The Aloha Chicken Project

[notinoz2007]

oh, forgot to mention that i started fermenting my feed yesterday and fed it to them today. they ate it like my kids eat ice cream! loved every bit, i even gave them some more this evening, they really like it so i hope the benefits start to kick in.

i also started growing fodder for them, since i have no grass here and they dont free range much anymore (they ate every single bit of vegetable i planted this season). i sprouted wheat berries yesterday and if all goes well, in 6 more days i will have 2 or 3 inches of wheat grass for them to eat. wont they be so happy?!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

oh, forgot to mention that i started fermenting my feed yesterday and fed it to them today. they ate it like my kids eat ice cream! loved every bit, i even gave them some more this evening, they really like it so i hope the benefits start to kick in.

i also started growing fodder for them, since i have no grass here and they dont free range much anymore (they ate every single bit of vegetable i planted this season). i sprouted wheat berries yesterday and if all goes well, in 6 more days i will have 2 or 3 inches of wheat grass for them to eat. wont they be so happy?!

If your birds are like mine, you'll start to see results within a week and a half. Their combs get bright, bright red and feathers look shinier. It's so exciting to see and I loved their enthusiasm for the feed! That's really fun.

I had to take a break from fermenting when I didn't get over the flu after a couple weeks. It's just not something I feel comfortable turning over to the kids. Kids always think they know what they're doing but I didn't want them to let it get bad and make the birds sick. The birds and the kids would have suffered. I haven't restarted it yet, since I'm not fully recovered and don't know for certain I won't have to go for more tests next week. I just got out of the hospital the day before Thanksgiving. I've hatched out approx 40 chicks from my flock and do have some interesting birds coming up. I can't wait to see how they turn out!

 

[alohachickens]

tam'ra your chicks are beautiful, i really love those spots!

sommer, bad news - we had to scrap the mr yellow project. that crazy roo has been crowing at night (about 3 nights a week) and i finally had to get rid of him. last night at 1 am he was crowing so i put him in the laundry room and found a new home for him today. he was really small anyway so its not a complete disappointment for me. i mean REALLY small. one of my 5 weeks old female chicks is already half his size so i have hope for this generation.
speaking of the 5 week olds, i kept my favorite most beautiful, LARGE spotted girl and rehomed the rest of the yellow legged ones to my friend in phx - included in that batch was another large female and a large roo both with great color, so maybe this spring i'll grab some of her fertile eggs and put them in the bator.

any contact info for laree? i can get her these hens asap, and save a ton of money on my feed bill by switching to fewer mouths to feed!

Oh, I understand! Adding yellow legs is good, but tiny size is bad, and annoying the neighbors is REALLY bad! No worries.

I'll PM you with Laree's contact info. Sorry for not responding earlier, I haven't been on here for a while! Just been busy.

 

[alohachickens]

Thought I should post an update since I have some nice new pictures.

I have been watching "The Nine" grow up since the day digit appeared with the little surprises in tow. Even my roomies (who shake their heads and roll their eyes at my strange project) have independently remarked how beautiful they all are. Most of my flock is spots now...

Here's my sneaky hen, Digit, who hatched these lovely babies, with two of the little ones behind her. Digit has already disowned them, though, and they spend more time with my frizzled EE, who seems, strangely, to enjoy the company of the teenagers no one else will tolerate.

Below, Digit (mom) at left, and Twisty the Speckled Sussex (dad?) at right, two daughters between them.

Here are the nine chicks all hanging out together.

Closeup of cockeral 1

Cockeral 2

Cockeral 3

Cockerals 4, 5, and 6 (6, the pale one, is the only one showing barring- Huzzah!)

Pullet- "Iffy" (she had me confused for a while about her gender. I suppose she's just an early bloomer)

Pullet "Izzy" (so much resemblance to my missing Larry!)

Pullet "Ix" (She is the largest of the nine and the only one without yellow legs- go figure! She takes after the Sussex a lot!)

And an updated picture of Sokka, my beloved cockeral. He is still a little skinny, but he gets prettier every day. He has started crowing now and doing other roosterly things, but he is still a sweetie! A vast improvement over his father.

Digit turned out so pretty! My favorites are #3, Iffy, and Izzy. Lots of spots and yellow legs too. Nice!

