The Aloha Chicken Project

[runsw/scissors]

The nice thing with he Reptibator is the temps can go as low (I believe) 70 degrees (farenheit of course) and as high as 104. It is digital and allows me to set humidity as well. It is very deep perhaps 2 feet deep? Which means I have to build it up at the bottom so the eggs will get warm enough... I think just removing 12" or so of the bottom will solve that problem; I just can't cut in straight line and better than I can walk one...

Come spring I'll be buying more chicks and praying that the alohas will start laying again... What a hassle!

 

[alohachickens]

I took a few more photos of some of the Alohas yesterday. They aren't that great of pix, but wanted to share anyway!

Okay, first up, is an Aloha x Swedish Flower rooster. I'm pretty sure his mom was one of my teeny "Confetti" hens. He got her Confetti body color, smaller size, and pink legs. However, you can see size and type was improved by adding Swedish Flower, plus we got the "bonus" of a new color not seen in Swedish!

"Confetti" has been a very easy color to breed for so far, so I can imagine that crossing this guy back to 100% Swedish hens, it could be possible - maybe - to get a 3/4 Swedish chick with the new "Confetti" color. That would be a very fun thing for Swedish Flower breeders! Though I'd really prefer to have one like this with YELLOW legs.

 

[alohachickens]

Meet my new "Main Roo"! This guy is half Swedish. Judging from his bigger size, (almost as big as a full Swedish Flower) and darker brown color, I'd say the remainder of his pedigree is 25% Speckled Sussex and 25% Aloha.

His color is not that of a "normal" Speckled Sussex roo. It also is totally unlike any Swedish Flower rooster I've ever seen! It's new!

If he had yellow legs, I would call this a true Aloha. Although, I would prefer his body color be a touch lighter. Anyway, if you picture yellow legs and a bit lighter tone to the brown, this would be what I've been breeding for:













Much more white and much less black than a "regular" Sussex. Mottled color not seen in any other Standard size breed. Long tail. Single upright comb. Good overall dual-purpose body type. Very flashy!

If I had Photoshop skills, I'd turn his legs yellow and lighten the body color a touch so we could see where we need to go in the next generation. LOL.

 

[alohachickens]

Remember this guy? I've shown photos of him before. This roo contains NO SWEDISH FLOWER BLOOD.






This is the rooster that I gave to my neighbor. He is still alive! For a while he was getting out into their front yard, but they found a fence board that was down and fixed it. Now I throw them treats a couple times a day when I'm feeding my own Alohas, and that has also helped keep them in the yard. Anyway, he said I'm welcome to borrow him back.

So, the red-and-white checkered roo in the previous post, he was half Swedish. This guy has NO Swedish blood. He's Aloha, plus NHR and Buff Rock. He has yellow legs from the Buff Rock and NHR bloodlines. He's also HUGE!!! Totally full size. Maybe not as big as full Buff Rock, but certainly much bigger than a Leghorn rooster. Note his yellow legs? His only flaw is the stubby tail he inherited from the NHR and Buff Rock bloodlines. However, now that he is a full year old (or even older? I'd have to check) his tail has grown a bit more.

I am hoping to cross him with my new 50% Swedish, 50% Aloha hens. I'm hoping to just get a few chicks with the yellow legs from him, and the long tails of the Swedish and Aloha lines.

Resulting chicks would be a mix of about half Aloha, with the rest a mix of Swedish Flower, New Hampshire Red, and Buff Rock.

Next post will show his possible "girlfriends".

 

[alohachickens]

These are half Swedish, half Aloha hens. Note that I do have a few Aloha hens that are half Speckled Sussex, which explains why some of them resemble Speckled Sussex, too.




Above hen is very small. But flashy!

Below hen is not as flashy in color but has better type and is bigger than the original Alohas:



This is the "mystery hen" as I don't know what color this is! She's half Swedish half Aloha as well:



I have a few more half-Swedish half-Aloha hens - I think three more - that are not shown here. Most will be put with the above rooster. The bottom hen, that is mostly white, I am kind of tempted to cross her back to the Swedish rooster to see what happens. I am not sure what color that is! Very odd.

 

[draye]

Remember this guy? I've shown photos of him before. This roo contains NO SWEDISH FLOWER BLOOD.






