Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Leahs Mom]

@Melabella
Are you keeping all your roos?

 

[Melabella]

@Melabella
Are you keeping all your roos?

Hi LM!

No, I certainly can't keep them all. I feel bad for all the girls stuck in the grow out stall with those 4 emerging cockerels! I have two coops and runs. I have made the decision to have Swedish roosters in both . A friend is taking my beloved black Ameraucana roo who is in one of them with my layer flock. I adore him, and only moving him as I know he will be with my friend. I plan on having two roosters in each pen, with 20 girls. Hopefully as many Swedish girls as I can lay my hands on, and filling in with some white, green and blue egg layers so that the only brown egg layers in my coops will be Swedish eggs. I have sold 4 cockerels all ready, but have so many more to place. I am sure that of the 20 chicks in the brooder I have my fair share of boys out there!

MB

 

[Melabella]

My bad!!! Yup my chicks are 4 days old. We ended up with 11 Fuzzy Butts. All cute as can be.

Those are adorable! Love the dark color on these. Please post pictures as they grow, would love to see how they grow out!

MB

 

[Melabella]

Thank-you!
I was going to wait until Spring and let my broodies take care of the next chicks, but of course THAT didn´t happen. So I now have 5 new babies (good hatch rate, too, I thought it wouldn´t work out because the eggs get too cold at these temperatures, but 5 out of 6 hatched!). Got a nice mix, too:
2 blacks:


2 chipmunks:


and one interesting grey speckled one- curious to see how he turns out:

Hello Alpine!

How are these beautiful babies doing? I would love to see update pictures as they grow. I actually think maybe you can help me out with some information. Can you tell me where you buy your chicks from? I can't remember if you said that you bought your SFH's from Germany or not. I tried to look back through the posts but was unsuccessful. There has been some discussion lately about the chimpunk pattern showing up here in the US as this hasn't been a common color pattern in SFH chicks that have been imported thus far. I recently received an order of 14 chicks from Green Fire Farms latest imports of fresh lines of Swedish Flower Hens. GFF was the only person to bring SFH to the United States, and except for some private breeders that have imported new lines from Sweden and Germany, Greenfire Farms is really the main outlet most of us have birds from. Do you know if this is common in Europe and Sweden, chicks of this color pattern as it has some people questioning weather these chicks are crosses of other breeds. Of course we all know that originally this breed is a landrace breed and this being said I would imagine a lot of things went into their development but I am not convinced that this is something that suggests these chicks are not pure. What ever that means anyway. Any thoughts on this would be very helpful!

Thank you!

MB

 

[Ashdoes]

I have been wanting SFHs for about a year, and now have two dozen eggs on the way from Arkansas, very excited!
I had a few questions for all you experts. Compared to the larger breeds, like Cochins, what's the SFH food intake like? Cochins are pigs with feathers, and eat a lot, so I was wondering how the SFH compare. Also, how much do they like to forage on their own? Our Cream Legbars wander far and wide most of the day, and actually taught the Cochins to move out more, and I'd really like it if the SFH were active as well. Last question, about what age can you tell males from females? I'm spoiled with the Creams auto sexing, but the Cochins can take forever sometimes.
Thanks for any answers

 

[THeelChickinKY]

@Ashdoes
You're going to be thrilled with how much, how wide, and how well SFHS forage. Mine far prefer foraging to the grain we provide. They are super cold hardy and today, when it's snowing, my SFHS are going to be the only ones (along with maybe an adventurous Dominique or two) who venture out of the coop to try to forage. They've also done an excellent job laying this winter. Sexing can become obvious quickly because of the combs (at about 4 weeks maybe? can't remember for sure) but I had a few boys who bloomed quite a bit later, so it's not uniform. Enjoy!

 

[Ashdoes]

@Ashdoes
You're going to be thrilled with how much, how wide, and how well SFHS forage. Mine far prefer foraging to the grain we provide. They are super cold hardy and today, when it's snowing, my SFHS are going to be the only ones (along with maybe an adventurous Dominique or two) who venture out of the coop to try to forage. They've also done an excellent job laying this winter. Sexing can become obvious quickly because of the combs (at about 4 weeks maybe? can't remember for sure) but I had a few boys who bloomed quite a bit later, so it's not uniform. Enjoy!

Thank you.
That's not too bad for sexing age, and we've had Cochins that take weeks longer to become obvious, so I'm used to holding onto birds a bit longer just to be sure. I would be exetremly happy if they were slighlty more thrifty in the feed department.

