Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Bulldogma]

First and most important... after the recent trauma I got eggs, for the first time in few weeks, today.

Meet Duke...

Unnamed chick Cute Cockerel!!

And my favorite Moe... for the awesome mohawk he sports.

Lastly, this little chick is in the sick bin right now cause she was limping and her foot appears a little swollen. My son let her out and tried to keep it a secret... resulting in her deciding to roost on the highest spot she could find... his Optimus Prime Fort.

Great photos! Very nice birds.

I have some sad news to report... I have a batch of Leigh's eggs hatching as I speak, and I think I just witnessed the hatching of what is probably the UGLIEST SFH baby in the history of chickendom! to preserve the sanity of the average public, he may not ever leave my property. especially if it's a SHE...

here's a pic of the ugly sfh chickling...



*for those who may take me too literally... it's not a SFH like I expected, but a black silkie...

she's on my desk, only briefly, because she was on the outer corner of the incubator that always seems to cause slight shrink wrapping so I popped the cap and she climbed out dragging her shell by a piece of membrane till I peeled it off... now back in the hatcher with 3 more sfh that have hatched in the last couple hours. I expect a good many more overnight... there are 4 sfh in the brooder already with 1 ee, a cochin and a dorking-dotte (and 4 older chicks from last week -cochins)

LOL! If it's a pullet, she'll hatch everything you give her some day - - and she'll be an amazing mamma to boot! She's either pure Silkie or 3/4 Silkie (you'll know when she starts feathering out). That egg must have been put into the wrong coat pocket!

On the first hen of mine (the black one) did anyone see that she has spots on her legs? Is this a genetic thing?

Dark mottling on the legs of darker colored SFH is normal.

 

[tadkerson]

I've been lurking and trying to learn about this breed. I'm trying to figure out their colors and who to breed who to.

My five hens:







My two roos:




What I'm wanting is more black hens like the first one and would like to have some ginger hens. Do I have a possibility of getting such with this flock?

Black hens

splash male x black hen = F1 offspring ( hatch 10 chicks)

F1 blue male x black hen = BC1 mostly black/blue mottled offspring (hatch 20 chicks)

Best BC1 black male x best BC1 black females = good looking black mottled offspring

in the later crosses males may show red where females usually do not keep track of black mottled females that produce males that show red and do not use them as breeders

Tim

 

[ki4got]

ok Leigh... here ya go. this morning's harvest...

and the 'ugly sfh chickling'...

 

[Bulldogma]

ok Leigh... here ya go. this morning's harvest...

and the 'ugly sfh chickling'...

Look at all the pretty colors!
Still can't believe there was a renegade Silkie in the batch. LOL!!!

 

[5moore]

Black hens

splash male x black hen = F1 offspring ( hatch 10 chicks)

F1 blue male x black hen = BC1 mostly black/blue mottled offspring (hatch 20 chicks)

Best BC1 black male x best BC1 black females = good looking black mottled offspring

in the later crosses males may show red where females usually do not keep track of black mottled females that produce males that show red and do not use them as breeders

Tim

Tim thanks for the info. So I breed a F1 blue male back to the black mother hen? also what does BC1 mean?

 

[ki4got]

Quote: I'm not sure what the goal is, but if you're looking for PURE black mottled with no leakage at all, that's going to be a challenge since most of the black girls I've seen have been birchen-based (most likely) not extended black. the hens tend to not have leakage like the roos do... and a birchen roo looks just like every other roo, except for the wing triangle is absent in birchen and present in e+, eb, eWh... an extended black ROO (mostly black with a few gold streaks on his hackles) would be what I would start with, or a hen that has NO gold/orange in her hackle. the breeding program laid out above assumes that the hen is extended black, not birchen.

look at the images below and you'll see, except for the extended black, the primary differences between the other varieties are in HEN coloration...
and if you look at the birchen compared to the others, you'll see the wing triangle I'm referring to...

these are just generic images, not SFH specifically.

 

[Trooper Man]

There are some beautiful pictures on here. Karen at least you figured out it was a silkie this young lol. I bet there for a minute you thought you had the first cemani colored SFH in history.

 

[Bulldogma]

 

[OHfarmerswife]

A few of my first flock of Swedish Flower Hens.

 

[Bulldogma]

Beautiful birds, OHfarmerswife!!