The Aloha Chicken Project

[Deerfield Acres]

Beautiful birds, HEChicken!

Here's my Buff Sussex cock -- try to overlook his funky comb. I had only 2 of these guys and the other guys' wing far less horizontal to the ground so I chose the funky comb as the lesser of two evils.




One of the Buff SX hens.


This is Maddy, the kid's favorite Aloha hen. She is very, very sweet and likes people. The other Aloha looks just like her except no puffy cheeks and a tiny
bit more black.



Here is my Ideal Hatchery Speckled Sussex hen. It's a bit breezy -- there are really no bald spots in her feathers, just the wind disturbing them.

 

[alohachickens]

It is finally above freezing and the snow is melting - yay!!! I took my camera out to get some pics of the NH sons and here they are.



That is my billy goat lying just behind this one, in case you were wondering what the blob is.

The golden tones in the bottom rooster's feathering are just glorious! NHR's are just so pretty.

 

[alohachickens]

Beautiful birds, HEChicken!

Here's my Buff Sussex cock -- try to overlook his funky comb. I had only 2 of these guys and the other guys' wing far less horizontal to the ground so I chose the funky comb as the lesser of two evils.




One of the Buff SX hens.


This is Maddy, the kid's favorite Aloha hen. She is very, very sweet and likes people. The other Aloha looks just like her except no puffy cheeks and a tiny
bit more black.



Here is my Ideal Hatchery Speckled Sussex hen. It's a bit breezy -- there are really no bald spots in her feathers, just the wind disturbing them.

Interesting! So my Buff Sussex rooster - both Dad and Son - do show a little white mottling. There just must be a bit of Speckled breeding lurking. Boy did I luck out getting one that carried the gene already!

Really, all four of these are nice, and I can see how crossing and back-crossing only these four would get you some lovely Alohas in a few years. (Even if you had nothing else to work with!) The puffy cheeks could be bred out. But the hen does have great white spotting and I see the yellow legs! And the Speckled hen, she doesn't have a ridiculous amount of white, but it is more than what I've seen on a lot of hens, that's for sure! And it is very nicely placed. Lovely chickies!!!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Interesting! So my Buff Sussex rooster - both Dad and Son - do show a little white mottling. There just must be a bit of Speckled breeding lurking. Boy did I luck out getting one that carried the gene already!

Really, all four of these are nice, and I can see how crossing and back-crossing only these four would get you some lovely Alohas in a few years. (Even if you had nothing else to work with!) The puffy cheeks could be bred out. But the hen does have great white spotting and I see the yellow legs! And the Speckled hen, she doesn't have a ridiculous amount of white, but it is more than what I've seen on a lot of hens, that's for sure! And it is very nicely placed. Lovely chickies!!!

You really did luck out on those boys! Pretty cool.

My Alohas hadn't laid for quite some time but both of them have started laying again! I am so thrilled. I thought they were done. They have pinched tails but not as bad as some so I wondered why they had quit laying already. Maybe they were having pecking order issues? I don't know but they've been penned while I gathered eggs from the Sussex.

I just really want to get those quality Speckleds on board to cross with the Buff. Meantime, I am going to play with the one Speckled I have and see what happens. Should be fun. But I do think I have enough to work with. I think the two Alohas (both have bright yellow legs

), now that they're laying, will be crossed this fall with whatever cock I get from my Buff/Ideal Sussex cross. Then it should get interesting and will improve size a bit while I am waiting on those Walt'z Ark Speckleds to mature. So the Alohas are 2 years old now and the Buff Sussex and Speckled are a full year. So I won't be hatching any pullet eggs this time around. That will be interesting. Tomorrow I will be candling the eggs I put in the incubator last week and I am anxious to see if they are fertile. My cock is a real clutz and they have so many feathers "back there" that I may have to trim feathers. I just cringe everytime I see him jump on the girls because he's not very gentle and then he tends to fall off a couple times before he gets the job done. Sheesh.

Those New Hamps are stunningly colored. They look like a bonfire!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Here's a shot of my other Aloha. She looks to be part Buff Orpington with that "cushion" right before the tail. I did have some Buff Orps in the mix early on. My Buff Sussex have that cushion also and it's not something I would want to keep but it's okay for now. Anyway, she's a pretty girl. I like her body shape overall and I like her spotting. A bit more size and body width with this coloring would be nice. I love the butter colored birds too. This one is more carmel -- her name is Carmelita. It's not a real good shot of her legs but she does have pretty yellow legs.

 

[alohachickens]

Here's a shot of my other Aloha. She looks to be part Buff Orpington with that "cushion" right before the tail. I did have some Buff Orps in the mix early on. My Buff Sussex have that cushion also and it's not something I would want to keep but it's okay for now. Anyway, she's a pretty girl. I like her body shape overall and I like her spotting. A bit more size and body width with this coloring would be nice. I love the butter colored birds too. This one is more carmel -- her name is Carmelita. It's not a real good shot of her legs but she does have pretty yellow legs.

