The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

Could you guys put some pics of your SFH roo x regular breed hens?

The only "regular" breed with spots is Speckled Sussex. Anything else crossed with a Swedish Flower roo will be solid in color but will carry for spots. I have my Swedish roo in with two pure Buff Rock hens but I can already guess the chicks will look like Buff Rocks that are a bit lighter and leggier in build! But Derek is hatching out the chicks so when I go over there I'll take photos of any that I can see, for you.

I think that's the only "regular breed" hens that I have?

 

[alohachickens]

Sommer, so sorry about the loss of your roo. Wow - a 10-pound nice looking bird must really be a disappointment to lose.

Tazcat, sorry about the wry tail issue in your roo too. My one Aloha hen has quite a severe wry tail too. And spurs. Did I mention I have an Aloha hen with spurs LOL?

What exactly is Wry Tail so I can look for it?

And, yeah - I thought he looked pretty big, but when I picked up the "dead weight" of his body, I was actually surprised at how heavy he really was. But, I suspect he was half Swedish, 1/4 Speckled Sussex, and only 1/4 Aloha, which would make him 3/4 "big chicken" and only 1/4 "little Aloha". Though clearly he had inherited the extended white from the Aloha stock.

 

[tazcat70]

What exactly is Wry Tail so I can look for it?

And, yeah - I thought he looked pretty big, but when I picked up the "dead weight" of his body, I was actually surprised at how heavy he really was. But, I suspect he was half Swedish, 1/4 Speckled Sussex, and only 1/4 Aloha, which would make him 3/4 "big chicken" and only 1/4 "little Aloha". Though clearly he had inherited the extended white from the Aloha stock.

Here is are some links. It isn't always as extreme as these.

http://www.extension.org/pages/65944/wry-tail\

Link 2

Link 3

 

[notinoz2007]

oh sommer i'm sorry to hear about your roo too. that nuts.
i had to google wry tail. sorry to hear about that. i will have to take a closer look at mine.
my largest aloha hen had spurs, well, maybe not true spurs, but huge spur nubs, lol. for the longest time i thought she might turn into a rooster but she never did - on the other hand, im not positive she ever laid an egg either. she is a year old this month, but i rehomed her a few months ago. she was always getting sick i never understood it.
sommer, the teacher from last year is interested in hatching eggs in her class again. do you think i could get some eggs from your pen #3 for her? he looks like he has the yellowest legs and that is what i am working on right now. i decided to keep my favorite hen turned rooster, he is developing great size and not losing too much white. he's going to be lovely i think this is his pic from last month. i'm trying to download more now but phone is giving me problems...

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Sommer, the loss of that rooster is just devastating. I'm so sorry.

These things are just so disappointing. We put so much into these birds and that breeder pen was going to have some really pretty birds.

 

[alohachickens]

Sommer, the loss of that rooster is just devastating. I'm so sorry.

These things are just so disappointing. We put so much into these birds and that breeder pen was going to have some really pretty birds.

Thanks so much for the "virtual hug" - I need it right now! I sure hope I see some kind of sign of him in the chicks hatched at Derek's.

i decided to keep my favorite hen turned rooster, he is developing great size and not losing too much white. he's going to be lovely i think this is his pic from last month. i'm trying to download more now but phone is giving me problems...

That is quite the lovely rooster, Notinoz. I wonder if he is pure Swedish? I would have to see more photos to tell. I agree, he is a very good looking boy at this point!

Oh, and you are very welcome to eggs from Pen #3. However, I just set it up and I think most folks say about two weeks before the eggs become fertile? If so, we are looking at March 6th before we would have the roo's DNA in the eggs. However, the alternative is that they'd be fertile by the pure Swedish roo, or either of the other roosters! So, I don't think you'd get something "bad" out of these hens no matter what. They are big, lovely girls, who only need a lot more white to be Alohas.

I'm sure you would be "heartbroken" if you ended up with a huge, lovely, purebred or 3/4 Swedish hen, right? lol. So let me know when the teacher needs the eggs, and I can start to save for you.

