Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[ki4got]

My offer (above) still stands.

I offered first!

 

[Trooper Man]

Or I could set a bunch of eggs and we could 3 way split them

 

[ki4got]

Or I could set a bunch of eggs and we could 3 way split them

LOL i'm already the 'designated sitter'. sorry. I won't give up my 'job' willingly.

(note the title to the left... Hatch-a-Holic... and I ain't quitting if I have any say so. LOL)

hubby's giving me looks Leigh... how bout YOU take the 'bator and i'll babysit it for you. and manage all the hatching too? hehe then if it's not "mine" he can't complain as hard, right?

but to make this SFH related, so we're not TOTALLY OT, we (I?) would be hatching LOTS of SFH in it.

I promise!

 

[Bulldogma]

LOL Trooper Man! We'll get you some SFH eggs soon no matter what...

...but if you ever need someone to take care of the incubator temporarily... I'll come pick it up.

 

[redhen689]

DH has been wanting me to get rid of the roosters for a while now, and I kept putting it off because I wanted to hatch some eggs this spring. I started saving eggs 5 days ago. One of my hens went broody on me the next day. I just put the eggs in the 'bator. Roosters are going away tomorrow. .

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

jknoles- Your experience with roosters sounds so different from my own. I found that the males are much easier to work around when there's more than one of them about. Maybe they take out all of their aggression on each other instead of their human caretakers. Right now I've got 6 cocks of various persuasion that just perch wherever they want overnight and roam around the yard during the day. They're all going to the pot sometime in the near future, they just don't know it yet.

When my parents had just one cock in their flock, he started spurring people and even got my daughter once. I was not happy about that. Then when they got some straight-run blue laced red Wyandotte chicks, both of which turned out to be cockerels, the lead cock stopped bothering people at all.

 

[Trooper Man]

I decided I would trade my cabinet incubator for a flock of the SFH. This incubator is pretty much brand new it had two settings in it last year and then was cleaned out. I have all the turning trays and the manual that came with it. It is very nice but I do not really need it. It came straight from GQF and is very nice but I would be willing to trade it and meet somebody so they would not have to drive all the way up here to get it. I figure a trade will be easier than asking $800 for it

. I realized that I do not need one this big because I will not be hatching that many fowl and I do not have the time for that many chickens. If I were to trade it to someone I would know they would be getting a good incubator. If anyone is interested I live in north east Tennessee and no shipping.

 

[Trooper Man]

Make sure you get $800 worth of bird.

Absolutely I paid close to $1000 after shipping was included. That is why I would trade it for a flock of them.

 

[OleMissChic]

I have seen references to all-black hens, but all the birds I have seen or seen pictures of have some gold, at least around the hackles. Anyone have pure black or blue birds without any gold/cream/tan/brown?

I would love some without the gold. All of my girls have it:

 

[OleMissChic]

technically, they're all red based. the alternative would be silver and I don't think it exists in the sfh, truthfully...

what varies in the sfh (besides the amount of mottling on each bird) is the e-locus genes and blue/black/splash which will vary the 'white' many see. most of the white based birds are actually splash, so breeding two of these together, you'll get more splash. breeding splash to black, you'll get blues. blue to blue you'll get all three, blue to black or blue to splash, you'll get a mixture of what the parents are.

the following descriptions are primarily hens, because with the exception of extended black the roosters are all the same for the other e-locus mutations (the exception being birchen roosters do not have the white wing triangle the others do).

the ones that have more solid blue/black/splash bodies with maybe a little leakage around the hackles are most likely E based (extended black)

birds that are still very much bbs based bodies with red primarily around the head/neck are most likely eR (birchen) based.

e+ (wild type) girls will have a salmon breast and more red/brown on her body.

eb (partridge) girls will have the same overall body color that the wild type have, but will extend over the breast too.

eWh (wheaten) girls will have the lightest body coloration, being more of a light brown or sometimes almost buff, being lighter on the breast than the rest of the body.

I tried finding individual pictures of each one for an example, but Leigh beat me to it with her posting of her girls... which i'll notate.

Ali - appears to be E plus splash (2 copies of the blue gene)




Precious - is definitely eR with blue





Yta - very much E and blue. her darker hackles indicate she also carries a melanizing gene, which is common in the sfh as well.


Birta - a very nice black-based version of eR.




Marta - also a very nice example of eR.






Mace is what appears to be eR since he shows no definite wing triangle.





Elinor - also appears to be E but it's more difficult to say from this picture. she could also be splash, or a very light blue, again it's hard to say.


Astrid - eWh and splash





Ginger - e_ she's a good example of the wild type girl though you can't see her back much, her breast is a very nice salmon shade common for the variety.


Alma - eWh, like Astrid, but blue rather than splash.




Rosa - eb - this produces the 'classic' mille fleur pattern for this breed.




.

Blue appears to be one of the other e-locus varieties, but there is no way to tell e+, eWh or eb apart.

GREAT post! Thank you for this. Looking at the two roosters would mine be considered splash?