Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Flowerbh]

I've had other crested birds and their crests grew out the same for both boys and girls.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Not talking about the size of the crest - but the size of the comb. The crested girls have pretty small combs.

 

[KYTinpusher]

The crested boys seem to develop slower than the non-crested. The feathers on the boys crests will be spiky, and the girls will be rounded.

 

[Flowerbh]

OH! I get it now. That was the answer I was looking for. So, crested girls combs stay a lot smaller for longer and won't show up for a while. Ok, about the spiky feathers. Does anyone have photos of girl spikes vs boy spikes in about a 3 week old?

 

[TxFlowers]

Someone just sent this to me. Thought it was too cute not to share!

Fred was in the fertilized egg business. He had about a hundred young hens,' and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs.

He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.

This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters.

Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing.

Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

Fred's favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!

When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

To Fred's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

Fred was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Local Farm Show and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the "No Bell Peace Prize," but they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well

 

[KYTinpusher]

OH! I get it now. That was the answer I was looking for. So, crested girls combs stay a lot smaller for longer and won't show up for a while. Ok, about the spiky feathers. Does anyone have photos of girl spikes vs boy spikes in about a 3 week old?

These are older than 3 weeks (that's pretty early to tell) but may help

This is a pullet crest

This is a cockerel crest

 

[FeyRaine]

@ TxFlowers yah. I sent that one on to my poultry hating DH, who loves telling jokes of all kinds, & who went & picked up a box of 6 pure sfh chicks for me today

I know, pictures asap.

I'm excited though b/c these 6 flufballs are from a person who's flock is from multiple sources none of which any of my birds are from, so about as unrelated as any sfh can get !!
Also after a short isolation period they will be the correct age to mix perfectly w/ my own sfh hatchlings so overall my sfh flock is doubled this wk and hopefully will double again by mid july

oh, & another of the electrical outage eggs (mutt EE) hatched overnight so looking even better for the 8 sfh eggs in the bator....

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
no, the comb. as I said in my post, usually crested birds have smaller combs than non-crested, and his looks large for his age. compare the older pullet's comb to yours...

 

[ki4got]

OH! I get it now. That was the answer I was looking for. So, crested girls combs stay a lot smaller for longer and won't show up for a while. Ok, about the spiky feathers. Does anyone have photos of girl spikes vs boy spikes in about a 3 week old?

most of my crested sfh don't develop their crests until they're 5-6 weeks old or so... I was guesstimating your chicks to be 4-5 weeks old.

 

[Flowerbh]

Thanks everyone! That's why I like BYC. It's a great place to learn!