Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[TRUE5]

I'm trying to sex some of my 6 week olds and one doesn't have a large comb but has green sheen tail feathers coming in. Just wondering if only SFH boys got those.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
in the mean time, save her eggs and send them my way, i'll get them started and see what the early results are. 8)

 

[FeyRaine]

I don't want to risk mistaking a mixed bird for a pure SFH, but I have a (mutt) pullet gone broody and she is apparently very serious as I've taken all the eggs 3x now & she just keeps collecting ALL the other eggs laid and sitting them. I had not intended to set any of these but _some_ of the brown ones will be pure SFH so I hate to toss them when they are 3 days hot already.

In the pen under 2 SFH Roos:

4 CL pullets <-- blue eggs no problem to tell so I can pull these out if needed to reduce confusion

1 Buff Orp <-- ? will her chicks be able to be ID?

1 SpeSux <-- this is the real worry, if any of those are her eggs, will she 100% pass white legs so I can ID the chicks or is there a risk of a mix-up, b/c if there is any risk then I'll just call ALL the brown egg chicks mutts even though some will be pure sfh

2 SFH , 1 hen , 1 pullet

2 OE mutts, totally black feathers, rose combs,

1 mutt feather footed <-- the one gone broody, she could have laid either blue or brown eggs

I was intending to remove the brown egg layers prior to setting anything from this pen, but this pullet is hard hard broody on her pile so what do ya'll think ??

 

[KYTinpusher]

I don't want to risk mistaking a mixed bird for a pure SFH, but I have a (mutt) pullet gone broody and she is apparently very serious as I've taken all the eggs 3x now & she just keeps collecting ALL the other eggs laid and sitting them. I had not intended to set any of these but _some_ of the brown ones will be pure SFH so I hate to toss them when they are 3 days hot already.

In the pen under 2 SFH Roos:

4 CL pullets <-- blue eggs no problem to tell so I can pull these out if needed to reduce confusion

1 Buff Orp <-- ? will her chicks be able to be ID?

1 SpeSux <-- this is the real worry, if any of those are her eggs, will she 100% pass white legs so I can ID the chicks or is there a risk of a mix-up, b/c if there is any risk then I'll just call ALL the brown egg chicks mutts even though some will be pure sfh

2 SFH , 1 hen , 1 pullet

2 OE mutts, totally black feathers, rose combs,

1 mutt feather footed <-- the one gone broody, she could have laid either blue or brown eggs

I was intending to remove the brown egg layers prior to setting anything from this pen, but this pullet is hard hard broody on her pile so what do ya'll think ??

I'm no expert in genetics, so if it were me, I would just call all of the chicks mutts and not chance it.

 

[ki4got]

I don't want to risk mistaking a mixed bird for a pure SFH, but I have a (mutt) pullet gone broody and she is apparently very serious as I've taken all the eggs 3x now & she just keeps collecting ALL the other eggs laid and sitting them. I had not intended to set any of these but _some_ of the brown ones will be pure SFH so I hate to toss them when they are 3 days hot already.

In the pen under 2 SFH Roos:

4 CL pullets <-- blue eggs no problem to tell so I can pull these out if needed to reduce confusion

1 Buff Orp <-- ? will her chicks be able to be ID?

1 SpeSux <-- this is the real worry, if any of those are her eggs, will she 100% pass white legs so I can ID the chicks or is there a risk of a mix-up, b/c if there is any risk then I'll just call ALL the brown egg chicks mutts even though some will be pure sfh

2 SFH , 1 hen , 1 pullet

2 OE mutts, totally black feathers, rose combs,

1 mutt feather footed <-- the one gone broody, she could have laid either blue or brown eggs

I was intending to remove the brown egg layers prior to setting anything from this pen, but this pullet is hard hard broody on her pile so what do ya'll think ??

ok well some of them you've already answered... orps and Sussex both have white/pink legs, sfh should have yellow. yellow is recessive to white, so chicks would have flesh colored legs not yellow. that's a harder one to tell tho, since many sfh don't have the bright yellow until they're older.

also, the buff orp carries dominant dilute, so the chicks will all be buff-ish compared to the 'normal' sfh. on the flip, SS carry mahogany, so should be a darker red/brown than the normal but then again, sfh may also carry mahogany at times (I have a splash girl that does).

feather footed may pass along to chicks also, but if she's a mutt she may not pass it along

what I would suggest is find a large dog crate and lock her up with known SFH eggs... usually they're a lighter color than the SS and orps. at least compared to my own orp eggs. the sfh is usually a pale brown to dark cream, at least in my experience.

