Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[cree57i]

Well I just incubated my very first round of chicks and they're SFH! I got the eggs from a local gal. I have a couple of questions that maybe some of you all might know.

1. The colors seem to be split into two groups. The light colored ones with a stripe down the back and the solid bodied dark mahogany to near black with a white chest. The last one in the photos is the darkest. What colors do these end up being at maturity?

2. I have two with curled toes. One worse than the other but neither are terrible. Should I attempt to straighten/correct them? I'm leaning towards putting little cardboard shoes on them. Reading through the thread makes it sound like this is something the breed is more prone to. Genetics, nutrition (in an egg?), how they incubate...who knows. Makes me think I shouldn't keep them for breeding though.

I LOVE all the colors you got. Great job for your first incubation of SFH's! Many people do not find them easy to hatch. There are certain lines of the SFH's that seem to have more propensity towards curled toes. Absolutely try to straighten them. I would not use them as breeders though. Great pictures!

 

[jophus]

I've been training Bodhi, my heeler pup to help me with my chickens and turkeys. These little SFHs think he's their mom.



SFH chicks out of my last hatch.

 

[niroha]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm going to number them all to keep tabs on who grows into what color so I know for the future. They're sweet and feisty, already flapping their wings for take off at 24 hours old. I did end up putting shoes on those two last night.

I had a bear of a time keeping the humidity stable. I'm certain I drowned the 7 eggs that didn't hatch. I had to leave them for long stretches (sleep, work) and as they were hatching their humidity would spike. Before then my humidity would crash. I'll definitely be looking at doing something different incubator wise for any future hatches. I started with 24 eggs, 19 made it to lock down, 12 hatched. 2 have the curled toes but beyond that they're feisty and lively. In the future I might seek out different lines to bring in a little diversity. And I won't keep the curled toes for breeding.

 

[cree57i]

My SFH's do best with a dry hatch. I don't add the recommended amount of humidity for them, which means there are some other breeds that I don't hatch with them. I often have 100% hatches with my eggs. It is all a learning process and YOU DID GREAT! IMO

 

[niroha]

Next time I am going to try a dry hatch. I got these eggs from someone who is 2 miles down the road from me (how lucky is that?) and I did what she does. Or I tried to. 45% during incubation, 55% at lockdown. But it was a real fight. I'll be doing more reading about dry hatching in the future. Before work I'd get the humidity to 45-50% then by the time I got home 12 hours later it would be 13-20%. Overnight would go from 45-50% down to 20%.

I'm gonna float test the remaining eggs tonight and if there's no movement I'm going to crack them open and look. I'm assuming they're most likely dead. Today is day 23. No pips, no sounds, no movement.

 

[jophus]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm going to number them all to keep tabs on who grows into what color so I know for the future. They're sweet and feisty, already flapping their wings for take off at 24 hours old. I did end up putting shoes on those two last night.

I had a bear of a time keeping the humidity stable. I'm certain I drowned the 7 eggs that didn't hatch. I had to leave them for long stretches (sleep, work) and as they were hatching their humidity would spike. Before then my humidity would crash. I'll definitely be looking at doing something different incubator wise for any future hatches. I started with 24 eggs, 19 made it to lock down, 12 hatched. 2 have the curled toes but beyond that they're feisty and lively. In the future I might seek out different lines to bring in a little diversity. And I won't keep the curled toes for breeding.

Just curious, but what was your incubation humidity? I started "dry hatching" last year and it has increased my hatch percentage dramatically. If they make it to lockdown, the odds of them hatching are close to 100%. I've hatched all the SFHs I've had in the incubator this year. I had a quitter this week, but that's the first egg of theirs I've lost.

 

[2MorrowsDream]

I recently found out about them. I was captivated!!! Needless to say, I now have 4 of them.

 

[niroha]

I cracked the 7 that were left. All dead. 1 died before lock down and that one i was suspicious of - I let it go though because this was my first time and erred on the side of caution. 6 died at the end. Only one looked a bit damp in there. 5 looked pretty shrink wrapped. I don't even know how. The humidity stayed pretty high with all the hatching. I'm not sure how a dry hatch would have prevented that? maybe it was my swinging humidity throughout the process?

Just curious, but what was your incubation humidity? I started "dry hatching" last year and it has increased my hatch percentage dramatically. If they make it to lockdown, the odds of them hatching are close to 100%. I've hatched all the SFHs I've had in the incubator this year. I had a quitter this week, but that's the first egg of theirs I've lost.

My above comment goes into it a bit, but basically I was aiming for 45 during incubation and 55 for lock down. This is what the local gal told me whom i got the eggs from and having no experience I went with what worked for her. However I had a terrible time keeping the humidity stable. It kept crashing.

 

[jophus]

I cracked the 7 that were left. All dead. 1 died before lock down and that one i was suspicious of - I let it go though because this was my first time and erred on the side of caution. 6 died at the end. Only one looked a bit damp in there. 5 looked pretty shrink wrapped. I don't even know how. The humidity stayed pretty high with all the hatching. I'm not sure how a dry hatch would have prevented that? maybe it was my swinging humidity throughout the process?



My above comment goes into it a bit, but basically I was aiming for 45 during incubation and 55 for lock down. This is what the local gal told me whom i got the eggs from and having no experience I went with what worked for her. However I had a terrible time keeping the humidity stable. It kept crashing.

I think you have to find what works for you. I let my air cells tell me whether I'm too wet or too dry, rather than focus on a specific point on the hygrometer. I do keep my incubators in the 28-38% range for the first 18 days, then bump up to 60-70% in the hatcher.

 

[niroha]

I think you have to find what works for you. I let my air cells tell me whether I'm too wet or too dry, rather than focus on a specific point on the hygrometer. I do keep my incubators in the 28-38% range for the first 18 days, then bump up to 60-70% in the hatcher.

That's near what I was aiming for. I am still learning to read the air cells. Do you find you have to lower the humidity once they start popping out? Whenever a wet chick would present the humidity would spike but wasn't sure how badly I needed to react to the spike.