Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[DeltaBluezTess]

Diane, were you at the show in Vancouver yesterday? I was hoping to see at least one SFH, but didn't.

No, I was home. We sheared around 40 sheep and spread over 100 yards of wood chip/hog's fuel. I wish I was at the show as it would be a lot easier. Mine are molting and half naked!

I've never shown a chicken in my life. I might next spring. I have no idea on what to do!

My SFH are all molting...not laying but still as friendly as ever. I got them this summer and they were skittish for a week or so, then started laying right away. They are one of the first to check everything out. I got four just to see what they are like and have fallen in love with them. I have a bunch of chicks (1 week to 6 weeks old) from GFF and some from my stock. I also have a roo from GFF (last yr) and Rowan, a GFF roo from this spring from a board member and a couple of roo from GFF (fall hatchs). I have a wide variety of color. They have been the best on egg laying and nice sized.

 

[kimi]

True that. Mine seriously GLARED at me when I cooped them for two weeks to train them to their new coop. The eggs instantly dried up.

This breed does tend to be very curious, so I'd give it some time and a little training. They might not ever be lap pets, but that is OK. The foraging ability will blow you away.

I don't want "lap" chickens... not really my style. I would like to get close enough to them to take some pics. It's looking like I might have to buy a new camera with a better zoom lens. I'd really like to get opinions on them & see how they compare to my thoughts... I can't imagine they could forage much better than my Blue Andy's but close would be nice!

 

[RedRidge]

Quote: THIS is the reason all of mine are going into their respective pens this week... plenty of time to acclimate before breeding season starts the first of the year. New breeding pens are almost finished... I put my 2 Rhodebar roos into two of the big pens yesterday and they looked at me like I was crazy. They will be moved to individual small pens sometime over the next week and all the pullets and hens will go "where they are going to winter". The roos are less affected by change, so I always move the hens and pullets early expecting a serious drop in production... then, if roos aren't already with them, I will add the roos later.
I "know" which roos are going with which girls in my SFH and Rhodebar pens... I simply haven't decided yet about the HRIR, so I still have 10 roos together (dang I need to decide which two are my breeders and I just can't decide)... and I have narrowed my HRIR girls down to 6... so at least that was easier.

So... here is a weird question for some of you... which are more cold hardy? SFH or HRIR? I have some pens that are "warmer" than others and am trying to decide who will not be as affected by the "less warm" pens... thoughts?

 

[Bernie56]

So... here is a weird question for some of you... which are more cold hardy? SFH or HRIR? I have some pens that are "warmer" than others and am trying to decide who will not be as affected by the "less warm" pens... thoughts?

I can't speak to the SFH / HRIR comparison, but I think (especially in our southern climates) that its more about consistency than extremes. I wouldn't move birds from a "warm/less warm" pen to a cold pen in the middle of the season. My birds are provided shelter from rain, and have minimal protection from wind. The barn/coop has a roof, but open sides. We rarely get below 10 degrees here in the metro Atlanta area though. I'm sure I would be more concerned if I was in a more extreme (Idaho, Montana, Alaska) cold climate, but I think it would still be just providing shelter rather than providing a heat source. If they transition from warm to cold gradually, and there is not a drastic change in their shelter area, they should be fine. As far as egg laying in the winter, hens are more affected by hours of daylight than temperature extremes. Installing lights in the coop will increase winter egg production. Of course the breed of chicken is the major factor, no matter how much light you provide, you won't get a Cornish to lay like a Leghorn. I generally just let nature take its course, as I feel like the hens need the winter break to remain healthy.

 

[CackleJoy]

We just got 11 SFH chicks from Greenfire. We are so excited! Hear you loud and clear, wanted these babies pretty bad =) Hoping they are not all roosters.

 

[rarebear]

To rarebear...
on 7/31 you wrote:
Then I replied:
on 8/2 you wrote:
and today you posted:
and I'm sorry to say, no matter how many times you ask, or how many ways you phrase the questions, the answers are still the same.

the pictures you've posted are all roos. pullets don't develop pink comb/wattles until usually 4 months of age.

these are pictures of pullets, not much older than yours are now. taken from other recent posts...
kanna's pullets

Bulldogma's pullets

and my own (these girls were 3 months old at the time of the pic)

notice there is NO wattle development at all, and the combs are very small.

Thank you again. I was hoping there was a chance these were girls. I appreciate your explanation about how the pullets get redder after 4 months. Sorry for being a dweeb. I wasn't understanding why some of the flower hens looked as though they could be girls as I was looking at older ones. Anyone want 7 Swedish Flower Hen roosters. Also thanks for the waddle versus wattle. I am going to go bury my head in my pillow and cry.

Just thought you all would like to know that the photos I posted were indeed pullets. They had developed very pink wattles and combs quite early. They were all females so I gave them all away. Luckily my friend also had one of my roosters so she will be able to get some eggs for me to hatch. As well, someone mentioned that the females do not have that dark mahogany color but 3 of my pullets did have that dark color. For anyone else reading this the photos here are not mine but are examples someone else sent to me. My original photos are on here somewhere. So as an FYI females do develop bright pink wattles and combs early. I had some that did and some that did not. I ended up giving them all away as I cannot have roosters.

 

[CackleJoy]

I love the red variation of SFH. Can anyone tell me what color of chick ends up being red? I'm afraid we havn't got any. Out of 11 there are lots of wing tips showing blue/beige combos.

 

[CarolynF]

Quote:
I'm curious, how cold does it get in your areas? I imagined TN was far enough south to stay relatively warm.

 

[Bernie56]

I love the red variation of SFH. Can anyone tell me what color of chick ends up being red? I'm afraid we havn't got any. Out of 11 there are lots of wing tips showing blue/beige combos.

I have a lot of red/white hens. Mine usually started out as a tri colored chick, yellow underside with a smokey grey tinted back, and red head. These tended to be more white with red splashes until around 5 months when they got the darker red mottled feathers coming in. Some of them started out a reddish color similar to what a RIR chick looks like, but generally a little lighter. They were also mostly white, until around 5 months when the darker red started coming in. In my case the tri colored chicks matured as white with red splotches, and the reddish chicks matured more red with white flowers.

 

[Penny Hen]

I'm curious, how cold does it get in your areas? I imagined TN was far enough south to stay relatively warm.

TN can be weird as weather goes. I call it the swing state of weather. It all depends on how far the jet stream will swing. If it dips south in the winter we have weather more like Kentucky. If it stays north in the winter we have weather more like North Georgia. Most of the time we have something inbetween but about every 10 years or so we will have a terrible cold winter or a terrible hot summer/drought. Our last bad winter was 1999 and it was followed in 2000 with the worst drought in we had in couple score of years.

Most years it doesn't get below 20°, but I have seen temperatures as a kid at 5°. The problem in TN is that the temperature can hover just above the freezing mark and have a 20 mph wind that puts the windchill down to 21° and if you don't have a wind break you can get hypothermic quick. Add to that a cold rain just above freezing and the chance multiplies. If you are watching the raindrops hit a hard surface at those temperatures you can actually see the water get thick and slow the splash rings.