Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[anniesmom]

Quote:

The white and red rooster seems to be really dominant for me. They are pretty but one is plenty. Two of six that came from GF last August were white and red. Look what happened!! The eagles can pick those off so much easier.

We call this picture "White - It's what's for dinner." (You have to remember the old beef commercial for that to make sense.) No, they aren't in the freezer yet.

 

[Muzzie]

The white and red rooster seems to be really dominant for me. They are pretty but one is plenty. Two of six that came from GF last August were white and red. Look what happened!! The eagles can pick those off so much easier.

We call this picture "White - It's what's for dinner." (You have to remember the old beef commercial for that to make sense.) No, they aren't in the freezer yet.

Yes they are pretty but I worry about his visibility from the sky as well they really do stand out

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

The white and red rooster seems to be really dominant for me. They are pretty but one is plenty. Two of six that came from GF last August were white and red. Look what happened!! The eagles can pick those off so much easier.

We call this picture "White - It's what's for dinner." (You have to remember the old beef commercial for that to make sense.) No, they aren't in the freezer yet.

I need to send you some eggs next spring. I got all dark babies from my dark hen and rooster. I set one egg from my rooster and white/red hen and the chick is feathering out with a lot more color then the hen. I'm growing out some blues too.

I have some gorgeous boys growing out!! Drats....all the colors I would have loved to have had in hens. :/

Anyone in San Diego area or even Temecula that wants some cockerels (living outside already) give me a holler.

 

[Dahlisgrams]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have a question that is somewhat breed specific for the swedish flower hen experts about vitamins being added to the water. Poly-vi-sol without iron is the product and I am wondering how much to add to a quart waterer. I've put a few drops in but is this enough for that quantity?

My SFH chicks are almost 4 weeks old and there is something wrong with one of them, I'm just not sure what. He is wobbly and unsteady on his feet and seems lethargic and a bit out of it. I've given him several drops of the vitamins straight and have been giving water too to keep him hydrated. Today was the first time I noticed anything off about any of them with one exception. His probable sibling did have a few instances at a few days old of running backwards but I've not seen it since. I'd love opinions on this if anyone has had any experience with these symptoms in a swede. No respiratory distress whatsoever. Eyes look clear but he's closing them much more than usual. No crooked toes. Everyone else looks fine.

Circumstances.. They were outside in a small temporary pen with part sun/part shade and I was checking on them frequently. I saw him laying in the sun and went to pick him up to check on him and noticed that he was rather limp so I brought him inside and gave the vitamins and water. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Kimbroe1981]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have a question that is somewhat breed specific for the swedish flower hen experts about vitamins being added to the water. Poly-vi-sol without iron is the product and I am wondering how much to add to a quart waterer. I've put a few drops in but is this enough for that quantity?

My SFH chicks are almost 4 weeks old and there is something wrong with one of them, I'm just not sure what. He is wobbly and unsteady on his feet and seems lethargic and a bit out of it. I've given him several drops of the vitamins straight and have been giving water too to keep him hydrated. Today was the first time I noticed anything off about any of them with one exception. His probable sibling did have a few instances at a few days old of running backwards but I've not seen it since. I'd love opinions on this if anyone has had any experience with these symptoms in a swede. No respiratory distress whatsoever. Eyes look clear but he's closing them much more than usual. No crooked toes. Everyone else looks fine.

Circumstances.. They were outside in a small temporary pen with part sun/part shade and I was checking on them frequently. I saw him laying in the sun and went to pick him up to check on him and noticed that he was rather limp so I brought him inside and gave the vitamins and water. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

for my newborns, I put a dropper full in about 8 ounces for about a week, then less than that after for about another week or two. If I notice one that needs extra attention, I mix it about 1/2 water 1/2 polyvisol for about a week or until they get better, then go to the dropper full for about 8 ounces.

Would love to hear what others do!

 

[anniesmom]

I don't mean to hijack the thread but I have a question that is somewhat breed specific for the swedish flower hen experts about vitamins being added to the water. Poly-vi-sol without iron is the product and I am wondering how much to add to a quart waterer. I've put a few drops in but is this enough for that quantity?

My SFH chicks are almost 4 weeks old and there is something wrong with one of them, I'm just not sure what. He is wobbly and unsteady on his feet and seems lethargic and a bit out of it. I've given him several drops of the vitamins straight and have been giving water too to keep him hydrated. Today was the first time I noticed anything off about any of them with one exception. His probable sibling did have a few instances at a few days old of running backwards but I've not seen it since. I'd love opinions on this if anyone has had any experience with these symptoms in a swede. No respiratory distress whatsoever. Eyes look clear but he's closing them much more than usual. No crooked toes. Everyone else looks fine.

Circumstances.. They were outside in a small temporary pen with part sun/part shade and I was checking on them frequently. I saw him laying in the sun and went to pick him up to check on him and noticed that he was rather limp so I brought him inside and gave the vitamins and water. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Is it crested?

 

[Dahlisgrams]

Thanks for the tips! I'll up the vitamins and see how it goes.

Here are the rest of the babies. I'm not sure why it posted them in this order but the sick baby is marked below. These were taken just over a week ago at a little over 2 weeks of age. They really aren't the best photos though..

Yes, he is VERY crested. Below is a photo of the sick chick. When I received my chicks, two of them were so crested that they looked polish to me, even right next to an actual polish. So much so that I inquired as to whether they could be, in fact, polish. Nope. Crested Swedish. The smallest one is doing fine. This one does not want to eat or drink and just looks dopey, which is not how he was behaving previously. Is this Marek's? My chicks are not vaccinated. None of them are.

Here is the other very crested swede. Is there something to these bloodlines? As much as I would absolutely hate to do it, I am tempted to cull and have a necropsy done.

