Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Bernie56]

Here is a picture of a chick I'm questioning - these red feathers are new over the past week or two. I have two that look like just like this, they have always seemed to have bigger combs than the others but no real difference in comb color yet. I will keep them a while longer and see what happens.

My guess, from this picture, would be that it is a roo. Those red feathers are pretty telling, but you can also see the beginning of development of wattles, and the two together almost guarantee that you have a roo. I know that you don't want to feed a roo any longer than necessary if you don't plan on keeping him, but it would be worthwhile to raise a few and observe the changes until you are sure what you have. Over time you will be better able to recognize the "clues" that tell you what sex you have. Some young roos start crowing fairly young, (I had one Ameraucana that crowed in the brooder at about 3 days. Seriously! It just sounded like a little squeak, but he would answer the adult roosters crow.) while others don't start until sexually mature. Crowing, and the development of saddle feathers are definitive signs of a roo.

 

[kannna]

It was such a nice day today, I got some nice pics of some of the girls. We have two SFHs. Alana was not cooperating, but Neala always thinks I may have a treat.

This is Neala.

 

[Bernie56]

It was such a nice day today, I got some nice pics of some of the girls. We have two SFHs. Alana was not cooperating, but Neala always thinks I may have a treat.

This is Neala.

Beautiful!! What a nice hen.

 

[shotzy007]

oh my, so bright and shiny.

 

[Bulldogma]

Duplicate post

 

[Bulldogma]

Cute cockerel!

It was such a nice day today, I got some nice pics of some of the girls. We have two SFHs. Alana was not cooperating, but Neala always thinks I may have a treat.

This is Neala.

She is stunning!!!

*steals*

 

[Jeansrie]

Thank you all for your friendly advice! Wish I could keep roosters.

 

[GAGE]

I am sure my answer is somewhere in the 700 or so posts, but after seeing the beauty of the SFH breed, I really would like to get some. With that said, I would be ordering eggs, and have read in several posts that hatching shipped SFH eggs has been a real problem. Is this the consensus, do shipped SFH eggs seem to be more difficult to hatch? I have a Genesis, and have done pretty well with hatching, but would not want to spend the money on eggs if the results are less than ideal/normal.
Thanks for any guidance, and have a Merry Christmas!

 

[TxFlowers]

I am sure my answer is somewhere in the 700 or so posts, but after seeing the beauty of the SFH breed, I really would like to get some. With that said, I would be ordering eggs, and have read in several posts that hatching shipped SFH eggs has been a real problem. Is this the consensus, do shipped SFH eggs seem to be more difficult to hatch? I have a Genesis, and have done pretty well with hatching, but would not want to spend the money on eggs if the results are less than ideal/normal.
Thanks for any guidance, and have a Merry Christmas!

I got into the SF breed this year with mostly shipped eggs. I would guess I have recv'd SF eggs about 10 times as well as some other breeds through shipped eggs. I had some really bad hatches with the SF, like one or two hatching out of a dozen + then I had 50% hatch from shipped. My personal results with shipped SF eggs was in line with what I got from other eggs. The SF shipment that had the most eggs start to develop was the only shipment I had where the eggs were double boxed. The double boxing may have played a part in the outcome on that batch. The aircells in that shipment had minimal damage too. I have a Genesis 1588 as well. I live where it is typically very humid and I learned about dry incubating and overall it has been more successful for me than keeping the humidity higher during incubation however I have seen that with the SF eggs, they seem to lose moisture more readily than some of the other breeds I have hatched and I have had to monitor weight loss more closely with them when I incubate with no water or they may lose too much weight by hatch time.

 

[GAGE]

Thank you Tx, it sounds like they are worth a try. I have some tentatively lined up for early next month after my NYD hatch is complete. They would be coming out of TX, so I will hope for the best.