The Aloha Chicken Project

[notinoz2007]

at 8pm i had 5 alohas peeping away in the bator, trying to help the others hatch. with alohas what i do is count set day (normally day 0) as day 1 that way they still technically hatch at 21 days. clear as mud for everyone?
i plan to let those babies hang out tonight and will move them to the brooder in the morning with their brothers and sisters. wont post an update til after work tho.

 

[notinoz2007]

whoa, 18 babies this morning, and 28 when i got home from work.
all of the pen 4 babies hatched, and i could only find one heat lamp so i put them in the brooder with the pumpkin chicks. being the genius that i am i decided i would put a drop of nail polish on the heads to tell them apart. being the idiot that i am, i chose red. i didnt even realize til i was done that red is the worst color to put on a chicken!! they started pecking, but were too tired from hatching to do any damage. i have them under a red light now so they cant tell.

 

[jbolt]

Alright, fingers crossed, still have 20 seemingly viable eggs after the unplugging disaster, first had hatched when I left this am, and there were three more pips

 

[alohachickens]

Alright, fingers crossed, still have 20 seemingly viable eggs after the unplugging disaster, first had hatched when I left this am, and there were three more pips

Yay! Sounds like good hatches from Notinoz, so maybe they will be OK? Go Alohas!

 

[notinoz2007]

we ended up with a total of 30 alohas. 4 were from pen 4, the others all pumpkin. they're looking good!
i also have 2 barnyard mixes that i put in from eggs in my moms pen. they were the buff rock x aloha and her BLRW roo. not using those for the project. we just wanted to see what they would look like and she is going to get those in a few weeks.
next week is my last work week, off for summer break!! yay!! hopefully then i can focus on these babies and get some nice pictures on the thread.

 

[MaBo]

Well now, y'all are having too much fun... I'm gonna have to re-enter the fray.

Here's my first hatch of the summer. A rather paltry showing at 15... but, they're a special 15!


This hatch could have been a LOT more - I set 100+ eggs, but unfortunately few were fertile. Cheeko (daddy) unexpectedly died before I was prepared, and then I was on a countdown to collect his fertile eggs and set them. 15 is all I got. I even filled an auxiliary Hovabator with 70-some 'last-hope' eggs and only got ONE fertile, which will hopefully hatch next week.

So, these chicks are what I am currently calling my 'F3' Aloha's. Here is their genealogy. Sommer, I don't recall what would be the correct 'F' generation notation of the chicks you originally sent to Tam'ra, so let me know and I can update my notation.

Their dad 'Cheeko' was from Tam'ra, and we are 99% sure was an outcross from original Aloha roo acquired from alohachickens, and one of Tam'ra's Buff Orp hens. I personally think he was a really handsome chap, excellent size, and very tame and friendly! I was so bummed when he unexpectedly died. Granted, he was fairly light-colored, had puff-cheeks, not yellow legs... so not perfect, but I am focusing on size right now, so that was his primary purpose.


Below are some of the 9 hens I collected eggs from. They were in with Cheeko and about 15 other non-Aloha hens, and thus fertility was further reduced because I hadn't isolated them with Cheeko yet. 7 are 'F2' Aloha-outcross solid-colored hens, and 2 are 'F1' mottled Aloha's received from Tam'ra (who got them as chicks from alohachickens). They range in color from buff to red/orange and red/orange/brownish. They range in size from 6.5 lbs to 8 lbs.




So, if I am not mistaken (which is altogether possible), crossing a 'half-Aloha' outcross roo with 'half-Aloha' outcross hen should yield 1/4 of the offspring spotted. Is that correct? That is why I meant to hatch out 100+ chicks. But that didn't work out, so with only 15 offspring, we'll have to see how well the genetic odds turn out for me, LOL.

Is it possible to detect the white mottling in their chick fuzz/hair? It might be my wishful thinking/seeing, but I could almost swear I see tiny bits of white hair mixed in the fuzz on some of these chicks!

 

[alohachickens]

Well now, y'all are having too much fun... I'm gonna have to re-enter the fray.

Here's my first hatch of the summer. A rather paltry showing at 15... but, they're a special 15

So, if I am not mistaken (which is altogether possible), crossing a 'half-Aloha' outcross roo with 'half-Aloha' outcross hen should yield 1/4 of the offspring spotted. Is that correct? That is why I meant to hatch out 100+ chicks. But that didn't work out, so with only 15 offspring, we'll have to see how well the genetic odds turn out for me, LOL.

Is it possible to detect the white mottling in their chick fuzz/hair? It might be my wishful thinking/seeing, but I could almost swear I see tiny bits of white hair mixed in the fuzz on some of these chicks!

They do show spotting early, but often it fades out. Even on Swedish Flowers, ironically! I have seen instances of them losing a lot of color. This happens right about four months if it's going to happen. We've had a ton of issues with it on the chicks from the Buff Rock lines, which is weird. However, not EVERY buff chick loses the spots, we did get this one at Laree's:




It seems harder to get spots on yellow-tailed buff chickens than it does to get spots on brown or black chickens, for reasons still unknown?

I'm so glad you are still working on the project! I can't wait to see what the chicks look like. You are right - your guy is quite handsome! And yeah, so he has pink legs and puffy cheeks. That can certainly be bred out . . . .

 

[alohachickens]

How are my Wichita peeps doing? I was just back there in Oklahoma visiting my sister in Tulsa, and saw the tornado hitting Wichita on the news. I hope that my KS Aloha friends are doing OK right now. I know things are crazy there, I'm sure, but pop in here for a roll call when you have a chance. Know that I was praying for you and your families to be safe.

 

[mixmaster]

Guess what I have this morning! Oops. Where'd he go? One minute he's there, the next he's gone! There's the bouncy little scamp! Pretty little dickens is all over the place and peeping loudly, looking for some buddies to hang with! Look at those toenails! My first hatched chick -- and it's at least part Aloha! This is awesome! Isn't it just pretty? Welcome to Kansas pretty bird.

 

[notinoz2007]

ok sommer, disaster after disaster at my house.
i'm not sure what is going on but we have lost a chick every day for the past week. at first i thought they were too crowded, so i moved them to the grow out pen earlier than i planned. then i thought they werent catching on to the nipple waterer so put in an alternate water source. then i thought maybe they were getting too hot so i took out the heat lamp, but they are still passing away. usually i find one around 1 pm... .... they have plenty of food, water, temp is ideal, they have space to roam. i just dont get it anymore. the first 2 i kinda expected, they were small and i figured we would lose them early on. but these others are healthy and fine... anyway, i'm doing my best to keep them alive.

rooster delima - my swedish flower guy is just fabulous to look at, but thats the only thing keeping him at my house. he is not a good roo at all. he crows all the time, including at night and my neighbors are starting to give me "the look" i thought he would grow out of it but its gotten worse. he tears up the hens something awful, i know thats partially my fault because he only has the 3 but he could be nicer. he attacks us when we feed and water them. and he has somehow figured out the door latch. twice we have found his pen open.

today he attacked my husbands brahma roo, which was the last straw. ( i know roosters fight, but DH is particularly fond of his rooster - he raised it from an egg and shows him off to his friends, its the only chicken he cares about, lol )
so. my question is. do you want this swedish flower rooster? cuz i'm not going to keep him at this point. AZKat is going to put some of his ladies eggs under her broody. she also made a good point that maybe we dont want to keep a jerk roo in the program since there are so many nicer applicants. i tend to agree, if his attitude is something that could be genetic i dont care for it in my backyard flock.

sorry to disappoint i think the most i can do right now is try to hatch from his pen and see what we get.