The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

Hi all, I'm finally back. I've suffered some serious personal issues that caused me to cut my flock and go into a holding pattern.

What I have currently is a nice group of Buff Sussex. Four hens and one cock. These birds have everything you could possibly want -- great temperament, great size, great shape, extremely healthy and hardy -- got them from Walt'z Ark in Colorado. I had some Albritton Speckled Sussex (finally a quality Speckled) and every last one of them has died. Unbelievably disappointing. I have one Ideal Speckled Sussex I hatched last year -- she is very healthy and of decent size. Two of my Buff hens are broody and setting on eggs from my Aloha roo, orange/white, who is now deceased. This is their first time and they are setting quite happily together in the same nest. I don't know how many eggs they have but I'm expecting only a handful. The Buffs are within weeks of being a year old and are laying very well. I have only two Aloha hens -- kid's pets. These girls are not broody girls, are small, only one lays well but they are sweet birds. Altogether I am down to about 12 birds -- a record low for me.

We've not lost any birds to predators but did end up with rats that burrowed under the concrete pad in front of the hen house during the winter. Gross -- but I got rid of them. My husband, whose tolerance for the chickens was low to begin with, was horrified over the rat infestation. He wants very much for every bird to be gone. I'm not going to ruin a marriage over chickens but I am limited for now with what I can do. We've called a truce but hatching a bunch of birds is out of the question. We have been through an unbelievable amount of stress in a short period of time and I'm just going to hang onto the birds that I have and see how things look this fall. Beechcraft has just been purchased yet again, this time by Textron, parent company to Cessna, so yesterday a bunch of people with whom he has worked for years were layed off. Add this to our personal issues and he's just been stressed over the top.

hechicken, I'm excited to see you managed to get an Ex/Aloha chick. It's crazy those Ex's weren't better layers. How does that even happen?

5moore, you've been busy! I've just read a few of the posts I missed, but very interesting!

I will probably be checking in at least once a week now that I feel as though I'm getting my life back. Aside from everything else, we have 5 kids in Middle School. It has been a very interesting school year. I think the school principal has me on speed dial and that's only 2 of the five who are being difficult. Sheesh. What if they were all little monsters? I swear there must be a "pause" button for Mom's but I haven't found it yet.

I'm so sorry about all the personal stuff going on in your life right now! I know even beloved pets and cherished hobbies sometimes have to take a back seat to the more serious realities. The last year I've lost two friends to cancer, and now my own mom was diagnosed last month and started treatment just last week. Sometimes the pets are an escape. Other times they get in the way. But I guess that explains why I haven't been doing as many Blog updates and there have been a couple periods where I wasn't posting here for a while. Life happens. My dog died in January, too, so I'm starting to feel like my life is one of those sad country ballads. LOL. I'm just glad to hear you and your family are safe and healthy!

Glad your Buff Sussex hens are doing great. So I guess you heard I managed to get Walt's Ark Buffs myself? My wonderful Mom drove with me halfway to California to get them last summer. A gal in the Los Angeles area had ordered chicks from Walt's Ark and had a few extras for sale!!!

The heat was about 108 that day, and Mom didn't want my old car to break down on a four hour round trip drive through the desert. So, she insisted we take her *BRAND NEW* car on the drive. For chickens. She doesn't even like chickens. LOL. (Well, she doesn't dislike them, but you know, she's not really "into" chickens in any way.)

Please say prayers for her, everyone. Not many moms would embark on a hot journey and carry live poultry in their brand new car, just because it's what her daughter is into. That's the kind of mom I've got. The Dr's are giving her good odds to live (85%) because the cancer is located only in her head and neck area. But the radiation may possibly damage a LOT of stuff. Like it could kill her salivary glands and taste buds permanently. So say a prayer that her cure will not be worse than the cancer itself. That's what I'm worried about most, not just her survival but her quality of life.

 

[HEChicken]

Yep, I see the him/her! Nice body form too, much more stout than the Exchequers. What are the other breeds?

How funny - I need to go to a luncheon but jumped on my computer real quick to download some pics and post them here and immediately got a notification of an update to this thread…..

The rest of the birds in that first pic are mostly turkey poults. There are a couple of "orange" looking chicks that are pure NH from heritage lines (one of my other projects).

Okay, here are some pics I took last night. The "Aloha" chicks have been "repurposed" now that they've done their job of tutoring the turkeys. Their second task was to break one of my broody hens, and they accomplished that with panache and skill as well (what multi-skilled chicks these are

). Because I have a sense of humor, I chose none other than my broody Aloha hen to be their mother. Actually, I am SO glad she is no longer broody. She's the worst broody I've ever had in terms of her screeches. Most broodies won't make a fuss unless I lift them off their nest to steal the eggs but that Aloha hen screamed any time I walked into the coop and kept it up until I left. Loud screams too. I actually took DH and DD down there just to show them and they were both amazed a sound like that was coming out a little 8-lb bird! I had tried to move her to her own nest in a broody coop twice but nothing doing - the only place she wanted to brood was the nest box. So I am both thankful and relieved that she agreed to mother these two chicks and switch from broody mode to mama mode. She still screams at me but now it is in protecting her chicks and I know she'll relax as they get older.

