The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

This is great too . . . TONS of white . . .

 

[alohachickens]

After hatching about 70 chicks early this Spring, and culling down to about 30, there is only one rooster who excites me at this point.

Here he is:





His legs appear to be pink/white (darn it) or if they are yellow, it is extremely pale. But what excites me is the amount of white that he is still hanging onto. He still has at least two months to go before he's mature enough to breed. However, his size is acceptable (that is a hatchery NHR hen behind him of the same age, for size comparison.)

In fact, I am thinking he would be PERFECT to breed to the hatchery NHR's if he keeps this much white. He could also be a good rooster to introduce to pure or part Swedish Flower hens, to improve the amount of white on the offspring.

The rest of the roos look to be heavy on the Swedish lines, and are rapidly losing their white as they approach the four month mark, as all the previous Swedish roos have. This boy, however, seems to be unique in not losing his color so far. Crossing my fingers he will keep this much white AND survive the summer so we can use him this Fall.

 

[alohachickens]

Forgot to mention . . . this guy also appears to show zero barring . . . which makes him a "safe" cross with the barred hens from Raymond's Roo, who is shown behind him. There are a few really nice hens from this hatch that do show barring. (Barring is OK in small amounts but don't breed barred x barred or it will take over quickly.) This boy would also work great with those hens.

 

[alohachickens]

I still haven't tried to take photos of the hens I'm raising because I know they may still change a lot. However, we are NOW at that "critical phase" where they will either change dramatically and lose a ton of white, or they will keep it. So the next 4-6 weeks will be VERY interesting.

Here is a hen that I would just love if she would only keep this much white:



As you can see, she's starting to really "fill out" and beginning to look like a HEN not a chick. So it's possible she may make the cut. I hope I hope I hope . . .

Her size is excellent and she also shows yellow legs. Appears to be influenced by Swedish Flower bloodlines. (Could be 1/2 Swedish.)

 

[knjinnm]

After hatching about 70 chicks early this Spring, and culling down to about 30, there is only one rooster who excites me at this point.

Here he is:





His legs appear to be pink/white (darn it) or if they are yellow, it is extremely pale. But what excites me is the amount of white that he is still hanging onto. He still has at least two months to go before he's mature enough to breed. However, his size is acceptable (that is a hatchery NHR hen behind him of the same age, for size comparison.)

In fact, I am thinking he would be PERFECT to breed to the hatchery NHR's if he keeps this much white. He could also be a good rooster to introduce to pure or part Swedish Flower hens, to improve the amount of white on the offspring.

The rest of the roos look to be heavy on the Swedish lines, and are rapidly losing their white as they approach the four month mark, as all the previous Swedish roos have. This boy, however, seems to be unique in not losing his color so far. Crossing my fingers he will keep this much white AND survive the summer so we can use him this Fall.

Do you have a close up of (Raymond's Roo, who is shown behind him.)?
The guy you favor has a lot of solid redish feathering on his back, is that a concern?
Thanks

 

[alohachickens]

Do you have a close up of (Raymond's Roo, who is shown behind him.)?
The guy you favor has a lot of solid redish feathering on his back, is that a concern?
Thanks

There should be a bunch of photos of Raymond's Roo on the blog and further back . . . I've posted him lots of time! Raymond's Roo has barring but TONS of white.

Of course I'd like more consistent patterning on this young rooster that I like, but compared to the other baby roosters, I'm just excited to have one that is showing this much white.

To show what I mean, here are a few of his hatch-mates. Keep in mind, these were the roos that showed the MOST WHITE - after this guy! Check them out:





So, I have been getting a BUNCH of roosters just like these. This is the "average" to "heavy" amount of white seen on the Swedish Flower Hen bloodlines. Not a lot, and they are going to lose even MORE white in the next month! In general, I find the Swedish Roos have maybe even less white than a lot of Speckled Susssex! Crazy.

Now here is the roo that I like again, compare him to above boys:



See the difference? Even though his back is dark, he's the best I've got. Not only is he showing dramatically more white feathering, but his size is pretty decent, too. Based on his light legs, and good size, I'd say he has quite a bit of Speckled Sussex bloodline. His mom could be one of my Speckled Sussex / Aloha cross hens, maybe?

 

[alohachickens]

DIFFERENT ROOSTER:

Remember, ages ago, I showed pics of a young rooster who was also showing tons of white???

Let me find his "baby pics" and I'll show you what I mean about them losing white as they age, sometimes.

Ok, here he is as a baby:


Pic taken maybe in January or February? Chick was 4-8 weeks old in this pic.

This is him today:





If I didn't see it myself, I would never believe this is the same rooster. THAT is how much white a chick can lose!

And that is why I'm excited that the rooster with all the white, is almost to breeding age, and he is still showing that much white. He has about 4-8 weeks before he is able to breed, I think?

 

[alohachickens]

By the way, I know he lost most of his white, but I am keeping this rooster, because as a chick he still showed *so much more* white than any of the other chicks. And his size is great! Yellow legs, too. So I plan on crossing him with my small, colorful, "old school" Aloha hens. He has replaced the pure Swedish Flower rooster (his dad) in my flock.

He still shows more white than the average Swedish Flower rooster, which is good. I can't wait to see his daughters!!!



Note the spotting in his chest (above) and note the white streaks in his neck

And compare to the chest of the younger boys (below)


Note the lack of white streaks in this young boy's neck, and remember, he will lose even more white in the next month. I am keeping one of these young boys as a back-up in case of emergency loss, but the second I get ready to breed, he will be culled. These boys are being kept as last-ditch backup roos and will (hopefully) never be used in the breeding program.

So yeah . . . this adult roo I've kept, it was sad to see him lose so much white as he matured, but at the end of the day, he still has more white than average, so he stays!

 

[BlossomSilkies]

Bad news, I went up to Stephen's and found out the Garry Farms roo succumbed to the heat when we started having those super high (110-118) degree days. I have a very small number of his eggs that I am getting into the incubator now, so we will just have to hope and pray we get some chicks from those.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I know you had high hopes for him. I'm happy to hear you have some eggs, I wish you best of luck on those and can't wait to see how they turn out. I'll be sneaking in to this thread from time to time to see if there are updates.

 

[jbolt]

Ok, I took much better pics today.....girls first......