The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

Geez, Jbolt - the gamey one has so much color! But that big roo in the second pic has so much better body type! And that's a nice hen, too . . . . looks like you have a nice little flock starting up there!

 

[HEChicken]

Sommer, the Exchequers FINALLY started to lay! After waiting all this time, two of them laid their first egg on the same day - yesterday. Unfortunately, last night we also got our first frost of the year so there is no way I am going to start incubating eggs now, and be trying to put them outside in December. Grrr. The good news is that many of them have feathered out VERY pleasingly, so I think I have some good material from which to start in the Spring. DS and I plan to go through them this weekend and choose the 7-8 best that we want to put with my NH and collect their eggs and we will band them and I have a couple of buyers who want the rest. My plan is to start incubating in mid-January. By the time they're in the incubator for 3 weeks and in the brooder for 4, it will be starting to warm up enough to move them outside, so that will get me started a little earlier. (That is assuming they continue to lay over the winter, that is).

 

[knjinnm]

Hi,
Has anyone introduced any heavy red birds into the project such as Meyers;

Red Cornish Meat Bird:
Easy dressing large birds with exceptional
meat flavor, females have a reddish outer
feathering with black tipped tail feathers.
Males are a variation of dark to light red body with
a darker color on wings & tail, also have
yellow feet. 5 to 6 lbs. live weight 9 - 11 wks.

or layer breeds

Red Sex Link
(Buff, Golden Comet, Isa Brown)
a hybrid brown egg layer having a calm disposition
and high egg yielding qualities.
Females are medium red weighing at
maturity 4 lbs, males are white with darker wing
neck and tail feathers 5 to 6 lbs

or another heavy breed;

Color Ranger Red Bro:
Breeding stock originates from France and is widely used in their
free range (alternative) program. Breeding is ascertained by
using European heritage breeds and American breeding stock.

A profitable broiler to raise, having a
strong disease resistance.
Excellent conformation of white and dark meat yields a tender texture
with the flavor of a slow growing bird. Dark red feathering with tail
feathers having either white or black, yellow beak, feet, and skin.
5 to 6 pounds live weights at 9-11 wks.

Then intoduce birds with a speckled pattern, is it possible?

JAC

 

[5moore]

Sommer I took these pics today. I kept 7 of the 30+ you sent me. 2 roos and 5 pullets. The pullets have been laying for a couple weeks now. They lay an egg every day, a couple are tan and a couple are light brown. The eggs are getting bigger as the days go by.


Here are the two roos I kept. The one in front is my favorite, love the pumpkin color and all the white in his tail. He is getting big! The roo behind him is more of a chestnut color with more black in his tail, back and wing than white, and he is a good size as well and yellow legs/feet. They are turning out to be great roosters.


Here is all seven of them. I was thinking the three pullets in front have more of a mille fleur coloring and pattern.


Here are the two white/pupmpkin mottled pullets. One has green legs and the other has pink legs.


This is the one with green legs. They are getting big!




I'm loving how they are turning out. I also have a lemon cuckoo orpington roo in with them. He is a BIIIIGGGGG BOY.
I'm excited to see what hatches from this flock.

Sommer do you have any suggestions? What do you think about these birds. Sorry the pics are not any better. Hoping to get a new camera at christmas.

 

[fosterson]

Hello there! I admit I became fascinated with this breeding program and I've been trying to read through the whole thread but it's slow going.

Are you still accepting 'starter' flocks from birds that aren't bred from your birds? I'm asking because I already have a small flock of RIRs and Buff Sussex and was thinking of introducing a Speckled Sussex...would they still be eligible for 'standardization' as Alohas or would I need to get birds from an established flock?

 

[HEChicken]

Has anyone introduced any heavy red birds into the project….


….Then intoduce birds with a speckled pattern, is it possible?

Essentially that is what I am doing. I have Exchequer Leghorn pullets and a German New Hampshire Cock bird. The plan is to hatch out their eggs in the spring, which will result in offspring that are dull to look at but will have yellow legs (per both parents), larger size than the leghorns (per the cock bird), and the gene for speckling (per the Exchequers).

