The Aloha Chicken Project

[tazcat70]

I should have said, if you don't, you could still be hatching.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Great!
Do you have other birds that aren't Aloha related? You could still be hatching, you may get some really interesting birds.

I do. I have EE's, and black Ameraucanas for their pretty eggs. I have Welsummers, which aren't strictly project related, but if I get decent size and type on any of them, I'll probably add them sparingly to the mix. I got them for their dark colored eggs. I have some SSX/EE mixes growing out that are strictly for fun and I have 3 Buff Cornish hens that aren't Aloha related. I'm not certain I'm going to use them for anything. My thoughts were initially to raise a separate batch of birds for meat, but my infatuation with that idea has waned for various reasons. Still, I haven't completely decided to rehome them yet.

I emailed the young woman about the Aloha ad, explained things to her and invited her to check us out here. I think that you have to be very involved to understand the significance of the "project bird" phrase and I could have easily done the same thing were I not as obsessed with the whole thing as I am! She has consistently maintained contact with me over several months and I'm hoping she'll join us in our efforts. Keep your fingers crossed! It would be great to have 3 separate flocks to work with locally.

 

[knjinnm]

Speaking of color . . . here's a wonderful sight. Here are most of the Cheeto grand-chicks,

Hi All,
What is the typical weight on these young birds when they grow out?

Everyone have a safe and Happy New year,
JAC

 

[draye]

Hi All,
What is the typical weight on these young birds when they grow out?

Everyone have a safe and Happy New year,
JAC

I don't think they've actually set a weight yet on these. They are however trying to develope a dual purpose bird from them.

Maybe aloha will come on a little later and comment.

 

[alohachickens]

The weight (right now!) is kind of small - comparable to a Leghorn on most. Perhaps 4-5 pounds on most hens, though I haven't "tortured" a hen yet by trussing her up and placing her on the scale! It varies a LOT because we're trying to get them bigger. Right now, I have a pen of 3 month olds, and one is extra-tiny, one is small, and one hen is very large - either as big as a full Speckled Sussex, or maybe just a hair under that size.

As the project stands today, the most colorful birds tend to be the smallest. They are NOT banty sized - but they are not as big as a Speckled Sussex or pure Swedish Flower, either.

With each generation, the goal is to add more "big chicken" in there to increase size. However, the spots are recessive, meaning anytime you bring in a chicken that does not have spots, it will take the spots away on the babies. So then you have to add in more small, spotted chicken bloodlines, and by the time you've done that, the percentage of "big chicken" bloodline has been reduced back down to just 25%.

So, it is very slow going! Over time, however, the breed goal is to get hens up to 6 pounds minimum, with no upper limit. (Bigger is better!)

 

[15littlem]

Could you guys check out my new thread and possibly add to it? You guys have great birds and projects (Especially the Aloha Project), so I know you guys would have some great input! Check it out here Don't forget to post lots of pictures of your birds! Thanks

 

[knjinnm]

The weight (right now!) is kind of small - comparable to a Leghorn on most. Perhaps 4-5 pounds on most hens, though I haven't "tortured" a hen yet by trussing her up and placing her on the scale! It varies a LOT because we're trying to get them bigger. Right now, I have a pen of 3 month olds, and one is extra-tiny, one is small, and one hen is very large - either as big as a full Speckled Sussex, or maybe just a hair under that size.

As the project stands today, the most colorful birds tend to be the smallest. They are NOT banty sized - but they are not as big as a Speckled Sussex or pure Swedish Flower, either.

With each generation, the goal is to add more "big chicken" in there to increase size. However, the spots are recessive, meaning anytime you bring in a chicken that does not have spots, it will take the spots away on the babies. So then you have to add in more small, spotted chicken bloodlines, and by the time you've done that, the percentage of "big chicken" bloodline has been reduced back down to just 25%.

So, it is very slow going! Over time, however, the breed goal is to get hens up to 6 pounds minimum, with no upper limit. (Bigger is better!)

Understood,
Check https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...x-and-project-talk-pics-p-8/2540#post_9928186

A splash laced would add spots and weight to your project.
JAC

 

[alohachickens]

Understood,
Check https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...x-and-project-talk-pics-p-8/2540#post_9928186

A splash laced would add spots and weight to your project.
JAC

Cornish would add weight, that's for sure. We're going for a dual purpose - with the primary emphasis on eggs (because that's the main reason most folks have chickens) but because we'll be hatching a lot of our own chicks for a while, excess roos should be big enough to also eat. But the Splash is something I'm avoiding like crazy. Okay, here's where things are going to get kind of confusing! I'll try to keep this as "plain speak" as I can!

Blue is a dilute Black. "Splash" is two doses of diluted black. Think of adding white to black paint . . . that's what the "Blue" gene does in chickens. One dose of Blue adds about half white paint, which makes your black turn gray. But, if you get two doses of Blue (which we call Splash) it's like taking that already-gray paint and adding MORE white to it. So it looks super pale - maybe even "white" sometimes!

But here's the problem. Underneath it all, IT IS STILL BLACK. I mean, "Blue" may turn black gray, but it is still black . . . that has been turned gray! And Splash may turn feathers white, to your eyes, but in the DNA of the chicken, it is still a black feather, that has been turned to Blue, and then has been lightened again, by even more Blue genes. But take away the "Blue" and you don't have a chicken with any spots at all.

This is why I've been avoiding using "Blue" in my chickens for now. I want to see how much spotting they REALLY have! What part of their feather is a "true white" spot? If Splash is making the Black appear light Gray (white) then we don't really know how much "true white" is there.

I have discovered that Swedish Flowers (the pure bred ones) are a lot less "spotty" than I originally thought they were. It turns out, many of them only have as much actual white as the average Speckled Sussex. A lot of the "white" that you see on them is the action of Blue (or Splash, which is just a double-dose of Blue) turning the black feathers light gray or white.

