Wow thanks for all that information! Any other information you can give us would be wonderful. I have spent hours researching the breed and haven't found much to read in English. It is my understanding that Greenfire imported two lines (crested and non-crested). Also, you mention culling responsibly, but I was under the understanding there wasn't a "standard" because they are landraces and have undergone years of natural selection. How would you recommend culling? Is there a standard for the Swedish Flower Hens in Sweden? Thanks for any information you can give us.
Svarthöna :
The Swedish Flower hens have been inbred since many many generations already, long before Greenfire imported them. Todays Flowers have their origin in just three lines, of which two could be tracked back to the same village in about 1850, the third (crested) line to another village around 1900. That adds up to approximately just about 50 birds of parent stock on three different farms, which were rediscovered in the 80s by the heritage club. I don't have the current numbers of the Swedish heritage breed club about how many certified Swedish Flower hens there are atm, but depending on how many birds were sold in the US it's totally possible that you already have more of them in the US than we do in Sweden
(for 2009 they listed the "skånsk blommehöna" with 1104 birds (929 hens & 175 roosters) on 75 farms).
General flock size through the years is often said to have been around 3 roosters on about 10 hens, making the flocks younger just every few years only keeping the bestofthebest from the chicks. That means a relatively high genetic diversity even after such a long time of line-breeding. And there are so many chicks sold from the originally imported birds, making new lines in the US, that the risk of a soon inbreeding depression is relatively low I guess.
People are probably going to produce mutts and sell them as Flowers or just not cull responsibly, but that happens to every breed in every country
just means that it's good to only buy birds from people you trust breeding good birds.
Oh and I always meant to ask, but are there "brown" flower hens in the US? It's possible that the brown ones are carrying "chocolate" ... just mentioning since brown chickens seem to be popular.