IMO, 3 day incubated eggs, if they're potentially mutts I'd toss them and give her 'good' eggs. you can always feed the started eggs back to the flock. I do that with eggs from the incubator that are clear or quit early on. use a potato masher to break them up/scramble, add a couple scoops of pellets and some hot water to make a nice mash. the birds appreciate the extra protein and calcium and clean it up pretty quickly.

 

[FeyRaine]

ok well some of them you've already answered... orps and Sussex both have white/pink legs, sfh should have yellow. yellow is recessive to white, so chicks would have flesh colored legs not yellow. that's a harder one to tell tho, since many sfh don't have the bright yellow until they're older.

also, the buff orp carries dominant dilute, so the chicks will all be buff-ish compared to the 'normal' sfh. on the flip, SS carry mahogany, so should be a darker red/brown than the normal but then again, sfh may also carry mahogany at times (I have a splash girl that does).

feather footed may pass along to chicks also, but if she's a mutt she may not pass it along

what I would suggest is find a large dog crate and lock her up with known SFH eggs... usually they're a lighter color than the SS and orps. at least compared to my own orp eggs. the sfh is usually a pale brown to dark cream, at least in my experience.

IMO, 3 day incubated eggs, if they're potentially mutts I'd toss them and give her 'good' eggs. you can always feed the started eggs back to the flock. I do that with eggs from the incubator that are clear or quit early on. use a potato masher to break them up/scramble, add a couple scoops of pellets and some hot water to make a nice mash. the birds appreciate the extra protein and calcium and clean it up pretty quickly.

The issue is the these "brown" eggs are really light, so are they dark cream (sfh) or light Orp & SpSux, just too confusing to guess.

So then it falls to IDing the chicks, & it is what I figured - it is just gonna be too hard to be 100% certain.
I'll pull the egg she is on now & feed them to the pigs (no cooking etc required


Then I'll do what I intended a month ago & get the confusing egg layers out of that pen!!

And if the fluffy ?Maran x Eng Orp or Cochin or whatever blue mutt pullet is still crazy broody then I have a carton of egg to put under her in her very own pen.
But _not the dog crate, which is currently being shared by 2 Mastiff puppies!!& while they are doing well learning how to respect chickens I think sharing w/ the broody hen would be pushing it, & the DH doesn't want any birds in the living room ;P LOL !

 

[cathiesue]

The issue is the these "brown" eggs are really light, so are they dark cream (sfh) or light Orp & SpSux, just too confusing to guess.

So then it falls to IDing the chicks, & it is what I figured - it is just gonna be too hard to be 100% certain.
I'll pull the egg she is on now & feed them to the pigs (no cooking etc required


Then I'll do what I intended a month ago & get the confusing egg layers out of that pen!!

And if the fluffy ?Maran x Eng Orp or Cochin or whatever blue mutt pullet is still crazy broody then I have a carton of egg to put under her in her very own pen.
But _not the dog crate, which is currently being shared by 2 Mastiff puppies!!& while they are doing well learning how to respect chickens I think sharing w/ the broody hen would be pushing it, & the DH doesn't want any birds in the living room ;P LOL !

I have one big group and I agree that yes, the confusing egg layers should be kept sepeprate. I decided that I would only keep non-sfh layers if I could be absolutely certain that I could tell the difference between the eggs. I only have sfh roos so thats no problem. I ended up with some sweet little ee's and one very bossy black sex link! I'm happy with that.

 

[ki4got]

well, IF I could find my free range eggs, I would be able to tell if they're pure dorking simply by the comb type, since I have EE and Wyandotte roos also. LOL

 

[AuroraSprings]

So, I've only randomly been able to keep up with this thread, so I'm sorry if this has been discussed already before. But, has anyone had trouble with a LOT of "dead in egg" chicks? We thought it might be a humidity problem, but most in our last hatch didn't even internally pip, so they couldn't have drowned. Our hatches are coming out about 50/50. Is there something special this breed needs? Our Basque chicks pop out just fine in the same incubator at the same time.

 

[OHfarmerswife]

Leigh: Here are some pictures of my little white chick. One chick is clearly showing red but this little one is showing very very faint grey.

Opinions please!

Thanks