I agree with you, not a big fan of the cushion either, but I feel pretty sure there are MANY people who would adore a flock of spotty Orp-sized girls like her. LOL! Now just how to get the size that large?

So far the ginormous Light Sussex chickens seem to add the most "ooomph" to size. I say that because the Cinnamon Sussex that I got, were half Light Sussex. The Cinnamon Sussex (basically, light sussex) hen, when crossed with the Waltz's Ark rooster, had chicks that were LARGER than the pure Buff Sussex. And - some were Buffs! So looks like you can "pull" Buff out of a Light Sussex.

So anyway, when looking at build, size, etc - I am starting to eyeball the Light Sussex a bit, now that I've tried a test breeding and got a Buff Sussex out of a Light Sussex. What do you think of the idea? Looking towards super-mega-huge Light Sussex to add size to basically, everything? There would be a ton of Light Sussex marked chicks to cull, but at least they would be visible VERY early. Ha ha ha. Do you think it would work?

I am still a little confused on how the Light Sussex (silver?) color gene works. From what I was told, it is sex linked. So I think, if the hens are light, and the roos are red or buff, then you should get some red or buff chicks??? I believe?

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I read on Walt'z Ark's site that the Light Sussex is used to keep the black markings distinct in the Buff, so you are so right about using them! That ought to be a very exciting cross. I have no clue how the Light color works but it would be fun to see what you come up with!

The Light Sussex not only are larger but they lay more prolifically and a larger egg than the Buff Sussex. I am really excited about getting some of those Lights with the Speckleds coming from Walt'z Ark this Spring. I should try crossing the Lights with my Alohas while I am working on getting a Mille Sussex. Then cross the Milles and Light/Alohas. Then I'll have to figure out the yellow legs if I don't get any from the Light/Aloha cross.

I don't know why I didn't think of this!

I would never have tried that Turken cross but it is amazing what happened there. The color range is just incredible. Very nice.

 

[alohachickens]

I read on Walt'z Ark's site that the Light Sussex is used to keep the black markings distinct in the Buff, so you are so right about using them! That ought to be a very exciting cross. I have no clue how the Light color works but it would be fun to see what you come up with!

The Light Sussex not only are larger but they lay more prolifically and a larger egg than the Buff Sussex. I am really excited about getting some of those Lights with the Speckleds coming from Walt'z Ark this Spring. I should try crossing the Lights with my Alohas while I am working on getting a Mille Sussex. Then cross the Milles and Light/Alohas. Then I'll have to figure out the yellow legs if I don't get any from the Light/Aloha cross.

I don't know why I didn't think of this!

I would never have tried that Turken cross but it is amazing what happened there. The color range is just incredible. Very nice.

The Light Sussex color is super confusing to me. A kind BYC'er (the fellow who got Mille Sussex by crossing Speckled Sussex and Light Sussex) tried really hard to explain it to me, but I still had a very tough time understanding. I guess because it is a "sex linked" color. From what I think I understand, based on what he told me, (remember I could be wrong here!!!) it sounds like the Light Sussex "takes over" the color of the hens. So if you crossed Light Sussex roo over Speckled hens, all the babies would look like Light Sussex?

But then that rooster would carry one gene for Silver (which I guess is what they call that white color with the black neck? I think?) and one gene for the Buff or Red colors. Cross that rooster back to Speckleds or Buffs and I think he said half the chicks would most likely look like Speckled Sussex? Anyway, he said the reason he even tried Light Sussex to Speckled Sussex, was because he was trying to make bigger, better looking, show quality Speckled Sussex by using an awesome big Light Sussex. When he back-crossed the Light Sussex / Speckled Sussex to each others, a couple of MILLE SUSSEX appeared out of nowhere!!! So he got the Mille Sussex by accident. His goal was just to improve size and body on Speckleds.

He said by far the majority looked like Speckled Sussex and the Mille Sussex only appeared twice out of like 100 chicks or something?

Anyway, it was cool that he did do a test, though, and proved you could use Light Sussex to improve a Mottled type bird. So if you end up with an extra Light Sussex rooster, and cross him with the Aloha hens probably the chicks will look like crappy Light Sussex. But supposedly if you cross them back to other stuff - like a Speckled Sussex rooster - you will get some Mottled babies again in the offspring. He said it is really about the ROOSTER. Like the roo has to have one parent that is Buff, or some form of Red, (like Speckled Sussex is like red with a black overlay, the black overlay is what turns Red to Mahogany.) If the rooster is a "pure" Light Sussex, he made it sound like ALL the chicks will have the Light Sussex coloring? That seems to be the case in my Alohas - that Dun Sussex rooster when crossed to Alohas made these funky-colored pale hens:


Bottom hen - Tiny Aloha mom, Light Sussex (with Dun gene) Dad. I am guessing if you crossed a Light Sussex boy with your Alohas, the chicks would look like this, except the gray areas on my hen are Dun, and on your chicks, those areas would be Black? I will have to do test breedings to see what happens the next generations. Just been hurt this season without the breeder pens set up yet. So a lot of this is really up in the air. Will keep you posted. Until I play with it some more, I don't know what kind of chicks I'm going to get next!

