Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[ki4got]

@ki4got -- I've given that bird more than one puzzled girl vs boy look since she hatched, I was only 90% settled girl b/f I posted tonight, then some of my own pics. I took today had me really questioning again. Now I'm like 89% sure I'll get eggs from her soon, but I'm holding off just awhile on name , just in case ;/

@Everyone - I WILL post more pics of "her" and let ya'll know egg (or crow) as soon as I know!

Meanwhile, if we say pullet, then what are we thinking her offspring will look like ?
Her tail is black based (a dark mat charcoal black, NO shiny green boy feathers so far

So would you say she will produce the same , black based from #1 & #2,
and then following the chart for back x blue w/ #3-the blue roo

I guess I'm still trying to figure out what the fact that #2 is MF pattern would change (vs BV who ?is not MF?)

just an educated guess, but I think the penguin chicks are birchen just from the chick patterning, so with the ky boy, you might get a mixture of mille and birchen (darker body and gold hackles on the hen, roos like himself) the more brownish chicks are most likely partridge based, which is what the mille fleur girl would have been, and a more buff colored chick would be wheaten though the splash and blue can cause a brown to look lighter in the chicks.

 

[Bulldogma]

So what parents made the above lovely girl?

I'm not sure - she came from WhildHorseAnnie's flock.

and on a side note... THIS girl has gone broody now, and I haven't even gotten any purebred eggs from her yet!!!

LOL! BUT - the good news it that she will go broody! That's a BIG plus for SFH!! It's something they are working on breeding back into the breed in Sweden.

she's a blue version of leigh's birta and... Marta? I stink at names. Leigh help me out here... but yes, she's a blue version of the black with gold hackles (birchen pattern)

Yes - blue version of Birta.

 

[FeyRaine]

I'm not sure - she came from WhildHorseAnnie's flock.

LOL! BUT - the good news it that she will go broody! That's a BIG plus for SFH!! It's something they are working on breeding back into the breed in Sweden.


Yes - blue version of Birta.

Ah ha! I see now, yes my girl was the same, a blue version of Brita w/her blue being extreamly light silver maybe some say lav. even, and no noticed white at 6 months, but like Brita above body & head same base color, the gold collar looking like a fine golden necklace. Mine was still young, smaller / thinner not hen looking yet like Brita, so I don't know how impressive she might have been as an adult in body type etc. but she sure had pretty feathering nailed!

Excellent on your SFH broody. I've heard of a couple around here going broody but I don't have any from that stock. I'll be very interested to see if Flo gets the broody urge this year at age 1 ....but I would rather get a ton of hatching eggs first since my flock is so tiny.

 

[ki4got]

this girl actually does have some gold on the back of her hackles, its just not very visible in this pic since she was moulting too.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
yeah but she bites worse than ... well I can't think of anything that bites worse! LOL she's a snapping turtle! that's it! hehehe (someone once talked about "hen's teeth" well this girl HAS them!)

here's a pic I took of her this morning as she was smiling at me (before I reached under for the eggs!)

Excellent on your SFH broody. I've heard of a couple around here going broody but I don't have any from that stock. I'll be very interested to see if Flo gets the broody urge this year at age 1 ....but I would rather get a ton of hatching eggs first since my flock is so tiny.

If yours came out of Alabama, they may have come from the same person I got mine from... she no longer has any but has gone, instead, over to the Dorking Side.

 

[Bulldogma]

yeah but she bites worse than ... well I can't think of anything that bites worse! LOL she's a snapping turtle! that's it! hehehe (someone once talked about "hen's teeth" well this girl HAS them!)

LOL - my very silvery blue girl is a biter, but hasn't yet gone broody. She just likes to bite. Her name is Precious (because she's platinum and gold colored) but we call her Precious Piranha. Oddly - she's not mean. She's just dominant. She actually likes human attention and interaction... when she's in the mood.

I don't really know where to post this, but I figure most of you are familiar with me by now. My BLRW is very broody, and very tame, and kind of the matriarch of my backyard. "Big Broody Judy". Should I allow her to enter the gene pool when I start incubating?

