Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[minihorse927]

[COLOR=800080]Good news today! Johanna the SFH broody hatched her 1st chick today

[/COLOR] [COLOR=800080]She's still got 6 more eggs under her. She's already had the chick out a few hours ago when I put her food down. She got the chick out & it was pecking at the feed with her. Then she ushered it back up the walk to where she has the other eggs. It's so cute![/COLOR]

Yay! pictures!

 

[KYTinpusher]

Quote:

KYTINPUSHER, they hatched! 28 and a couple are blue! I'm soo excited.

 

[minihorse927]

haha, you got me. I'll try to do some tomorrow. Here's a picture to squeak me by of the first 3 hatched.

look! A blue one!

 

[TarheelBirdy]

wow. sorry to hear about the bad luck with eggs... glad to hear you have some going tho. 8)

it's been a rocky road for some of us this year, between not hatching or losing birds, or like some, having them all go broody at once. LOL

my 2 pullets aren't broody, but they sure as heck do NOT want to lay in 'captivity'... free ranging sfh mutts I've got due to hatch. purebred? I got 2 eggs from them since they've been penned. 1 more girl growing out and 3 extra roos still ranging.

starting to think I need to pen my baby roos, 1 at a time, with the biggest meanest old lady hen I have, to teach those buggers some manners. works on horses (putting yearling colts with bred mares teaches manners very quickly) , why not chickens? LOL

I believe this is why my roosters are gentlemen. I only have a couple at a time, but once they are showing signs of being interested in the ladies, they get moved in where the layer flock comes in to roost at night in their coop. They get put right in their place.

 

[PugBug]

haha, you got me. I'll try to do some tomorrow. Here's a picture to squeak me by of the first 3 hatched. look! A blue one!

Can't wait to see how these feather out!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I believe this is why my roosters are gentlemen. I only have a couple at a time, but once they are showing signs of being interested in the ladies, they get moved in where the layer flock comes in to roost at night in their coop. They get put right in their place.

I observed this with my one and only "Rooster Boy". He was stuck with the old ladies and his hatch-mates. I used to sit outside and observe and just laugh at him and the antics of the whole flock.

Every time he'd try to get one of the pullets his age they would let out a squak and lots of screaching.... one of the older girls would run over and grab him - either by the feathers or by the wattle or comb - and pull him off. I thought it was hilarious but I'm sure it was very frustrating for him.

One day, one of the BR ladies that I jokingly refer to as "Atilla" was in the nest box. He was just a young guy but he was starting to try out mating. He came walking along on the landing bar in front of the nest boxes and stopped to look into the box where she was. She reached out and grabbed him by the wattle and wouldn't let go. He was screaming, trying to get away for quite some time before she finally let loose.

Needless to say, this poor fellow had quite a few scabs on his comb and wattles for a couple of weeks. But he is a very good rooster today as a 7.5 mo old.

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I posted this in another thread but thought I'd post it here too:

I had a very endearing experience with "Rooster Boy" today.

I was outside picking cucumbers. They are right over the fence from the chicken's range area so there was a congregation of chickens, including Rooster Boy, on the other side of the fence hoping I'd throw something over.

Waaaay over in the "kennel run" that's attached to the hen house was one of the pullets (Miss Sweden). She wanted to come over where the rest of the congregation was gathered. Now Miss Sweden has always been very skittish about running from the pen to the range area as it is open skys for a good long way before she feels safe. Usually when she goes through that space, she squaks loudly and half flies through there very nervously.

So...she lets out this "distress call" just before she's about to make a break for it and Rooster Boy's head snaps up. He literally SPRINTS a long distance to get to the gate opening where she is. When he gets there, he escorts her over to the congregation.

Now y'all have probably seen that before. But that was the first time I'd seen him doing the "gallant" thing. I've seen him "on watch" and saying warnings...just never saw anything as dramatic as that.

 

[HaplessRunner]

Leah's Mom,

Very nice story and observation. As my two SFH roos have matured and getting recognized by the hens, they have become focal points in the flock for warnings and food calls. That is not to say they are not operating on high octane hormones; they are. They regularly make the rounds of every hen in sight. The dancing around the hens is really something.

 

[Bernie56]

Ok, I got some pics of the young roos for the 2014 season. These two were hatched from eggs from Dahlisgrams in NY, on April 24, 2013, so they are only 4 months old. I think they are looking really good.

This is my favorite. He is larger and also has more spots and more black.


This guy was a solid blue chick, but you wouldn't know it now. I wish he had more spots but I really like his muted colors. The picture doesn't do him justice.



I've got two other young roos from my stock that I'm keeping in reserve for now. The two on the left from the group that my broody hatched out. I really love the one with the black, but I'm a little concerned that he may have split wing, so we'll just wait and see. The other looks like more of the same as far as my red/white boys, but he feathered out completely different in the beginning so I'm holding him to see how he matures. He's already changed a lot in the 3 weeks since this photo was taken.

 

[PugBug]

I like the coloring on the 1st & last the most, but all are nice looking boys

 

[PugBug]

I went out to check on Johanna & the chick both are doing fine, but she had abandoned the other 6 eggs. They were completely cold. I did notice last night she & the chick slept under the house instead of inside where the eggs were. I was going to just toss thinking they must not have developed- but when I started picking them up I heard a peep! Brought them in, set up the bator so far 3 have pipped & zipping but were stuck, looks like the inner membrane was all dried out & sticking to them. I have helped a bit loosing it from them. I candled the other 3 eggs, they were sloshy inside so I tossed them. Hopefully these 3 will make it