Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[gardengoats11]

KYTinpusher

These are from Greenfire.
We are in Campbell county.

 

[mtadkins5]

IMHO, keep the nice one (s), as in disposition. Then keep any that really appeal to you as far and amoung of mottling, color, etc. Should have yellow legs, horn beak, etc. you should check for split wing and cull any with that (but you will end up hanging onto them for a while to sort that out). You can, if you have an excess, cull birds with comb sprigs. Otherwise, you are generally looking for an alert, active bird capable of free ranging with a good body size and depth, upright carriage of head and tail. Like they look like they can free range with no supervision (mine actually do this quite often).

Thank you sooo much!

 

[Bulldogma]

So as most of you know I lost my roo Gunnar a while back, but SunnySkies very kindly offered up 2 of her roos to me. They were young, so for the next month I checked eggs daily for fertility. I was so excited when the eggs were finally fertile and once I had 3 (2 out of 3 of my SFH hens were broody so only one was laying) I put them in the incubator. At about 1 week of development, one of my barnyard mix hens went broody, so I took the eggs out of the 'bator to give to her... and dropped one! The egg was dented and cracked and I was crushed!

I put the other 2 eggs under the broody and took the dented, cracked egg inside again. It wasn't leaking, but it was not stable enough to put under a hen by any stretch of the imagination. So I put medical tape over the nickle-size dent and spider web of cracks running through the area and put the egg back in the 'bator. I did not have high hopes, but I had to try.

Well, when I candled the egg, the chick was still moving about, so I left it alone.

I went to candle it yesterday and found it had externally pipped! I had to remove the tape as it was where the chick would need to zip, but when I did, it took off a nickel-size portion of the shell with it. I took my chances and stuck it under the broody with the other two eggs...










And this one is the chick from the broken egg!!

 

[SunnySkies]

They are BEAUTIFUL!

 

[PugBug]

Bulldogma those are beautiful pics- sometimes things are meant to be, so glad you took the chance on the egg & it worked out! Look forward to seeing out how they grow

 

[PugBug]

I've got 14 SFH eggs in the bator that are my birds first eggs, they are due to hatch tomorrow. I also had 3 eggs from my bantam pen in with them that 2 chicks hatch early this morning. Johanna the SFH broody is still on her nest, I have no idea how many eggs she is sitting on but it looks like a basket full as you can see a few edges of eggs peeping out from under her. I really didn't think she would hang in there the whole time since she had just started laying 2 wks before she went broody. I am anxious to see all these babies

 

[ki4got]

So as most of you know I lost my roo Gunnar a while back, but SunnySkies very kindly offered up 2 of her roos to me. They were young, so for the next month I checked eggs daily for fertility. I was so excited when the eggs were finally fertile and once I had 3 (2 out of 3 of my SFH hens were broody so only one was laying) I put them in the incubator. At about 1 week of development, one of my barnyard mix hens went broody, so I took the eggs out of the 'bator to give to her... and dropped one! The egg was dented and cracked and I was crushed!

I put the other 2 eggs under the broody and took the dented, cracked egg inside again. It wasn't leaking, but it was not stable enough to put under a hen by any stretch of the imagination. So I put medical tape over the nickle-size dent and spider web of cracks running through the area and put the egg back in the 'bator. I did not have high hopes, but I had to try.

Well, when I candled the egg, the chick was still moving about, so I left it alone.

I went to candle it yesterday and found it had externally pipped! I had to remove the tape as it was where the chick would need to zip, but when I did, it took off a nickel-size portion of the shell with it. I took my chances and stuck it under the broody with the other two eggs...

wow! grats on 'spider' 8) (btw, how's 'mickey' the baby cochin doing?)

the 2 I got from you, 1 is still kicking and due on the 10th.

on a positive note, the eggs I got from my sfh when I first penned them (but had been free ranging) have hatched. I have 2 crested chicks that are NOT weebies, so I know their daddy is the crested sfh. pretty sure they're also from the sfh eggs. the blrw chicks all have rose combs (some partridge cochin/blrw chicks, -rose comb fuzzy legs- may be a start for blrw cochins, depending on how they mature out) and the cochin/?? crosses all have fuzzy legs at the least, and single combs. the pure cochins are easy, they've got both outer toes on each foot fuzzed too. LOL

trying to think what other roos I have in the yard that don't have fuzzy legs or 5 toes (both pass along most of the time) that have single combs... and I think the swedes are IT... which means I may have 5 or 6 purebred babies from my own bunch!

and that 'cockerel' I picked up at the last Roanoke swap? pretty sure it's a SHE, not a he... at the time, about 8-9 weeks old, the hatchmates had HUGE red combs and wattles, this one had much smaller but still pinkish comb and smallish wattles... took my chances, gave her $5 for the chick. well today she's (yes she!) much larger bodied, but the comb and wattles haven't grown at all and are hardly noticeable, tho still slightly pinkish. her legs are also yellowing up too. so I've got another bhep chick growing out (same lines gunnar came from). blue mille coloration.

so that makes 4! the trio I got from Alabama, not sure what breeder they came from tho. maybe kytinpusher I think she said? (if anyone sold eggs to Kimberly in Alabama, let me know - k.i.forgot strikes again...) then I've got 2 gunnar sons, one daughter & now the bhep girlie. once I get my pens finished, (putting roof & sides on 2 of them today, doors tomorrow hopefully) then i'll be splitting the sfh into trios once the 2 younger girls are old enough... the gunnar boy i'm keeping with the Alabama girls (1 is crested) and the crested roo with the 2 younger (uncrested) girls.

 

[KYTinpusher]

ki4got - Actually, I got eggs from Kimberly35042 in Alabama for the NYD hatch. I am guessing hers came from GFF. I suppose there could be a Kimberly in AL that got eggs from me, but off the top of my head I can't keep track of all that I have sent out.

BDM - Congrats on the chicks!

It is amazing how resilient chicks can be. You know you have a tough one on your hands.

gardengoats11 - I am in the N tip of Owen County. Glad to hear of someone close by with SFH. Do you know if yours came from their most recently imported flock? If so, I may want to swap some eggs with you when yours start laying.

And if you ever need an extra roo, I'm sure I can come up with one.

 

[SunnySkies]

I'm cracking open my lone laying SFH's eggs daily...still not fertile. But she hates the rooster I have her with. Can't blame her as he is a bully. I hope he settles down soon and she let's him mate with her. He is one from KYTinpusher's stock while she is from GFF.

Once I get a couple other things wrapped up, I think I'll construct a run and attach it to a coop, put the SFH girls in it then add a rooster.

 

[RedRidge]

Oh BDG, I am SO happy for you about the little chick...
A special name is needed for that one for sure.