The Aloha Chicken Project

[HEChicken]

There is plenty of time weather wise but I've run out of time personally. I will be traveling overseas this summer so I have to have any chicks out of the brooder by the time I leave, in order to not overwhelm the critter sitter. So this is pretty much IT for me for hatching this spring, unfortunately. I'll have to try again in the fall if not many of these hatch.

 

[alohachickens]

I haven't photo spammed the thread in a while.

A while back, one Aloha hen hatched out 8 chicks from eggs. I think this was around Thanksgiving. The dad was most likely Pumpkin-Roo.

The chicks are freakishly small (darn it!) but some are STUNNING. Pedigree is likely 1/4 Swedish, and 3/4 Aloha, with a dash of NHR in the Aloha background:






One or two appear to be Banty sized? Well, they still have a few months to mature, so we'll see!


That one in front is cute but TEENY.

 

[alohachickens]

Parent pics, so you don't have to dig through thread.

 

[alohachickens]

Okay, so some of the chicks were hatched by that momma hen. Also, I had hatched out my ONE chick from the Buff Sussex pen, and one Silkie baby for Stephen. And since it's no good to raise just one or two baby chicks, I scooped out about 20 other Aloha babies from the "general population" that I've been hatching, and I put them in the cage with the Buff Sussex baby.

Well, then the kids broke into the coop, stole the Buff Sussex and Silkie, and let all the other babies loose. I caught most of the chicks running around, and put them back in the rabbit cage again, only to have the kids break in a week later and steal even more. In the mess, some escaped and were eaten by my boyfriend's dog, because the main coop is not "baby proof" for very young chicks. The few chicks that survived, I let run free in the coop. After we sealed all the escape routes of course. They hid in cracks and crevices where the children could not get them anyway. So these are the "survival of the fittest" Aloha chicks! Poor babies.

A few of these are turning into stunning hens. Being as the main coops have my largest roos heading them, these babies are much larger than Pumpkin's offspring:


This hen is absolutely gorgeous. She is looking like a "true Aloha" so far. Everything I am breeding for. There is no way you'd mistake this for a Speckled Sussex! Though she will probably be just as large as a Speckled Sussex when grown.



Of course this means she is probably doomed, because my friend Larissa always said as soon as she gave a hen a name or picked it as a favorite, it was sure to be the next one that would get sick, or fly over the fence and get eaten by a neighbor's dog, or some other calamity. But anyway, if she makes it to adulthood, she will be mature in May or June. If May, possibly early enough to hatch eggs from? I am going to pick the best of these hens and give to my neighbor Raymond. I gave him some culls two years ago, and they are all still alive. I wish I'd give him "premium" stock in retrospect, but you never know who is going to have a knack for chicken keeping. Raymond has it, I guess. Going to give him all of these nice hens and a good rooster to try and establish a really good breeding flock next door.

This is the shy girl, and she is huge. Pink legs, probably half Sussex. You can see the lightening in color on her feathers. She hides and is very wary so hard to get good pics:






Survival instinct is strong in this girl.


Look at the size of my big Aloha girl next to her "cousins" (who are by Pumpkin-Roo!) Age difference can't be more than a few weeks at most?

 

[alohachickens]

Finally some good news to report on the Buff Sussex pen. I have 17 eggs in the 'bator set for the 15th and 17th. Two are probably not developing but I'm hesitant to toss anything out that might hatch since I've had such bad luck getting chicks from this group.

I also just picked up 7 eggs from Stephen's house. The "flock block" that I put in there did the trick! Stephen brought me a full dozen when he was in town, and they were nice and clean. When I went up there today, the flock block was all eaten away - totally GONE. And the eggs in the box were gooey from an egg-eater, again. (But, at least there WERE eggs in there.) So I'll pick up another flock block when I'm near the feed store that carries them.

I put some cheap plastic "dummy eggs" in there as well to try and break the habit, as well. OMG those stinkers were so aggressive, they actually pecked a hole in the fake egg! Geez.

Anyway, looks like distractions and treats are helping . . .

Here are pics of that pen again. A "Buff Sussex" rooster that shows some faint mottling. In with a "mystery hen" from the Buff Sussex breeder (was marked as a Red Sussex but looks much like a Swedish Flower, which was another breed that farm raised.) Other hens include Meyer Sussex, a Dun Light Sussex, and a small Buff Mottled Aloha. (Who has now gone broody, of course!)






