Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Lamancha]

My 6 baby flower dinosaurs are now 7 weeks. Some I'm pretty confident of the sex. Two (blue and pink) I'm still a little iffy. I'm also curious as to what you think of purple's crest (too big already?) and blue's color (sno?). Appreciate any feedback

Purple (roo)View attachment 1066319
View attachment 1066329

Blue: Leaning roo? color?
View attachment 1066330

Orange: pullet
View attachment 1066331

Pink: I used to think this one was a pullet. Now I'm not sure. Roo?
View attachment 1066332

Yellow: definitely roo
View attachment 1066333 View attachment 1066334

Orange: pullet
View attachment 1066336

I'm guessing:
Pullet
Roo
Pullet
Roo
Roo
Pullet

Very nice.

 

[Amelia Egghart]

I haven't had much luck finding such a page. I've been photographing my own from hatchlings on up to document the color changes. They really do look like different birds every week.

Hi! Do you have your pictures posted anywhere online? I found a post on this thread that had chick vs adult but I didn't write it down. It's page 50 something, I think.

 

[niroha]

Hi! Do you have your pictures posted anywhere online? I found a post on this thread that had chick vs adult but I didn't write it down. It's page 50 something, I think.

Not yet. I only have 6 and they're currently 7 weeks so they have a lot more changes coming their way as they mature. But here's an example of one of them in 7 short weeks.

 

[Life is Good!]

Photo time!
Out of six month-old chicks - four are boys and two appear to be girls...
How do I know 4 boys? Play-fighting one another over a beetle. Poor beetle! LOL!
Such great birds - I think we'll need a few more. Chicken math!

 

[SierraSfhFamily]

Here is a picture of where our girl decided to go broody... to move her or not to move?? I would like to use the pine shavings... I’m worried about the eggs (or egg?) falling... but we wouldn’t mind her actually hatching them and I don’t know if she will abandon them if I relocate her to a nesting box.

 

[Life is Good!]

It might be worth a try to move her. Our broody Java's don't like to be moved much...so good luck! My 'successes' with moving broody Java's has been at twilight - when everyone's gone to bed, but it's still light out. I gather the eggs into jacket pockets and scoop her up too...put the eggs where you'd like her to be broody (still holding her!), let her see her eggs - then place her on top of the eggs. If she settles down, it's a go. If she doesn't; put the eggs and her back where she had chosen. She'll likely yell at you for a while - it's amazing how much a broody hen remembers!

If this were in my coop - I'd buy a new bag of bedding! Might be easier! LOL! Good luck and let us know her success!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Here is a picture of where our girl decided to go broody... to move her or not to move?? I would like to use the pine shavings... I’m worried about the eggs (or egg?) falling... but we wouldn’t mind her actually hatching them and I don’t know if she will abandon them if I relocate her to a nesting box.
View attachment 1082525

My last SFH hen has gone broody as well. That makes 66% broodiness among my SFH, though my first passed from egg binding when I broke her. Put Cleo in the breaker today.

I have ZERO luck moving a hen and eggs. They get abandoned every time. I have about 98% luck moving broody's if I do it with brand new chicks during the night. Sometimes they stay where I set them up other times they move their brood as soon as the chicks are mobile enough to follow. If I was going to attempt to move her, I might wait until dark as suggested. I would also suggest finding out how many eggs you are indeed dealing with and make sure you have how many under there that you want before letting them "start" to incubate/form or whatever it's called. You don't want a staggered hatch. And no point in letting a hen set on a single egg that may not hatch no matter if she does everything right. Hate to have her sit all that time for no pay off. IF that did happen I would get feed store chicks to adopt... but I'm a LITTLE bit of an addict!

However, even though you move her to get your shavings she may still come back and sit in the same spot. My girls always go back to where I boot them from... EVEN if I take every single egg away! At least right there she might not get girls competing for the box and mixing their eggs with hers.

Good luck!

 

[SierraSfhFamily]

She in particular finds unusual places to roost and lay, but I did wonder if she did it on purpose to keep others out of her spot.
She kind of made up my mind for me. I went out there a bit ago and she was off her eggs and out of the coop. Nine eggs! I moved them to a nesting box and if she goes back to them fine, if not then we may grab some and do an incubator (we've been toying with the idea and I figure this is a good batch of eggs to pull from).
I know it's natural but I don't like the way the other hens are already acting towards her, like she's an outsider. So I won't be heart broken if she gives up on them. I'd rather see her eating more and treated better by the others.

 

[SierraSfhFamily]

To give everyone an update - she found her eggs in the nesting box and is sitting on them again! This is the first time we are going through having a broody chicken. I'm interested to see if she continues and any hatch. I'm hoping she won't lay anymore and just try to hatch what's there?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

To give everyone an update - she found her eggs in the nesting box and is sitting on them again! This is the first time we are going through having a broody chicken. I'm interested to see if she continues and any hatch. I'm hoping she won't lay anymore and just try to hatch what's there?

So cool that she followed her eggs! Goes to show that every hen and situation will be unique.

She is broody, she won't lay anymore. Making sure others don't lay in her box is what's important. Or at least collecting any new eggs that get laid there. Did you mark the 9 eggs with good dark markings? Pencil usually get too light for me. I accidentally collected a hatching egg once. Sharpie or crayola markers are acceptable. 9 is a good size batch! If musical boxes is a problem then I would definitely hatch in the incubator and then adopt them under her shortly after hatch during the night.

So happy for you! I remember when you were just waiting for your first eggs.