Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[OHfarmerswife]

Beautiful birds, OHfarmerswife!!

Thanks Leigh

I have 2 more who are black with white flowers, but was difficult to catch a good picture. Its been over 2 months since they have been able to be out of the run....so much snow.
Its almost all gone, but frigid temps coming soon

 

[tadkerson]

Tim thanks for the info. So I breed a F1 blue male back to the black mother hen? also what does BC1 mean?

yes, the first cross will only produce blue offspring because the male is splash. BC1 is short for first back cross.

 

[tadkerson]

I'm not sure what the goal is, but if you're looking for PURE black mottled with no leakage at all, that's going to be a challenge since most of the black girls I've seen have been birchen-based (most likely) not extended black. the hens tend to not have leakage like the roos do... and a birchen roo looks just like every other roo, except for the wing triangle is absent in birchen and present in e+, eb, eWh... an extended black ROO (mostly black with a few gold streaks on his hackles) would be what I would start with, or a hen that has NO gold/orange in her hackle. the breeding program laid out above assumes that the hen is extended black, not birchen.

look at the images below and you'll see, except for the extended black, the primary differences between the other varieties are in HEN coloration...
and if you look at the birchen compared to the others, you'll see the wing triangle I'm referring to...

these are just generic images, not SFH specifically.

I am assuming she is carrying the genes necessary to produce black mottled offspring.


Birchen is used to make black birds- throw in melanotic and the pattern gene and you have a black bird. 5Moore's hen at the top does not appear ( to me) to be a birchen phenotype but is black mottled. If she carried birchen and was not melanized she should have a birchen or brown red phenotype and she does not appear to be birchen or brown red to me.

It does not matter if she carries the birchen allele- the person posting in the thread wanted to use the birds she has to make a black mottled bird. Even if the female carries the birchen allele she also appears to carry melanotic or other melanizers that will make a black bird. Using her and back crossing to her should produce black males and females. Line breeding is the fastest way to obtain a phenotype.

The splash male is carrying melanotic which will be needed to add black to the pyle region of the male and female offspring. Examine his pyle region and you will see that an epistatic gene should be expressing black but a hypostatic gene has diluted the black to a splash or white color. His E locus would be a guess ( light wheaten) but he is columbian restricted. I do not know the heritage of the male but he could be dominant white. Dominant white would show up in the first cross.

references ( my own breeding experience and the following)

Smyth Jr, J. Robert. "Genetic control of melanin pigmentation in the fowl." Proc. 25th Notional Poultry Breeders Round Table (1976): 69-86.

Moore, Jay W., and J. Robert Smyth. "The genetic basis of the birchen pattern of the domestic fowl." Poultry science 51.1 (1972): 214-222.

MOORE, JAY W., and J. ROBERT SMYTH. "Melanotic: key to a phenotypic enigma in the fowl." Journal of heredity 62.4 (1971): 215-219.

Campo, J. L., and C. Alvarez. "Further study on the plumage pattern of the Blue Andalusian breed." Poultry science 70.1 (1991): 1-5.

Kerje, Susanne, et al. "The Dominant white, Dun and Smoky color variants in chicken are associated with insertion/deletion polymorphisms in the PMEL17 gene." Genetics 168.3 (2004): 1507-1518.


Tim

 

[redhen689]

My hen that I thought might be broody, only stayed in the nesting box for about 3 days. Now, 10 days later she's laying eggs again. I thought I might use her to raise a brood, but that isn't going to happen.
I placed 12 eggs in the incubator 11 days ago. Two weren't fertile, one quit early, 9 look good. I'm hoping to get at least 3 hens from this batch.

 

[ki4got]

My hen that I thought might be broody, only stayed in the nesting box for about 3 days. Now, 10 days later she's laying eggs again. I thought I might use her to raise a brood, but that isn't going to happen.
I place 12 eggs in the incubator 11 days ago. Two weren't fertile, one quit early, 9 look good. I'm hoping to get at least 3 hens from this batch.

that's why I never rely on a broody to STAY broody. if she stays broody for a while i'll give her chicks...

 

[Bulldogma]

that's why I never rely on a broody to STAY broody. if she stays broody for a while i'll give her chicks...

I'll give a proven broody a clutch of eggs after she's on the nest 2 days, but I won't give eggs to a first-time broody until she's been on for 4+ days... and then I watch the new broody like a hawk. I have one that went broody but she was a lousy mom. She'd get off the eggs for 2-3 hours a day and then come back and sit. Yeah... no. But I have 5 girls (so far) who are proven excellent mammas. If they want eggs, they get eggs!

 

[ki4got]

well, I just donated a few mixed breed chicks to my broody dorking girl, so we'll see how she handles them.

 

[redhen689]

My adult SFH's were incubated in a 'bator, but raised by a Wyandotte. I snuck the chicks under her when they were 2 days old. I lost her to a predator late last summer because DH and I had a miscommunication about her pen being opened/closed. None of my SFH's has shown much inclination to go broody. I was hoping that I'd be able to have these chicks raised by a broody, but it doesn't look like that will happen.

 

[cathiesue]

My Brinsea was delivered yesterday. I'm hoping! Now I can stop bribing @kyzmette to hatch for me. It's the small one only seven eggs. Let the madness begin!

 

[FeyRaine]

My Brinsea was delivered yesterday. I'm hoping! Now I can stop bribing @kyzmette to hatch for me. It's the small one only seven eggs. Let the madness begin!

What fun! What breed(s) are you going to hatch first?