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I know that this is TOTALLY the definition of "counting chickens before they hatch" but please keep me posted here, of progress with your Waltz's Ark chicks. I know we're talking months before you get them and longer before they start to lay - and sadly so much can happen in the meantime - but if you get Light Sussex hens to cross over Buff Sussex roos, please let me know if I can try buying some eggs from you.

I will of course look into buying some Light Sussex hatching eggs online, I did see one Ebay seller of Light Sussex eggs in CA, which is close enough that I might get OK hatch rates even on shipped eggs. It sure is tough, though, to look at paying $48 to $55 for Light Sussex eggs on Ebay, and realizing that for one, I really need a BUFF rooster over light hens so they won't be Homozygous for the white/silver color. And second, that odds are that I would only get 2-3 chicks to hatch, at best. Shipped eggs do so horribly in general, esp. coming long distances like the Speckled Sussex eggs that I just bought from "down south". They had to travel REALLY far. Third, the guy who tried to explain this to me, said you need hens that carry Buff or Red, and you need to put them under a Buff or Red rooster. So not only would I need my shipped Light Sussex eggs to hatch, I would need to get at least one or two HENS to hatch. Argh! So I could put them under a Speckled Sussex, Buff Sussex, or red/gold spotty Aloha rooster.

The box of Specked Sussex eggs that I bought off of Ebay had an unusually rough trip. I very rarely get a box from USPS with a crushed side, like this box had. I send fragile things via USPS all the time and typically the crazy box-crushing is not a Post Office thing but a UPS thing. LOL. This box DID show visible damage. You have to slam a box pretty hard to do that. It looks like only 3 eggs of the 18 he sent are developing. There is a 4th that I think started to form and is now dead, but I left it in the 'bator in case I'm wrong. If I am lucky, looking at two chicks to hatch, at best? Which means I'd be paying $15 per chick when all is said and done. LOL! And that's IF they hatch - they are due the 15th so will find out soon!

However, I just need a spotty Sussex rooster from this batch, that I can put over Buff Sussex or the Light Sussex (dun) hen. In theory, the babies would all carry spots and could possibly give me Mille Sussex when crossed back together in the next generation?

The Light Sussex thing could be helpful, but trying to figure it out kind of makes my brain hurt. LOL.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I would be more than happy to send you some of my Buff roo over Light Sussex hen eggs this fall, if everything goes right.

No way will I let you pay for the eggs, just pay for shipping. I seriously owe you eggs! So, if all goes well with the "counting our chickens before they hatch", I would be happy to send them your way.

Thanks for sharing what you learned about how the Light/Buff/ and Speckled interact even though it has given me a headache as well. Yikes! This fall that information will prove invaluable as I won't have to just "trial and error" it.

I will refer back to this to make sure I remember how best to cross the birds. It should get interesting. The Buff birds I got from Walt'z Ark have been so easy to raise health-wise. I have high hopes for the Speckleds from there as well. Maybe finally I will get some Speckleds I can enjoy for a long time.

That is really disappointing to hear about your Ebay eggs.

So I have 23 eggs in one incubator and 28 in another. First batch will hatch 3/23 and second 3/30. Most of them are pure Buff Sussex but I let the Speckled Sussex stay out with the Buffs so her eggs are in there as well. I can't wait to see how they turn out. The Buffs are all yellow when they come out so I am thinking the Speckleds will be easily identifiable. I am so excited to see what happens. I will sell most of the Buff Sussex but thought I would hang onto the crossed birds for awhile.

 

[alohachickens]

Quote: Oooh, I can't wait to see what you get from that cross, either! It will be fun to see what the F1 Buff over Speckled hens look like! Will they be solid Mahogany? My roo carried Mottling, so the first generation Buff over Speckled look like . . . Speckled Sussex.

Though of course the speckles are small, becuase the Buff Sussex rooster, while he carried Mottling, only showed a few tiny stray whites - he was not a "true" Mille Sussex, as my hunch was Waltz's Ark just grabbed a Speckled to use in the program to keep them from becoming inbred a few generations back. Kind of a needed thing, since so few of the Buffs were imported by Greenfire.

Still, the Speckleds that I did get, do show some Mottling and are half Buff Sussex! Good enough for now.