The Aloha Chicken Project

[HEChicken]

Well that sounds exciting Sommer! I've been preparing to get my Exchequer and first gen mixes separated into the hoop coop with a NH rooster. However.....every time I think I'll move them, the weather forecast calls for some potentially severe weather so I keep putting it off, not wanting the birds to be in the hoop coop - which provides less shelter from the elements - if a big storm hits. So far we've escaped with only a few hours of power out and no limbs down (unlike Deerfield, just 30 minutes away!) but the next one could be the one that affects us. More severe weather is forecast for the next 48 hoursbut once this storm passes, if there isn't much else in the forecast, I'll try to get them separated. Once I do that I'll have to wait a week or two before starting to incubate eggs as I don't want to risk them being fertilized by one of my other roosters. But I have already have several broody hens waiting for eggs to hatch and/or chicks to raise so I'll have no shortage of takers once I do have the eggs I want to incubate

 

[Deerfield Acres]

My birds will all be in the main coop for tomorrow's expected severe weather, also. I sure hope they're wrong.

Here are some pics of my breeder Buff Sussex/hatchery Speckled Sussex chick who is one week old yesterday. I am pleased with the chick for several reasons.

1. Width of stance. The distance between its legs is very good.


2. Do those legs look yellow to you? Must have been something in the mix somewhere but I believe this is from the Speckled Sussex hen. The others were pinned at the time. Unless one of my dear children slipped an Aloha egg in there. They claim not.

3. I think it's a pullet. I know it's not a sure thing but I don't have one cockerel with any tail feathers yet, but look at these:


I was thinking it was a cockerel until it sprouted tail feathers.


I wish all of them had hatched!

 

[alohachickens]

My birds will all be in the main coop for tomorrow's expected severe weather, also. I sure hope they're wrong.

Here are some pics of my breeder Buff Sussex/hatchery Speckled Sussex chick who is one week old yesterday. I am pleased with the chick for several reasons.

1. Width of stance. The distance between its legs is very good.


2. Do those legs look yellow to you? Must have been something in the mix somewhere but I believe this is from the Speckled Sussex hen. The others were pinned at the time. Unless one of my dear children slipped an Aloha egg in there. They claim not.

3. I think it's a pullet. I know it's not a sure thing but I don't have one cockerel with any tail feathers yet, but look at these:


I was thinking it was a cockerel until it sprouted tail feathers.


I wish all of them had hatched!

Nice looking chick! So bummed you didn't get more. Well, that happens - don't count your chickens had to come from somewhere. LOL. Like last year when I bumped the thermostat on my big incubator and "cooked" about 300 eggs? Yeah. That stuff happens. Ooops.

Your one big colorful Aloha hen is a real beauty. (The one you shared earlier in a previous post.) Is there even an extra Sussex rooster she can be crossed with?

Maybe even just getting some Aloha / Buff Sussex chicks might offer a nice boost? Those chicks would surely CARRY some color from your flashy Aloha girls. The Aloha / Buff Sussex crosses could then be mixed with maybe a Speckled Sussex to get nice 3/4 Sussex "base stock" for new breeders? Or, if you provided folks with nice (mostly Sussex bloodline) hens, I could send someone a few hatching eggs to get a colorful Aloha rooster via US Post Office. (It is much harder to build a flock of nice hens with shipped eggs, but getting a couple of pretty boys to hatch is not a big deal.)

Especially since y'all are right - I really need to focus more on body type, and robust size, not just color. Getting a few Aloha roosters to hatch from shipped eggs sent to various folks would not really be a problem - but getting nice BIG hens to cross with the roosters hatched from shipped eggs is a much bigger chore.

Deerfield, if you want to work on Aloha cross hens - maybe Buff Sussex / Aloha - that could be a huge help? Provided the Aloha eggs are different enough in color that they wouldn't muck up and confuse the hatching of your pure Buff Sussex chicks? (If you already have buyers set up for the pure Buff Sussex, I totally understand that MUST take priority!)

