Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[dbarjacres]

Question for you experienced SFH people that have had chicks. Just had my second every incubator hatch end. Crummy describes that one. Had 3 SFH eggs from eBay seller. They packed them horribly plus the PO dented the box so I opened it to scrambled eggs. Salvaged 20 of them but had to scrub egg off half, thinking that led to early death in most as 15 started developing but 14 died and had blood rings. Last one appeared to have died at 15 days. Seller sent me another dozen eggs that same day of of those only half developed and only two hatched.

One is definitely a SFH and the other is slightly chipmunk marked and has feathered legs! They don't have any other breed. Is this some recessive thing?

Knew these eggs were doing poorly so found Leigh and ordered a dozen last week and set 15 last Sat. Candled today and 4 clear and 1 had a huge blood ring and no embryo growth at all just a very fine vein so must have died by day 3. The 10 left are just a swimming around their eggs so sure hope they live. So disappointing to learn to hatch with shipped eggs.

 

[TxFlowers]

Question for you experienced SFH people that have had chicks. Just had my second every incubator hatch end. Crummy describes that one. Had 3 SFH eggs from eBay seller. They packed them horribly plus the PO dented the box so I opened it to scrambled eggs. Salvaged 20 of them but had to scrub egg off half, thinking that led to early death in most as 15 started developing but 14 died and had blood rings. Last one appeared to have died at 15 days. Seller sent me another dozen eggs that same day of of those only half developed and only two hatched.

One is definitely a SFH and the other is slightly chipmunk marked and has feathered legs! They don't have any other breed. Is this some recessive thing?

Knew these eggs were doing poorly so found Leigh and ordered a dozen last week and set 15 last Sat. Candled today and 4 clear and 1 had a huge blood ring and no embryo growth at all just a very fine vein so must have died by day 3. The 10 left are just a swimming around their eggs so sure hope they live. So disappointing to learn to hatch with shipped eggs.

I would seriously doubt the feather legged chick is a SFH. Maybe a SFH cross but I have never heard of any SFH having feathered legs and if by some chance it cropped up in a SFH, you wouldn't want to breed it. Sorry you're results have been so bad. Very disappointing and costly.

 

[dbarjacres]

Thanks that's what I figured. I'm rather mad at throwing away $100 to get one pure chick and one mutt.

 

[TxFlowers]

Thanks that's what I figured. I'm rather mad at throwing away $100 to get one pure chick and one mutt.

Just my opinion but I would wonder about the purity of the other
chick as well under the circumstances. Seems like a lot of
people are crossing SFHs with other breeds deliberately
or accidently then selling them as pure SFH. Someone new to the
breed can't always tell the difference.

 

[ki4got]

Question for you experienced SFH people that have had chicks. Just had my second every incubator hatch end. Crummy describes that one. Had 3 SFH eggs from eBay seller. They packed them horribly plus the PO dented the box so I opened it to scrambled eggs. Salvaged 20 of them but had to scrub egg off half, thinking that led to early death in most as 15 started developing but 14 died and had blood rings. Last one appeared to have died at 15 days. Seller sent me another dozen eggs that same day of of those only half developed and only two hatched.

One is definitely a SFH and the other is slightly chipmunk marked and has feathered legs! They don't have any other breed. Is this some recessive thing?

Knew these eggs were doing poorly so found Leigh and ordered a dozen last week and set 15 last Sat. Candled today and 4 clear and 1 had a huge blood ring and no embryo growth at all just a very fine vein so must have died by day 3. The 10 left are just a swimming around their eggs so sure hope they live. So disappointing to learn to hatch with shipped eggs.

the breeder isn't being truthful IMO... feather legs are dominant over clean legs. so someone is not a pure sfh parent, or he's got someone fencehopping...

I've hatched well over 100 of leigh's eggs to date, so I can vouch that she's got quality stock and packs her eggs well. whether they hatch or not at this point is between you and the incubator. LOL I do recommend a dry incubation though, only adding water during the last 3 days.

 

[dbarjacres]

They really don't have any other breeds. So I don't know. I'm new to this breed but raise show quality stock in other species of animals so know what to look for, fast learner on right and wrong lol.

 

[Bulldogma]

Question for you experienced SFH people that have had chicks. Just had my second every incubator hatch end. Crummy describes that one. Had 3 SFH eggs from eBay seller. They packed them horribly plus the PO dented the box so I opened it to scrambled eggs. Salvaged 20 of them but had to scrub egg off half, thinking that led to early death in most as 15 started developing but 14 died and had blood rings. Last one appeared to have died at 15 days. Seller sent me another dozen eggs that same day of of those only half developed and only two hatched.

One is definitely a SFH and the other is slightly chipmunk marked and has feathered legs! They don't have any other breed. Is this some recessive thing?

Knew these eggs were doing poorly so found Leigh and ordered a dozen last week and set 15 last Sat. Candled today and 4 clear and 1 had a huge blood ring and no embryo growth at all just a very fine vein so must have died by day 3. The 10 left are just a swimming around their eggs so sure hope they live. So disappointing to learn to hatch with shipped eggs.

Glad to hear you have 10 little swimmers!

SFH don't hatch with chipmunk stripes. I have seen a few with very faint markings that look a little stripy down the head, but have never seen one with solid stripes. And feathered legs? Absolutely not. No - not recessive - - just not a pure SFH.

What kind of incubator do you have? You should know that SFH seem to be some of the hardest chicks to hatch compared to other breeds. (I think many folks here can attest to that.) Ask Ki4got for pointers - she's a pro!

 

[dbarjacres]

I've got the brinsea eco 20. So now I've got people recommending low humidity and a friend that hatches says 50% then 80 on day 18. ??

 

[TxFlowers]

I've got the brinsea eco 20. So now I've got people recommending low humidity and a friend that hatches says 50% then 80 on day 18. ??

I know it can be confusing but through trial and error many of us have found dry incubating
results in better hatches. If the egg doesn't loose enough moisture by hatch time, the chick
can drown before it makes it out of the shell. If humidity is high, sufficient drying out doesn't
occur.

 

[dbarjacres]

Ok so run no water in the chanels until day 18 then get it up to 70%? Shall I blot out the water in the channel tonite yet? I'd just filled one up and it's about 40%.