Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Bulldogma]

@KYTinpusher and all...
5 Weeks Old
All 3 kiddos.

I haven't banded these kids and it's very hard for me to tell the difference between the blacks. But I think this is...

So far, they all look very feminine! Lovely birds!

Oh... and I still think that "brown" has reptile eyes

LOL!

 

[redhen689]

I haven't posted in a while. I've had tremendously bad fortune over the past few weeks. As of 2 week ago I had 3 SFH hens that were 1 year old, and 4 chicks that were 3 months old, (2 male, 2 female). I have an automatic chicken door which has worked superbly for eliminating loss to predators, since most losses occur after dark. One night a few weeks ago I accidentally had left the "people door" open, and lost one of my boys. I increased my vigilance since then. Then last weekend I lost an adult hen and a pullet, both in the same day in broad daylight. I don't know what took them. They disappeared without a trace. Our cat who normally likes to spend time outdoors was spooked by whatever it was, and was reluctant to go out for several days. That evening I was away from home at dusk, and for some reason the remaining male didn't go back into the coop. I searched for him, but didn't find him. I found his feathers scattered the next day when I arrived home from work.
Now I have 2 hens and a pullet. One of the hens has been broody for 2 months. She is allowing the 14 week old into the box with her, and seems to be adopting her. At times like this I think about giving up on raising chickens. When we had a dog we never had losses like this...

 

[Bulldogma]

I haven't posted in a while. I've had tremendously bad fortune over the past few weeks. As of 2 week ago I had 3 SFH hens that were 1 year old, and 4 chicks that were 3 months old, (2 male, 2 female). I have an automatic chicken door which has worked superbly for eliminating loss to predators, since most losses occur after dark. One night a few weeks ago I accidentally had left the "people door" open, and lost one of my boys. I increased my vigilance since then. Then last weekend I lost an adult hen and a pullet, both in the same day in broad daylight. I don't know what took them. They disappeared without a trace. Our cat who normally likes to spend time outdoors was spooked by whatever it was, and was reluctant to go out for several days. That evening I was away from home at dusk, and for some reason the remaining male didn't go back into the coop. I searched for him, but didn't find him. I found his feathers scattered the next day when I arrived home from work.
Now I have 2 hens and a pullet. One of the hens has been broody for 2 months. She is allowing the 14 week old into the box with her, and seems to be adopting her. At times like this I think about giving up on raising chickens. When we had a dog we never had losses like this...

Oh - I'm so sorry for your losses! Can you put together some sort of covered outdoor run for your remaining chickens? And if you hatch or can find someone to hatch for you, I will send you eggs for the cost of shipping should you want them.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
I have a few young cockerels as well, if you want to ship them... these boys are about 6-8 weeks old now.

 

[KathyJB]

I first saw these gorgeous birds on Feathersite.com I'm so happy they were allowed here and glad to know they are friendly chickens. I also love the Penedesenca.

 

[Bulldogma]

Welcome, Kathy!

 

[redhen689]

bulldogma and ki4got,

Thanks for the offer of the eggs. I'm not going to take you up on that right now, but will definately consider it in the future.
At this point in time I am keeping the girls in the coop most of the time, allowing them out for a few hours in the afternoon. I do need to consider a secure run for my birds, at this point I live in a heavily wooded area, and they wander off into the woods in search of bugs, etc. I know that there are raccoons and foxes around.

I'll be heading south for a few days the end of July/beginning of August, maybe I can arrange to pick up some hatching eggs on my way back.

 

[TurnipTruck]

I can hear little peeps under my broody! I can't wait to see what we end up with.

 

[FeyRaine]

I can hear little peeps under my broody! I can't wait to see what we end up with.

That is exciting! We are of course all waiting for the broody w/ chicks pics!

Meanwhile over here, I had several (including 1 sfh) hatch from the electric outage eggs. Still have a bunch more from a later setting which I'm more hopeful about now.
I have my 2nd EE broody of the yr stealing all the eggs (again) so I'm going to pull the same trick tonight moving her off the doz+ she has started over the past week onto some I'll candle & set into her own pen. I'm debating should I give her the 7 pure sfh pullet eggs from the bator, or keep those in the bator & give her only the EE eggs. I want to do it all one way or the other to keep so I can tell them apart. Anyone have thoughts on that?? I'm leaving toward giving her the sfh as it would be nice to have a broody raised batch, but this is her fist time (she has been VERY aggressive about her clutch, but she is not very zoned out & has gotten up every day (allowing a laying hen to cover the clutch & add to each day). So do I risk the sfh eggs w/ the broody or the electric company ;P

 

[Blonde Swede]

Hatch update: four of the five eggs that went into lockdown hatched. Sadly one chick was born with curled feet and...no eyes. I've seen some weird stuff but this takes the cake. Pretty creepy. It was so sad cause the little thing really wanted to live. What a set of lungs and a strong little dude. But couldn't walk..couldn't see and I put it down. So I'm left with 3 healthy chicks. Two are a pretty yellow with blue undertones and one is rust colored. Different then what I've had so that's cool. This brings my SFH count up to 7. Fingers crossed these are pullets!!