Right now I'm trying to get more "true white" spotting on Alohas. Not the "mock white" seen on Splash chicks, or blue-mottled chicks. So I only have one Swedish Flower cross hen with blue in her feathers for now. (Only kept because she had good size and yellow feet, and I may go ahead and cull her so I don't have any Blue in my flock at all.) But in general, I've taken Blue out for the moment to not confuse anything. Because Blue is super easy to add to a gene pool, so I can always add it later. But if it is there, it makes the chicken appear spotted (sometimes) even if it's not actually spotted.

So when you see white spots on all these chickens of mine, they are spots of "true white" - not blue!

Any chickens with Splash/Blue lacing that appears to be white, have kind of a different gene going on . . . makes it confusing! I'm breeding for the Mottled gene, which adds white spots to the feathers. In theory, Mottling should add a white dot to any color feather, whether it's a red chicken with white spots, a black chicken with white spots, or a gold chicken with white spots. I am finding I'm having trouble with Buff (solid yellow) chickens and adding white spots to them. At this point, I don't know why.

Interestingly, I found a certain kind of spotting in dogs (Merle) does not show up on "yellow" dogs, and I'm kind of wondering if the Mottling gene does not "play well" with Buff? However, I had a "Extraordinary Chickens" calender a while back, and it showed what appeared to be a pair of Buff Mottled bantams. So I'm totally confused on why the spots are having difficulty showing themselves on a solid Buff chicken. (By "solid buff" I mean, Buff Rock, Buff Orp, etc - no black feathers at all.) Merle is just one type of gene that causes spotting in dogs. However, other types of spotting genes work fine on yellow dogs. I just found it kind of odd that yellow + spots had issues expressing in an animal, as I always thought the genes that caused white spots were not related to the genes that control body colors.

Here's the dog article, and it says sometimes it shows the spots on yellow dogs but to quote "A single copy of the merle gene sometimes doesn't show in the coats of yellows,"

http://www.ashgi.org/color/yellow_aussies.htm

 

[knjinnm]

Great explanation,
Thank you
JAC

 

[alohachickens]

Set up some breeder pens at Stephen's today! Yay!

Some pens are still in-progress so don't have photos of all of them yet. And we are still missing some "ingredients" that I'd love to get my hands on to complete the project. So wishing I had some German New Hamps and Buff Sussex. And just one really nice Speckled Sussex roo. That plus what we already have would give us everything we need . . . .

Anyway, what we do have is still some pretty nice stuff. This is Stephen's flock. He probably has a total of maybe 30 hens and some roos. TONS of roos; but very few outstanding ones. Sigh!






ABOVE: A pure Swedish Flower rooster. The hens behind him are not Speckled Sussex; they are Speckled Sussex X Aloha crosses. (Plus a couple of small Aloha hens.)

Hoping that he will add size to these hens plus give them some yellow feet. The fact the hens are only half Sussex means we may see some different colors from this cross. (Besides Mahogany base color, I mean.)

Next is this little gamey guy, who is now in with Stephen's really nice pure Specked Sussex hens. (From Meyer Hatchery.)







We aren't thrilled at all with his small body, gamey build, and gamey nature. He was place in a pen of girls, and all he wanted to do is harass the roo next door! So, he's going to get traded out with a roo I have here with yellow legs, and gold mottled body. I'm still using this little gold-mottled yellow leg roo for a month - he's a boy I got from Derek, who hatched him out last year. I was only going to use the little yellow-legged roo for a bit and then give him back to Derek because he needs BIG hens. Stephen's pure Sussex hens are perfect! We just figured it out today,

But, I'll snag some eggs from this gamey white guy X Sussex hens cross in about a month, before we switch him out. Just in case. Maybe this gamey guy, with all his white, he will lighten the Sussex body color, or add a crazy amount of white? Will be fun to see. But, he's not ideal, just a "temp".

Next, we set a group of cute hens with YELLOW legs like this daughter of Cheeto:




In a pen with this cute little guy, who doesn't look like much but is very old Aloha blood. Direct son of "Vanilla" my foundation roo. Here's the little fellow:



We rescued him from my neighbor Jorge's yard. Haven't had the right hens to put with him. He's two or three years old. We just call him "Jorge's Rooster"

Little, but cute. Like the daughter of Cheeto, doesn't look like much, but look at the GRANDPARENTS to this cross:

Jorge's Roo's DAD:
Vanilla - my Foundation Aloha Roo:



Above hen's DAD - Cheeto:
Cheeto's mom was pure Buff Rock. His dad was a rooster who was half NHR, out of a colorful daughter of "Vanilla". So Cheeto is 3/4 "big chicken" 1/4 Aloha:



So, the pen doesn't look like much. You'd see an itty bitty speckled roo, in with a bunch of smallish buff hens with yellow legs. But I'm hoping the chicks will get color and flash from Grandpa Vanilla, and big, bulky size and yellow legs from Grandpa Cheeto . . . .

Resulting chicks will be about one half small Aloha, one half "big chicken" and will carry genes for LOTS of color. It's going to be a crapshoot from that pen, depending on who in the family tree the baby chicks take after!

And, here are some random shots of Stephen's stock. Lots of little gamey Aloha hens with lots of color. Lots of Sussex/Aloha cross hens. Lots of Buff hens that are Aloha crosses that did not get any color, but are very large. Not sure what we're going to do with all of them yet. The best roos to use with these hens, are the 30 or so babies that I have growing here! Until then, they're just hanging out . . . . didn't really take pics of the buff hens because they look so boring. LOL!








I also took two of his really light hens, going to cross them with my pure Swedish roo and see what happens. They are tiny but so cute!