The Aloha Chicken Project

[a little chiken]

Look at all the white on those chicks! So promising!

they have a ton of white on them. Now that they are our in the run they are staring to grow. yay.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh my gosh, I just had the scare of my life. I was gone overseas for a few weeks and just got back yesterday. Of course, as soon as I got back, DS was eager to take me out to see the birds, which he had been caring for in my absence and make sure he'd done okay (he had). I had a bunch of broody hens raising chicks when I left but after so long gone, the chicks are now juveniles and no longer with their mothers, and I was having a hard time figuring out who was who. I saw a NH and what appeared to be a black sexlink eating together and asked DS "Who are they?" and he, of course replied that he had no idea. He fed, but didn't keep track of individual birds. "Hmmmph", I thought, "when I left I had no BSL's but….maybe….one that I thought was a barred rock chick had actually come from a NH egg so feathered out to be a BSL pullet".

So this afternoon I checked on the forum and on seeing the Aloha thread, had the horrible thought that I had not seen any of my Alohas when I was out there, so I went to check on them and this time realized I had three of the "BSL pullets". Aha!!! They are the Alohas, all grown up!!! Well, not grown exactly, but not fuzzy chicks any more. They are mostly black, with a lot of gold around the neck, just like a BSL pullet, but one of them has a lot of white spots on the chest as well.

Whew. Glad they have survived my absence and continued to grow while I was gone. I'll try to get pics of them here in the next day or two and post them for you.

 

[alohachickens]

So this afternoon I checked on the forum and on seeing the Aloha thread, had the horrible thought that I had not seen any of my Alohas when I was out there, so I went to check on them and this time realized I had three of the "BSL pullets". Aha!!! They are the Alohas, all grown up!!! Well, not grown exactly, but not fuzzy chicks any more. They are mostly black, with a lot of gold around the neck, just like a BSL pullet, but one of them has a lot of white spots on the chest as well.

Whew. Glad they have survived my absence and continued to grow while I was gone. I'll try to get pics of them here in the next day or two and post them for you.

I'm guessing you were gone "down under" to visit family?

So happy they made it through! Would love to see if they do have spots on the chest still, that's really interesting if they do?

Can you tell what genders you got yet?

My Buff Rock and Dun Sussex chicks are growing up beautifully, too. Have some really promising chicks. I even have one that looks like a pure Speckled Sussex roo, and I was thinking of culling him, when I realized he was towering over EVERYONE in the pen. Not just tall but really "beefy" as well. I am kind of thinking that he's a chick from the Buff Sussex roo over one of Stephen's nice pure Sussex hens. I'm going to grow him a bit longer, as he does appear simply enormous. He could be something fabulous to enter in the state fair this Fall, if I keep him that long. LOL. Also I have what appear to be pure Buff Sussex, I think two pullets. We did have one solitary Buff Sussex hen with the Buff Sussex roo so that would make sense.

Then, there are a handful that are big and orange and white spotted from those breeder pens. Getting some really interesting "new" stuff to improve size and type next year.

Behind those chicks, I am also raising umm, about 60-80 "regular" Alohas. From those I'll be choosing only hens, and my hope is to keep my roosters from the "big stuff" along with a handful of the most promising hens from the 60-80 Aloha chicks for color. Will need to be really choosy on the Aloha hens.

I'll take pics of my babies again in a week or two. The youngest Aloha babies are still in fluff. The older ones are starting to really feather out now.

 

[alohachickens]

Forgot to mention, the Speckled Sussex / Buff Sussex cross rooster looks totally purebred. Has about average white. His mahogany might be a teeny shade lighter than normal, or that could be wishful thinking on my part. But I think he'll be larger than normal because of the Buff Sussex roo being so large!

 

[HEChicken]

Well, I finally remembered to take my camera out and get pics a few days ago and today I finally remembered to download them to my computer so I can post them. I tell ya, it is a slow process when you leave me in charge…..

All three look the same as far as gender, which is not good news. I had a fourth that was a week or two younger. Unfortunately when it was a week or two old, it squeezed into a pen where a hen had just hatched a chick and was in over-protective mode and she maimed it so badly that I had to cull it. My luck, it was whichever gender these are not so I would have had a nice little quad.