There are many inquiries regarding babies/eggs from my flock, and I'm not sure if that would ruin everything. But I think she has a lot to offer as far as cold hardiness and personality. My initial thought was to do a "test set" this year, including her eggs along with the pure blood SFH in my backyard, and then segregate her and also swap out my roosters.

The "test set" is to assure that my Brinsea's are working right, and they're being delivered tomorrow morning. Any resulting babies will be kept within my family. But going forward, should I just keep her genetics out of anything available to the public?

Comments, questions?

If you're just creating SFH crosses for your own enjoyment, then go for it! I have a PRxSFH who is a really good layer and we use her for eatin' eggs... and we used her brother for eatin'... (he was BIG, too!) Sadly Buffy didn't get any of the flowering that her brother did, but we like her anyway! (And her eggs are brown enough to tell the difference between them and pure SFH.)



I have mixed feelings about adding other breeds to this breed in an attempt to improve it. I'm personally not in favor. There are broody SFH hens (I have a wonderful one) and broodiness is often genetic. I have folks ask specifically for Ginger's eggs to hatch. Mace is Ginger's son, so I am hoping broodiness will pop up in his daughters too.

 

[FeyRaine]

Here is a thought/question re Broodiness in SFH --

I've noticed in other breeds that the birds raised by a broody tend to be better broodys themselves,
so perhaps the apparent lack of broodiness in SFH is at least partly b/c the first several generations here in the US have been almost entirely incubator hatched.

Does anyone have any SFH who were broody hatched/raised? and if so what are those hens like, do they go broody more than ones who never had a broody mama to show them how it is done?

b/c I'm really thinking a land race breed _must_ have broodiness still in their traits, otherwise they would have died out already, right?

 

[insanity]

You guys are more tolerant then me. I can forgive biting from a protective mother but otherwise I don't allow it. Two strikes and they're gone when it comes to unprovoked aggressive behavior has always been the rule at my place.This applies to all species but especially in choosing breeders. It is as genetic as broodiness. I would be concerned it would pop up in future generations.

 

[insanity]

I know its not like a grizzly nipping at you but the behavior might not be good for breeding. At 2 months it probably isn't aggressive but more curiosity. I had 4 RIR older hens that repeatedly went after my 4 yr old son....they were beautiful,perfect for breeding, and delicious.

 

[Bernie56]

I don't really know where to post this, but I figure most of you are familiar with me by now. My BLRW is very broody, and very tame, and kind of the matriarch of my backyard. "Big Broody Judy". Should I allow her to enter the gene pool when I start incubating?

There are many inquiries regarding babies/eggs from my flock, and I'm not sure if that would ruin everything. But I think she has a lot to offer as far as cold hardiness and personality. My initial thought was to do a "test set" this year, including her eggs along with the pure blood SFH in my backyard, and then segregate her and also swap out my roosters.

The "test set" is to assure that my Brinsea's are working right, and they're being delivered tomorrow morning. Any resulting babies will be kept within my family. But going forward, should I just keep her genetics out of anything available to the public?

Comments, questions?

Personally, I don't like the idea of "mixing" breeds. Unfortunately I think that there are probably far more mixed breeds being sold as purebred birds than people imagine.(the "blue with gold hackles and absolutely no white pullet", recently referenced, IMO is probably an example) The Swedish Flower Hen breed is so new here in the states the numbers are still relatively low. I think as responsible breeders, we should work within the breed, and cull aggressively, anything that doesn't conform to what we "expect" in a Swedish Flower Hen. IF each breeder mixed in one or two hens, it wouldn't be long before the breed, in the US, was just a mish mash of mixed breeds. That's why I have an issue with the Landrace idea. If people think "its not a breed" they can do "whatever"....! I have seen SFH's described (on this thread) as "Mutts". I would hate to see that become a reality. That being said, I must confess that I have, in the past, crossed my SFH's with my Ameraucanas to produce olive egger EE's, but they reside in the EE pen as EE's and are very easy to differentiate by egg color. That would not be the case in another breed. Just my $.02 worth.