Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[Kimbroe1981]

My roo just went hunting ! There was a mole trail in the pen. He stood over it cocked his head and then tore up the ground. He flipped the mole out. Pecked it on the head and called over the flock ! !

I wish my chickens would do that here. We have mole trails all over the back yard! Drives me nuts!

 

[SunnySkies]

This is Bronze, about 6 weeks old.

My resident chicken farmer son, lol.

 

[sevierchickens]

about the eye color...mine mostly have blueish eyes...and they are all pure sfhs from contrastphoto...i know she got hers from greenfire directly

 

[Bulldogma]

about the eye color...mine mostly have blueish eyes...and they are all pure sfhs from contrastphoto...i know she got hers from greenfire directly

Very interesting! I wonder if blue eyes are more prevalent in the birds with more white on their heads - thus lighter pigmentation around the eyes. Horses with the splash gene are also more likely to have blue eyes... but chicken genetics are very different from those of mammals...

Very interesting! Thank you for your response!

 

[ki4got]

Quote: i'm new to the thread here, and don't have any SFH but have a friend that does, so thought i'd comment.

eye color also depends on age... they won't usually have their mature eye color until 4-6 months old. my cochins are the same way. in cochins a nice deep red/orange is proper.
adult eye color in most breeds will usually vary from red/gold to brown or black. sometimes paler gold/yellow but i think that's uncommon.

leg color will be yellow, and i'm guessing a dark overlay would be seen more in the darker pigmented birds than the lighter ones. i know chicken genetics, if not the breed standards. yellow is recessive to white/pink so any birds that aren't yellow would likely have been crossed with something else that didn't have yellow. but as long as the base color is yellow, then the shading is usually not a big issue IMO. and chicks are going to have some color leakage typically. that will change too by adulthood.

has anyone tried researching the breed requirements in it's country of origin? sorry, i haven't had time to read the entire thread to find out for sure.

 

[Bulldogma]

i'm new to the thread here, and don't have any SFH but have a friend that does, so thought i'd comment.

eye color also depends on age... they won't usually have their mature eye color until 4-6 months old. my cochins are the same way. in cochins a nice deep red/orange is proper.
adult eye color in most breeds will usually vary from red/gold to brown or black. sometimes paler gold/yellow but i think that's uncommon.

leg color will be yellow, and i'm guessing a dark overlay would be seen more in the darker pigmented birds than the lighter ones. i know chicken genetics, if not the breed standards. yellow is recessive to white/pink so any birds that aren't yellow would likely have been crossed with something else that didn't have yellow. but as long as the base color is yellow, then the shading is usually not a big issue IMO. and chicks are going to have some color leakage typically. that will change too by adulthood.

has anyone tried researching the breed requirements in it's country of origin? sorry, i haven't had time to read the entire thread to find out for sure.

Great info on genetics!! Thank you

The SFH is a true landrace bird - it is basically the culmination of hundreds of years of NO selective breeding. Just "neighborhood effort" on the chickens' part, and Darwinism at its best! Most of these birds seem to develop yellow or yellowish legs by adulthood, but they can start out pink, tan and so-on. There is no mention of eye color in any of the Swedish translations I've been reading through.

 

[ki4got]

Great info on genetics!! Thank you

The SFH is a true landrace bird - it is basically the culmination of hundreds of years of NO selective breeding. Just "neighborhood effort" on the chickens' part, and Darwinism at its best! Most of these birds seem to develop yellow or yellowish legs by adulthood, but they can start out pink, tan and so-on. There is no mention of eye color in any of the Swedish translations I've been reading through.

ok, well, orange-red is the 'default setting' for most birds, so that's probably what you've got. 8) no mention of eye color probably means they're all the same.

since yellow(ish) legs seem to be the norm i would probably avoid any with white/pink, black or willow (greenish) legs. but like you mentioned, chick leg color is all over the place. that's probably more dependent on whatever base color the bird will be later on.

 

[Bulldogma]

ok, well, orange-red is the 'default setting' for most birds, so that's probably what you've got. 8) no mention of eye color probably means they're all the same.

since yellow(ish) legs seem to be the norm i would probably avoid any with white/pink, black or willow (greenish) legs. but like you mentioned, chick leg color is all over the place. that's probably more dependent on whatever base color the bird will be later on.

Translated from Swedish: "Legs and beak are skin-colored, yellow or black mottled. The crest is simple and serrated."
Because these birds are pure-bred mixed mutts - LOL - I think that quite a bit of variety is acceptable. Aside from the colors, the body conformation does *seem* fairly consistent. It would make sense that most SFH will mature to have yellowish eyes.

Mutt genetics = too cool!

 

[Bulldogma]

Looking through the photos from Greenfire Farm (Importer of these awesome birds) the adults DO seem to have yellow eyes & legs.

...and with that, I'm off to bed!

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

All of my young birds have had grey, grey blue, or green eyes. Whey they mature they have orange eyes.
This isn't a great picture but shows two hens, very different colors, with the same orange eye color. All my
adult birds have orange eyes. The roosters are even more intense in color. I've asked the eye color question
on here and I do know that some folks have birds with green eyes. Thanks ki4got for the genetics info.
I find it fascinating but get lost real quick. I have this black hen and three of her pullets. They look like they're
going to be more speckled than she is. She also has black over the yellow on her legs. For genetic diversity
I think I'll sell her and keep a couple of her offspring.