Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[SunnySkies]

9 chicks hatched!

But DO NOT BREED CRESTED WITH CRESTED! And here is how I know that.

I was not sure which hen was laying these large, smooth, gorgeous, creamy white eggs. I do now.

It's my crested hen. My two main roosters are both crested, until the young guys grow up a bit. Well, I set 6 of those lovely eggs. 3 hatched. 2 have vaulted skulls, one of which is rather weak (could be because it almost drowned during hatch when the humidity shot up to 80+%, and I couldn't control it and basically did an egg-section to get it out; another normal-headed sibling from a different mother is kind of weak for the same reason). I also have Silkies, and vaulting is fairly common in my lines, and I recognized it right away. 1 is normal anatomy and quite vigorous. The other 3 did not hatch, but I haven't opened them up yet to check the skulls.

I could use these chicks back with birds from non-crested lines; my young roosters are from lines with no crests at all (they come from a farm with no crested birds and none have ever come from there), which would dilute the gene back out, although I would assume all offspring are carriers. I could cull them. I do have someone interested in buying chicks and I could explain the situation and see if they would work for this person. I could keep them and not breed them. But UGH. Their mom is basically my best SFH layer, and those two head roosters are so.nice personality-wise and physically (well, wish the one had tighter wings, but he does fly sometimes). What a bummer.

Mom's eggs will be used for eating for now.

And I have to decide if I want to keep crested birds at all, as keeping separate groups isn't how I envisioned keeping poultry. It's a big enough pest keeping my bantams in. I have a ton of experience with genetic issues; I bred horses for a while, and I had a lethal gene pop up. But do I want to manage this for chickens?

 

[TxFlowers]

they are both splash... tail and wing feathers often show the splash markings more than the body will.

and with the combination of mottling and Columbian, that tends to spread the color over more of the body than you'd see without it... so as far as the e-locus is concerned, it's still going to be either wheaten partridge or wild type...

Thank you Karen!! I was pretty sure that the one with more white was splash but didn't think other was too! Good information to have as I'm trying to get more black and blue offspring and I know splash can't produce blacks but at least I can get blues from these boys!

 

[TxFlowers]

9 chicks hatched!

But DO NOT BREED CRESTED WITH CRESTED! And here is how I know that.

I was not sure which hen was laying these large, smooth, gorgeous, creamy white eggs. I do now.

It's my crested hen. My two main roosters are both crested, until the young guys grow up a bit. Well, I set 6 of those lovely eggs. 3 hatched. 2 have vaulted skulls, one of which is rather weak (could be because it almost drowned during hatch when the humidity shot up to 80+%, and I couldn't control it and basically did an egg-section to get it out; another normal-headed sibling from a different mother is kind of weak for the same reason). I also have Silkies, and vaulting is fairly common in my lines, and I recognized it right away. 1 is normal anatomy and quite vigorous. The other 3 did not hatch, but I haven't opened them up yet to check the skulls.

I could use these chicks back with birds from non-crested lines; my young roosters are from lines with no crests at all (they come from a farm with no crested birds and none have ever come from there), which would dilute the gene back out, although I would assume all offspring are carriers. I could cull them. I do have someone interested in buying chicks and I could explain the situation and see if they would work for this person. I could keep them and not breed them. But UGH. Their mom is basically my best SFH layer, and those two head roosters are so.nice personality-wise and physically (well, wish the one had tighter wings, but he does fly sometimes). What a bummer.

Mom's eggs will be used for eating for now.

And I have to decide if I want to keep crested birds at all, as keeping separate groups isn't how I envisioned keeping poultry. It's a big enough pest keeping my bantams in. I have a ton of experience with genetic issues; I bred horses for a while, and I had a lethal gene pop up. But do I want to manage this for chickens?

I once got some SFH eggs from all crested breeding stock. This was before I knew that breeding crested to crested carried the risk of the vaulted skull and overly large crests. I hatched 5 and out of those five at birth, I noticed one looked really different. He looked like he had a cap on his head. I had no experience with any vaulted skull breeds and I thought that was just how a SFH chick that was going to be crested would look at hatch. The rest looked normal so I figured they were going to be non crested. Well, I have learned much since then! They all ended up crested but that one with the "cap" ended up with a huge crest that looked more like a polish with his vision impaired. Luckily he was very strong and healthy but that bird would not have a chance at being safe free ranging. I eventually got rid of him but kept him until about 8 months of age and would cut back the feathers from his eyes so he could see.

 

[SunnySkies]

I am kind of curious how their crests will look, kwim. I might keep them just for that reason (and with my luck, they are all roosters).

But to have a SFH that can't free range....hmm...not sure that will work here. It does make me wonder how this is managed in their home area. I do not think allowing predation can be the solution...any farmer will control predators instead of letting them pick birds off one by one. There must be something else they do to manage the crested bird issue...

If I can get a photo, I will, for edification's sake.

 

[ki4got]

9 chicks hatched!

But DO NOT BREED CRESTED WITH CRESTED! And here is how I know that.

I was not sure which hen was laying these large, smooth, gorgeous, creamy white eggs. I do now.

