Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[SunnySkies]

I don't think the crest has anything to do with being caught by a hawk. I raised crested bantams for many years free range and they never had any more problems with being caught by hawks or other predators than my non crested chickens. Chickens turn their heads to the side when they look up at the sky. I think for our Swedish flower hens to have a crest as large as the show type polish chickens is not going to happen unless the genes for extremely large show type crests are already in the Swedish flower hen. I haven't seen any with crests that large posted to the list yet. I actually haven't seen a crest large enough to impede the chickens vision posted yet. That doesn't mean there aren't any like that being raised just that none have been posted in my opinion. I bred the crested bantams for over 10 years crested to crested and never had a problem with them as far as health and the crests never became as large as the show type polish breed.

Well, it's the only bird, out of over 100, that I have lost to a hawk. It did make me wonder. Her crest was quite large and very poofy. She was cute, but I had tagged her to be careful breeding.

I wouldn't do crested on crested because of the vaulted skulls resulting in decreased hatchability, plus the large crest isn't what we think of when we think SFH.

 

[Calix]

Well, it's the only bird, out of over 100, that I have lost to a hawk. It did make me wonder. Her crest was quite large and very poofy. She was cute, but I had tagged her to be careful breeding.

I wouldn't do crested on crested because of the vaulted skulls resulting in decreased hatchability, plus the large crest isn't what we think of when we think SFH.

Since breeding crested to crested can lead to birth defects, if you were to breed an individual who was the result of a crestedxcrested breeding to uncrested birds (for example, a crestedxcrested roo over uncrested hens) would you then get all crested chicks, without the danger of vaulted skulls in those offspring?

 

[TxFlowers]

Since breeding crested to crested can lead to birth defects, if you were to breed an individual who was the result of a crestedxcrested breeding to uncrested birds (for example, a crestedxcrested roo over uncrested hens) would you then get all crested chicks, without the danger of vaulted skulls in those offspring?

If the vaulted skull is strictly associated with double gene ( homozygous ) individuals then you rule out the possibility of that happening by breeding these double crested individuals to a non crested partner. You will still get 100% crested offspring because the homozygous parent will always pass a crested gene and that gene is dominant but the non crested parent can only pass a non crested gene. So the chicks would be crested but also carry the non crested gene ( be heterozygous ) and you would avoid the vaulted skull and it's associated issues

Note: even if a bird is the result of two crested parents, it will not necessarily be homozygous for the crested gene. Unless both these parents were both themselves homozygous, this chick from two crested parents could theoretically be heterozygous themselves. If you mate this crested bird to only non crested and get ANY non crested chicks, that confirms this bird carries the non crested gene. A homozygous crested bird can only produce crested offspring.

 

[Calix]

If the vaulted skull is strictly associated with double gene ( homozygous ) individuals then you rule out the possibility of that happening by breeding these double crested individuals to a non crested partner. You will still get 100% crested offspring because the homozygous parent will always pass a crested gene and that gene is dominant but the non crested parent can only pass a non crested gene. So the chicks would be crested but also carry the non crested gene ( be heterozygous ) and you would avoid the vaulted skull and it's associated issues

Note: even if a bird is the result of two crested parents, it will not necessarily be homozygous for the crested gene. Unless both these parents were both themselves homozygous, this chick from two crested parents could theoretically be heterozygous themselves. If you mate this crested bird to only non crested and get ANY non crested chicks, that confirms this bird carries the non crested gene. A homozygous crested bird can only produce crested offspring.

Do homozygous birds always have an unusually pronounced crest, so that you could identify them? Obviously you want to avoid breeding homozygous crested birds, but if you ended up with them from another breeder or on accident you could use the chicks that were healthy despite their vaulted skulls in breeding as long as you were careful to breed crestedxnoncrested.
This is neat

I forgot how fascinating genetics could be.

 

[TxFlowers]

Do homozygous birds always have an unusually pronounced crest, so that you could identify them? Obviously you want to avoid breeding homozygous crested birds, but if you ended up with them from another breeder or on accident you could use the chicks that were healthy despite their vaulted skulls in breeding as long as you were careful to breed crestedxnoncrested.
This is neat

I forgot how fascinating genetics could be.