 

[alohachickens]

Just a weird note about techniques to mark specific hen's eggs, if you have a random hen (like an Aloha!) in a coop of other chickens and want to tell whose egg is from which hen.

Someone here on BYC shared that you could put a couple drops of food coloring (blue, green, etc) in a hen's vent, and the eggs she would lay would be streaked with whatever color for a few days. I have never tried it - though it sounds like it would work?

Although I would make certain that little jar of food coloring ALWAYS stayed in the coop after that. Chicken butt cupcakes? NO THANKS. Ewwwwwww.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Nice looking chick! So bummed you didn't get more. Well, that happens - don't count your chickens had to come from somewhere. LOL. Like last year when I bumped the thermostat on my big incubator and "cooked" about 300 eggs? Ouch! Yeah. That stuff happens. Ooops.

Your one big colorful Aloha hen is a real beauty. (The one you shared earlier in a previous post.) Is there even an extra Sussex rooster she can be crossed with? Not even one. I bought all those Tony Albritton SSX last year and they died one after the other while the Buff Sussex from a different breeder thrived.

Maybe even just getting some Aloha / Buff Sussex chicks might offer a nice boost? As soon as the severe weather moves out, I'll get started collecting those eggs. Those chicks would surely CARRY some color from your flashy Aloha girls. The Aloha / Buff Sussex crosses could then be mixed with maybe a Speckled Sussex to get nice 3/4 Sussex "base stock" for new breeders? My grand plan is to take the best Columbian Rock cockerel from the batch of chicks I have now and cross it with the Speckled Sussex hens I get from the breeder in CO. Then cross the chicks from the Buff Sussex over Aloha with those in order to maybe get some really sizable birds with yellow legs. By this fall things will get really exciting here, if all goes according to plan. I hope I will be looking over the birds that are going to provide the first of my line of Alohas. I know there will still be plenty of work to do. So even though I didn't get the hatch I wanted, it forced me to look for birds to replace them for the table and it provided a piece of the puzzle of what to do about those white legs. So maybe this messed up hatch was a blessing in disguise. Or, if you provided folks with nice (mostly Sussex bloodline) hens, that will work I could send someone a few hatching eggs to get a colorful Aloha rooster via US Post Office. (It is much harder to build a flock of nice hens with shipped eggs, but getting a couple of pretty boys to hatch is not a big deal.)

Especially since y'all are right - I really need to focus more on body type, and robust size, not just color. Getting a few Aloha roosters to hatch from shipped eggs sent to various folks would not really be a problem - but getting nice BIG hens to cross with the roosters hatched from shipped eggs is a much bigger chore.

Deerfield, if you want to work on Aloha cross hens - maybe Buff Sussex / Aloha - that could be a huge help? Provided the Aloha eggs are different enough in color they are much darker and I can put them in separate bators that they wouldn't muck up and confuse the hatching of your pure Buff Sussex chicks? (If you already have buyers set up for the pure Buff Sussex, I totally understand that MUST take priority!)

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Just a weird note about techniques to mark specific hen's eggs, if you have a random hen (like an Aloha!) in a coop of other chickens and want to tell whose egg is from which hen.

Someone here on BYC shared that you could put a couple drops of food coloring (blue, green, etc) in a hen's vent, and the eggs she would lay would be streaked with whatever color for a few days. I have never tried it - though it sounds like it would work?

Although I would make certain that little jar of food coloring ALWAYS stayed in the coop after that. Chicken butt cupcakes? NO THANKS. Ewwwwwww.

Great idea -- but even putting it in the coop wouldn't keep my kids from doing something totally insane like putting it back in the kitchen. Just when you think they are getting old enough to not do horrifying things, they do anyway! I'll have to hide it in a jar marked Poison!

 

[alohachickens]

Wow, Deerfield - your "Master Plan" is actually very brilliant!

