Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[bluejean55girl]

I don't breed the crested, but they sure are cute when they're growing out...like yours.

thanks, I think? both are boys. All the rest are non- crested.

 

[LisaLouHoo]

thanks, I think? both are boys. All the rest are non- crested.

Sorry, I guess that might have sounded snooty or something. I have nothing against the crested and I think they're nice, but I just decided early on to not use them in breeding so I didn't have to worry about breeding crested to crested and creating vaults or huge crests. I always like to see them, though. Somebody sold me (I was a newbie at the time) a pair of crested, boy and girl. I didn't know until I started reading this site that I couldn't breed the two together!! I was dissapointed, but it just gave me the excuse the get more, lol. Plus my crested boy developed sprigs which I also found out were bad. I guess it is common with the male crested to develop sprigs and you don't want to pass them on. So to make a short story long, that's why I don't have any.

 

[bluejean55girl]

no problem I understand after that bad experience I don't blame you. I try to understand genetics and I do understand about not breeding crested to crested with only two being crested against the 16 that are not I should be okay. still have to figure out the males and the females yet. This is my first time breeding bielefelder and Swedish flower hens. I think? I have two possible sno leopards in the batch also. Eta- I will watch for sprigs also but should be fairly safe as the breeder of the sfh culls for a better breeding flock.

 

[bluejean55girl]

thanks, I think? both are boys. All the rest are non- crested.

@LisaLouHoo, I see where you got confused.. Grins my question mark was for trying to determine if these two are really boys. Was not questioning your comments. Sfh are a work in progress. They are a landrace like my Texas longhorns are. Longhorn colors are just like the sfh. Which is why I just had to have the sfh in addition to the Bielefelders. All is good! Grins

 

[LisaLouHoo]

@LisaLouHoo, I see where you got confused.. Grins my question mark was for trying to determine if these two are really boys. Was not questioning your comments. Sfh are a work in progress. They are a landrace like my Texas longhorns are. Longhorn colors are just like the sfh. Which is why I just had to have the sfh in addition to the Bielefelders. All is good! Grins

Ooh, I love tx Longhorns, too. I see what you mean, each is uniquely colored like the SFH.

 

[bluejean55girl]

Finally got a decent shot. Possible sno.

 

[Alpine Chicken]

SFH eggs can be tricky to hatch. I just had 12 hatch from 18 shipped eggs. I was very happy. I let me shipped eggs sit for 48 hours.
I have found the dry hatch method works best for me. I keep the humidity between 30-35% during incubation. At lockdown I increase the humidity to 60-65%.

I´ve also had completely different experiences with shipped eggs, from 0 hatch to around 80%. I also use the same humidity as you, seems to me to work best, too.

 

[Alpine Chicken]

Awesome Alpine! I've always liked your birds but I'm curious to see what you get out of those directly from Sweden.

We only had 2 and lost one a month or so ago. The remaining we have is called Crazy Hair - she has a nice crest and is a mahogany brown based and now that she has more flowers after a light molt she is pretty. Not a friendly girl though and at the top of the pecking order, below our roo. I set her eggs last month and none were fertile, inspite of his efforts (he's a BCM). It is fun to watch her antics though and she lays a loverly cream tinted egg when she lays, about 3-4 a week.

So sorry, but good luck on your further hatching efforts. Thanks for the compliment.
It´s day 23 on the SFH-eggs I imported from Sweden. 16 out of 30 have hatched. 4 more eggs are still in the bator, and I saw movement in 1, so maybe I´ll still get a couple more. It´s more than I expected for such a long international trip, and I´m very happy with the results. Got a lot of blacks. I´ve never had crested before, and I´m hoping for a couple because the breeder said he has quite a few. None of them look crested to me at the moment- does anyone know at what age you can tell if a chick is going to be crested or not? Here are some pics:









I know you can´t really tell at this age, but look at this posturing. Has to be a roo:

 

[bluejean55girl]

So sorry, but good luck on your further hatching efforts. Thanks for the compliment. It´s day 23 on the SFH-eggs I imported from Sweden. 16 out of 30 have hatched. 4 more eggs are still in the bator, and I saw movement in 1, so maybe I´ll still get a couple more. It´s more than I expected for such a long international trip, and I´m very happy with the results. Got a lot of blacks. I´ve never had crested before, and I´m hoping for a couple because the breeder said he has quite a few. None of them look crested to me at the moment- does anyone know at what age you can tell if a chick is going to be crested or not? Here are some pics: I know you can´t really tell at this age, but look at this posturing. Has to be a roo:

awesome! Congrats! About a month roughly to start seeing a crest.

 

[LisaLouHoo]

So sorry, but good luck on your further hatching efforts. Thanks for the compliment. It´s day 23 on the SFH-eggs I imported from Sweden. 16 out of 30 have hatched. 4 more eggs are still in the bator, and I saw movement in 1, so maybe I´ll still get a couple more. It´s more than I expected for such a long international trip, and I´m very happy with the results. Got a lot of blacks. I´ve never had crested before, and I´m hoping for a couple because the breeder said he has quite a few. None of them look crested to me at the moment- does anyone know at what age you can tell if a chick is going to be crested or not? Here are some pics: I know you can´t really tell at this age, but look at this posturing. Has to be a roo:

Their little crests start at 3-4 weeks. Just like little sprouts. So cute. Your chicks are beautiful!