Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[enggass]

Hey all, how are SFHs in regards to being 'layers' and what is their level of broodiness...?

 

[CarolJ]

I got my first SFH egg yesterday. I have three SFH pullets that were 22 weeks old yesterday. I have no idea which of the three laid the egg. I'm so excited that I'm finally getting eggs from them.

 

[tnchickenut]

I'd be no help - I have 18 developing in the bator right now!

You are worse than me... I promised to do small broods this year. 10 or less of anything I set or I can't set any at all....

 

[ladyfaeden]

I got my first egg!!!!! They are 23 weeks old today. WOOT!

 

[KYTinpusher]

I got my first SFH egg yesterday. I have three SFH pullets that were 22 weeks old yesterday. I have no idea which of the three laid the egg. I'm so excited that I'm finally getting eggs from them.

I got my first egg!!!!! They are 23 weeks old today. WOOT!

Congratulations!

Quote: I must admit, a dozen of the chicks are for a friend of mine.

But I had to put in extra just to make sure I hatched enough, right?

 

[ladyfaeden]

I have a question on the colors.

In my older group, I had 3 white chicks. One grew up into a very colorful rooster. The other two turned into very plain looking girls (who are off being laying hens for someone else now). They were white with just hints of grey. I'm wondering if this is a boy:colorful, girl: plain thing or if it was just chance. Does anyone have colorful girls that started out white?

I also have a Mahoghany looking Mille Fleur roo in that group. He started out as a black chick (with just hints of red around his eyes). I don't have any black roosters, just black hens. Does anyone have a pic of a black roo?

Sorry, I'm sure the answer is here in the thread somewhere...just don't have time to go back through it.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I have a question on the colors. 

In my older group, I had 3 white chicks.  One grew up into a very colorful rooster.  The other two turned into very plain looking girls (who are off being laying hens for someone else now).  They were white with just hints of grey.  I'm wondering if this is a boy:colorful, girl: plain thing or if it was just chance.  Does anyone have colorful girls that started out white? 

I also have a Mahoghany looking Mille Fleur roo in that group.  He started out as a black chick (with just hints of red around his eyes).  I don't have any black roosters, just black hens.  Does anyone have a pic of a black roo? 

Sorry, I'm sure the answer is here in the thread somewhere...just don't have time to go back through it.

I was thinking of asking you a question. I just bought a few chicks, one was a dark chipmunk color.
Seems to me that you had one of those. Could you tell me what color it ended up being? I had the chance to pick
up some lighter chipmunk ones, but I have seen birds from the same flock with the lighter color and they were plain so
I passed.

I believe that the lighter hens are simply a dominant white splash (red or grey). I haven't seen light roosters. I had three
yellow chicks. One turned out to be a colorful, mostly orange roo, one a mille fleur hen, and the other my white/red splash
hen.

 

[Bernie56]

I have a question on the colors.

In my older group, I had 3 white chicks. One grew up into a very colorful rooster. The other two turned into very plain looking girls (who are off being laying hens for someone else now). They were white with just hints of grey. I'm wondering if this is a boy:colorful, girl: plain thing or if it was just chance. Does anyone have colorful girls that started out white?

I also have a Mahoghany looking Mille Fleur roo in that group. He started out as a black chick (with just hints of red around his eyes). I don't have any black roosters, just black hens. Does anyone have a pic of a black roo?

Sorry, I'm sure the answer is here in the thread somewhere...just don't have time to go back through it.

I had 3 almost identical white chicks. They looked exactly the same until the rooster started getting his adult plummage. He has a lot of red now but is still quite light. The other two are splash, mostly white, but one has flecks of grey, and the other flecks of white. I doubt that you would ever have a white rooster. I am also reluctant too breed these pullets to this rooster as I'm almost certain that I will get mostly splash chicks from these pairings. Here is the rooster and the red splash pullet at about 3 months. Also I feather sexed my first 7 chicks just to see how accurate it was. My guess was 4 roosters, 2 pullets and 1 uncertain. I ended up with 4 roosters and 3 pullets.

 

[BHep]

No, wait! Beep, beep back the bus up! NYD hatch? She is 20-some weeks old, right? I change my mind to pullet nearing POL! Mine started laying at about 21 weeks and that is when their wattles came in.

True..... ok

 

[Contrastphoto]

I had 3 almost identical white chicks. They looked exactly the same until the rooster started getting his adult plummage. He has a lot of red now but is still quite light. The other two are splash, mostly white, but one has flecks of grey, and the other flecks of white. I doubt that you would ever have a white rooster. I am also reluctant too breed these pullets to this rooster as I'm almost certain that I will get mostly splash chicks from these pairings. Here is the rooster and the red splash pullet at about 3 months. Also I feather sexed my first 7 chicks just to see how accurate it was. My guess was 4 roosters, 2 pullets and 1 uncertain. I ended up with 4 roosters and 3 pullets.

I think you are correct in saying you will get mainly light colored chicks in this mix. That being said I have one white/splash SFH and she is my favorite! I have been trying to hatch another white one from her and haven't been able to yet. I am guessing my roos are just to dark/black. That is very interesting about the feather sexing I will have to try that!