 

[ashtree]

I have been wanting SFHs for about a year, and now have two dozen eggs on the way from Arkansas, very excited!
I had a few questions for all you experts. Compared to the larger breeds, like Cochins, what's the SFH food intake like? Cochins are pigs with feathers, and eat a lot, so I was wondering how the SFH compare. Also, how much do they like to forage on their own? Our Cream Legbars wander far and wide most of the day, and actually taught the Cochins to move out more, and I'd really like it if the SFH were active as well. Last question, about what age can you tell males from females? I'm spoiled with the Creams auto sexing, but the Cochins can take forever sometimes.
Thanks for any answers

I'd say mine also prefer foraging to grain but as chicks they were ravenous at the food bowl. I thought I'd go broke feeding them Also mine are just as friendly as cochins so that's pretty nice. They will follow people everywhere. And MOST of my boys were obvious by 4-6 weeks, except 1 that just had to keep me guessing! But he was obvious by 12 weeks.

@Bulldogma do you ship hatching eggs? I'd like to get on your list if so. I won't be ready until mid/end of March because all my incubators are currently full but I'm really interested. I can PM you if that's better....?

 

[Alpine Chicken]

Hello Alpine!

How are these beautiful babies doing? I would love to see update pictures as they grow. I actually think maybe you can help me out with some information. Can you tell me where you buy your chicks from? I can't remember if you said that you bought your SFH's from Germany or not. I tried to look back through the posts but was unsuccessful. There has been some discussion lately about the chimpunk pattern showing up here in the US as this hasn't been a common color pattern in SFH chicks that have been imported thus far. I recently received an order of 14 chicks from Green Fire Farms latest imports of fresh lines of Swedish Flower Hens. GFF was the only person to bring SFH to the United States, and except for some private breeders that have imported new lines from Sweden and Germany, Greenfire Farms is really the main outlet most of us have birds from. Do you know if this is common in Europe and Sweden, chicks of this color pattern as it has some people questioning weather these chicks are crosses of other breeds. Of course we all know that originally this breed is a landrace breed and this being said I would imagine a lot of things went into their development but I am not convinced that this is something that suggests these chicks are not pure. What ever that means anyway. Any thoughts on this would be very helpful!

Thank you!

MB

Hello Melabella,

The last couple batches have been from my own chickens, and they didn´t have any other breeds in with them. I got them last year as hatching eggs from a breeder here in Austria. I don´t know where he got them from, but he´s got a good reputation here as a breeder of rare breeds, and I do trust him when he says they´re purebred (I´ve gotten other breeds from him before with good results). My chicks that have been chipmunks turn out to be pretty typical-looking sfh´s, but I do love the look of them as chicks. Here are a couple of pictures of older chickens that were chipmunks after hatching:


The new babies are doing well, and are getting their first feathers already. Will post pics later when they´ve feathered out a little more. By the way, have a trip to Stockholm booked for the beginning of May, and got a list of breeders in and around Stockholm (thanks Bulldogma). Will be contacting them soon so I can take some hatching eggs home with me! I want to add to the genetic diversity of my flock. I´ll let you know if I get any chipmunks (hoping of course that customs and the trip etc. won´t make any problems and that some of the eggs will hatch, but seeing I´m traveling within the EU I hope it´ll be ok). Can´t wait!

 

[Alpine Chicken]

I have been wanting SFHs for about a year, and now have two dozen eggs on the way from Arkansas, very excited!
I had a few questions for all you experts. Compared to the larger breeds, like Cochins, what's the SFH food intake like? Cochins are pigs with feathers, and eat a lot, so I was wondering how the SFH compare. Also, how much do they like to forage on their own? Our Cream Legbars wander far and wide most of the day, and actually taught the Cochins to move out more, and I'd really like it if the SFH were active as well. Last question, about what age can you tell males from females? I'm spoiled with the Creams auto sexing, but the Cochins can take forever sometimes.
Thanks for any answers

Hello-
pigs with feathers- that´s funny! This is one of the reasons I gave up my Brahma for the SFH, and I think Brahma are comparable to Cochin. I only have one old Brahma-hen left, who I´m only keeping for sentimental reasons and who lays very typical eggs I can tell apart from the SFH-eggs. Besides any offspring from her would also have feathered feet, so I can avoid cross-breeding this way, too. I definitely spend a lot less on feed now than I did with my Brahma. I also must say, my SFH forage a lot more, too, so get much of their food supply outside. I noticed this last year when I had to butcher a couple of my extra Brahma- and SFH-Roos. I saw that the Brahma had pretty much only eaten their feed, and the SFH had eaten a lot of greenery from outside. My SFH go out at almost every weather, while my Brahma made it very comfi all the time in the coop as soon as the temperature wasn´t optimal or it was a little wet outside. Sexing I find isn´t so easy. I found the Brahma easier. I can usually make a good guess at around 6 weeks, when the males´combs start to get bigger and darker. I´m only certain at around 7-8 weeks, when the saddle feathers start to come in. Of course I´ve only had them for about a year, so maybe there are others who are better at it.