Oh. The chicks came from Greenfire. The two with the largest crests look very similar and very different from the other 6. The other chicks are out in the coop and I have the sick one in the house in box with food and water, though he really isn't touching it without my assistance.

 

[anniesmom]

"Yes, he is VERY crested. Below is a photo of the sick chick. When I received my chicks, two of them were so crested that they looked polish to me, even right next to an actual polish. So much so that I inquired as to whether they could be, in fact, polish. Nope. Crested Swedish. The smallest one is doing fine. This one does not want to eat or drink and just looks dopey, which is not how he was behaving previously."



I asked if it was crested because of the experience I had this spring. Your symptoms sound so similar. In my case, I'm convinced it's the crests/skulls. Of the 50+ SFH chicks I hatched this spring, 6 were crested females. Four of them have died. They were about two to three months old. The ONLY one that never had a problem, I sold. The 5th one that had the symptoms, I did not return to her buddies when she got better so she wouldn't get hurt again. She's doing great but she will NOT be in my breeding flock (neither will the one crested hen - from GF - from last year). The few crested males were sold or went to freezer camp.

Each of the 5 (not at the same time) got similar symptoms - kind of drunk acting, falling over backward, heads twisting upside down..... The first three died one at a time in their nice cozy hospital boxes. After the fourth one got better, I put her back in with the rest of her buddies. In the morning I looked in and she was down and I saw another chick peck her hard on the top of her head. I took her back out and three hours later she was dead.

I did some research at that point and discovered skull defects can go along with those crests on birds. I could feel a spot similar to an open fontanel of a baby. I think mine had/died from brain injuries from a weak spot/area on top of their heads. If it's not too serious, they can get better. The 5th girl that survived also had a "soft spot" on her head. I haven't checked her recently to see if it's still there. She is 17 weeks now. I would imagine her bones are much harder now. They did eat and drink fine IF I held the food and water in front of them (which I did a lot).

NONE of the uncrested ones had a problem - ONLY the crested ones. None of the parents were from eBay or any source but GF so it's not some wierd breeding somebody did. I did not breed crested to crested.

Their little heads were not domed like your picture. I would think that might be worse. I couldn't tell they were crested until those feathers started standing on end at about 3 weeks.

I personally don't want any more crested ones no matter how cute they are. I understand it's still possible to get them breeding uncrested to uncrested. If I get any next year, I will take them out of the group and raise them separately unless I can find little tiny football helmets. It's too hard to see 2/3 of the crested girls die.

 

[Contrastphoto]

I haven't be hatching eggs as long as anniesmom, but I have hatched pure SFH chicks with vaulted skulls and crested with out vaulted skulls. So far I haven't experienced any symptoms like that in my crested chickens.

 

[KYTinpusher]

anniesmom - so sorry you have had so much trouble with your crested birds.

I am curious what color they were. I have had problems with 3 of the SFH chicks I have hatched. They were all dark, all hatchmates, and all from the same source (hatching eggs). The first one was VERY similar in coloring to the one Dahlisgrams is having trouble with. It died at 2 days old and I believe it would have been crested. The second I believe would have been a cockerel and not crested, but I am not positive on the crest. His symptoms were very similar to what has been discussed here. He got sick at about 3 weeks, and died about a week later. With him, I tried homeopathic remedies and handfeeding of kefir and hard-boiled egg yolk. I did not get to the vitamins. The third is my black hen Adrian. She fell sick at about 4.5 months old. I threw everything at her! She got the homeopathic remedies, kefir, antibiotics and vitamins. It was a long road, about a month, but she survived and is doing well to this day, although bottom of the pecking order. I can't say what treatment did the trick, maybe a combination. The point is, they were all DARK. I know the white birds are supposed to be the least vigorous, but this has me curious.

Some further information that may help lead someone to an A-ha! moment about this:

I had no trouble with my first hatch of 5 SFH. None of them were crested and none of them were dark. None of the parents were crested. They were not vacinated and were started on a commercial medicated feed. After a couple of months (I think) they were changed to an organic, locally freshly-milled starter feed. I did not use vitamins with these, but they were given kefir after a couple of weeks. I still have 4 of them and they are doing very well. I recently rehomed Magnus, and unfortunately a racoon got him last weekend.

My second hatch I started on the commercial medicated starter. After a few weeks they were changed to the organic starter. The first one died at 2 days old. It was having trouble right from the start and appeared blind - would not open its eyes. These were not vaccinated either (none of my birds are). I hatched 11 and had trouble with the three mentioned above. Of the other 8, there were no major problems. One of the cockerels (Hannes) seemed to have a sinus problem and wheezed all the time. I still have 8 of these, including the one that recovered from being ill. The parents of these were a mixture of crested and non-crested roosters and hens in many diiferent colors. Crested to crested breeding was a possibility.

My next 2 hatches were from my own eggs that I hatched for someone else. Crested to crested was a possibility. The first set all went to my friend, but they only lasted a couple of weeks until a raccoon got into the coop and killed them all. I hatched some more for her and kept 5 for myself (1 pullet and 4 roos! of course!

). They are about 8 weeks old now. All of hers and mine are doing well. These were started from the beginning on the organic starter and given vitamins, mainly because I had them on hand and figured it couldn't hurt. I know she gives vitamins and feeds a different locally-milled non-medicated feed, too. I am waiting for pictures from her, but says one has quite the afro, and many of them are dark. Mine look to be red or mille fleur. BTW, I use the Poultry Drench Vitamins.

From my own experiences, and what I have read here recently, in the future I will stick with the organic starter, kefir and vitamins with my chicks. I am still debating about using only non-crested roos so there would be no crested to crested breeding.