I don't know enough about this to know if true homozygous birds would always have the vaulted skull but I don't think they always do. However if you do have one with a vaulted skull and it came from two crested parents, I would figure that tells you that it is homozygous. Without the actual vaulted skull as a clue, the only way to tell if a birds genotype ( genetic makeup) for crested is homozygous is to do test matings. This would be done by breeding only to non crested and if you only got crested with a large number of offspring, likely the bird is homozygous. If you got ANY non crested from any number of offspring, then the bird is heterozygous. I don't know that you would necessarily need to avoid using a homozygous bird if you think they are good enough in every other way. You would just want to avoid breeding them to crested partners. However if a partner is crested but genetically heterozygous, you still could get birds that were heterozygous in breeding this bird to another crested. Best thing to do however is always breed to non crested if you want to use this bird in your breeding program that way you would always be sure

 

[Bulldogma]

Took this picture and was just amazed at all the detail and colors in on one bird! Just thought I'd share

He's lovely!

ok, this is not specific to SFHs but thought I would ask if any of you has had this happen. It's a shipped Coronation Sussex egg. Eggs were shipped on their sides which I find usually results in more bad air cells. I let them rest for 24 hrs when I first recv'd with lg end up then put them lg end up in auto turner but didn't turn for 2 more days. They are 6 days a long now. Just candled and realized one embryo was completely at the top of the egg with no air cell above or even on the sides. I found the air cell perfectly attached to the small end with no hope of it moving. All I could think to do was flip the egg and incubate with the small end up. Any one else dealt with this? thanks

I would turn the air cell upwards if it were mine.

 

[Bulldogma]

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why is it always the most unique, fun, neat-colored bird that something happens to?

Yesterday afternoon I was bringing feed out to the birds. Of course all 40+ of them want to walk right around my feet every time I do this.

I STEPPED on her! I tripped and inadvertently stepped on my little snow leopard's leg / foot and now she's not using it!

Of course when I realized she wasn't using the leg, I brought her inside and isolated her with one little friend. She has mobility in all the joints... I think it is her foot that is hurting her, but it's so hard to tell where the injury is! She won't put any weight on it.

Need prayers and healing thoughts sent her way, please. I'm so upset about this!

 

[TxFlowers]

He's lovely!

I would turn the air cell upwards if it were mine.

Yeah, I figure flipping the egg is only way to deal with this. The longer I do this, the more weird things happen that I get to learn from! lol Thanks!

 

[TxFlowers]

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why is it always the most unique, fun, neat-colored bird that something happens to?

Yesterday afternoon I was bringing feed out to the birds. Of course all 40+ of them want to walk right around my feet every time I do this.

I STEPPED on her! I tripped and inadvertently stepped on my little snow leopard's leg / foot and now she's not using it!

Of course when I realized she wasn't using the leg, I brought her inside and isolated her with one little friend. She has mobility in all the joints... I think it is her foot that is hurting her, but it's so hard to tell where the injury is! She won't put any weight on it.

Need prayers and healing thoughts sent her way, please. I'm so upset about this!

Long ago I figured out it's "murphy's law" that if something is going to happen to one, it will be your favorite! She really is pretty. Have been admiring her since the first picture you posted. At least animals generally recover easily from things we humans don't and I have no doubt you will be giving her the best care she could possibly get!

btw...those "hawk" pics were so cute! Good thoughts coming your way for her!

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I don't think the crest has anything to do with being caught by a hawk. I raised crested bantams for many years free range and they never had any more problems with being caught by hawks or other predators than my non crested chickens. Chickens turn their heads to the side when they look up at the sky. I think for our Swedish flower hens to have a crest as large as the show type polish chickens is not going to happen unless the genes for extremely large show type crests are already in the Swedish flower hen. I haven't seen any with crests that large posted to the list yet. I actually haven't seen a crest large enough to impede the chickens vision posted yet. That doesn't mean there aren't any like that being raised just that none have been posted in my opinion. I bred the crested bantams for over 10 years crested to crested and never had a problem with them as far as health and the crests never became as large as the show type polish breed.

I have only lost one SFH to a hawk. I had decided to re-home my crested roo since he was getting mean with the others. I went ahead and hatched out some of his offspring. I hadn't separated the crested hens out, so there was one chick hatched out from a crested to crested breeding. She was beautiful! I regret not having kept her locked up. Her crest was larger than usual. Of course, I can't say for sure..no one can, but I chalk it up to the fact that her visibility was somewhat impaired. From what I've read, with the exception of one farm, the Swedes who had these birds selected against the crest.