Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[OldChurchEggery1]

On the chipmunk chick note- one of the four I hatched over the weekend has a chipmunk-y look to it. All of mine had been segregated into SFH groups for well over a month, so I don't think it came from the cream legbar cockerel I have (I've got 4 pullets and 1 cockerel) but now I'm wondering whether one of the legbars lays a brown egg instead of blue? I thought I had everything set because I've got SFH, 4 legbar pullets, and 3 EE pullets with the SFH being the only brown egg layers. HaplessRunner, looks like we will be able to easily compare notes. Perhaps over the weekend I'll pull the legbars and move them over to my layer pen. Since I plan to hatch more SFH very soon, I can watch for any other chipmunk-y peeps. If more of them crop up, I'll know it's just SFH with interesting chick down.

 

[ki4got]

Question on SFH chick down colors.

Over the weekend, I had eleven chicks hatch. Three cream legbars with normal colors (1 cockerel and 2 pullets), two white-sport cream legbars (1 cockerel and 1 pullet), one cream legbar X buff orpington cross, and two that I believe are SFH.

Of the two chicks that I believe are SFH, I wanted to get your views on their down colors. The lighter chick has what I would call a hint wild type colors going down its back which leads me to believe that its father may not have been a SFH. Cream legbars do have wild type color patterns for chick down so I wonder whether this cream legbar roo jumped the fence. Pictures are taken in the mid-late afternoon sunlight.

The "Black" Chick

The first on has basically a black body with a brown head and a white spot on the back of the head. Cream legbars males have a white spot on the back of the head so this might also be a jump the fence. I am hoping for SFH.





The "Light" Chick



In this picture, you can clearly see the chipmunk striping going down the back. I cannot say that I have seen SFH chicks with this pattern before. The same also applies to the dark patch on the back of the head.






Your thoughts and comments are appreciated!

sorry I don't think either of them are pure... white spot on the head indicates it's barred... not sure about the patterned chick. can't say I've had any patterned chicks from any of leigh's eggs... but then again, if the sfh is e+ based, it's possible. the e-locus determines chick pattern for the most part.

 

[DCchicken]

On the chipmunk chick note- one of the four I hatched over the weekend has a chipmunk-y look to it. All of mine had been segregated into SFH groups for well over a month, so I don't think it came from the cream legbar cockerel I have (I've got 4 pullets and 1 cockerel) but now I'm wondering whether one of the legbars lays a brown egg instead of blue? I thought I had everything set because I've got SFH, 4 legbar pullets, and 3 EE pullets with the SFH being the only brown egg layers. HaplessRunner, looks like we will be able to easily compare notes. Perhaps over the weekend I'll pull the legbars and move them over to my layer pen. Since I plan to hatch more SFH very soon, I can watch for any other chipmunk-y peeps. If more of them crop up, I'll know it's just SFH with interesting chick down.

Cream Legbars can lay blue or green eggs, but not brown eggs. EE pullets are a mix of different breeds and can lay blue, brown, pink, or green eggs. SFH lack the blue egg gene. So they can only lay brown or lightly tinted eggs.

The chipmunk down is called wildtype e+. It is found in many different breeds, including Cream Legbars, and in some cases EEs. So I would try moving the EEs first because if one of your Cream Legbars is laying a brown egg, she is not a Cream Legbar but is instead an EE or barnyard mix.

I raise my SFH as landrace and have never seen chipmunk (wildtype e+) down. I do see it all the time in my Cream Legbars, Bielefelders, Barnevelders, Alsteirers, and Marsh Daisy chicks.

I hope that helps narrow it down. Let us know what you find out.

 

[CackleJoy]

One of the cockerels is getting on the pullets! Rude boy, they aren't yet 5 months old - any of them - even the cockerel!

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

I'd be especially disappointed if one of the legbars is laying brown eggs because I purchased them directly from Greenfire. With the chick having a crest but neither a beard nor a muff and yellow legs rather than slate with white skin, it does seem like the legbar is the most likely culprit unless it really is a Swede with very strange chick down. I know that yellow skin is recessive so there could be yellow skin lurking in the EEs but the legbars have definitely got the yellow skin. I've got two crested legbars and two without crests, so that may help me narrow things down as well. On this page there are lots of pictures of SFH and some of them seem to have colors not seen yet here. Some kind of recessive patterns, like BullDogMa's snow leopard?
http://www.swedishflowerchickens.com/

 

[Gonetothebirds]

Would this be a red base hen? What do think of her?

 

[HaplessRunner]

On the chipmunk chick note- one of the four I hatched over the weekend has a chipmunk-y look to it. All of mine had been segregated into SFH groups for well over a month, so I don't think it came from the cream legbar cockerel I have (I've got 4 pullets and 1 cockerel) but now I'm wondering whether one of the legbars lays a brown egg instead of blue? I thought I had everything set because I've got SFH, 4 legbar pullets, and 3 EE pullets with the SFH being the only brown egg layers. HaplessRunner, looks like we will be able to easily compare notes. Perhaps over the weekend I'll pull the legbars and move them over to my layer pen. Since I plan to hatch more SFH very soon, I can watch for any other chipmunk-y peeps. If more of them crop up, I'll know it's just SFH with interesting chick down.

During the bitter January and early February weather, I had two cream legbar cockerels who became badly frostbitten in the bachelor pen. In an effort to minimize further injury, they were moved into my layer coop with my SFH and layer flock in early January. They were subsequently separated out to the batchalor pen in early-mid February. So it really is no surprise that I these boys were active while they enjoyed better shelter.

My guesses on these two now is that they CLBxBSL (black sex link) and CLBxEO (euskal oiloa) crosses. I will add their pictures to the Cream Legbar Hybrid thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/825092/cream-legbar-hybrid-thread

FYI - you will find some interesting and beautiful crosses on that thread.

 

[HaplessRunner]

Would this be a red base hen? What do think of her?

This would be a splash (white) based hen. SFH function on a BBS base. There are many other genes that affect and overlay all the other colors that we appreciate.

 

[Gonetothebirds]

My black based MF hen

 

[Gonetothebirds]

My blue base roo