Two of them look just like this (these pics were of the same chick but both look so alike I couldn't tell you which one it was now):



See what I mean that they look a lot like black sexlink pullets?





And the third has a lot of white speckling on its chest. It wouldn't turn and face me to get a good shot of the chest but I got it from both sides and in both you can see the white.




Now, given that they were 9 weeks old when these pics were taken, what would you guess as far as gender? I'm leaning towards pullets. They do have a little comb and wattle but since their mothers were leghorns, I'm not surprised about that. However given that their mother's were leghorns, their combs are not very big yet which is why I think pullets - I'm guessing cockerels out of leghorn mothers would have bigger combs than this by 9 weeks. What do you think? Whichever they are, it is disappointing that they all appear to be the same gender. I guess I will have to separate out the NH rooster and leghorn hens again and hope for a better hatch next time. Those exchequers sure were slow to start laying and get consistent but I will say that now they've got the hang of things, they are doing much better in that department so it shouldn't be difficult to collect an incubator full of eggs this time. I even saw the rooster voluntarily mate one of them the other day, which I'd never seen before.

 

[draye]

Well, I finally remembered to take my camera out and get pics a few days ago and today I finally remembered to download them to my computer so I can post them. I tell ya, it is a slow process when you leave me in charge…..

All three look the same as far as gender, which is not good news. I had a fourth that was a week or two younger. Unfortunately when it was a week or two old, it squeezed into a pen where a hen had just hatched a chick and was in over-protective mode and she maimed it so badly that I had to cull it. My luck, it was whichever gender these are not so I would have had a nice little quad.

Two of them look just like this (these pics were of the same chick but both look so alike I couldn't tell you which one it was now):



See what I mean that they look a lot like black sexlink pullets?





And the third has a lot of white speckling on its chest. It wouldn't turn and face me to get a good shot of the chest but I got it from both sides and in both you can see the white.




Now, given that they were 9 weeks old when these pics were taken, what would you guess as far as gender? I'm leaning towards pullets. They do have a little comb and wattle but since their mothers were leghorns, I'm not surprised about that. However given that their mother's were leghorns, their combs are not very big yet which is why I think pullets - I'm guessing cockerels out of leghorn mothers would have bigger combs than this by 9 weeks. What do you think? Whichever they are, it is disappointing that they all appear to be the same gender. I guess I will have to separate out the NH rooster and leghorn hens again and hope for a better hatch next time. Those exchequers sure were slow to start laying and get consistent but I will say that now they've got the hang of things, they are doing much better in that department so it shouldn't be difficult to collect an incubator full of eggs this time. I even saw the rooster voluntarily mate one of them the other day, which I'd never seen before.

I would say all are pullets. I have a Partridge colored hen (Naked Neck) that as a chick had those light mottling (white) on her, and when she molted she retained the spots. Look at what I got out of her: , a tricolored mottled bab, I think this one is a pullet.

 

[HEChicken]

I would say all are pullets. I have a Partridge colored hen (Naked Neck) that as a chick had those light mottling (white) on her, and when she molted she retained the spots. Look at what I got out of her: , a tricolored mottled bab, I think this one is a pullet.

Sorry….I forget not everyone can keep track of what sub-projects each person is working on but knew Sommer would know what I was talking about.

These chicks are a result of a NH rooster over Exchequer Leghorn pullets. The idea is that both breeds have yellow legs and single combs. The Exchequers have the mottling gene (we think) while the NH offers size. We knew this - the first generation - would be pretty plain looking and did not expect any white or mottling to show up here. The idea is to breed back the first generation and the theory is that in the second generation we will have improved size, yellow legs, single combs and some of the offspring will be mottled. Keep those and do a third generation and….well, you get the idea.

So the mottling on the chest of this one is somewhat unexpected but, since the mother is an Exchequer Leghorn, it is no surprise, exactly, where it is coming from.

 

[alohachickens]

Since HEChicken got pics up, I guess it's time for me to update mine!

First is this strangely promising NN x Aloha roo???

