The Aloha Chicken Project

[tazcat70]

Karen, I am glad you added that note.


Sommer, after loosing a hen to a predator I am down to 4, yes only 4 Alohas. 2 hens and 2 roos, so I am posting them all.

The first 2 pictures are of the same girl. This is a nice big hen, with a few spangles. White legs though.





This roo has the most white, a good size, and over all pretty good, but white legs.



Here you can see the previous hen and roo, they are by a couple of Welsummer girls so you can see they are of a good size. BTW, the other rooster in the picture is one of my Lilac Laced Wyandottes.



This is my other roo, he is a little smaller, and before his tail was by the other roosters it was as nice as the other boy. That is the same girl next to him.



This is my last Aloha. She has yellow legs, but she is small.



And that is my HUGE Aloha flock. Only going up from here! I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

 

[animallover505]

No, egg color won't matter at all. I'd love to (someday) get blue eggs from the University of Arkansas project "brown leghorns" that they bred to lay blue eggs, but being as they weren't offering to ship those, i have no way to get them to AZ.

Don't even think of using Ameraucanas to get blue eggs - I went down that road already. By the time you bred out the pea comb, the puffy cheeks, and the dark slate legs, all the blue egg genes were gone. We'd have to either start with the umm, Legbar - which already has an upright comb and yellow legs, and breed out the Barring and add body size, or try to get a hold of the U of AR blue-egg laying breed and cross with something more "meaty" to add size and spots. (Like the Sussex.)

So if I had to pick an egg color for Alohas, I'd go with blue of course, because an ocean-blue egg on a colorful chicken would be SO COOL. But, with all the "other" issues I'm having, that is far, far, far from any pressing thoughts right now! Ha ha ha! But, if you would like to pursue that, what he was describing as a light brown Leghorn that lays blue eggs would be the perfect "base" for adding Aloha spots to:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/624359/blue-egg-layers-from-unversity-of-arkansas

They were from COMMERCIAL brown leghorn stock - which meant they would be super productive layers, as the research was to see if they could get commercially produced blue eggs! But it seemed impossible to get eggs from them, and now it sounds like they may have disbursed the flock! Arrrgh.

OK, Taz, if you get everything else set up for me - like get your program really going (which sounds like you already have) with breeding pens set up and some Aloha chicks "baking" in the 'bator, just pay the cost of shipping and materials and I'll send you the "all American" line chicks for free. Esp. if you get some of that German New Hampshire stuff going on.

Because these American Alohas are going to be terribly, terribly small . . . and if you use only Sussex to try and improve size, they will turn into nothing more than lousy, tiny Sussex in a few generations. LOL! Need some other robust stock with good size and brighter, lighter colors.

Express shipping was running about $35 previously for a box of 25 chicks, but I think the US Postage rates are going up a little, and the chick-shipping box itself was $5. So shipping + materials to go Express is going to run about $40-$45. They also sell 50-chick shipping boxes, and we can try that, too, if you want that many. Shipping would be more for 50 chicks, of course. How much more I don't know? I mean, it costs like $12 or $16 to ship an envelope Express mail, so obviously there is some kind of "base cost" to going Express. So I'm thinking if it was $35 to ship 25 chicks, surely it wouldn't be twice that to ship twice as many chicks? I'd hope that it would only be $20 more or something . . . but since I don't know how much a box of 50 Aloha chicks would weigh, I can't really get a shipping estimate for that? LOL!

I am going to try selling Live chicks for $100 ppd. per box of 25 babies this Spring to new breeders, which sounds like a lot, but since I only want to use Express shipping, what I will actually be charging per chick is only going to be $2 per chick, plus the cost of materials and shipping. Hardly price gouging, LOL!

One day, I'm going to make a leghorn mix that lays blue eggs. I'll send you some when I figure it out. In as few years

 

[tazcat70]

One day, I'm going to make a leghorn mix that lays blue eggs.  I'll send you some when I figure it out.  In as few years

They are already working on them. Super blue egger or Arkansas blue egg layer.

 

[animallover505]

They are already working on them. Super blue egger or Arkansas blue egg layer.

oh, ok. Shoot. A super blue may work well, though

 

[15littlem]

They are already working on them. Super blue egger or Arkansas blue egg layer.

I too have looked into these, only problem is that: A. They gave them all away to the area 4Hers, B. They don't have the formula for making them.

 

[tazcat70]

Well it should be relatively easy, since the blue egg gene is linked to the peacombs. So just save all the peacombed chicks.

 

[animallover505]

Well it should be relatively easy, since the blue egg gene is linked to the peacombs. So just save all the peacombed chicks.

is it really???

 

[draye]

I too have looked into these, only problem is that: A. They gave them all away to the area 4Hers, B. They don't have the formula for making them.

True Araucana (not Ameraucana) and Commercial Leghorn. Not sure which way rooster or hen on the Araucana and Leghorn mix.
By the way the Arkansas Blue Egg Layer is single combed.

 

[alohachickens]

Karen, I am glad you added that note.

This roo has the most white, a good size, and over all pretty good, but white legs.


.

Taz, that totally stinks, but the Aloha project has taken some knocks and come back before. If you read my original web site, at one point I was also down to four Alohas. Yep. FOUR.

At first I thought it was Marek's taking out my flock; but it happened during a bad flood in the coop, and the birds that were up off the ground (in cages) never fell ill. Someone here on BYC had thought her bird had Marek's but the autopsy showed it was mold. When I raked out the straw that I'd laid in the coop to raise the ground out of the muck, there was black mold all over the straw and the most awful smell. It killed almost everybody. The project took a huge hit. I had four hens and one roo left, and hatched every single egg they laid, until one by one all four died. I also got some eggs to hatch from Laree, who I had given a rooster to. Shockingly, I ended up with a great flock of 30 nice birds six months later. Including 20 beautiful hens!

I used the few that were left to hatch like CRAZY and built back up from there.

Your rooster is clearly showing a ton of Sussex influence. He's gorgeous. Just cross him with the hens and start looking for spots. (And toss in some eggs from him crossed with the Welsummers. Why not?) Just hatch a LOT of chicks and pick out the best. All you need is four to start a flock. I should know. LOL.

 

[alohachickens]

True Araucana (not Ameraucana) and Commercial Leghorn. Not sure which way rooster or hen on the Araucana and Leghorn mix.
By the way the Arkansas Blue Egg Layer is single combed.

That's the part of their project that I think is so neat! How did they keep the single comb and add the blue egg color?