 

[alohachickens]

my largest aloha hen had spurs, well, maybe not true spurs, but huge spur nubs, lol. for the longest time i thought she might turn into a rooster but she never did - on the other hand, im not positive she ever laid an egg either. she is a year old this month, but i rehomed her a few months ago. she was always getting sick i never understood it.

Notinoz, I have been reading up on some of these icky illnesses, and it seems that some of them can "linger" and affect the hens future laying ability. Even if the hen recovers, they say she never will lay like she was supposed to. So ultimately, it was probably a good thing you let her go. However, I am now pondering the idea of vaccinating my chicks for more of these icky things. It would be SUCH a pain to go through it, when I would have to vaccinate 50 chicks just to cull down, down, down to 10 "keepers" at the very end . . . . seems a lot of work. But, something I'm considering doing if I hatch out a big pen of chicks for myself this spring.

Jeffers has all these vaccines, the Newcastle one is EASY (drop in eye or drinking water) but the fowl pox and Coryza are more tricky . . . would be about $70 to give them ALL the "good stuff". Yowza! But how nice it would be to know all the babies would grow up "clean". HMMM. Decisions, decisions!

http://www.jefferspet.com/search.asp?camid=LIV&sc=liv&ss=chicken vaccines&search-submit=GO

 

[notinoz2007]

my very first chickens a few years ago i wormed with wazine, that was the strongest stuff i ever gave them. the flock i have been creating since i met you are vaccination/medication free and i do like that. i have instead turned to prevention methods and natural remedies. i know you lost a lot there at the beginning and what we are raising is from that generation of survivors and i think that has made them an extremely hardy chicken. out of the 60 plus alohas that have come and gone through my yard alone only a small handful have been sickly. my flock do tend to get the sniffles and i wish i could prevent that, but my kids are sniffling right now too so i cant win every battle, lol.
i of course dont disagree with your thoughts to vaccinate.

finally got some pictures for you. i hope the color comes out ok, they look all washed out on the laptop.
sommer, the following 3 pics... tell me which roo you would go with, we are culling on saturday - she has 9 roos and most are crowing! (my fav is the twin to mine) let me know if you want any. they need a few more months of growing out but she has some good ones.
these are at my friends house. 2 handsome roos and a pullet. the one on the far right is almost an exact copy of the one i have here.


random roo smallish with good color


random roo also small but i like his color better. legs are light yellow.


this is my flock of alohas. i have only 4 currently (ignore the big brahma in the back, he's my husbands baby)
here we have snickerdoodle at the top left. she reminds me of NUI in size and color. she is 14 months and still lays an egg a day. below her is my keeper roo. right of him is a ginger and to the far right is my strange little petey who hatched out black and white. she's really more of a dark brown and not at all good for the project, but she was interesting to me.


here is mr lovely today. still showing lots of white, i think he is 3 or 4 months old, i will hve to get out the calendar. he shows no interest in crowing which is great, all my other aloha roos have crowed by now. i atribute the swedish flower genetics to the fact that i cant sex them as early as i used to, and also to their slower maturation. would that be a wrong guess?

 

[notinoz2007]

re: classroom eggs. she wont set them until the kids get back from spring break, march 18. should be plenty of time for the roo to work his magic. will chat later about the details.
btw, she only wanted aloha eggs, lol. didnt even want to consider getting a different breed from someone else. she loves the colors - too bad she doesnt have the yard/time or she would be a great project helper.

 

[HEChicken]

my largest aloha hen had spurs, well, maybe not true spurs, but huge spur nubs, lol. for the longest time i thought she might turn into a rooster but she never did - on the other hand, im not positive she ever laid an egg either. she is a year old this month, but i rehomed her a few months ago. she was always getting sick i never understood it.

That's interesting about your hen, Notinoz. It never even occurred to me that spurs might also lead to a non-laying hen. My hen does lay but she was laying long before I noticed her spur "nubs" were turning into real live spurs.

Wry tail looks like the bird is holding their tail to one side. Sometimes they just will, if they are just up from a dust bath, or in mid-shake. But if you notice their tail is always held to one side (and it will always be to the same side), that is wry tail. I would think that it is something we want to cull for, even if it is not top priority.