The parents were two large Buff Columbian hens. I liked their pale golden color, thick wide bodies, and yellow legs. Dad was an Aloha roo with the most extensive white of ANY rooster chick we'd hatched of last year's Alohas. We kept him for his color, despite the fact he was rangy and thin in build. (He was not particularly small, as he had height, but was built like a tall, skinny guy, and lacked heft.)

Here's a pic of the breeding pen:



And here's the little roo, who is mottled even though he shouldn't really be showing this kind of white?






There is a second roo who also shows mottling, but not as much, and the other roo is smaller.

Interestingly, there were mostly HENS in this batch of NN chicks! I think I have about six. Hard to tell, because they look remarkably similar. Here he is with one of the NN "clone" hens. Dark buff color with small flecks of white.


Only one of the hens seemed to inherit that very pale, lighter golden color that I was hoping to introduce:



She also has yellow legs and bits of mottling. A keeper!

I will grow out all of the other NN hens for a while longer and will look for who else has best size and best signs of mottling. Keep the pale girl and maybe one or two other hens. Then I will sell the others. Really only need two hens for this experiment but I like to keep an extra around because . . . stuff happens. Lost a gorgeous hen a couple days ago, not sure why. *sigh*.

 

[alohachickens]

Another weird thing that I noticed. Okay, so I have some hens from the Buff Sussex pen, and in with the rooster, I had a Dun Sussex hen. (White with a ring of dun feathering.) Someone had told me the Buff color is passed on by the rooster. As in, if you put a Buff Sussex rooster in a pen with Light Sussex (white with black neck ring) hens, then you will get Buff colored babies.

I guess that is true - because I now have Buff Sussex chicks with Dun neck feathers!!!




There are TWO and both are HENS!!!

This means that all I need to do is add more spots. As you can see, this hen already shows faint Mottling. And if I bred her to say, a Speckled Sussex rooster, you could get Speckled Sussex chicks where all the black feathers would turn to this soft grayish brown color.

So I also have this MONSTER SIZED roo that looks like a Speckled Sussex. But I think he also came from the Buff Sussex roo's pen, and I believe his Mom would be one of Stephen's nice big Speckled Sussex hens.




Look at the size difference. It's almost ridiculous. This guy is so deep and heavy through the keel. I've nicknamed him "Beefcake" for now.

Wondering what would happen if I crossed Beefcake with the Buff Sussex hen with Dun neck feathering. I'm guessing it would give me Mille Sussex, Speckled Sussex, and half the chicks would have the black areas turned to Dun. Could be an INTERESTING breeding pen. I'll see how Beefcake develops and share photos in the Sussex thread later.

I also have a lot of what look like regular Speckled Sussex chicks. They appear to be roos but not as big as Beefcake:


I am going to pick out the one with the most white and re-home the rest of those roos this week. (My feed bill is through the roof now!) That will leave me Beefcake Sussex and a back-up Speckled Sussex roo.

Oh, and here is a pic (again) of the pen that Beefcake and the Buff Hen with Dun neck feathers came from:


To the far left, the "white" hen is a Light Sussex with Dun neck feathers. That is the Mom of the Buff Hen with the Dun neck feathers.

To the right are Speckled Sussex hens. One of those must be Beefcake's mom.

 

[alohachickens]

There are other promising chicks in there but I wasn't able to get good pictures. I tried.

Here is a very pretty hen:




Pink legs, but WHATEVER. She's gorgeous.


Blurry pic of a really promising Sussex cross. I kind of suspect she's by the Buff Sussex roo and a Speckled Sussex hen. Showing tons of white on the chest and a lot of light tones on the neck. Good body size and form, very round and "domestic" to counter the Gamey type of many Alohas. She should go great paired with a yellow-legged Aloha roo.

So, the older chicks, that are in the barn, are mostly "size improvers" from eggs collected up at Stephen's. Lots of Sussex, plus the NN cross chicks, which are easy to I.D. their genetics because they all have the naked necks! LOL.

But in another pen I am also growing out "regular" Aloha chicks. Those chicks will probably be smaller, so I will be looking for best colors. Mostly eyeballing the hens in there, going to re-home all but the one best promising Aloha roo in each batch. This is one batch of about 30 chicks, and I have a younger batch of about 40 in another pen, but those aren't fully feathered yet.




Lots of good color on these Aloha babies.