Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Kimbroe1981]

Sorry Sunny! I have good news, and pictures. I had 9 in lock down, they started to hatch last night, today was the official hatch day, they started to hatch last night. I was up just watching, couldn't stop, wanted to see the colors! I finally went to be at 3, had 5 babies..the rest were hatched by the this afternoon. All 9! Plus, I had Bantam Favorelles in there, 6 out of 12 hatched in those. Different colors in them too, not any salmon.
Here are some of my favorite pictures.

I had several black and yellow ones..a couple of brown with red in them, a few blues, a
red and white, and a real pretty light one, not sure what to call the color. Will post that one
next.



Blue and yellow..thinking the yellow turns white?

Top view..very pretty

Love this one..and the light one above.

same baby

Had to post the picture with the chick sitting on it's behind. Red and grey in coloring.

Question..about the crests..I have heard that they don't come with the crest..if..they are going to have a crest, but it pops up later? I hope I get one with a crest..out of my three favs.

Maybe some pop up later, but mine I could tell as soon as they hatched. I had 2 with fuzzy mohawks!

This is right after hatch


about a week later


This one was a very sticky baby, but as soon as she got fluffy - took about a week she had a little mohawk like the one above


no crest



They're all about 8 weeks old now

 

[Paul3874]

KIm,Cyn, I love your sw. I saw on line where some people were cross-breeding their sw to improve the breed? I'm watching out. Have about thirty, all babies, ready in the spring. It's very funny,and confusing, that if I get birds from one place, they night all have crests. #4 picture is beautiful. He? might have a full neck band, only the blind man knows (age). enjoy.... paul

 

[Bernie56]

I'm dying....not a single pip when I got home from work.
Bator has been extremely consistent, at 100 degrees and 60% RH (it took some messing with it to get the RH to hold, temp has always been excellent). I have chicks from eggs I incubated alongside the SFH eggs running around right now in my brooder. They would be a week older now.
I just might cry if I have to do more eggtopsies, and I'm a vet! Hopefully something happens tonight. But I'm losing hope.

Try candling to see if you have any movement. I had 4 eggs that were due on Friday. Nothing Friday. Nothing Saturday. I candled on Saturday evening and could see movement in two of them. I decided to leave them until Sunday and then toss them. This morning two perfect chicks were awaiting me. I had honestly given up on those eggs! Good luck to you!!

My experience has been that by 2 weeks its pretty obvious who will be crested. Some with bigger crests will start showing earlier than that.

 

[Cynthia12]

Maybe some pop up later, but mine I could tell as soon as they hatched. I had 2 with fuzzy mohawks!

This is right after hatch


about a week later


This one was a very sticky baby, but as soon as she got fluffy - took about a week she had a little mohawk like the one above


no crest



They're all about 8 weeks old now

ahh..I can see it clearly..thanks for the pics. I asked the breeder, and she said that also sometimes it starts to pop up when the head feathers start coming in> that's what I am hoping for, because I didn't see any like yours yesterday :/ It's the morning after they all hatched, I should go pick them up and look close now. lol, and hope I can see something like your first photo. And wow, that week later photo! I can see all sorts of color coming in on that baby already! How fun.

 

[Kimbroe1981]

Quote: It's been lightly raining here for 3 days now, but as soon as it dries up I'll take some more pics. His crest is getting big now. I'm pretty sure he's a he anyways!

 

[SunnySkies]

Pretty babies!

No, they all died at lockdown. Again. This happened last time too. So far, my hatch rate on shipped eggs is dismal. 3 out of 24. Ugh. They make it to lockdown then die.

I thnk I'll order chicks instead of trying to hatch. I do well at hatching local eggs, so I'm sure I can hatch when mine start laying, provided I have both genders

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Pretty babies!
No, they all died at lockdown. Again. This happened last time too. So far, my hatch rate on shipped eggs is dismal. 3 out of 24. Ugh. They make it to lockdown then die.
I thnk I'll order chicks instead of trying to hatch. I do well at hatching local eggs, so I'm sure I can hatch when mine start laying, provided I have both genders

Gosh, I'm so sorry! I don't know why they'd all die at lockdown. Seems that if they've gotten that far at least all but one or maybe two wouldn't make it. What a letdown!

 

[SunnySkies]

Yeah, I'm puzzled too. And why the local eggs I incubate together --like mixed in with them -- do fine and then the SFHs die. I'm stumped.

I know I can get chicks from GFF, but anyone ever tried Jordan? They have a photo of a gray hen I love.

I'm totally bummed.

 

[Papa Brooder]

I have also noticed a relatively high percantage of SFHs that make it into lockdown and never pip or hatch, much higher than any other type of chicken that I hatch. It's not the incubation because my EEs, hamburgs are close to 100%, my legbars, faverolles, and orps all around 80-90%, swedes, way down in the 50% range. my second coop has been laying and I'll see if I get similar results, then I will swap roos and see what happens. I have the swedes from 3 sources: jordan, greenfire, and john burton. I also know a friend who got one of the original pairs who has had really poor hatch rates. is it possible we are still too limited in our gene pool? The ones that do hatch do really well and I don't think I've ever lost a chick out of any of them... but so many fully develop but never get out of the shell. strange and i've been wondering why for a while.

 

[Kimbroe1981]

Yeah, I'm puzzled too. And why the local eggs I incubate together --like mixed in with them -- do fine and then the SFHs die. I'm stumped.

I know I can get chicks from GFF, but anyone ever tried Jordan? They have a photo of a gray hen I love.

I'm totally bummed.

I've tried Jordan farms this summer, but he was having fertility problems this summer due to the heat. I haven't tried since.