The Aloha Chicken Project

[tazcat70]

It is linked to the pea comb but you can get straight combed blue egg layers. Do not quote my numbers, this is for an example only. Say you have 100 chicks, from a SC LG and an Am cross. You should end up 100% pea combed chicks, and all should lay blue eggs. If you then cross these chicks you will 75% will have pea combs, of those 25% will be homozygous for pea comb. The other 50% will be like their parents.

Anyway, about blue eggs and straight combs. Those about homozygous chicks for pea combs and straight combs should equally be a mixture of blue/white egg layers. The problem come in with the linkage. Since these two genes "like" each other you will get about 40% blue egg layers and 10% white from the pea comb, for the straight the opposite is true 10% blue and 40% white.

Clear as mud?

 

[tazcat70]

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.

I haven't given up, not at all. I plan on getting a crazy mixture of chicks this Spring. After my vacation I plan on getting everyone in their own pens, and then I will start hatching out chicks as well.

It is crazy, by getting down to this few it has given me the ideas to try some new things. .

 

[draye]

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?

 

[Deerfield Acres]

taz, I have only the 4 best hens out of my original group but I do have the younger ones coming up. If this crazy weather will stop toggling warm/freezing, warm/freezing, it would be helpful to get the hens laying consistently.

alohachickens, remember when I had my birds in the basement thing? There wasn't any visible mold anywhere but it was dampish. I used a dehumidifier and that helped some but the birds were still coughing and sneezing. I did some research and learned that it was possible there was mold under all that deep litter that was causing the problem. I first moved all the birds out. Then I treated them with diluted Oxine through a warm mist humidifier -- the kind you use when you get sick. I misted them for 20 minutes every evening for 3 evenings and they were all cleared up.

You are technically supposed to use a cool mist humidifier but I didn't have one and didn't want to buy it so I used the one I had. I used the inactivated Oxine -- not the activated. You can put Citric Acid in it and fog your buildings to get rid of mites, etc. I used it without and it worked great. A friend of mine used it activated. I say why go to the expense if you don't have to?

When I cleaned out all the litter there was mold on the bottom! Yuck! That stuff is really tricky.

 

[15littlem]

For those wondering about Leg coloring, check this out.

 

[notinoz2007]

awesome! so we need yellow leg roos to get the most chicks with yellow legs, is that right?
well... i finally have one of those....

 

[15littlem]

For those wondering about Leg coloring, check this out.

I hope this helps, as I saw that you are now focusing on leg color on your blog. My suggestion is to use either this roo

to increase your chance at yellow legs, or use your biggest roos and hens (one of them preferably with yellow legs) and still keep your size.

 

[alohachickens]

It is linked to the pea comb but you can get straight combed blue egg layers. Do not quote my numbers, this is for an example only. Say you have 100 chicks, from a SC LG and an Am cross. You should end up 100% pea combed chicks, and all should lay blue eggs. If you then cross these chicks you will 75% will have pea combs, of those 25% will be homozygous for pea comb. The other 50% will be like their parents.

Anyway, about blue eggs and straight combs. Those about homozygous chicks for pea combs and straight combs should equally be a mixture of blue/white egg layers. The problem come in with the linkage. Since these two genes "like" each other you will get about 40% blue egg layers and 10% white from the pea comb, for the straight the opposite is true 10% blue and 40% white.

Clear as mud?

That's 100% clear, actually, thanks!

So, it would be a matter of hatching a crazy amount of chicks to pick through and get the single combs, and then keeping those single-comb hens to lay, and then finding out which teeny percentage laid blue eggs. A ton of work, that's for sure!

I almost think it would end up being easier to breed Barring out of Legbars. Right now, the Legbars are crazy-expensive, but like anything, they will go down in price after a while. They already have single combs, yellow legs, and blue eggs. The only thing we'd have to breed out is Barring, which would be tough for sure, but certainly possible. I won't bother right now while I'm working with so many issues in Alohas, but we should let the idea "simmer" in the back of our heads to go there someday. (In other words, if someone in KS near you is giving away an extra Legbar roo someday, maybe think about it, ha ha ha!)

I don't know really what happened to the University of Arkansas brown leghorns that laid blue eggs, it says on the thread the project was disbanded and only the hatching eggs from the blue chickens that lay blue eggs are available, which doesn't help us at all. What a shame - because we could have used those blue-egg-laying brown Leghorns straight into the the Aloha project without worrying about any interfering genes. Oh well, we have PLENTY to work out here without worrying about blue eggs! Ha ha ha . . . .

But yeah, having Aloha that laid "rainbow" eggs would be the icing on the cake, that's for sure.

 

[alohachickens]

littlem, thanks for the leg color links. I've been chipping away at trying to "fix" so many things, it's been tough! Getting the combs right . . . the spotting . . . leg color . . . size.

I think leg color is not as important as size or color, which is why (of course) I'm not going to toss any chickens that are awesome but have pink legs. However, I do feel I should start paying attention to the trait, at the very least!

Two chicks have good amounts of white, and VERY yellow legs. I don't know who the parents to these are, as they were hatched from chicks in the "everything and the kitchen sink" pen from random eggs that I gave to Derek. They are the same age (roughly) as my Cheeto-grandchicks. I know one is a roo, and the second is probably a roo, but has a short tail. Both look fabulous!






These pics were taken about 10 days ago so both are much bigger. Will take more pics in about a week. But, we have yellow legs here, and while I'm seeing signs of the dreaded spot-fade on some of the chicks, there is NO WAY that these guys are going to lose all their white! (I hope!!!)

 

[alohachickens]

Some of the chicks are showing signs of diminishing white. These chicks were hatched in November, which means they are only about 2 1/2, going on 3 months. You can see there is less white showing now, than on the earlier pics:





(By the way, above photos are of two different groups,so that is showing you 8 different chicks there.)

So, I'm getting kind of worried. This spot-fade is distressing! However, a few chicks are still showing good amounts of white spotting. And hens, sometimes they get more white as they mature, not less. One hen in particular is looking very promising, but bummed that I'm not seeing a lot more hens like her. (Mostly looks like a lot of roosters!)



This is one of Cheeto's grand-chicks and looks to be a hen to me. Still showing a respectable amount of white, for now.

Size is still good, here are chicks near the pure bred Speckled Sussex. Now, you can also see the amount of white on a pure Sussex hen of the same age, and she doesn't show a lot now, either. So at this point, they are showing less white than they showed before, but still more white than the average Speckled Sussex.




This shows a Sussex hen with two different Alohas. Size is in the same range.



4-6 weeks and we should have the final verdict on if they keep their white or not. Will be biting my nails the whole time! LOL.