Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[NW Chick Gal]

WOW!! I do believe those two hens of yours are the prettiest I've seen yet!! Who was your source for SFH?

 

[wildhorseannie]

So, can I ask about the list y'all have going here? Is it a list of owners, or breeders, or entheusiasts?
Just curious.
Thanks all!
oh, this is Bazinga, my favorite rooster

and this is Hokum, my favorite crested rooster

 

[NW Chick Gal]

Congrats to everyone on babies, and Bulldogma....yikes! I'm so glad some made it!

A local BYcer won a lot of chicks off rareauctions.com and included in the shipment were some SFHs...and they are moving to my house tomorrow!

My month olds managed to survive me being gone for almost 4 days. Somehow. I came home and wasn't happy with how some of them looked. But they look fine now, and I'm never getting chicks before a trip ever again. Several have crests...too cute.

My broody is sitting firm! Eggs look good....fingers crossed on a hatch in a couple weeks. I never see her off the nest. Ever. She won't starve, will she? ( my logical sense is out the window when it comes to my critters).

My white Silkie was the same way. I finally took two small bowls and put food and water where she could reach them from the nest. My black Silkie comes off the nest 2ce a day - perhaps a slightly smarter bird - LOL. All 5 of her eggs are looking good and are due starting tomorrow (though I've found SFH eggs need to be given up to 3 extra days - possibly even a little more. Broodys are the way to go, though! No worries about humidity or power outages!

My experience with a banty broody was much like both yours, sat firm, rarely ate. I too worried she'd starve. She pooped on the eggs in the nest which wasn't too tidy but very persistant setter. First 3 eggs hatched and she continued to sit on the remaining 5 after 4 more days I removed the eggs. only one was not fertile, don't know why those others did not hatch.Didn't know SFH sometimes take longer. On day 5 broody banty started pecking 2 of the 3 chicks! So back to the layers coop she went and I put the trio in the brooder. Then hubby bought me an incubator and I set 17 SFH eggs, 11 hatched, one pipped and didn't make it.The other 5 had quit early on. I got a nice assortment of colors between the two hatches and have a total of 13 new chicks from my originally trio of chicks I got from AandJFarms Feb2012. I LOVE this breed.

 

[NW Chick Gal]

Took some updated pics today.





Seabrightsrock, Beautiful birds!! Those two hens I do believe are the prettiest I've seen! Who did you get your SFH from?

 

[Bulldogma]

Uh oh...trouble may be brewing in paradise. I went out to check on my broody, who had three eggs this AM, and found her arguing with another hen over whose eggs they are....with one of the SFH eggs smashed

and a Silkie eggs, new-laid, under her. I need to take the other hen out of the coop entirely.

There was an embryo in there

so they are developing.

Temporary crisis aversion....I grabbed an egg from the box on the counter and gave the new egg and the one off the counter to the new wanna-be broody and now both have 2 eggs. I am sick about the crushed SFH egg.

Awwww... You just let me know if you need more at some point, and I'll send more! So sorry your hens had a squabble. The unforeseen has a way of sneaking up on us just when things look like they are going well. (It hasn't been a week yet since Murphy's law kicked me in the butt...)

HUGS!

So, can I ask about the list y'all have going here? Is it a list of owners, or breeders, or entheusiasts?
Just curious.
Thanks all!
oh, this is Bazinga, my favorite rooster

and this is Hokum, my favorite crested rooster

The list is of any of us on this thread who have SFH - the initial reason for putting it together was to see who lives where in hopes that at some point we can minimize shipping our eggs by putting together a sort of egg "relay." (Oh - "egg re-lay"... that was kind of punny!) It is also great to know what other breeders are nearby, etc.

