Jaerhon sexing

[Minniechickmama]

I just received 5 Norwegian Jaerhons from Sand Hill. Cute little boys and girls, but I can't tell which is which without help. Alpinefarms and L&Schickens, who both have these lovelies, have weighed in on deciding which is which. Now I am opening it up to the rest of you BYCers. If you have any knowledge of this breed and want to lend me you opinion, then I would be much obliged.
In other words, Thank you.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Wow- I don't know anything about them- but what pretty chicks! Congrats on your new additions!

Did you have to get 25 total from Sandhill?

 

[Minniechickmama]

They are apparently hard to come by here in the States. They are the most colorful of the bunch.

Yes, you have to order at least 25. I am splitting this order and one in June with another person.

 

[CelticMoon1]

There are two approved colors of Norwegian Jærhøns; light and dark.

Light: Female chicks are yellow with visible brown stripes from the neck and down along the back. Male chicks look uniformly yellow.

Dark: Chicks are brown, males have a large yellow spot in the neck/top of head area, females have a visibly smaller spot.

I'm including a link where you can see a picture of some chickens almost at the bottom - it's in Norwegian but you can probably translate through google translate or something

There's a lot of info on the breed there

 

[Bantimna]

Quote:
I agree

 

[Minniechickmama]

Quote:
Between you, L&Schickens and the picture on feathersite, I think I have two girls and 3 boys. Time will tell, of course, but I think I get how this is done now. I think I am going to like these ones.
Thanks for your feedback and info. I did go to that site but couldn't get a full translation. I did e-mail Tage Nondal, but I don't know if it is a good address. That is the person in Norway that is supposed to have some knowledge of the breed, but his site/blod is all in Norwegian. We will see if I get a reply. I will pass on any info I get on here. I will also share the "growth chart" on this feather butts.

 

[CelticMoon1]

Quote:
I hope you'll like them

At any rate they're good layers!

I can translate for you if you want. Just thought if that google thingy works you'd make out what it says

I know there are several people here in Norway that are "in the know" when it comes to this breed, some are great when it comes to genetics and some really know the history. I've read up on them myself too, but I'm far from an expert

If you have any specific questions I'm sure I can dig up some answers

ETA: Just remembered Sand Hill have "Flame" Jærhøns too don't they? Are those what you've bought? (I just thought they looked a bit different from what I'm used too...) That color is a sport that they have chosen to breed for, and apparantly it breeds true - but as for sexing I can't say 100% how they will turn out (logically large spot=male and small spot=female there too, because some amount of barring is part of the Jærhøns color pattern and those spots are how you sex barred chicks...). Sports are fairly common with this breed, and in Norway a group of people are breeding Grey Jærhøns and are working to get the color approved. I know there are some cuckoo popping up too

 

[Minniechickmama]

Thanks for helping me on this. I wondered if you lived over there. There are lots of Norwegians here in Minnesota, albeit a few generations removed from the folks who came over here from there.

I did know they have Flames at SH, but these are supposed to be the "Norwegian" variety of them, they said, which is the lighter brown without the reds you see on the Flames. I like the sounds of what I am finding out. I did not buy them, they put them in as freebies, probably because of out of the 25 I did order and pay for, they could only fill 6 of them, so all the others are substitutions. As it turns out, I have a nice variety. The Light Sussex I got are going to someone else that wanted to start them and saw they had a good show quality line there at SH. Also, he is taking the Longcrowers off my hands that I do not want at all, in any way. They don't seem to be a very useful breed for me, so not something I would keep in my flock. So, out of the 32, 4 have died, and 10 are going to this other person. Which is good, I have lots more chicks on the way next week either hatching or coming in the mail. I am also setting about 40 eggs toward the end of the month for my daughter's 2nd grade class. I like variety. I love the usefulness of chickens that they aren't just pets and they put out so much that is good.

