The Aloha Chicken Project

[draye]

So alohachickens are those Naked Neck hens laying for you yet?

 

[alohachickens]

So alohachickens are those Naked Neck hens laying for you yet?

Only 4 eggs in about 10 days, from 2 hens! Arrrgh.

Wow, Alohas are better layers so far than the pure Sussex or the NN's. I wouldn't have guessed. (This bodes well for their future as a breed.)

 

[draye]

Only 4 eggs in about 10 days, from 2 hens! Arrrgh.

Wow, Alohas are better layers so far than the pure Sussex or the NN's. I wouldn't have guessed. (This bodes well for their future as a breed.)

You know my NN's aren't laying that well either. Yesterday I did manage to get 4 out of my five hens. Years ago when I had NN's they laid very well almost every day it seems like. But years ago I think chickens were a lot bigger than what we are getting today.

 

[alohachickens]

Went up to Stephen's today, and got 10 more eggs from the Buff Sussex pen! And, the Dun Sussex pen is going well, too! I think I got seven from in there?

HEChicken, you may want to try one of the "flock blocks" in the pen? It seems to have really bumped up egg production (and my plan of giving those stinky egg-eaters something to do apparently worked, too.)

I just bought one for the Naked Neck pen, to try and get those gals to do SOMETHING. I need that breeder pen for other purposes! Four eggs in what will be TWO WEEKS on Saturday? (Day after tomorrow.) Either they are eating eggs, or they are terrible layers! LOL.

Been OK with it so far, because it takes a couple weeks for the new roo's DNA to "take over" anyway. But now that it's been two weeks, I'd like to collect about 8 eggs in the next 10 days to incubate, and give the hens back. (So I can use the pen for other chickens!) I'm just looking for two hens to give this strain a try.

 

[HEChicken]

HEChicken, you may want to try one of the "flock blocks" in the pen? It seems to have really bumped up egg production (and my plan of giving those stinky egg-eaters something to do apparently worked, too.)

Yikes! Oh my goodness, the last thing I want to do is INCREASE production LOL. I'm getting more eggs than I know what to do with at the moment. Its to the point I am thankful for every broody because at least that's one hen who is no longer laying LOL.

 

[alohachickens]

Yikes! Oh my goodness, the last thing I want to do is INCREASE production LOL. I'm getting more eggs than I know what to do with at the moment. Its to the point I am thankful for every broody because at least that's one hen who is no longer laying LOL.

Even the Exchequers are laying strong?

 

[horsiefly53]

OK. I will skip the barred chickens, basque, etc. I am not crazy about barred chickens and don't have any in my flock, sounds like way too much work to breed it out. May try the buff columbian if Iever find any lol.
Here are a couple young, very young chickens hatched from my own barnyard mix. Thoughts on them?

 

[horsiefly53]

couple more pics, I think this is a hen, the other guy with the darker spots is a rooster

 

[HEChicken]

Even the Exchequers are laying strong?

Oh I see your point LOL. No, they're not good layers (though I think maybe they're getting better….I've stopped paying attention now that I've got their eggs incubating). But, the rest of my flock is laying more than enough to make up for them. If I separated breeds out in pens I could try a flock block on the Exchequers but since I run 100 or so birds together, a $10 flock block would probably only last a matter of hours

 

[alohachickens]

Oh I see your point LOL. No, they're not good layers (though I think maybe they're getting better….I've stopped paying attention now that I've got their eggs incubating). But, the rest of my flock is laying more than enough to make up for them. If I separated breeds out in pens I could try a flock block on the Exchequers but since I run 100 or so birds together, a $10 flock block would probably only last a matter of hours

Yep, I totally agree on the having a flock block in my main coop, too! Would last only hours. Although, after thinking they were ridiculously expensive, I realized that the off-brand (not Purina) one is $10 for a 25-pound block, and a 50 pound bag of Lay Pellets is about $20 with tax. So, I guess, pound-for-pound the prices aren't too way off? I have no idea how long it would last, as the one in the Buff's pen at Stephen's was gone when I visited a week later and that pen has only 7 chickens in it! But huh, if I am going out of town and need to hire a pet sitter, it might be a good splurge? I always worry about them when I'm gone!

So are the Exchequers still in with the NHR rooster? How have you been telling the Exchequer eggs from the other eggs? (By color? Mine always laid pure white eggs!)