Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Spifflove]

I don't post too much, not had too much luck with my SFH chicks, of the 15 I am left with 2 males and 3 hens. 1 male - Archie - is able to move around but does not walk well. The others are fine and fully grown. They take care of Archie like brothers and sisters do..... Well one of the sisters laid her first egg today!

1.9k posts

I would wait until its warm and breed them [not Archie though].

 

[gavinandallison]

1.9k posts

I would wait until its warm and breed them [not Archie though].

Archie will not breed..... But i have an awesome incubator and a room to grow out in, so all shoul be good...

 

[Wulfandwyn]

Thanks for the feedback, Knock Kneed Hen!

Most of my birds have wings like that.

Here's Gabriel, my avatar rooster:



And Danilo:




This mille fleur hen isn't so bad:




This girl looks better when her wings are folded up but when you hold the wing out you can see the split:



Well, I don't know what to do because all of my Swedes have this trait, with the exception of the mille fleur above and one white/red crested hen. Some are so bad their primaries just hang down. I may have to live with it. Don't have enough coop room at the moment to get so many chickens at once, wait until they grow out and cull. Too bad because I really like Gabriel's coloring and he has a beautiful comb, decent tail carriage. He turned one year old around Thanksgiving, 2012, so probably nothing will change.

After reading about the split wing, I checked my chickens and it looks like two of my three hens have it and possibly my roo. I didn't notice any defect when they were chicks but I see the gap now.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Babies are 5 weeks today. 2 have longer tail feathers than the other 2. And...they are the ones that most of you thought were cockerels when I posted the 4 week photos.

Do the roos develop tail feathers earlier than the girls at this age and a rule?

Should have a photo or 2 later this afternoon.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

hatched 2 blk and white/ or yellow SFH YESTERDAY

 

[jbarrett]

Babies are 5 weeks today. 2 have longer tail feathers than the other 2. And...they are the ones that most of you thought were cockerels when I posted the 4 week photos.

Do the roos develop tail feathers earlier than the girls at this age and a rule?

Should have a photo or 2 later this afternoon.

an older lady I went to visit and get some Marans really cheap! like dirt cheap, she told me that the hens feather a bit faster than the boys! but im not sure on this yet, but she has been raising and hatching for about 35 years!

 

[SunnySkies]

I am ..torn..about the "faults" people notice. These birds originated very successfully on their own and so what we might not like, such as sprigs, obviously hasn't hindered them. Even split wing hasn't been naturally selected against. They survived just fine. I'm kind of wondering if sometimes what we see as a fault isn't so much a problem for the bird as it is for our eye. Does that make sense?

I think we humans kind of mess things up when we go to breed for specific traits. I bred Arabians for a while, and I noticed the ones that are considered most beautiful sometimes had no functionality, in that all sense and gentleness was bred out. I have a mare that is kind of a fool about things, and she isn't young, but her bloodlines are amazing and she was bred to be pretty, to fit the human standard.

I'm sure one of my two SFH has split wing, but I like his color, and he is a great forager. Do I cull him in favor of a bird that doesn't have as pretty a red color and isn't as good a forager but has ideal wings and thus sacrifice something the breed is known for? I dunno. Just rambling on.

 

[jbarrett]

Here is an update on all my Swedish Flower Hens!


any ideas on rooster or hen? Im kind of in between, either way it will stay here!


Sot Flicka


Agda as Henrick Petersson suggested


Emmy


Ingrid


Svea pronounced Sv-a

Hilda


Molly

Oliver

Oscar!

These 2 below are the ones I hatched from Icatty the day after Christmas



These ones below are the newest ones I got from Lazy Q I also hatched one from an egg he gave me!

 

[Spifflove]

I am ..torn..about the "faults" people notice. These birds originated very successfully on their own and so what we might not like, such as sprigs, obviously hasn't hindered them. Even split wing hasn't been naturally selected against. They survived just fine. I'm kind of wondering if sometimes what we see as a fault isn't so much a problem for the bird as it is for our eye. Does that make sense?

I think we humans kind of mess things up when we go to breed for specific traits. I bred Arabians for a while, and I noticed the ones that are considered most beautiful sometimes had no functionality, in that all sense and gentleness was bred out. I have a mare that is kind of a fool about things, and she isn't young, but her bloodlines are amazing and she was bred to be pretty, to fit the human standard.

I'm sure one of my two SFH has split wing, but I like his color, and he is a great forager. Do I cull him in favor of a bird that doesn't have as pretty a red color and isn't as good a forager but has ideal wings and thus sacrifice something the breed is known for? I dunno. Just rambling on.

It's a good ramble though. How can you make an sop for something so varied anyway? The only way is to decrease variety.

 

[warbirds]

I am ..torn..about the "faults" people notice. These birds originated very successfully on their own and so what we might not like, such as sprigs, obviously hasn't hindered them. Even split wing hasn't been naturally selected against. They survived just fine. I'm kind of wondering if sometimes what we see as a fault isn't so much a problem for the bird as it is for our eye. Does that make sense?

I think we humans kind of mess things up when we go to breed for specific traits. I bred Arabians for a while, and I noticed the ones that are considered most beautiful sometimes had no functionality, in that all sense and gentleness was bred out. I have a mare that is kind of a fool about things, and she isn't young, but her bloodlines are amazing and she was bred to be pretty, to fit the human standard.

I'm sure one of my two SFH has split wing, but I like his color, and he is a great forager. Do I cull him in favor of a bird that doesn't have as pretty a red color and isn't as good a forager but has ideal wings and thus sacrifice something the breed is known for? I dunno. Just rambling on.

In their native country, the Swedish have established a gene bank for their precious livestock breeds. This gene bank
states that they will not preserve the genetic material of native landraces that have undergone any sort of selective breeding. Here on my ranch we
breed these birds the way they have been developed to this point in time - allowing the natural forces around them to determine whose
genes will carry forward. With a few exceptions, of course. We do cull bad combs (sprigs, etc. as they should be a single-comb bird), poor layers, and
any bird with leg or foot issues. I've only experienced a couple of split-wings in my breeding groups, so I did remove those from the breeding pens. Other than that, we just watch the Flowers bloom!

Doc