Swedish Flower Hen Thread

@TheGeekySheep



What's happening with that hatch?  :caf


I had 2 hatch last night, they're both solid yellow?? And then one black and white hatched this morning with an open naval so I made him a little ICU in the bator to keep him from getting pecked at. He looks just like my lone SFH from my first try.

I have three more SFH in the bator that show no signs of hatching. I don't know what happened, they looked great going into lockdown. :(

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I am new to this breed. Purchased a cockerel/pullet pair

4 chicks as day olds, 3 survived

and 20 eggs but only 5 were fertile but all 5 did hatch early this morning. One I found out has a vaulted head.


3 on left, 2 other yellow ones are the SFH chicks, the others are SS F2 projects and a lone splash BLRW.

Wanted to get more info on this vaulted head issue as I don't want to breed any genetic defects.
Thank you
 
I am new to this breed. Purchased a cockerel/pullet pair

4 chicks as day olds, 3 survived

and 20 eggs but only 5 were fertile but all 5 did hatch early this morning. One I found out has a vaulted head.


3 on left, 2 other yellow ones are the SFH chicks, the others are SS F2 projects and a lone splash BLRW.

Wanted to get more info on this vaulted head issue as I don't want to breed any genetic defects.
Thank you
I've had one with vaulted skull. It's the result of breeding crested to crested and the offspring getting a crested gene from both parents ( homozygous). For SF, the vaulted skull can cause problems such has higher embryonic mortality ( chicks don't hatch ) or weak chicks at birth or chicks that are more prone to head injury. Other breeds that have vaulted skull as part of their "normal" characteristics, apparently don't have the problems with it that SF chicks do. Anyway, the one I had with it was a roo, perfectly healthy except that his crest was huge like a polish and couldn't see very well without clipping feathers. Most seem to consider this to be an undesirable trait in SF but if your chick is perfect in every other way and healthy, you can still use it for breeding if you breed it to only non crested partners. All the chicks would be crested but they would only carry one copy of the crested gene and you wouldn't get the vaulted skull in any of these offspring. Although it's not exactly a desirable trait, you can easily breed it out in one generation. Always breed crested to non crested to avoid this.

Are those two adult birds you show in first pic, the parents? The hen doesn't look to have a crest and if she is genetically non crested, I wouldn't think she could produce a vaulted skull.
 
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For those of you who use the "dry" incubation method for SFD- what does that mean in the way of humidity? I can see it being very different depending on the climate and am wondering what percentage seems to be best (or better).

Also, will anyone have any hatching eggs for sale in the near future that can ship to California? I'm thinking about trying some for the NYD hatchalong.

Thanx!
 
@Leahs Mom wow that is surprising, but I think these two are much lighter. It will be interesting to see how they feather out.

As far as I understand, the very light yellow chicks are generally splash. I had one in the spring, and this is how she looks now:


They should be getting their first wing feathers pretty soon, then you´ll see (if they´re white, the chicks will be splash).
 
@TheGeekySheep

See the yellow in this photo:

LL


He grew into this:
(22 wks.)
that is typical of wheaten pattern. they are very pale as chicks but can still show the black markings as adults... it's the hens who show the distinct differences between the varieties. the wheaten (eWh), partridge (eb) and wild type Ie+) roosters are identical.


As far as I understand, the very light yellow chicks are generally splash. I had one in the spring, and this is how she looks now:
not always. first, it depends on the e locus, second depends on the modifying genes, like lavender, blue (splash), mahogany, silver, dilute, etc.

splash based chicks look like the base variety it is, but will have pale silver where the others would be darker. splash e+ will still be chipmunk striped but the markings are very pale, splash partridge would still have the over all brownish tinge but more silvery brown where the others may be more black brown.
 
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Okay, so photos of the beautiful boys! These are the 5 guys who are free to a good home and who will, sadly, otherwise end up in the freezer in about a month. They have great personalities, and at the moment all of them are still getting along really well. I am also impressed that there have been no alpha rooster battles with my older roosters, either; these guys are smart and stay out of the way of the big guys. They also make a chicken carpet at the base of our front door that we are greeted with when we open it, and they abandon what they're doing to run up to us in hopes of food any time we step outside!
 

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