Here's the total list as I have it:

SFH Chicken Chain

Bulldogma - Near Greatna, VA (1 hr from Roanoke, VA / 2 hours from Greensboro, NC / 3 hours from Johnson City, TN)
ki4got - between Roanoke and Blacksburg VA (about 2 hours from Bulldogma)
TarheelBirdy - Liberty, NC (In the Triad area; 15 minutes from Greensboro, NC and Burlington, NC; 1 hr from RDU).
Bernie56 - Fairburn, Ga. (Atlanta metro; near Hartsfeild/Jackson Int. Airport)
jbarrett - Groveland, FL ( 1 hr north of Orlando, 1 hr south of Ocala
SunnySkies - Mount Airy, MD (1 hour north of Washington DC, 45 minutes west of Baltimore, 20 minutes west of Frederick, 1.25 hours south of Gettysburg, PA).
cathiesue - Collinsville OK (20 minutes north of Tulsa Oklahoma)
pugbug- Independence, La (1 hr from Baton Rouge, 1 1/2 hr from New Orleans)
Dahlisgrams - Eastern Long Island, NY. Fairly convenient access to the Cross Sound Ferry terminal to New London, CT.
ChickNmamma -- Jackson, CA (1 hour away from Sacramento, CA)
Laingcroft - Powhatan, VA (1 hour west of Richmond, VA )
Frizzled Pink - Olathe Ks 30 min west of Kansas City
Jmarie- Hampton, VA (1 Hr south of Richmond)
chiques chicks - Lancaster, Pa
KYTinpusher - Owen Co., KY (halfway between Cincinnati and Louisville)
lawatt -- Sonoma County, CA (one hour north of San Francisco)
BHep - Faison, NC ( middle of no- where)
SandBsmom - Snohomish,Wa (20mins outside of Seattle)
kraftyladies - O'Brien, FL (1 1/2 hrs west of Jacksonville)
MaryRuthLangdon - Four Oaks, NC ( Very small town - 1/2 hour south of Raleigh, NC )
lawatt -- sonoma county, CA (an hour north of San Francisco)
Knock Kneed Hen - in the mountains of east San Diego county
Spifflove-Somwhere this side of the Rio Grande in South Texas.
Leahs Mom - Near South Bend, IN
Tnbearchick - Johnson City, TN near Bristol Motor Speedway(north of Knoxville)
lcatty - Las Cruces, NM (45-50 min. north of El Paso, TX)
NW Chick Gal - Hayward, WI (Northwestern Wisconsin, 2 hours southeast of Duluth, MN)

 

[TarheelBirdy]

WOW!! I do believe those two hens of yours are the prettiest I've seen yet!! Who was your source for SFH?

Whose hens are you referring to? I want to go back and see them......

 

[lawatt]

hooray, one of my chicklets has gone broody (a Basque), and I will be getting 4 SFH eggs (along with 4 birchen marans) this weekend to put under her! so excited! (since my roo is a SFH, it will be nice if any of them turn out to be girlfriends for him!)

 

[SunnySkies]

They were sitting side by side this evening when I checked again, so cute! I should replace those Silkie eggs with something else...I don't need more black and blue Silkies. But I'm loving the Silkiebators! LOL

There may be a third broody....one of my show Silkie hens looks to be sitting too. But I worry about her....she does this, no eggs are there, and then she lays an egg after a few days then wanders off. I've wondered off and on if she is trying to bind up.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:

They were sitting side by side this evening when I checked again, so cute! I should replace those Silkie eggs with something else...I don't need more black and blue Silkies. But I'm loving the Silkiebators! LOL

There may be a third broody....one of my show Silkie hens looks to be sitting too. But I worry about her....she does this, no eggs are there, and then she lays an egg after a few days then wanders off. I've wondered off and on if she is trying to bind up.

give her some fake eggs until you have the eggs you want her to incubate. they don't need to start incubating day 1. one of my broodies last year sat for almost 2 months before i gave her new chicks. she never did get any real eggs. just babies miraculously popping out of plaster eggs. LOL

 

[SunnySkies]

I have to pick up some fake eggs, lol, which is on the list to do tomorrow (Easter after all) but they were arguing so much over the eggs I had to do something immediately. I was afraid another SFH egg would get smashed. Although the thought occurred to me to let the second Silkie try to hatch the eggs I gave her just to see if they are fertile....I never see the rooster in there doing anything. I've assumed they would be, but I got to wondering the other day after watching the Silkies and seeing nothing while all the others are dancing and harassing hens.