Swedish Flower Hen Thread

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Hello All! Are there any folks here from the UK that keep SFHs?

I've a broody sat on some SFH eggs and have everything crossed right now that something comes of it... Although I blame all of you - I've been lurking on the thread looking at all your pictures for a while!!
 
YorkshireRose said:
Hello All! Are there any folks here from the UK that keep SFHs?

I've a broody sat on some SFH eggs and have everything crossed right now that something comes of it... Although I blame all of you - I've been lurking on the thread looking at all your pictures for a while!!
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Welcome to BYC! :frow

We are chicken math-meticians and enablers! :oops:

My 3 SFH that hatched from a broody FBCM in Feb.. lost the red/brown to a predator. And recently notice the blonde one is getting a crest coming in. Have to wonder if the slight wave in HIS comb was the first clue he would be crested? Also I think he will be milli fleur based.
 

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They're now 15 day old dinosaurs. If anyone has thoughts on colors, I'm all ears. I think most are black or blue mille fleurs? Not sure about baby blue though. And two have expressed interest in being crested.


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niroha said:
They're now 15 day old dinosaurs. If anyone has thoughts on colors, I'm all ears. I think most are black or blue mille fleurs? Not sure about baby blue though. And two have expressed interest in being crested.


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Mind you, I'm just guessing... yellow and pink look male and purple looks crested male (almost zero doubt about the male part on yellow/purple). Orange looks female. Is yellow the other one you're thinking looks like it might get crested? Very nice pics. They all are beautiful!:love

I usually can't see crest starting till closer to 4 weeks.
 
Yes I'm pretty positive purple and yellow are my crested babes. Funny enough with both of them I didn't notice the crest until I took a picture of their profile and was all "oh. A crest." Does size ever play into the sex early on? Blue is a beast compared to the others and has been since day 1. I've been using male pronouns on him but maybe he's just a big girl ;)
They're all precocious. Came out of the eggs wanting to fly.
I'm hoping one of my baby roos is non crested as that'll make life easier.
 
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Yes, size plays in... but not always. The large ones are often boys for me. Plus behavior is often an indicator. While some girls will run around and chest bump, they usually aren't persistent about it like the boys. The boys will usually run into the middle of a pecking order dispute and participate. While the girls (in my experience) mostly just go about their business or hurry out of the disputes.

I did have one snow leopard girl that was always big and size alone made me wonder about her.

Yes, I far prefer to have a crested female instead of male for simplicity. However, I personally would use the one that most fit my other criteria.. I like yellow legs, I'm looking for good body size for meat, Of course the flowers are KEY, And I don't breed forward sprigs, over sized crest, or split wing. Which means they usually grow until at least 6 months before elimination unless I see things early on. And even past that 6 month mark I found that my boys were still getting their colors in and slightly changing. Plus attitude doesn't really come out until after that 6 month mark. I think they hit a few maturing point after that still. So I wait to see who is over protective or just down right stupid. And there doesn't seem to be much long term permanence as I'm looking to always improve my stock. But if I find one exceptional of course that would be different. :)

My biggest lesson so far was to have my stag pen ready before the boys reach mating age. Because they mature a little faster than the girls and ALWAYS seem to be more boys than girls. And I personally don't hatch before the parent bird reaches 1 year old in order to let their body mature (including egg size) and have their reproductive system work it's kinks out so I can hatch the most viable chicks possible. Seems to me like hatching smaller pullet eggs would give you smaller chicks and therefor smaller adult birds. Which I guess would be good if you were trying to breed bantam. But I don't know that last one for sure, it's what I reasoned in my head. I'm an over thinker! :p
 
Thank you for that feed back! Since I am clueless my plan was to grow out everything I have and start weeding down my males as faults became apparent. I'm not going to give a crested male the boot, but I am hoping the big winner happens to not have one. Expect lots of pictures as they grow up because I consider the feedback invaluable - because clueless :)
 

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