It's my crested hen. My two main roosters are both crested, until the young guys grow up a bit. Well, I set 6 of those lovely eggs. 3 hatched. 2 have vaulted skulls, one of which is rather weak (could be because it almost drowned during hatch when the humidity shot up to 80+%, and I couldn't control it and basically did an egg-section to get it out; another normal-headed sibling from a different mother is kind of weak for the same reason). I also have Silkies, and vaulting is fairly common in my lines, and I recognized it right away. 1 is normal anatomy and quite vigorous. The other 3 did not hatch, but I haven't opened them up yet to check the skulls.

I could use these chicks back with birds from non-crested lines; my young roosters are from lines with no crests at all (they come from a farm with no crested birds and none have ever come from there), which would dilute the gene back out, although I would assume all offspring are carriers. I could cull them. I do have someone interested in buying chicks and I could explain the situation and see if they would work for this person. I could keep them and not breed them. But UGH. Their mom is basically my best SFH layer, and those two head roosters are so.nice personality-wise and physically (well, wish the one had tighter wings, but he does fly sometimes). What a bummer.

Mom's eggs will be used for eating for now.

And I have to decide if I want to keep crested birds at all, as keeping separate groups isn't how I envisioned keeping poultry. It's a big enough pest keeping my bantams in. I have a ton of experience with genetic issues; I bred horses for a while, and I had a lethal gene pop up. But do I want to manage this for chickens?

crest is a dominant gene, but crested to crested doesn't always result in a double copy... 25% homozygous (possible vaulted skulls) 50% heterozygous and 25% uncrested. presuming the crested parents don't have huge crests, which usually points to being heterozygous in the sfh...

so breeding a normal crested to an uncrested, you'll get 50/50. if you breed the vaulted skull to uncrested, you'll get 100% with crests. if they don't have a crest, they don't carry it. though I have seen some birds that were considered uncrested that could be minimal crests, and have heard of similar birds producing crests in their chicks... roosters hide a small crest well, as it just looks like wild feathers at the sides of his comb.

 

[SunnySkies]

crest is a dominant gene, but crested to crested doesn't always result in a double copy...  25% homozygous (possible vaulted skulls) 50% heterozygous and 25% uncrested.  presuming the crested parents don't have huge crests, which usually points to being heterozygous in the sfh...

so breeding a normal crested to an uncrested, you'll get 50/50. if you breed the vaulted skull to uncrested, you'll get 100% with crests. if they don't have a crest, they don't carry it. though I have seen some birds that were considered uncrested that could be minimal crests, and have heard of similar birds producing crests in their chicks...  roosters hide a small crest well, as it just looks like wild feathers at the sides of his comb.

Exactly. Vaulted skulls will always throw a crest.

If you want to risk the odds, as no, you won't always get a vault out of a crested on crested cross, sure, cross your crested birds on crested birds, but after this experience, I won't. I can't see how it's in the best interests of the birds, not to mention it really looks weird in a SFH!

I do think crested is an easy gene to control, as it's dominant. I'm used to managing recessive lethals, which are far less understood and much more difficult. But do I want to or just get rid of my crested birds? Hmm...must think..

 

[TxFlowers]

I do think crested is an easy gene to control, as it's dominant. I'm used to managing recessive lethals, which are far less understood and much more difficult. But do I want to or just get rid of my crested birds? Hmm...must think..

I especially love the blue and black birds but I prefer non crested. Almost all of the blue pullets I have are crested. These are mostly direct GFF chicks. These birds are too nice and were too costly to just get rid of because of the crest but I want to discourage the crest in their offspring. As others have said they wanted to do, my goal is to use only non crested roosters which would give me a 50% chance of non crested chicks from any of these crested hens provided they carried the recessive non crested gene and I would get only non crested from my non crested hens. This is a longer way to go than just getting rid of all crested birds but with the exception of your rooster you can keep working with the hens you have. If your hens are homozygous for crest, then breeding to a non crested roo would still give you crested 100% but you would avoid the vaulted skull and you would know that any offspring you kept from that would then be heterozygous and would now carry the non crested gene. Those in turn bred to a non crested would give you 50% non crested.

 

[SunnySkies]

I especially love the blue and black birds but I prefer non crested. Almost all of the blue pullets I have are crested. These are mostly direct GFF chicks. These birds are too nice and were too costly to just get rid of because of the crest but I want to discourage the crest in their offspring. As others have said they wanted to do, my goal is to use only non crested roosters which would give me a 50% chance of non crested chicks from any of these crested hens provided they carried the recessive non crested gene and I would get only non crested from my non crested hens. This is a longer way to go than just getting rid of all crested birds but with the exception of your rooster you can keep working with the hens you have. If your hens are homozygous for crest, then breeding to a non crested roo would still give you crested 100% but you would avoid the vaulted skull and you would know that any offspring you kept from that would then be heterozygous and would now carry the non crested gene. Those in turn bred to a non crested would give you 50% non crested.

Yeah, I'm trying to decide if I really want to give up these two roosters, ones with excellent dispositions, for two I'm still waiting to grow up and verify their dispositons...What a dilemma it turns into, huh?

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
for myself, I opted to go the uncrested route for my roosters, and that way I can have some crested some not on the girl...

 

[Leahs Mom]

This gray kiddo was a crest to crest breeding quite by mistake also. Not vaulted from what I can tell. But a good sized crest. I prefer non-crested birds myself and would like all my birds to be non-crested. Hoping to find a good non-crested rooster.