I can't wait to see what hatches!!! Crossing my fingers . . .

 

[alohachickens]

I also picked up about 10 eggs today from the Dun Sussex pen.

HeChicken, I wonder if this pen is having the same "issues" as the German NHR roo over the small Exchequers at your house?

So far, I have had only ONE (yes, ONE) fertile egg from this pen. Aaaaannnnnddd . . . it did not hatch. All others have been "blanks".

This is probably the last-ditch effort to make this work, before I pull this big guy out of there so we can use the breeder pen for something else!

HeChicken, will keep you posted on progress . . . if I have lack of fertility here (again) then we may have our answer. Perhaps the size issue can only be overcome with A.I. or by using larger sized hens?

Photo of the pen to show size differences:




Will let you know if eggs develop.

 

[HEChicken]

Yep, that looks about like my NH over my Exchequers.

The good news is….definitely a fetus bopping around in 1 of the first 7 eggs I set.

Wait-to-see news is…..I set 2 additional eggs the 2nd day and 3 additional eggs the 4th day. I just figured since not many of the first group were developing, if I added a few more eggs, I'd have a better chance of ending up with more than 1 chick, and at even 3 days past the initial hatch, the chicks should be accepted into the brooder. Those last 5 eggs I haven't candled yet, since they are too new. I'm just hoping with everything I have that they develop.

I have 4 broody hens (yes already), so I will probably stick "Aloha" eggs under a couple of them in addition to some other eggs more likely to hatch. Who knows? Maybe they'll hatch and raise some for me.

So I'm still trying. Would really love for this to be working a little easier though.

 

[alohachickens]

Well, with the difficulties I've had introducing the Dune gene via the Dun Sussex roo over small Aloha hens, I'm happy to report some GOOD news from the "other" pen.

In the Buff Sussex pen, I placed the Dun Sussex hen in with the Buff Sussex rooster. Here they are:


See her to the right? The large "white" hen with what appear to be "blue" tail feathers. (Not blue, it's Dun gene, actually.)

I thought Dun would be better for the "dilute black" effect than Blue, because Blue + Blue makes Splash, and Splash looks a lot like Mottled. So it would be hard to tell if your chicks were Mottled, or just Splash. So, I bred out all the Blue in my flock, and picked up the Dun Sussex project eggs off of Ebay, to try and introduce that gene. (Figured at least the Sussex body is large and single-combed, even if I have to breed out the Silver color, add mottling, and change the leg color. LOL.)

In a perfect world the Dad would be a really nice spotty Speckled Sussex rooster, to keep the size large and introduce the Dun color from the hen, and the Mottled gene from the dad. That Garry Farms rooster we lost would have been ideal. Darn it.

But hey, the Buff guy is awesome, so whatever! I knew that two chicks hatched from this Buff pen, in my last batch of chicks. (The other chicks were my Sussex hens with an Aloha rooster.) Anyway, here's one chick:




What do you think? Looks like Dun to me!

The cool thing is Dun Mottled would not have Splash, and if there were two doses present the color would turn into "Khaki Mottled". Not sure how that would look, but here is a photo of a pair of Khaki Polish:

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/3c/d8/0d/3cd80dadb1dcf52606b35eea3a3792bb.jpg

You'd have to imagine that color on an Aloha, with Mottling added on top. Looks like we are one step further to finding out. Provided he/she survives the Chick Thieves and the wicked summer heat? Long way to go to reach breeding age.

 

[HEChicken]

I have some good news as well! There is still only 1 egg from the original 7 developing (I'll wait a full 7 days before removing the other 6 but don't expect anything to change on that) but both of the eggs I added a day late are developing. That means 3 for sure! I added three more egg two days after that and they've only been in there two days so are not showing anything - yet - but perhaps in a couple of days I'll see development in them too. I have broodies out the wazoo so at this point I'm not worried about late hatches as I will have hens to give them to, to raise.

 

[alohachickens]

I have some good news as well! There is still only 1 egg from the original 7 developing (I'll wait a full 7 days before removing the other 6 but don't expect anything to change on that) but both of the eggs I added a day late are developing. That means 3 for sure! .

OMG! Progress - finally!

You honestly only need a few to get this thing going. (Although of course, more hens means more eggs, which means you'll reach the goal faster, but heck, I started with just a few and built from there so it can be done.)

Eeeep - so excited!