The NEXT generation will (hopefully) produce some birds that have good size and type, yellow legs and speckling and the goal then will be to pick out the ones that have color vs. the black/white of the original mothers.

 

[alohachickens]

Essentially that is what I am doing. I have Exchequer Leghorn pullets and a German New Hampshire Cock bird. The plan is to hatch out their eggs in the spring, which will result in offspring that are dull to look at but will have yellow legs (per both parents), larger size than the leghorns (per the cock bird), and the gene for speckling (per the Exchequers).

The NEXT generation will (hopefully) produce some birds that have good size and type, yellow legs and speckling and the goal then will be to pick out the ones that have color vs. the black/white of the original mothers.

And, the beauty of HEChicken's project, is regardless of looks, the German New Hampshire is a terrific farm chicken. Exchequer Leghorns, while small, are wonderful reliable layers. The combo should produce larger chickens than Exchequers that are very productive layers.

These will be very practical chickens that any farm would love. If they can eventually be bred into a FLASHY red-and-white color, that will just be pretty icing on the cake!

 

[alohachickens]

Sommer I took these pics today. I kept 7 of the 30+ you sent me. 2 roos and 5 pullets. The pullets have been laying for a couple weeks now. They lay an egg every day, a couple are tan and a couple are light brown. The eggs are getting bigger as the days go by.


Here are the two roos I kept. The one in front is my favorite, love the pumpkin color and all the white in his tail. He is getting big! The roo behind him is more of a chestnut color with more black in his tail, back and wing than white, and he is a good size as well and yellow legs/feet. They are turning out to be great roosters.


Here is all seven of them. I was thinking the three pullets in front have more of a mille fleur coloring and pattern.




I'm loving how they are turning out. I also have a lemon cuckoo orpington roo in with them. He is a BIIIIGGGGG BOY.
I'm excited to see what hatches from this flock.

Sommer do you have any suggestions? What do you think about these birds. Sorry the pics are not any better. Hoping to get a new camera at christmas.

Note: The rooster shown in these pics (who is the spitting image of his Dad, "Raymond's Roo") carries Barring. So does the larger black and white hen in the left front corner of these pics. To keep barring from being dominant, pen the white-tailed roo (with barring) with your brown and white hens with no barring. Take the other rooster (the one you describe as being "chestnut color") and keep him with any hens that show Barring. (I think I see two hens with Barring, put those girls with him.)

This will keep the Barring gene from taking over the flock completely. (What that would do is make EVERY chicken in the flock look just like the hen and roo that have barring - you'd lose all the other colors totally.)

Watch it with the Lemon Cuckoo Orp, while he is very large, he also carries Cuckoo (Barring) and that Buff color, in the past, the solid Buff gene had the effect of basically wiping out the spotting for several generations. Why it does that, I can't figure out??? So you will end up with all barred chicks (no spots) if you use him. And, the spots will not return for 2 or 3 generations. If you'd like to use Orp to add size, it is looking like trying a Jubilee Orp would be a much safer bet. If you can find a Jubilee Orp, try to cross him with the lightest, most white colored little Aloha hens. Then, cross back to an Aloha rooster.

I tried a dose of Orp, early in the program, and it was SUPER HARD to add the spots back (because I used Buff Orp) but the SIZE did really carry through. Even the Alohas that were only 1/8th Orp breeding showed much better size. Unfortunately, using Buff Orp, it really did take that long to put the color back on!

So feel free to experiment, but know that it may take a very long time to get the color back, if you use the Lemon Cuckoo Orp, and you will also be battling through a lot of barred chicks, that could make the entire flock dominant for the Barring (Cuckoo) gene. If you find a spare Jubilee Orp, it will darken the chicks, and you'll have to work through dark color issues, but at least all the babies will have spots and there won't be a lot of Barring to weed through or worry about.

 

[jbolt]

Hi sommer, are you ready for eggs?

 

[alohachickens]

Hi Jbolt! Will be sending you a PM. I may have eggs for YOU as well.