Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[song of joy]

Just thought I'd share some data from my first successful SFH hatch back in March.
Hatch rate 79% (11 of 14 fertile eggs hatched). Humidity first 7 days: 35%. Humidity days 8 to 19: 22 to 27%. Humidity during the hatch: 65%, with spikes as chicks hatched. Egg weight loss between the date eggs were laid vs day 19: 14.6% (range: 12.7 to 17.5%).

It was helpful to track these eggs using both air cell size and egg weight loss. The average weight loss on day 19 was about 2% MORE than the "recommended" egg weight loss for day 19 of incubation. I think SFH eggs need to lose more moisture during incubation that other, easier-to-hatch breeds. This is consistent with what many experienced folks on this thread have said about keeping humidity low during the first 18-19 days of incubation.

At the same time I was tracking these SFH eggs in the incubator, I had a broody hen on 6 SFH eggs. Her hatch rate was 100%. I pulled all 6 eggs from under the hen on day 16 to check for fertility and growth and was shocked to see how large the air cells were. The air cells looked like what I'd expect to see on day 19 rather than day 16. This prompted me to further reduce the humidity in the incubator, which probably contributed to a better hatch . . . although the hen had the best hatch rate.

 

[jophus]

That's near what I was aiming for. I am still learning to read the air cells. Do you find you have to lower the humidity once they start popping out? Whenever a wet chick would present the humidity would spike but wasn't sure how badly I needed to react to the spike.

My humidity stays constant within those ranges. I have hygrostats running misters with large external reservoirs. I also reduce my temp a bit during hatching once they're mostly pipped.

Just find an air cell diagram and check your cells at 7 and 14 days to see their progress. You don't want your chicks to get so big they can't turn in the shells to pip and hatch. Most "drownings", I think, are a matter of the chick not being able to get into a position to pip, or turn enough to unzip.

 

[jophus]

Just thought I'd share some data from my first successful SFH hatch back in March.
Hatch rate 79% (11 of 14 fertile eggs hatched). Humidity first 7 days: 35%. Humidity days 8 to 19: 22 to 27%. Humidity during the hatch: 65%, with spikes as chicks hatched. Egg weight loss between the date eggs were laid vs day 19: 14.6% (range: 12.7 to 17.5%).

It was helpful to track these eggs using both air cell size and egg weight loss. The average weight loss on day 19 was about 2% MORE than the "recommended" egg weight loss for day 19 of incubation. I think SFH eggs need to lose more moisture during incubation that other, easier-to-hatch breeds. This is consistent with what many experienced folks on this thread have said about keeping humidity low during the first 18-19 days of incubation.

At the same time I was tracking these SFH eggs in the incubator, I had a broody hen on 6 SFH eggs. Her hatch rate was 100%. I pulled all 6 eggs from under the hen on day 16 to check for fertility and growth and was shocked to see how large the air cells were. The air cells looked like what I'd expect to see on day 19 rather than day 16. This prompted me to further reduce the humidity in the incubator, which probably contributed to a better hatch . . . although the hen had the best hatch rate.

Nice post. I've never had any problems hatching SFH, but apparently many do. I agree on the air cells, they need to be much larger than you might think.

 

[niroha]

Some pics of the 6 kids I kept. My neighbor took 6 - her boys picked them out. So this is the six I'm left with. Blue is beefy. I think purple may be crested. Any tricks to early sexing or is it the usual waiting game with these guys?

 

[Chaos18]

My Swedish. 3 of them are 20 wks and 3 of them are 12 weeks.

 

[niroha]

I'm gonna revisit my fencing question I asked a little while back.

We've redesigned where the chickens will go. They're now going to have a space in the front of our property away from our dogs. The dogs have a fully fenced back yard and escaping hasn't been an issue. But I know SFHs are good flyers. The space they'll be fenced into is approx 1/3-1/2 an acre so a bit much to put netting over. I was thinking of hot wiring the top of the fence to encourage them to stay in and to encourage predators to stay out (here it's mostly coyotes and bears). Would the chickens mock my feeble attempts at keeping them in? I'm going to price out a 4' fence with hotwire, and a 6' fence with hotwire. Thoughts?

Free ranging in the front yard isn't the end of the world, but if one of my three were to ever escape out the front door (it can happen!) it would be chaotic to say the least. Good fences make good neighbors (dog vs chickens)

 

[Kyanite]

Those are some beautiful photos @niroha!
I wish I could give you better advice on the fencing, but none of my Flowers are full grown yet. I'm here in chickville! I know that I personally would go with the tallest fence that I could reasonably afford just because I'd want flexibility in the future depending on what critters I add to the farm. My current flock is easily contained to their "free range" area by a 48" electric poultry net. But, if they had the ability to fly over it in one swoop, I know they'd be gone.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I'm gonna revisit my fencing question I asked a little while back.

We've redesigned where the chickens will go. They're now going to have a space in the front of our property away from our dogs. The dogs have a fully fenced back yard and escaping hasn't been an issue. But I know SFHs are good flyers. The space they'll be fenced into is approx 1/3-1/2 an acre so a bit much to put netting over. I was thinking of hot wiring the top of the fence to encourage them to stay in and to encourage predators to stay out (here it's mostly coyotes and bears). Would the chickens mock my feeble attempts at keeping them in? I'm going to price out a 4' fence with hotwire, and a 6' fence with hotwire. Thoughts?

Free ranging in the front yard isn't the end of the world, but if one of my three were to ever escape out the front door (it can happen!) it would be chaotic to say the least. Good fences make good neighbors (dog vs chickens)

All my fences are 4 feet and I never have issues with my SFH going over. It's ALWAYS my EE (more than 1).

If you want to keep out coyote and the like you will need to have the E fence down at nose level. They will likely try to go under not over. And if the chickens go over, they need to touch the E part as well as something that's grounded or they won't be shocked if THEY aren't grounded. I think if they grab the hot wire on their way over and they hit the regular part of the fence at the same time that it will still work... At least that's what I'm counting on in my stag pen. One of my cockerels (SFH) would easily clear it. So we clipped 1 wing and he laughed. We clipped the 2nd wing and he hasn't made it over since, even without the hot wire. However, he ONLY wanted over the fence to get to the ladies so my perimeter has not been an issue.

ETA: I am putting my hotwire at waddle level in the hopes they'll just stay back from the fence. According to the MFG, an animal shocked behind it's eyes will bolt forward and an animal shocked in front of the eyes will back up. My reason for down low is because I have stock yard fencing with about 4 in square gaps so many boys will try to come through instead of over as when they were little going through the fence was a way of life.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

OK, so I've been anxious to post this for y'all breeding..

I was soo happy to report 1 out of 3 SFH girls went broody. However I'm disappointed to report that after I broke her she died from egg binding.

I didn't expect it from a non prolific breed. And this was my first experience so I acted too slowly both in recognizing and treating. Other breeds I have put out 95 & 102 gram eggs after coming back into lay when they average only 65 maybe.

 

[Kyanite]

Awe, I'm sorry that you lost your hen.