I think if you're up to it, we should make you a good "go-to" source for "BIG" chicken stock that will be compatible with the "original" true Aloha base stock that I've got here.

Please carry on with this plan - it's terrific! Hatch hatch hatch like crazy so I can send people to you to buy hens.

A-HEM . . . assuming the chickens will cooperate with FERTILE eggs for you . .. argh!

 

[alohachickens]

I'm about to list some culls on Craigslist and thought I'd share my "rejects" with you guys, just because. Then I'll go on with some keepers. Okay, this is from about 20 chicks of various ages that I pulled. So far, I've got two promising roosters, one promising hen, (the Naked Neck) and a lot of "meh" otherwise.

I'm keeping some of the "meh" hens because why not give them a chance to see how they develop, I can always sell hens. But I'm selling a few of the extra boys to make room and lower the feed bills.

Okay, here's the four boys I'm culling now:


Really big, but not enough white spotting and no yellow legs. If I want big, no spots and pink legs, the pure Buff Sussex will do. LOL.


Very Speckled Sussex-y - probably from the Speckled Sussex hens and ??? rooster. Not a ton of white, not super light either. Keeping his brother who ALSO looks very much like a Speckled Sussex - but the brother has a TON of white on his chest. Yay. So this boy's going to a new home.


This guy is the nicest of the culls, but I have three keepers already to grow out.

If he had yellow legs, I may have let him grow out. But he will surely drop all that white spotting in a couple months and end up basically solid colored. If I want basically solid light brown with pink legs, I have Thing 1, Think 2, and the Buff Sussex, ha ha.


I've got two Naked Neck roosters WITH spots, so this guy can move on.

Also have a few hens that I'm culling:


Hen lacks spots.


Smaller size, no spots. If she had either spots OR better size, I would hang onto her a bit.


This one is possibly a rooster, possibly a hen? Not crazy about build, not a ton of white. Will probably sell him or her.

 

[alohachickens]

A few of the keepers! Keeping THREE boys.

1. One Speckled Sussex-y boy who has lots of white. (Could not get good photo)

2. GIANT white rooster with Dun neck and brown spot on chest.

3. Big boy with lots of white and yellow legs, good size. (See photos)

4. On the fence about #4 - an Aloha rooster with TONS of white - currently about 90% white but he will drop a ton of that as he matures. I may grow him out, as he looks small, but he might just be a couple of weeks younger than the others? Was given back to me from a neighbor who I gave some chicks to. He may not be "small" but just a bit younger than the rest!

Got better photos of the best Aloha boy:


Blurry photo shows size. He is not as big or round as the Light Sussex / Aloha cross rooster. However, he's not TINY either! Check it out, he's very respectable size. Yay!


Another pic of him with the group. You can see he's smaller than the Dun Light Sussex cross, who towers over all of them, but he is much bigger than the solid Naked Neck Aloha hen.




Very light base color. Little flecks of black for contrast. Tons of white. Nice long tail and big comb. Yellow legs.

If he keeps a good amount of this white spotting, he might be a fabulous boy for the Buff Sussex type hens.

Here's a better shot of the Aloha Naked Neck hen. Naked Neck, or solid neck - she is still the best colored hen in the group!


True "Mille" color in any large breed hen is hard to find. Pink legs are a bummer, but that tells me Dad would probably be Thing 1 or Thing 2 - and both of those boys are REALLY well put together, so she may grow into a nicely formed girl. Here's a pic of one of the Things again - pretty sure this would be her daddy?

 

[alohachickens]

My friend in Tucson, Deb, shared a photo of "Robin". He was the F1 (First Generation) Naked Neck x Aloha cross who was too good to cull.

I still can't figure out how he ended up so spotty? Only one other F1 hen has small amounts of spotting.

How funny that the best Aloha rooster that I bred last year happens to be a Naked Neck! I am in love with his super pale Mille coloring. I am going to give Deb a few of my larger Buff colored Aloha hens so she can put them with Robin and hatch chicks over the summer. Isn't he cool?