The Aloha Chicken Project

[Deerfield Acres]

Won't I be surprised if I absolutely cannot tell the difference between the two!

LOL!

 

[alohachickens]

Well, the shipped Sussex eggs did not hatch. One pipped, and nothing from the others!

I was so disappointed that I stuck some of my hatched chicks under two broodies. One is a Silkie. Silkies are pets, not part of the program, so perfect chick-mom for "foster chicks". I gave her six Naked Neck Aloha chicks to raise.

The other nen is one of my best Alohas - who I *really* need to get past this broody business. (Because I need her to LAY EGGS for me to hatch!) I had a couple more NN's hatch, then I picked out about a dozen other random Aloha chicks for her to take care of.

Temps are unusually warm here in Phoenix. Typical temps are 75 this time of year, but we have been pushing 90 degrees! So will probably only need the Momma hens for about two, maybe three weeks tops, then I can pull them and raise just the babies in the rabbit hutch out there.

Need to note the hatch date here for future reference, in case any of these babies end up looking awesome! Hatched 3/12 - 3/15.

About 8 are Aloha NN's - plus 12-15 random bred Aloha chicks, picked out mostly based on largest size hatched from 80 chicks.

Also, I shipped 30 chicks to a potential breeder in New Mexico. She's in a small town a few hours from El Paso, TX.

 

[alohachickens]

Not many changes on the chicks, but took pics since I was out there anyway.

This one NN hen is looking WAY better than the others in terms of color. I may keep ONLY her, and sell the other two:




Since I do have the broodies raising 8 more NN Aloha babies for me. Plus the older two hens and two roos, that are pushing 4 months now. Plus my friend Deb in Tucson got about a dozen NN Aloha chicks, and I see four nicely colored hens in the pics she sent me. And my neighbor next door, I gave her about a dozen NN Aloha chicks. I'm getting to the point with these, that I can almost afford to be picky.

 

[alohachickens]

My biggest "hurting" point right now is that I have not had what I consider a really OUTSTANDING boy, despite raising quite a few roos.

I currently have three very COLORFUL and beautifully marked boys, who are not big enough.

Plus I have Thing 1 and Thing 2, who are not colorful, but decent size and body type.

And I have one Buff Sussex who shows a trace of Mottling. Big body, yes, but pink legs, smallish comb, stubby tail - all traits I'm not wanting in Alohas?

So I'm excited about these boys:




The Light Dun Sussex with yellow feet - who might carry Mottling? (No way to tell.) I'm now thinking I'll keep him and cross with my teeny colorful Alohas to improve body type, because he is fabulously put together and very large. And, at least he does have yellow legs, so that's an improvement (for my program, anyway) over using a regular Light Sussex.


This guy is still looking good, but many months to go!

His brother has pink legs, but might even be a teeny bit larger in size. Not taller, but possibly wider through the shoulder and chest:


There are other chicks in there showing promise. Two possible hens with lots of white and yellow legs?

But the youngest chicks are almost 3 weeks younger than the oldest chicks, so it's difficult to compare size. I'm just going to wait it out a bit. But the four that I highlighted here are for sure keepers. Plus probably two or three of the others. And then I'm seeing four more that are kind of not impressing me at this point. Will probably cull those in the next few weeks.

Remember I started with twice this many and culled the smaller and less colorful ones already - so looking at going down to maybe 6 or 8 teens, out of 20-some chicks, to raise to adulthood.

The new babies in with the broodies in the rabbit hutch - I plan on doing the same thing. Have to keep numbers down as much as possible because my feed bill is so high!

 

[Valencia7]

Great project! Very ambitious, I was reading Darw about having again chickens, since he lives no far from me, and got curious reading about the Aloha hens. I would love to add two aloha pullets, thinking about getting 4 pullets in the side front empty coop. Are u still trying to get the size and good layer characteristics on the brown spotted hens?
The ones that just hatched from Chetoo Ro...

Let me know if u have any available.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

This is my one and only Buff Sussex/Ideal Speckled Sussex cross but how cute is that? I am calling it a he because he acts like a cockerel and has enormous feet which you can't see well in the pic but trust me, they are enormous. He has a little black spot on his head, a bit of black on his wings, back and tail. Who knows how this little one will turn out but if it's a male, I may have something to use for my 2 Alohas and 2 half Aloha/half Buffs. Should be fun.

So --

I had about 7 eggs of the Buff/Speckled cross. Those and the rest of 51 eggs in two separate incubators did NOTHING. Nothing, I'm telling you. I talk to my eggs thinking they will recognize my voice once they've hatched. I talked to blanks for weeks. My teens are having a great time with this one after their initial sympathy. Not only am I suffering a great loss of anticipated birds and some were pre-sold, I am now a figure of fun to my scoffing children. Oh well.

My Buff Sussex are the cutest, fluffiest birds. FLUFFIEST, not being an attribute when it comes to fertility. Those eggs were not fertile due to all that cute fluff, just like the English Orps. You know, you have to TRIM THE FLUFF so the action has a result. Lesson learned.

So, last Friday I realized things had gone seriously, hopelessly, awry and I was going to have one lone bird and none of the birds I had planned to raise, caponize and process. I promptly ordered White Rocks (not the crosses) from two different places and one of the places didn't have Whites but did have Columbian Rocks. All males except for 6 female Columbian Rocks because I needed a few more egg layers.This little guy hatched during the night and this morning I picked up my first batch of 25 and this afternoon the second batch of 25, so he has plenty of friends just in the nick of time. I have separated him with the pullets and am keeping them in my craftroom in their own brooder under the Brinsea Eco50 so I can keep an eye on he and the girls and they won't have any problems from the other crazy vigorous cockerels in the main brooder. They are so cute but they are wild!

The breeder Buffs have had their bums properly trimmed and so I will begin collecting eggs soon and try again but won't hatch as many since I don't want to process birds in August. I may try for just a few more Buff/Speckled crosses just for fun, but the Buff chicks I had presold I need to get those taken care of as the customers are patiently waiting. Sheesh!

 

[draye]

Only day 19 on this hatch and guess which ones are the first to start popping.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Only day 19 on this hatch and guess which ones are the first to start popping.

Which? Enquiring minds want to know!

 

[draye]

The Alohas. Must be the Banty blood in them.

 

[draye]

Well it was day 20 not 19. Still though they are the first ones and so far the only ones hatched. 5 so far. Congratulations Sommer you're a grandma.