Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[KYTinpusher]

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In some earlier threads there was speculation that it could be a nutritional deficiency or hereditary. I am curious, are any of those with crooked toes crested? I know it was brought up that there could be problems breeding a crested roo to a crested hen due to a possibility of 25% lethal gene. But perhaps it is not a lethal gene, but a crooked toe expression that results. I know Greenfire Farms said they had to hunt for the crested variety because the original breeder they got them from bred for only non-crested. Perhaps crooked toes was the reason. I don't know if anyone yet has isolated the crested ones to breed them specifically, but it would be interesting to do a test breeding to see if the issue came up and what kind of percentage.

 

[Contrastphoto]

My crooked toe roo was non-crested. I have 12 SFH right now and no crooked toes!

 

[anniesmom]

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In some earlier threads there was speculation that it could be a nutritional deficiency or hereditary. I am curious, are any of those with crooked toes crested? I know it was brought up that there could be problems breeding a crested roo to a crested hen due to a possibility of 25% lethal gene. But perhaps it is not a lethal gene, but a crooked toe expression that results. I know Greenfire Farms said they had to hunt for the crested variety because the original breeder they got them from bred for only non-crested. Perhaps crooked toes was the reason. I don't know if anyone yet has isolated the crested ones to breed them specifically, but it would be interesting to do a test breeding to see if the issue came up and what kind of percentage.

Crooked toes (as opposed to curled toes) can also be caused by improper temperature or humidity in the incubator or either slick flooring or wire flooring for the tiny chicks. I do also personally know of a lady who received a SFH chick in her batch with a crooked beak. Time and careful breeding will tell us if these issues are genetic or not.

 

[Contrastphoto]

I didn't realize there was a difference between Crooked toes and curled toes. Do you have any photos?

 

[anniesmom]

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According to what I read, crooked toes go sideways and curled toes go under.

This is from poultrykeeper.com .

Crooked Toes

A chick that has crooked toes will walk on the sides of its feet. Often manure clumps will be gathered because of this and occasionally sores will develop.

Chicks usually get crooked toes when the humidity during incubation is too low but they can also get them if the floor of the rearing area / brooder is too cold and they can also inherit them from their parents. There has been some research that has linked crooked toes to rearing chicks on wire floors but that doesn't usually bother hobby chicken keepers because they generally don't use this method of rearing chicks.

If you can identify the cause of crooked toes in your chicks, then you may still be able to use them for breeding. If it is hereditary then it is not advisable to breed from them because you will be introducing the fault to future generations.

Curled Toes

Curled Toe Paralysis is when the toes are curled and the chick walks on the tops of his curled toes, rather than the sides of the toes as with crooked toes. It is painful for the chick so he will usually spend most of the time sat on his hocks resting or walking around on his hocks. Often chicks will die at about 3 or 4 weeks old. Curled toes are caused by a deficiency in Riboflavin. If hens have not had the correct diet (layers pellets for example without access to other foods like greens) this can sometimes occur but can also happen if the chicks starter crumbs contain insufficient Riboflavin. In the latter case, the chicks usually get curled toes after a week or two.

If you are quick enough in diagnosing curled toes (during the first day or two that the chick cannot stand up) then you can treat them with a multivitamin drink that contains Riboflavin. The toes will straighten out after a few days but if you aren't quick enough, permanent damage will have been done and the toes will continue to grow curled.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

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I bought eggs and I haven't vaccinated.

 

[enggass]

I have read in several places(mostly the Hatching Forum) that crooked toes is the result of incubator temps.

 

[sfh11]

Crooked toes seem to be to wide spread to be an incubator temp problem. I hatched 21 out of 36 Swedish Flower Hen eggs and one had crooked toes on one foot. The others are doing just fine. They aren't as active as the Leghorn X chicks that hatched from my hens with them, but that's probably the breed. Would like to know how the mature Swedish Flower Hen's foraging and activity compare to other more common breeds?

 

[jeremy]

Today is the end of day 24 and I just shut my Brinsea off.

I set 14 eggs initially, 9 made into lockdown and I now have 6 beautiful chicks in my brooder. The 3 remaining eggs were candled, two seemed to be late quitters, one actually had pipped but did not make it out of the egg. It pipped 2 days ago and never did anything else, I'm unsure why it died.

The 6 chicks in the brooder are so, so stinkin' cute. I've got one ginger red one, one black or blue dark looking one, 3 blonde chicks with varying shades of gray on their heads and backs and the last chick that hatched earlier this evening is a beautiful silvery gray color with a red head. I absolutely cannot wait to see how these little ones mature.

I'll try to get some pictures soon, a few of the babies are still wobbly, I want to make sure they'll make it through their first few days before attempting a photo shoot.

Thanks Duemig10!

 

[BHep]

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Congrats !!!!