Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[KYTinpusher]

Here's a photo of my youngest chicks:

Very cute!

 

[Bulldogma]

Sad news! Today I found my big, beautiful Alma dead in the coop. It looks like her heart stopped and she died in her sleep. She was on the floor under the perch.

After doing a quick necropsy, I also believe she was a bit overweight and may have had an issue with internal laying... I found something that looked like an egg membrane in her abdomen.

I had some suspicions that she hadn't been laying over the last week or so, but I couldn't be sure because Yta also lays BIG eggs - though hers tend to be more pointy.

I'm very sad to lose such a beautiful girl, but if there is any consolation, it is that I have one of her big, beautiful daughters growing out.




Alma - Spring 2013 - Spring 2014.


Alma x Mace Pullet - hatched March, 2014

 

[TxFlowers]

Sad news! Today I found my big, beautiful Alma dead in the coop. It looks like her heart stopped and she died in her sleep. She was on the floor under the perch. After doing a quick necropsy, I also believe she was a bit overweight and may have had an issue with internal laying... I found something that looked like an egg membrane in her abdomen. I had some suspicions that she hadn't been laying over the last week or so, but I couldn't be sure because Yta also lays BIG eggs - though hers tend to be more pointy. I'm very sad to lose such a beautiful girl, but if there is any consolation, it is that I have one of her big, beautiful daughters growing out. Alma - Spring 2013 - Spring 2014. Alma x Mace Pullet - hatched March, 2014

So sad! Really sorry to hear that! We never know when we're going to lose those special ones. So very fortunate you have a daughter!

 

[Bulldogma]

So sad! Really sorry to hear that! We never know when we're going to lose those special ones. So very fortunate you have a daughter!

Very fortunate!
And because of my findings, the rest of my adult flock will be going on a diet. LOL! I've been feeding them some high protein feed, but I think it's time to lower the protein levels a bit! Alma always got more than her fair share, too.
I'm going to miss her.

 

[KYTinpusher]

I'm so sorry, Leigh! It is always difficult to lose such wonderful creatures. I'm glad you have a daughter to carry on.

 

[Bulldogma]

I'm so sorry, Leigh!

It is always difficult to lose such wonderful creatures. I'm glad you have a daughter to carry on.

Thank you.

 

[Leahs Mom]

@Bulldogma

Sorry to hear I wonder if not getting to range as much has anything to do with it?

One of my little mixed girls had internal laying toward the end of winter and we had to cull - our first intentional cull. She was a small girl with not a lot of weight on her but she layed prolifically from the time she started laying which made me wonder if she just burned out.

How old was Alma? Her girl is quite beautiful.

 

[FeyRaine]

Alma sure was pretty, what a sad loss.

Thanks though for doing the hard thing and investigating causal factors and sharing the info. so we can all keep this in mind--I'm guessing extra high protein might be a specially risky in sfh given the environment they came from vs. where / how we (or some of us maybe) are keeping them now (warmer weather, less ranging, other factors?). It sounds like her eggs were esp. large , like my Flo so this might apply even more to the hens laying the biggest eggs? In any case the more we all share the good & the difficult the better we will all do as caretakers of this breed going forward...

--

Meanwhile, I have my 1st pip in my own laid here pure sfh egg, BUT it is one of the tiny pullet eggs from "Daisy" and the chick is not fully rotated in the egg so the pip was well down on the side and extra large. Since the placement was odd, & I lost 2 shipped sfh after internal pip last week I went ahead and peeled the shell back. The chick is no where near ready to exit (veins still full of blood) so I have positioned the egg on the side so the beak is the highest thing to try to avoid drowning) now we'll see if things can progress w/o more intervention or not. I'm wanting to save the chick if possible as I think the situation is more a fault of incubation than genetics, but if I have to do very much then I won't include this one in the breeding pen just hopefully the layer pen.

 

[Bulldogma]

@Bulldogma

Sorry to hear I wonder if not getting to range as much has anything to do with it?

One of my little mixed girls had internal laying toward the end of winter and we had to cull - our first intentional cull. She was a small girl with not a lot of weight on her but she layed prolifically from the time she started laying which made me wonder if she just burned out.

How old was Alma? Her girl is quite beautiful.

Sue - Alma was just over a year. I do think the lack of free ranging had something to do with it. We're trying to change the free ranging setup, but we need to get a dog-proof fence up around the area... and we can't quite afford that just yet. Still need to finish the other half of the coop and then think about fencing.

Alma sure was pretty, what a sad loss.

Thanks though for doing the hard thing and investigating causal factors and sharing the info. so we can all keep this in mind--I'm guessing extra high protein might be a specially risky in sfh given the environment they came from vs. where / how we (or some of us maybe) are keeping them now (warmer weather, less ranging, other factors?). It sounds like her eggs were esp. large , like my Flo so this might apply even more to the hens laying the biggest eggs? In any case the more we all share the good & the difficult the better we will all do as caretakers of this breed going forward...

--

Meanwhile, I have my 1st pip in my own laid here pure sfh egg, BUT it is one of the tiny pullet eggs from "Daisy" and the chick is not fully rotated in the egg so the pip was well down on the side and extra large. Since the placement was odd, & I lost 2 shipped sfh after internal pip last week I went ahead and peeled the shell back. The chick is no where near ready to exit (veins still full of blood) so I have positioned the egg on the side so the beak is the highest thing to try to avoid drowning) now we'll see if things can progress w/o more intervention or not. I'm wanting to save the chick if possible as I think the situation is more a fault of incubation than genetics, but if I have to do very much then I won't include this one in the breeding pen just hopefully the layer pen.

Actually SFH do quite well with higher protein... but Alma was used to free ranging and then went to being penned. She also ate more than anyone else. She used to lay almost daily.

Keeping fingers crossed for your chick!

 

[Leahs Mom]

Leigh - that was the same age as mine that had the problem.