Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[FeyRaine]

Oh, btw that pullet I trap nested who layed the pointy egg today, she is the giant waddles one we were all so worried was a boy.
Here are the picture again of her a few weeks ago looking very rooish, but happy day for me SHE lays eggs!!!






Oh funny, that fluffy grey one beside her in the 1st picture is the crazy-broody-mutt-pullet who has stolden & tried to sit every egg laid for a week in the pen & caused me to do the trap nest test today!

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

My hatch is complete and the resulting chicks are hanging out in the incubator until I get the brooder up to the right temperature. 5 of the 17 that made it to day 18 did not hatch. I opened them up and 2 (including my daughter's egg) must have died very soon after I did the final candling because they still had quite a bit of yolk outside of their bodies. The other three seemed fully formed but never pipped. The hatch was very staggered; two hatched at the end of day 21, NONE hatched during the daytime on day 22 though many pips appeared, but when I got up this morning the remaining 10 were out. I wonder why it takes them longer than other breeds? Do they develop more slowly? They seem to be hale and hearty when they do come out, so I don't think they're defective or anything.

I'm going to set some more eggs here very soon because my mom thinks she'd like some. She's been admiring mine and is especially impressed with how calm and friendly they are around my daughter. The chickens they have are a bit standoffish and not as colorful (black sex-links and something that looks like a barred rock cross).

 

[ancientoaks]

I got 100% hatch under a hen from crest to crest breeding

 

[CackleJoy]

I got 100% hatch under a hen from crest to crest breeding

That is amazing! And were all the chicks double crested?

 

[TxFlowers]

That is amazing! And were all the chicks double crested?

"Double crested" is meant to refer to a bird being genetically homozygous for the crested gene. That is something you can't possibly tell by just looking at a chick UNLESS you have a chick that has the vaulted skull and huge crest. In that case I would think this chick was highly likely "double" crested but without an outward sign like that, there is no way to determine it's genetic make up. Also just because you bred crested to crested, it doesn't necessarily mean you will get homozygous or "double" crested offspring. For example, if each parent is crested but only carried one copy of the gene, there is just a 25% chance of getting any double crested offspring. Then there will be a 50% of getting crested chicks that are heterozygous, which means they carry one copy of the crested gene and a copy of the non crested. These will be crested but only carry one copy so wouldn't have the "double" crested health issues. Then in this particular breeding, there will be 25% chance of getting no crest. So just breeding crested to crested isn't automatically bad and going to result in double crested offspring. Only if both parents are double, would you get 100% double. Hope this makes sense.

Clarified something I said.... test matings can determine the genetic make up of a bird but aside from a bird having the vaulted skull and/or a huge crest, or from test matings, I would have to say you have no way to know if a crested bird is a "double" carrier or not

 

[CackleJoy]

"Double crested" is meant to refer to a bird being genetically homozygous for the crested gene. That is something you can't possibly tell by just looking at a chick UNLESS you have a chick that has the vaulted skull and huge crest. In that case I would think this chick was highly likely "double" crested but without an outward sign like that, there is no way to determine it's genetic make up. Also just because you bred crested to crested, it doesn't necessarily mean you will get homozygous or "double" crested offspring. For example, if each parent is crested but only carried one copy of the gene, there is just a 25% chance of getting any double crested offspring. Then there will be a 50% of getting crested chicks that are heterozygous, which means they carry one copy of the crested gene and a copy of the non crested. These will be crested but only carry one copy so wouldn't have the "double" crested health issues. Then in this particular breeding, there will be 25% chance of getting no crest. So just breeding crested to crested isn't automatically bad and going to result in double crested offspring. Only if both parents are double, would you get 100% double. Hope this makes sense.

Thank you for the clarification. I thought that double crested genetics showed up. You know those crests that start back further on the head and kind of sweep back? That vs the mushroom cloud that obliterates vision. I thought the one was a single style crest and the other a double. It made sense to me

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain that double crested term to me.

Do you mind if I take some pictures and follow up with more of this conversation?

 

[TxFlowers]

Thank you for the clarification. I thought that double crested genetics showed up. You know those crests that start back further on the head and kind of sweep back? That vs the mushroom cloud that obliterates vision. I thought the one was a single style crest and the other a double. It made sense to me

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain that double crested term to me.

Do you mind if I take some pictures and follow up with more of this conversation?

My first batch of SFH eggs I hatched were bought from someone that said the entire flock was crested. I didn't realize then the potential issues of breeding crested to crested. I hatched five chicks. Unfortunately just one pullet of course lol but anyway, one chick stood out at birth. It appeared to have a cap on it's head and I later learned this is what is called a "vaulted" skull. This chick was very normal and healthy but did end up with a huge crest on top of that vaulted skull. The other four had more typical crest size and no vaulted skull. I feel pretty sure that one chick was double. I have no idea about the others. I don't think it can be said that a "double" bird ALWAYS has the vaulted skull or even a huge, blinding crest. I don't know enough about it to say one way or another. Another person on this thread, sorry, don't recall who it was, mentioned that there were factors that could influence the size of the crest aside from genetics. Modifying type genes and size of comb etc... So with that in mind, these other things could also influence what you actually see on a bird, making it's genetic make up even harder to determine just by looking at the bird.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
yes, there is only a 25% chance of having a homozygous crested offspring, that may or may not have a vaulted skull. and those vaulted skull chicks may or may not have problems down the road, same as the huge crests, but why take that chance?

personally, I will NOT breed crest to crest. for each crest to no-crest breeding you still get a 50/50 chance of getting crested chicks. the other 50% will be uncrested and unaffected by any associated (potential) problems.

just my 2c.

glad to hear you had a successful hatch ancientoaks.

 

[TxFlowers]

yes, there is only a 25% chance of having a homozygous crested offspring, that may or may not have a vaulted skull. and those vaulted skull chicks may or may not have problems down the road, same as the huge crests, but why take that chance?

personally, I will NOT breed crest to crest. for each crest to no-crest breeding you still get a 50/50 chance of getting crested chicks. the other 50% will be uncrested and unaffected by any associated (potential) problems.

just my 2c.

glad to hear you had a successful hatch ancientoaks.

I agree with ki4got in that it's best to avoid crested to crested and if you have crested as well as non crested hens, just use only non crested roosters. That way you'll never have to worry about double crested offspring and you will still get both crested and non crested chicks.

 

[TRUE5]

I have a few that lay pointy eggs - but most of those eggs hatch just fine.

You have just joined my "best friends" club! Where are you located and would you consider selling this boy? You have a Snoleopard boy! If you would trade him for many, many eggs (or chicks if you aren't too far) I would LOVE to be able to cross this boy with my Snoleopard!
No - you definitely don't want him. You want to send him to me...

LOL! He is really pretty! I really don't know what I will be doing with him. I thought I would take a picture that actually got his coloring much better than the one I posted earlier, and maybe you can tell me if he is what you all call a Snowleopard. Shows how much I know haha! But I am trying to learn!