The Aloha Chicken Project

[jbolt]

 

[jbolt]

More girls.....

 

[jbolt]

and the boys......

 

[notinoz2007]

i like that roo you posted last, the one you are going to put with the small alohas (replacing his dad) he looks really nice, even tho not as much white as the other.
i do have some pictures to post, but they're on my phone and i have to email each one to myself - its takes forever!! i am excited about one particular chick who i am thinking is a hen. she is showing sooooo much white, and i've never had a single hen who spotted out as well as the roosters but i hope this one just might.

 

[notinoz2007]

jbolt, some nice looking chicks you have there. they look about the same age as mine same colors too, LOL

 

[jbolt]

Lol I think they may be related..all the chicks Sommer gave me are doin great. I'll have several to share when they are a bit older.

 

[HEChicken]

Sommer, I wanted to get on and give you an update on my lone Aloha hen. I got her from Deerfield last July after a fox obliterated my flock and she kindly gave me some birds to help build back the numbers. She hatched from the batch of eggs Deerfield picked up from Notinoz by the side of the road, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway....I know you are trying to avoid broodiness in the Alohas but you have to hear about this wonderful hen, who is named Miss M (by a friend and the M doesn't actually stand for anything, yet the name fits her to a T).

In April, Miss M went broody. She sat faithfully on the eggs I gave her and hatched 3 chicks from the 3 eggs. The next day I had turkeys hatching and decided to see if she would raise them for me. When I took them down to her, she recoiled in horror but then got a resigned look on her face that said "Well, they may be aliens but they're baby aliens" and she called them over and tucked them under her. From then on, she raised 3 chicks and 2 turkeys and worked really hard to get those baby turkeys eating since they didn't respond to her encouragements to the chicks. (She discovered that if she held the food in her beak they would come and eat it out of her beak, even though they wouldn't peck at the ground where she told them to).

Anyway, after raising her brood for 5-6 weeks, she left them to their own devices and....went broody again. I'm not sure she laid a single egg in between!

I didn't need any more chicks hatched so I put her on some muscovy duck eggs, which take 5 weeks to incubate. She was joined by a multitude of other broodies - 5-6 hens and a duck - who spent the next 5 weeks fighting over who got to actually SIT on the eggs. They were passed around whenever a hen took a broody break.

Yesterday 5 ducklings hatched (7 eggs total and another is pipped today). The hens and duck all continued to share the nest and the ducklings ran under whoever was closest. This morning Miss M decided it was time to leave the nest. She left one duckling with the duck (who is now also out and about raising her offspring) and commandeered the other 4 ducklings. First she took them to the feeder and broke up pellets for them to eat (I special order my FlockRaiser in pellets because I don't like crumbles so fear not; she is NOT feeding them layer pellets). I just checked on them again just now and she has them outside the coop, parked in front of the waterer and is cluck-cluck-clucking to them to encourage them to drink (not that they need much encouragement).

Anyway, I know broodiness isn't the goal but I am just so impressed with Miss M, who not only is a terrific broody, but is willing to raise any species of baby you give her.

 

[jbolt]

I love that they go broody often I am hoping that some of mine will raise their own chicks next season and give this mama chicken a bit of a break...lol, I've only had one broody my whole life. I was a teenager and my dad had some free ranging Fairfield and he let one set. I can't wait to have a few brooders myself B-)

 

[HEChicken]

jbolt, they're kinda not supposed to! Sommer would prefer that Alohas be less likely to brood. However this hen is still close enough to her bantam roots that apparently the trait has not yet been bred out.

Here is a pic of her with her new brood of ducklings. In this photo 3 are still under her and only the one was out:


And another of all 4 ducklings together - you can't see much of Mama except she was preening under her chest:




Sommer, while I was out taking pics of the new family, I also snapped some of the Exchequer Leghorns. This is just a few minutes ago:




This is the one I'm most excited about - look at the mottling!

 

[jbolt]

She seems to be losing her spots......but she is the largest hen of her age group...