Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[cathiesue]

Oh Sebrightsrock your birds are so purdy!!!! I'm so glad you got some photos up.
My white pullet is turning colors this week. She started out white with some red and charcoal smudges. Now she had got yellow or maybe gold running down her neck and charcoal grey tail feathers just on the top. I'll really need to get a photo.
Has anyone else experienced color changes at POL.

 

[Sebrightsrock]

Thank you and I haven't personally seen color change because all the sfh have been fully feathered juveniles. Your pullet sounds cool you will have to post a pic.

 

[CrazyCatNChickenLady]

I have an importent question to ask you. How do you get in touch with breeders in swit. I tried and have no luck. I am an old man, land locked and do not get around very much but am very interested in sweedish chickens. paul.

Sweden?

Right?

 

[Kimbroe1981]

LOVE the trio!!

I put my ear to the side of the coop that my broody was sitting at and thought I could hear faint peeping and my ameracauna's (wait EE according to the ameracauna people) seemed curious about that corner of the coop. I hope I have some babies hatching in there!!

 

[cathiesue]

I have an importent question to ask you. How do you get in touch with breeders in swit. I tried and have no luck. I am an old man, land locked and do not get around very much but am very interested in sweedish chickens. paul.

Hey Paul,
I am almost certain that Greenfire Farms. www.greenfirefarms.com is what you want. They have done tons of work to get the Flowers into the country. It is not something i would try. Depending on where you live you might be able to get eggs or chicks without shipping. You can try to place a wanted add. Not too many have Flowers yet but there are more of us. I am crazy about these chickens too.

 

[Bernie56]

LOVE the trio!!

I put my ear to the side of the coop that my broody was sitting at and thought I could hear faint peeping and my ameracauna's (wait EE according to the ameracauna people) seemed curious about that corner of the coop. I hope I have some babies hatching in there!!

I've been thinking about you, and wondering if you've had any little ones yet. Fingers crossed for you. Did you ever get any chicks from Richard?

 

[Cynthia12]

Bleh, still waiting on my 20 SFH eggs that were supposed to be here on the 12th. I called USPS today and they opened an investigation to find out where they are. Of course they have no idea where they are. She said they usually call within 24 hours, but since tomorrow is a saturday they might not call till Monday. I'm thinking when they do arrive they'll prolly be no good. I half expect the box to be smashed and the eggs to be broken. At least I have my 22 replacement eggs in the bator.

You could get them tomorrow..Sat...

Mine are a week in..and doing very well. Got them from someone on here! I'm so excited to see what pops out! I will have some babies by the end of the month. I love those last few photos..especially the first pic. Oh man, those colors!

 

[tnchickenut]

I have an importent question to ask you. How do you get in touch with breeders in swit. I tried and have no luck. I am an old man, land locked and do not get around very much but am very interested in sweedish chickens. paul.

Paul, I think google and a translator is the best thing. I know it is thousands of dollars per individual chicken to import, but I have heard of loopholes in importing eggs. However, eggs that have been imported have even less of a chance of hatching. It's a gamble no matter what route you take. I have heard that what makes Paul Bradshaw (of Greenfire Farms) so successful is that he rubs elbows with many higher-ups in US Customs. Most people who try to import don't do so successfully.

There is a place called "Widget Ranch" and they imported Austrian eggs successfully. They also would be a heck of alot more apt to telling you the ins and outs.

Personally, I believe the European breeds are better - in general... simply because we have allowed hatcheries to muck the breeds up here. Just my opinion and why I have moved more to those breeds like the SFHs and Sulmtalers and Barnevelders before the hatcheries here got ahold of them too. (though don't get me wrong,,, I have hatchery layers for eatting eggs)

Good luck!

 

[Bernie56]

Ok - with more and more people becoming interested in Swedish Flower Hens, how do we as breeders of these lovely birds go about defining the Standard of Perfection for this breed in the US?

I have been thinking about this a lot, and will try to express my thoughts without getting to long winded. These are just my thoughts. I am a little concerned about the idea that Swedish Flower Hens are not a "breed". I do understand that they are not a "Sanctioned" breed, with a "Standard of Perfection", but they are certainly recognizable as Swedish Flower Hens! I LOVE the diversity of this "breed" and want to preserve that. I am afraid that if people think its not a "real breed" they are free to breed to anything without consideration. I also feel that there has been too much made of the "limited gene pool" of the initial imports. Even full brothers and sisters have a unique genetic make up. We should be concerned about severe inbreeding as in taking a single pair and 25 years later still having no new blood introduced. Even though there was a limited gene pool in the original imports the offspring off those birds have been divided into individual flocks, and spread out over the entire country. Each one of those new flocks are developing their own genetic "identity". We, as people who LOVE this "breed", need to select within our own flocks for "positive" traits and against "negative" traits within the "breed" and bring in new blood as necessary for genetic diversity. As long as we as breeders are responsible, we can continue preserve and promote this lovely "breed"!

 

[Sebrightsrock]

I think that inbreeding could be a problem with their limited gene pool but introducing new blood isn't always the best thing especially because their is problably people out their who just don't care about genetic defects. I mean I know there is a lot of dicussion on crooked toes and with a limited gene pool you can't really be to picky on the birds you use for breeding but out of the 6 SFH I have 1 cockeral and 1 pullet are the only ones with out crooked toes. I know some people think that crooked toes are not genetic but it seems to occur to much to be somthing else. I'l be working on trying to get rid of crooked toes in my birds or at least reduce the likelehood that it will come up. At the moment since I only have 6 SFHs I'm going to have to use crooked toed ones.