Leigh, I'm so sorry about Sorenson's loss. Oddly, I had a rooster die with similar symptoms. I had him necropsied by a veterinary pathologist -- my state will do it for free, and even though I'm a vet, why not take advantage of a pathologist nearby -- and there was no sign of heart disease, and in fact, she could not determine a cause of death. I have his full brother here if none of his sons work out....I agree....these red and white ones are delightful. ETA: Sorenson was an early March baby, came directly from GFF, about 3 weeks younger than Viking, which came in my first GFF shipment. I had four roosters colored exactly alike in that shipment. I kept one, you got one, and the coons took two (sigh...but their loss led to me getting the dogs).
Oh EEK!!!!! That is sure not what a SFH should look like!! Cute, but way too much, huh. I certainly can see why you let him go. Well, on one hand, I won't have to worry about it....the one that had the most trouble hatching (vaulted) died on his own the other night. Another one, normal skull, passed too. On the other hand, I have sold the rest and made it very clear they should be careful to avoid crested x crested crosses to reduce embryonic mortality as well as chick deaths and then issues later on...why create something so easily avoided? ETA: and another thought....breeding crested x crested might be letting them do their thing, but...when you think SFH, what comes to mind? Is it a bird with no crest, a small crest or one with a huge crest? Nowhere in the writings of the breed description that I have seen does it say a large crest is acceptable. No, there isn't an official SOP, but I have seen various writings, and none say large crest. For example: http://www.swedishflowerchickens.com/breedinformation.html Note "small coif" and addresses that those birds come from one specific area. That sort of makes me wonder if there are actually two sub-breeds of birds that look similar but are different in some respects.SunnySkies, here is a picture of that double crested roo I talked about. So far this is only picture I can find. I took some face views of him as an adult but so far can't find them. He was about 3 months old here. He is second from left. His 3 hatchmates have crests about half the size of his. As he got older, his crest got even bigger.
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