This is the rooster that I gave to my neighbor. He is still alive! For a while he was getting out into their front yard, but they found a fence board that was down and fixed it. Now I throw them treats a couple times a day when I'm feeding my own Alohas, and that has also helped keep them in the yard. Anyway, he said I'm welcome to borrow him back.

So, the red-and-white checkered roo in the previous post, he was half Swedish. This guy has NO Swedish blood. He's Aloha, plus NHR and Buff Rock. He has yellow legs from the Buff Rock and NHR bloodlines. He's also HUGE!!! Totally full size. Maybe not as big as full Buff Rock, but certainly much bigger than a Leghorn rooster. Note his yellow legs? His only flaw is the stubby tail he inherited from the NHR and Buff Rock bloodlines. However, now that he is a full year old (or even older? I'd have to check) his tail has grown a bit more.

I am hoping to cross him with my new 50% Swedish, 50% Aloha hens. I'm hoping to just get a few chicks with the yellow legs from him, and the long tails of the Swedish and Aloha lines.

Resulting chicks would be a mix of about half Aloha, with the rest a mix of Swedish Flower, New Hampshire Red, and Buff Rock.

Next post will show his possible "girlfriends".

This rooster is very pretty. Do I see some barring type feathers on him? I only bring this up because you have said before that you are trying to avoid the barring gene.
Were he mine I wouldn't hesitate using him, even in my Easter Egger pen. I don't care musch for the barring gene myself it seems to take over. I have used it though in crossing my NN's and EE's and it hasn't shown too much on any that didn;t turn out barred. I did however come out with some pretty colors.

 

[alohachickens]

You're right, Draye, he does have barring! That's why I gave him to my neighbor. I didn't want him to cross with his mom - I have two Confetti hens and to cross him with his barred mom, would mean 1/4 of the resulting chicks would be homozygous for barring. (Meaning they would ONLY have barred chicks.) So he needs to be used very carefully, only on non-barred hens. I couldn't have him over here jumping on all the hens, so I gave him to my neighbor, along with a few non-barred "girlfriends" for him! If I use him, it will be only on a select group of hens, and he'll be stuck inside a breeder pen, poor guy! (No free range time for him, or his genes will cause a mess of barred chicks over here, LOL.)

Since I know only one parent of his carried the Barring, this means only half the chicks will display Barring. I'll cull any roos that carry barring from this cross. The Barring isn't the worst, as far as looks. Like you said, the big issue with Barring is it can totally take over a flock so you have to use it really sparingly!

 

[alohachickens]

Oh, and it's his size, and yellow legs, that I most want anyway . . . plus he clearly carries Mottling, too!

 

[draye]

You're right, Draye, he does have barring! That's why I gave him to my neighbor. I didn't want him to cross with his mom - I have two Confetti hens and to cross him with his barred mom, would mean 1/4 of the resulting chicks would be homozygous for barring. (Meaning they would ONLY have barred chicks.) So he needs to be used very carefully, only on non-barred hens. I couldn't have him over here jumping on all the hens, so I gave him to my neighbor, along with a few non-barred "girlfriends" for him! If I use him, it will be only on a select group of hens, and he'll be stuck inside a breeder pen, poor guy! (No free range time for him, or his genes will cause a mess of barred chicks over here, LOL.)

Since I know only one parent of his carried the Barring, this means only half the chicks will display Barring. I'll cull any roos that carry barring from this cross. The Barring isn't the worst, as far as looks. Like you said, the big issue with Barring is it can totally take over a flock so you have to use it really sparingly!

Oh, and it's his size, and yellow legs, that I most want anyway . . . plus he clearly carries Mottling, too!

I fully understand about the yellow legs and know that is what you are wanting. I can see the mottling in him also.
I understand now about the barring, I don't know much about genetics it just goes right over my head. Mine comes from jsut trying out the breeding of the individuals and if I don't like it I try something else.

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

i am thinking about starting an Aloha project in the spring... my mom has a large hatchery buff orp rooster with yellow legs (he was the only one out of the order with them) and i have about 8 SS hens and 3 roos... a couple of the hens have to much white to use in breeding SS so I'm thinking of crossing the 2 and see what i come up with... i have been following this thread from about page 10 and really like the results so far...