Anyway, time will tell what I have both in colors and in genders. I would like to get more info on them if you can dig any up so we can educate the folks here in the States in this wonderful breed

Take care

 

[CelticMoon1]

OK, here goes (I think I've expended most of my knowledge

) My apologies for bad grammar and spelling mistakes

Also repeating the chick colors to get all info in one post:

Approved colors (According to Norwegian Standard of Perfection):
Light and Dark. Sports are not uncommon (though not accepted according to the SoP), such as Cuckoo, Grey (which a group of breeders in Norway are working on) and Flame (a variety that Sand Hill has chosen to breed for). The secret to telling the difference in coloring in adult hens: Dark have grey and dark grey stripes in the down on the underside of their body and their bottom, while the Light are brown in this area. Adult roos will have mainly white feathering, though patterned, but the Dark roos will have som darker brown coloring on their back.

Legs: Yellow

Comb: Single

Ear Lobes: White

Eggs: Minimum weight 55 grams, ideal weight 60 grams, but they can lay larger too. Light Jærhøns lay white eggs, Dark Jærhøns lay more of a cream color. They are considered good layers, about 80% of the production of commercial hybrids. They start laying at approximately 5 months old.

Weight: Roos 2 kgs Hens 1.75 kgs (Bantam roos 800 grams, hens 700 grams)

This is the only chicken breed developed in Norway. It originates from the Norwegian landrace fowl as it was before foreign breeds were imported from around 1850. (Landrace refers to domesticated animals adapted to the natural and cultural environment in which they live, or originated. They often develop naturally with minimal assistance or guidance from humans using traditional breeding methods). Their development is very well documented.
Because of the interest in the imported foreign breeds the number of landrace fowl in Norway diminished, and in 1916 a breeding station was founded in Stavanger in the Jær district in Norway. They collected hathcing eggs for what would be the base for what we know today as Norwegian Jærhøns. They got eggs from different places but most from a breeder named Karl Håland who had been working on the line for years. He in his turn got his eggs from a woman named Inger Lisabet Bru who had been breeding that type of fowl for approximately 30 years, meaning that the line the breeding station worked with originated in the 1880s. They bred the birds they had collected and from that stock selected one rooster (#1) and one hen (# 26) as the breeding pair and foundation for the development of the breed. We’re talking extreme linebreeding and inbreeding for approximately 100 years, with no outcrossing! To this day we have a gene bank that preserves this breed in Norway.

The original landrace fowl was much more diverse in appearance (much like Icelandic chickens) with a wide variety of colors, different combs and both with and without tassels. This is presumed to be the reason for the sports that crop up (deviations in colors) in an otherwise quite uniform breed.

They are not typical setters, as the broodiness in a large part has been bred out to get better egg production. They are active birds and are also known to be quite flighty (they can fly for as much as 20 meters horisontally if startled) and can easily roost 2 meters up. They are known to be quite hardy, and are great foragers though they will lay better with supplemented diet.

The chicks are sexable as day-olds.
Light Jærhøns: Males are uniformly yellow, females are yellow with a visible brown stripe from their head and down along the back.
Dark Jærhøns: Males are brown with a large uneven yellow spot in the head/neck area. Females are brown with a small spot.
(Grey Jærhøns: Both genders are dark brown/grey at hatch. Males have a large uneven spot, females a smaller spot.)
(Flame Jærhøns: (as they aren’t bred in Norway I have no idea, but can edit if anyone has info on them))

Here’s a link , if you browse almost to the bottom you’ll see pics of four chicks. The left ones are Dark, the right ones are Light. The top ones are male, the bottom ones female.

There is a bantam variety but that is quite young (from the 1990’s) and has been developed by outcrossing to Danish Dwarf Landrace Fowl and OEGBs.

 

[Minniechickmama]

CM, you are now my official master! Thank you. I am going to copy this and have it on hand if I start breeding these and sell any. It sounds like the Norwegian version of the leghorn, bred to produce eggs for us tall two-legs.
I will continue to post pictures as these ones grow to keep a record for any who might be interested in the future.

Tusen Takk!