest and lay her eggs, then use her big feet like fans to cover the eggs in sand.
Deerfield that is an awful lot of work but I share you passion with my project brahmas. I keep adding my next generations to the breeding in hopes of creating more and more of my double laced blue golds. I haven't gotten it perfect yet. The one and only cockerel I've produced with the perfect markings got out of the hoop coop and eaten by an owl. I could have cried. Back to the drawing board. I have tons of babies out there from this project but I have to grow them out to figure out which ones to keep. It's a lot of time and chicken feed to invest to pick out what to save.

 

[sharol]

You can see the eggs she has already laid in the hole.

 

[sharol]

sharol, I love the pics! The chicks are adorable and the mommas are round and fluffy and I love a fluffy bird!

My daughter says that Orpingtons are the best because they look like REAL chickens with their fluffy butts. The Marans are also built that way.

 

[sharol]

I moved Sis (the broody BR) into her special puppy pen in the main coop yesterday. This morning I unzipped the door to let her out, and a little later she went out to do her squawk and run thing and went back in without problems. I zipped her in to protect her from the dog and the other hens.

It is a little crowded in there for the rest of the hens and Jake:



I'm keeping my fingers crossed. These are Danz's Breda Fowl and Araucana eggs.

 

[chicken danz]

My daughter says that Orpingtons are the best because they look like REAL chickens with their fluffy butts. The Marans are also built that way.

The advantage is that Orpingtons are really big chickens. The Marans look big but sure don't dress out that way. Copper is a great mix of both for sure.
Yep that pen takes quite a bit of space but the chickens can sit on top of it so you really didn't loose all that much. I always look at upper space as well as floor space. That's one problem with my building. I don't have any type of roosts in there yet and haven't quite figured out what will work just yet. Using chain link was quick although expensive but it does come with a whole new set of problems. I really wish I had time to get back in there and do some more work. The days just aren't long enough. I also need to figure out how to hang my feeders. I have another modification to make before they are ready to use anyway. I'm much more anxious to get some dry soil around here and do the dirt moving that it's going to require to build the pens outside.