Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[FeyRaine]

Some of the hens just have big waddles. And see how the black in the roosters' tail feathers have a green oily sheen to them? If she has black in her tail and it doesn't have that, you're 99% safe.

My girlfriend and I both work from home, and we spent the majority of last spring/summer raising 29 babies and predicting the genders. If we are wrong, we will ship you a dozen eggs. You have a hen :]

well its win win for me either way then !

We should know very soon, She (& the blue based cockerel) hatched late Oct2013, all the girls in that grow out group are w/in 3 wks in age and most are reddening up this week and the nest box has had the staw wallowed out and moved around every day, none of the boys have crowed yet but again I think we are days away from eggs/crowing. Which is why I'm so pleased we got a break in the weather this week. I'm cleaning pens and moving birds for pure breedings asap. I should have a flock of SFH chicks growing out this spring which will be fantastic.

Were your 29 all SFH? If so did you get _all_ the colors? That is my goal, a SFH flock w/ _ALL_ the colors, I figure that might take several years.

 

[FeyRaine]

Extra Roos are key. I hatched 4 w/ Flo , sold 2 thinking I had extra then bad luck and had no Roo for her last fall.
So while I have apparently 3 at the moment ("BV", #2, & the blue one#3) I'm fine w/ that and I'll put plenty of blue/green egg laying EE/OE mutt girls in w/ my 2 SFH girls in order to keep the flock stable and 3 SFH boys busy. So far the 3 have gotten along fine in the grow out group which has about 3 pullets per cockerel atm. So this year I'm holding tight on all 3 SFH boys and we'll see how things go. Not even going to worry re: crest to crest etc. I'm just going to put every SFH egg in the bator and keep hatching until I have all I want plus extras for those unexpected things like the yearly fox tax.

Speaking of, I _had_ another pullet, not mottled, silver grey body w/ a gold neckless, not normal SFH coloring I know, but beautiful and I really hope to have one in that pattern again someday. I read somewhere that is a known altn. coloring, sort of like the all white that happens 1-in-somebignumber . I even tried to get more eggs from the source, but the flock had been broken up and sold.

So have you ever seen that pattern?

 

[Bulldogma]

Speaking of, I _had_ another pullet, not mottled, silver grey body w/ a gold neckless, not normal SFH coloring I know, but beautiful and I really hope to have one in that pattern again someday. I read somewhere that is a known altn. coloring, sort of like the all white that happens 1-in-somebignumber . I even tried to get more eggs from the source, but the flock had been broken up and sold.

So have you ever seen that pattern?

 

[FeyRaine]

Yes I think that is how she would have ended up looking. Hers was very gold/silver like made ppl do a double take to look at her at 6 months. I don't think I even have a photo but I'll check tomorrow on the older laptop to see if I can find one. She was non-crested.

Do you have any idea what the parents of yours in the video looked like?

 

[FeyRaine]

She looked closest to this one, the gold was about the same around the neck, but her head was back to solid grey and, at 6 months mine had zero white, just a solid silver(grey) all over everywhere else, I figured she would get the white mottling when she molted but we never got to find out

So what parents made the above lovely girl?

 

[ki4got]

Here is a better picture of the *white on tail feathers* of the Roo#2 (un named uncrested from Leigh's eggs)

So is the Splash & therefore a Sorenson son as we thought originally?
or is that black based and therefore more likely a mixup and from Mace or Blue (which would be lovely also as all 3 as we know are stunningly handsome Roos!)
I'm mainly just trying to keep my records clear for breeding history in case it ever matters in the future

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I say HEN on this one.

like I said, coloration says girl, but from the other angle she looked like she had large wattles. maybe she's just maturing more quickly than some.

 

[ki4got]

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and on a side note... THIS girl has gone broody now, and I haven't even gotten any purebred eggs from her yet!!!

 

[ki4got]

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she's a blue version of leigh's birta and... Marta? I stink at names. Leigh help me out here... but yes, she's a blue version of the black with gold hackles (birchen pattern)

 

[FeyRaine]

@ki4got -- I've given that bird more than one puzzled girl vs boy look since she hatched, I was only 90% settled girl b/f I posted tonight, then some of my own pics. I took today had me really questioning again. Now I'm like 89% sure I'll get eggs from her soon, but I'm holding off just awhile on name , just in case ;/

@Everyone - I WILL post more pics of "her" and let ya'll know egg (or crow) as soon as I know!

Meanwhile, if we say pullet, then what are we thinking her offspring will look like ?
Her tail is black based (a dark mat charcoal black, NO shiny green boy feathers so far

So would you say she will produce the same , black based from #1 & #2,
and then following the chart for back x blue w/ #3-the blue roo

I guess I'm still trying to figure out what the fact that #2 is MF pattern would change (vs BV who ?is not MF?)

 

[FeyRaine]

You know I'm looking at all these great photos & videos everyone is posting & what really comes to mind is WOW SFH are ALL beautiful
I mean I do hope for a gold/silver like I had, but then also really one of each please.

Let me put it this way, I have 30 acres, spread out w/ 6 coop/pens, and I'm re-arranging specifically to keep the SFH free ranging out my living room picture window!

& I want to say a big thanks to everyone who has been putting in info. and comments tonight, and everyone who has helped me move forward to get my flock going.