Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[RedRidge]

Well here are a few Gunnar babies... gawky stage and terrible pics, but... figured BGM would bean me if I didn't share...

and for some reason I can't load the last two... argh...

Awwww... thank you so much for posting these pictrures! Can't tell in most of the shots, but this one's a boy.

Are you looking at the comb? Because of so I am guessing a lot of em are boys.

 

[cathiesue]

You know - I think sprigs are almost the norm for the breed. Anyone else have an opinion on this??

I don t know what a sprig is?

 

[SunnySkies]

You know - I think sprigs are almost the norm for the breed. Anyone else have an opinion on this??

I think so. Every one of my crested roosters has them. I haven't really examined the crested pullets' combs because they are running wild. None of the single comb roosters has them.

 

[KYTinpusher]

A few of my hens have sprigs, but I have culled the roos who had them. Once I get my flock size up and hatch some replacements, I will probably cull the hens that have them, too (to the egg-laying flock with them). It is certainly not high up on my list of things to cull for, but especially with the roos, I had SO many to choose from, it just made sense to choose keepers from those that do not have them. These are side sprigs:

 

[ki4got]

A few of my hens have sprigs, but I have culled the roos who had them. Once I get my flock size up and hatch some replacements, I will probably cull the hens that have them, too (to the egg-laying flock with them). It is certainly not high up on my list of things to cull for, but especially with the roos, I had SO many to choose from, it just made sense to choose keepers from those that do not have them. These are side sprigs:

I agree, use what you've got to get numbers up, then be picky after that for good combs... combs are easier to fix than some things, IMO. if it were a breed with a standard, sprigs might be a tad higher up than say perfecting a color or pattern...

along a similar thought, has anyone thought about establishing a US SFH club of any type? IMO, it would be nice to establish a standard of sorts, in regards to body type, carriage, size, leg/beak/eye color, that sort of thing, with allowable variations in color. aka - mottled birds are preferred over solid. yellow legs over willow or black, orange-red eyes, horn to yellow colored beak... that sort of thing. things we already "know" the breed should be, that newcomers might not, and mistakenly purchase birds that are NOT sfh but told they are...

did any of that make sense?

i'm not implying setting a standard like APA has for so many breeds that's rigid and inflexible, but more as a guideline for what it should be, with room for individual interpretation.

 

[SunnySkies]

I've thought for a while that we should have a SFH breeders club, which does exactly what you say. Protects the breed and allows people who are researching the breed access to correct standards and breeders.

I need to post a photo of one of my young blacks. The beak color is sure not what I expected! But in all other respects, it looks like a SFH. Very odd.

 

[KYTinpusher]

along a similar thought, has anyone thought about establishing a US SFH club of any type? IMO, it would be nice to establish a standard of sorts, in regards to body type, carriage, size, leg/beak/eye color, that sort of thing, with allowable variations in color. aka - mottled birds are preferred over solid. yellow legs over willow or black, orange-red eyes, horn to yellow colored beak... that sort of thing. things we already "know" the breed should be, that newcomers might not, and mistakenly purchase birds that are NOT sfh but told they are...

did any of that make sense?

i'm not implying setting a standard like APA has for so many breeds that's rigid and inflexible, but more as a guideline for what it should be, with room for individual interpretation.

That might be very hard to do due to the large variance in the SFH. Just look at the bickering in the clubs where the birds are all supposed to look the same. It would be worth a try, just the same.

 

[Leahs Mom]

JB has already addressed this earlier this year.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:

JB has already addressed this earlier this year.

what he tried to look into was establishing an 'official breed' thru the APA. what they want is hard and true rules. no variations, none of that. the heritage organizations would only accept breeds accepted by apa as well, if I remember.

what i'm proposing is a standard for the physical type (shape, stance, high/low tailset, wing carriage, etc) with acceptable variations within the coloring.. sfh basically should be mottled, with pretty much any base coloration being acceptable. but some people don't understand that mottled means white spots scattered over a darker colored bird. I've seen people try to say a bird is mottled, because it's solid white and has 4 black feathers... (not sfh). no, that's a mismarked white.

the physical characteristics would be pretty easy, for the most part... nearly all the roos I've seen have been very much alike in shape, size and stance. the same for the hens, most have the same body type and such. easily identified as sfh. it's the color and crest/no crest that vary in any significant ways... except that they're mottled. body color anything - black, red, multi, blue, splash, you name it, all with white mottled spots.

we could also set aside some specifics that are NOT recommended, like sprigs, split wing, combs other than single (tho single combs with an s-curve seem to be ok IMO)

 

[OHfarmerswife]

New to SFH have 6 chicks that are almost 3 weeks old. How & when will I be able to sex the chicks?
Thanks