The Aloha Chicken Project

[a little chiken]

the chicks now. I think I only have 6 or 7 hens but not sure yet.

 

[alohachickens]

It sounds like the leg coloring is harder to overcome than the pea comb, my EE are wyandotte mix and have the yellow legs. Would that change the situation for using them? I do think I will try to pick up some Buttercups also, they have a nice golden color that might carry over since the buff has not been successful. I am curious why that is, I picked up a buff d'uccle this year, so some breeds have been successful. At any rate, is sounds like the Midwest team has a new member

The pea comb is also hard to get over! And there can be a lot of "unknown" genes floating around the EE'er since they are a mix. If you decide that you must use your EE'ers, be sure it is because they are exceptional in some way, because there are a lot of easier breeds to work with, color-wise. If it's for the blue egg color, in EE'ers they found it is linked to the pea comb gene which means if you breed out the pea combs, it will also breed out the blue eggs.

If blue eggs are what you are after, what would probably be a better way to get that would be to try and breed the barring out of the Cream Legbars, which already have upright combs and yellow legs and long tails, and lay blue eggs. It would be easier to remove the barring and add the spots to those. The creator of the Cream Legbar had to work pretty hard to "unlink" the blue egg color from the pea comb gene, so all that work has already been done.

Some EE'ers are nice big chickens and are exceptional layers so they have a lot of terrific qualities. Just make sure your base stock brings a lot to the table in terms of size and laying ability before you add those in, because it will bring in a lot of unwanted stuff that might have you pulling your hair out for years as well. LOL.

 

[alohachickens]

the chicks now. I think I only have 6 or 7 hens but not sure yet.

Still lots of color, which is great! But I'm having a tough time sexing mine as well. Not all of them, about 1/3rd are obviously roos and 1/3 are obviously hens, but then there is about 1 in 3 that I just can't tell yet! My feed bill is going through the roof raising SO MANY of them right now, but I have to stick with it a few more weeks so I can find out who is who. LOL.

 

[5moore]

The pea comb is also hard to get over! And there can be a lot of "unknown" genes floating around the EE'er since they are a mix. If you decide that you must use your EE'ers, be sure it is because they are exceptional in some way, because there are a lot of easier breeds to work with, color-wise. If it's for the blue egg color, in EE'ers they found it is linked to the pea comb gene which means if you breed out the pea combs, it will also breed out the blue eggs.

If blue eggs are what you are after, what would probably be a better way to get that would be to try and breed the barring out of the Cream Legbars, which already have upright combs and yellow legs and long tails, and lay blue eggs. It would be easier to remove the barring and add the spots to those. The creator of the Cream Legbar had to work pretty hard to "unlink" the blue egg color from the pea comb gene, so all that work has already been done.

Some EE'ers are nice big chickens and are exceptional layers so they have a lot of terrific qualities. Just make sure your base stock brings a lot to the table in terms of size and laying ability before you add those in, because it will bring in a lot of unwanted stuff that might have you pulling your hair out for years as well. LOL.

Meet my White Sport Cream Legbar rooster. He decided to run away one night this past winter and lost all his tips due to frost bite. I am putting him over some of my aloha hens to see what happens. It will be a while before we know if his off spring will lay blue eggs, but from what I've read, they will more than likely feather out black.

I also have a couple White Sport Cream Legbar pullets that I might put with one of my aloha roosters.

 

[alohachickens]

Meet my White Sport Cream Legbar rooster. He decided to run away one night this past winter and lost all his tips due to frost bite. I am putting him over some of my aloha hens to see what happens. It will be a while before we know if his off spring will lay blue eggs, but from what I've read, they will more than likely feather out black.

I also have a couple White Sport Cream Legbar pullets that I might put with one of my aloha roosters.

I have no idea (genetically) what that combo will do, color wise, but will be lovely layers regardless, so just keep me posted!

 

[urbanchicker]

That makes sense on the genetics. I don't care so much about egg color, I was more interested in feather coloring. I will stick with anconas for now, provided I don't lose anymore. I am already down to 1 hen and 1 chick. I did find another spangled bird to test out. While I would have a non-single comb to deal with, it does have yellow legs and mahogany speckles to work with much like the Sussex. A large, tall, slow growing dual purpose bird, not well known as a layer, but with a NHR over it, that should improve right away from what I have read. Waiting for my Spangled Russian Orloff pullets to mature now.

 

[draye]

Here is my Aloha Chicken: I believe this is a pullet. She had me thrown for a while though. Tried to get a picture of her tail feathers, they are extra long for a hen, looks more like a roosters tail.
Well, really she isn't an Aloha, she came from a Naked Neck to a Neck Neck breeding.

This is daddy.


This is mommy. . Not the best of pictures but the best shot I have of her. You can at least see the mottling that she is carrying.

 

[alohachickens]

Here is my Aloha Chicken: I believe this is a pullet. She had me thrown for a while though. Tried to get a picture of her tail feathers, they are extra long for a hen, looks more like a roosters tail.
Well, really she isn't an Aloha, she came from a Naked Neck to a Neck Neck breeding.

This is daddy.


This is mommy. . Not the best of pictures but the best shot I have of her. You can at least see the mottling that she is carrying.

Well, she will be mottled, she will be big. She should be a good layer. Does not look quite like a Sussex, does not look like a Swedish. So I'd call her an Aloha, too!

When I get the Naked Neck pen set up again, we can send you some eggs, Draye. Going to take those same hens and cross with a new rooster. A huge, gorgeous Aloha boy! Not *quite* as much white as that other dude . . . but he's much larger. My neighbors raised him, and he is absolutely as big as the hatchery Rhode Island Red roosters they own. Maybe even a little bigger, in fact? He still has a LOT of white, his tail is almost all white, which is how I can pick him out of the flock easily over there.

-----

Also: that awesome mottled Naked Neck roo went to my friend Deb in Tucson. She will be putting him over Aloha hens. Half the babies will be NN's. We are both very excited to see the results. Deb's friend in Tucson loves the NN chick that I gave her, she will likely take some of the mottled NN chicks, and Deb or I can keep the "regular" neck chicks for the Aloha program. Here's a pic of him again in case y'all forgot:




I think you could easily do a NN x Aloha combo pen. I bet that mottled Mille NN's would likely be great sellers with fans of that breed!

And, it still looks like I got a TON Of NN hens from that pen. I'm so used to getting mostly roosters, it has come as a bit of a shock to see so many NN girls! I can do a "special" pen for a while when they first start laying - though for the long run I will probably only keep 2 of the hens. (I think I have five hens left? I had even more - gave a couple to my friends in Tucson.)

So between Deb's pen and me setting up a new NN pen with the BIG mottled guy, I'm sure we can send a few eggs your way when it cools off. (Might be October?)

 

[draye]

I'm hoping that she will turn out to be big. She is quite the escape artist though, she's found a way into the run next to hers, I have to catch her about every other day and put her back in her pen.

 

[draye]

Oh yes, he'd definatley look good, especially if he was in the pen with my pullet.

This is in regards to the picture of the young cockeral above. I'm on a computer that doen't have an updated browser so it won't let me quote.