Swedish Flower Hen Thread

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Well, I am in gatlinburg! I don't think that is to far from Sparta. I am hope to have chicks in the spring.

 

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From what I have heard on here, you can't tell until they feather in (around a month).

 

[anniesmom]

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From what I have heard on here, you can't tell until they feather in (around a month).

Correct. When mine started to get the feathers on their heads at about 4 weeks, some of the feathers stood straight up! It was really cute. They were the crested ones. Three of the nine have crests.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

So from what I understand, all Swedish Flowers in the US come from one original flock imported by Greenfire in Fl?

I'm asking because I have some eggs incubating currently. Bought them from someone who bought them from Greenfire.
I'm not planning on selling chicks or eggs, BUT in a few years if I want to diversify my flock a little I will only be able to find
birds that originated from this one source. Is this correct? I'm just wondering how many serious breeders there are that are
interested in keeping this breed pure here in the US. . . . Again, just curious.

 

[Svarthona]

The Swedish Flower hens have been inbred since many many generations already, long before Greenfire imported them. Todays Flowers have their origin in just three lines, of which two could be tracked back to the same village in about 1850, the third (crested) line to another village around 1900. That adds up to approximately just about 50 birds of parent stock on three different farms, which were rediscovered in the 80s by the heritage club. I don't have the current numbers of the Swedish heritage breed club about how many certified Swedish Flower hens there are atm, but depending on how many birds were sold in the US it's totally possible that you already have more of them in the US than we do in Sweden

(for 2009 they listed the "skånsk blommehöna" with 1104 birds (929 hens & 175 roosters) on 75 farms).
General flock size through the years is often said to have been around 3 roosters on about 10 hens, making the flocks younger just every few years only keeping the bestofthebest from the chicks. That means a relatively high genetic diversity even after such a long time of line-breeding. And there are so many chicks sold from the originally imported birds, making new lines in the US, that the risk of a soon inbreeding depression is relatively low I guess.
People are probably going to produce mutts and sell them as Flowers or just not cull responsibly, but that happens to every breed in every country

just means that it's good to only buy birds from people you trust breeding good birds.

Oh and I always meant to ask, but are there "brown" flower hens in the US? It's possible that the brown ones are carrying "chocolate" ... just mentioning since brown chickens seem to be popular.

 

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Wow thanks for all that information! Any other information you can give us would be wonderful. I have spent hours researching the breed and haven't found much to read in English. It is my understanding that Greenfire imported two lines (crested and non-crested). Also, you mention culling responsibly, but I was under the understanding there wasn't a "standard" because they are landraces and have undergone years of natural selection. How would you recommend culling? Is there a standard for the Swedish Flower Hens in Sweden? Thanks for any information you can give us.

Svarthöna :

The Swedish Flower hens have been inbred since many many generations already, long before Greenfire imported them. Todays Flowers have their origin in just three lines, of which two could be tracked back to the same village in about 1850, the third (crested) line to another village around 1900. That adds up to approximately just about 50 birds of parent stock on three different farms, which were rediscovered in the 80s by the heritage club. I don't have the current numbers of the Swedish heritage breed club about how many certified Swedish Flower hens there are atm, but depending on how many birds were sold in the US it's totally possible that you already have more of them in the US than we do in Sweden

(for 2009 they listed the "skånsk blommehöna" with 1104 birds (929 hens & 175 roosters) on 75 farms).
General flock size through the years is often said to have been around 3 roosters on about 10 hens, making the flocks younger just every few years only keeping the bestofthebest from the chicks. That means a relatively high genetic diversity even after such a long time of line-breeding. And there are so many chicks sold from the originally imported birds, making new lines in the US, that the risk of a soon inbreeding depression is relatively low I guess.
People are probably going to produce mutts and sell them as Flowers or just not cull responsibly, but that happens to every breed in every country

just means that it's good to only buy birds from people you trust breeding good birds.

Oh and I always meant to ask, but are there "brown" flower hens in the US? It's possible that the brown ones are carrying "chocolate" ... just mentioning since brown chickens seem to be popular.​

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Thanks Svarthona for all that great info. What I see possibly happening is that people will select for the traits that they like (crested, mille fleur) and breed for those traits, therefore losing the variety that comes with the breed. I'm one that won't cull a rooster just because it doesn't fit a standard. I just want super friendly chickens and I like the fact that each chick is a grab bag. I do however, want to continue keeping a flock of them and figured at some point I'd have to bring in new blood.

Yes, I imagine that soon there WILL be more here then in Sweden. Lots of people interested in chickens and it's such a beautiful breed, again, in my opinion, because of the variety it offers.

 

[Svarthona]

You're welcome

it's great to see that the Flower hens got a new home on another continent and more people trying to preserve them.
Unfortunately there's not too much available about any Swedish landrace fowl in English and the google translator is really bad in translating chicken terminology.

Landrace fowl does not have a written "standard" in the way as show-breeds do. They have of course a recognizable body type, pattern, etc. and those characteristics are documented in a "rasram" (literally breed-frame), but that frame is not as strict and reducing as a breed standard would be. It is more kind of a description about the occurring variation of the birds of a certain area (Skåne in South Sweden for the Flower hens), which is not to restrict the birds in their appearance, it is to help with preserving their variable appearance.
Landrace fowl like the Flower hens were mostly selected by predators/climate/feed/local isolation and of course some human selection (productivity) which led to certain body types giving each landrace fowl a recognizable look, but they were not selected to the degree of being as uniform as show-breeds.

With responsible culling I didn't want to suggest to fit them into a show breed standard. I more meant to not breed away from their landrace characteristics as an old farm fowl. Just good old chicken common sense when breeding

... For example it's not good to select for bigger crests just because they look cute. If you'd need to trim the crest of a flower hen so she's not eaten by a predator and is able to find her food > don't breed from her. Using a crested rooster on crested hens actually isn't recommended in the breed-frame because it can lead to dangerously large crests making them vulnerable for predators. Other example would be to not breed from sickish birds or to start to vaccinate/deworm/medicate them. Just stuff like that

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

Thanks again Svarthona ! I'm pretty new to chickens. I wondered if the chicks should be given medicated starter, but you've answered THAT for me.

It makes sense to keep them as hardy as possible, another reason why I like this breed.

 

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Yes, thank you Svarthona!
I have two mainly white (with a few gray spots) pullets. Does anyone have a male out there with this coloring or are they all females?
Knock Kneed Hen, how are your eggs developing?