And your roo is a cutie, too!

The checks from my breeder pen (featuring two sons of Cheeto) are feathering out more each day, but they still look pretty "ragged" with half fluff down, and half feathers. When they totally feather out, I'll take some pics. But, most are now showing some white feathering. Big question is, will they keep it?

 

[alohachickens]

Derek brought over a new rooster for me from chicks he'd hatched last spring. He said there were three boys like this, but this was the only one with yellow legs.








His good points: Long flowy tail. Stout (thick and heavy) body shape with lots of "meat" on it - not "gamey" at all. Upright comb. Yellow legs. Visible white. Little black.

His bad points: Small. Would like to see even more white. Small. Did I mention, he's small? LOL! So anyway, his body shape and color suggest he's related to Cheeto, but man, his size is just not so great. He's not ridiculously tiny, but I will probably see zero size improvement to anything I cross him with.

So, I was going to use him to cross to a few hens, mostly to add the yellow legs. The babies could have nice colored feathers and hopefully some yellow legs in there too. I have lots of beautiful (but small) hens that I should be able to cross to a pure Sussex roo to improve size, but since they have pink legs and a Sussex would have pink legs, I'm not sure where I'd introduce the yellow leg color.

Maybe if I can breed some super-colorful hens WITH yellow legs (even though they are small) perhaps I can cross those with Sussex.

My hens were posing, here's a good view of some of my very pretty (but smaller) hens:




This row of hens is a good pic. Look at all the color! But if you count from the front (left) to the back hen (right) only hen #3 and hen #7 have yellow legs. So maybe I'll toss the orange mottled roo with the yellow legs (Should I call him "Tang"?) in with some of these super-colorful hens for a few weeks. I'd love to get some more super-colorful hens like this but with yellow legs, please!!!

Note the two "solid" hens with no visible spots, it's obvious why they are there. No color, but you can see in this pic they are larger, and both carry Mottling.

Here are more pics of the colorful smaller girls:

 

[notinoz2007]

His good points: Long flowy tail. Stout (thick and heavy) body shape with lots of "meat" on it - not "gamey" at all. Upright comb. Yellow legs. Visible white. Little black.

His bad points: Small. Would like to see even more white. Small. Did I mention, he's small? LOL! So anyway, his body shape and color suggest he's related to Cheeto, but man, his size is just not so great. He's not ridiculously tiny, but I will probably see zero size improvement to anything I cross him with.

my goodness look at that tail... i am so jealous, its beautiful.

 

[runsw/scissors]

I have to agree, that is one yummy tail on him!

I have two that I hatched (my hatch rates are really dismal) one of which is a roo, at about 8 weeks he has a bright red comb already. He also has blue/grey legs with feathered feet

I have one large looking possible hen that is 3 weeks younger. She is already larger than he is so I am pleased! I'll get pictures once they lose their ratty betwixt chick/juvenile feathering. She looks to orange/pumpkin coloured with white spots.

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

I see Barring on the boys hackle,saddle and faintly on tailfeathers...

Yeah, he has barring and his legs are not yellow. But he's such a good boy that even if his little brothers outshine him, he will not be stewed. I will re-home him If I can't keep him. He deserves a good, long life. Interestingly, he also has a 'laughing crow' like those roosters from the video Sommer posted a while back. For a while I thought it was someone else, but it's Sokka. None of my others sound anything like him. He sure is a unique boy.

As far as his brothers go, It's so hard to keep them straight. They are all handsome little things. Everyone is almost the size of my smaller hens already Here's hoping they keep growing! I plan to hold off culling until spring unless the crowing/fighting gets too bad. By then I should be able to evaluate the sizes of these new boys.

I love how long and upright all their tail feathers are. They are so showy I love seeing them out in the yard. Now if only they'd lay me some eggs again.

 

[nikoth]

HI from Greece

! Have some pictures of my mottled greek chicken both black and brown . They are resilient birds 3-4 kgrs , excellent broodies


and egg layers !

 

[nikoth]

HI from Greece

! Have some pictures of my mottled greek chicken both black and brown . They are resilient birds 3-4 kgrs , excellent broodies


and egg layers !