I am pleased so far (I think?) with these little first-gen Alohas. Their little legs are super yellow, they have single combs and good size - bigger than their Exchequer mothers. There wasn't much between them and my pure NH chicks for size so I'm hopeful they will grow up to be decent in size.

The first pic is just because it was cute. The chick jumped up on mama's back right as I was about to snap the pic:


This is the best one I have of them both from behind. You can see the bright yellow/orange legs.

And this is the best one with them both facing toward the camera.

Not a lot yet to see from this first generation, I realize but I'm pleased with size and leg color so far, and will hope for at least one pullet and one cockerel so I can get a second generation this fall. A third chick is under another broody hen so I have a decent chance with gender. I also have several more eggs in the incubator that are due in 2 ½ weeks.

Oh - the hen was a spring chick that I hatched last year from Deerfield's Aloha eggs. She isn't very spotty but has really decent size.

 

[alohachickens]

How funny - I need to go to a luncheon but jumped on my computer real quick to download some pics and post them here and immediately got a notification of an update to this thread…..

The rest of the birds in that first pic are mostly turkey poults. There are a couple of "orange" looking chicks that are pure NH from heritage lines (one of my other projects).

Okay, here are some pics I took last night. The "Aloha" chicks have been "repurposed" now that they've done their job of tutoring the turkeys. Their second task was to break one of my broody hens, and they accomplished that with panache and skill as well (what multi-skilled chicks these are

). Because I have a sense of humor, I chose none other than my broody Aloha hen to be their mother. Actually, I am SO glad she is no longer broody. She's the worst broody I've ever had in terms of her screeches. Most broodies won't make a fuss unless I lift them off their nest to steal the eggs but that Aloha hen screamed any time I walked into the coop and kept it up until I left. Loud screams too. I actually took DH and DD down there just to show them and they were both amazed a sound like that was coming out a little 8-lb bird! I had tried to move her to her own nest in a broody coop twice but nothing doing - the only place she wanted to brood was the nest box. So I am both thankful and relieved that she agreed to mother these two chicks and switch from broody mode to mama mode. She still screams at me but now it is in protecting her chicks and I know she'll relax as they get older.

I am pleased so far (I think?) with these little first-gen Alohas. Their little legs are super yellow, they have single combs and good size - bigger than their Exchequer mothers. There wasn't much between them and my pure NH chicks for size so I'm hopeful they will grow up to be decent in size.

The first pic is just because it was cute. The chick jumped up on mama's back right as I was about to snap the pic:


This is the best one I have of them both from behind. You can see the bright yellow/orange legs.
And this is the best one with them both facing toward the camera.

Not a lot yet to see from this first generation, I realize but I'm pleased with size and leg color so far, and will hope for at least one pullet and one cockerel so I can get a second generation this fall. A third chick is under another broody hen so I have a decent chance with gender. I also have several more eggs in the incubator that are due in 2 ½ weeks.

Oh - the hen was a spring chick that I hatched last year from Deerfield's Aloha eggs. She isn't very spotty but has really decent size.

Love the pics! And do you see the hint of red on their face? Promising! They will probably end up being a dark coffee brown color with lots of black. Let's hope we can pull that recessive bright red out next generation . . .

I am surprised to see so much white on the chest. That's puzzling. Mottling is supposed to be recessive, which means they "should" be solid.

So this brings back that old question. For a while, the Exchequers were called "PIED" not "MOTTLED". Then, they started saying that Exchequers were just Mottled - same gene, but a different way of showing it. But if the Exchequer's spotty gene is just Mottling, these should be totally solid? I am not 100% convinced the two genes are the same gene. This will be a fascinating test. If these show white feathering, then maybe Exchequers do carry some dominant (not recessive) form of spotting?

 

[alohachickens]

Having a good hatch from the Buff & Dun Sussex breeder pens today! So far 7 have hatched. Three from the Buff Sussex pen and four from the Dun Sussex pen.

These will be added to the 3 hatched from the Buff Sussex pen last week. So that's 10 new chicks hatched from these elusive breeder pens. 6 from the Buff pen and 4 from the Dun pen.

I have about *24* more eggs from these two pens that are fertile and developing, due on May 3rd!

And then I have about 6 more from the BUFF pen, due on the 6th.

Then I slipped in a few Buff and a larger group of Dun eggs due on the 14th. Those will hatch along with the Turkens.

Then Stephen brought by a dozen more Buff pen eggs the other day!

So looking good, in general. But not nearly as high hatch rates, since Stephen has not been able to collect eggs every day, like he did last Spring. The eggs I've been getting from these pens have had only about 50% hatch rate. He's been bouncing back and forth trying to move to a home an hour away from his current place, so he's feeding animals in two spots plus moving all day in between! He has a huge number of other animals. OMG, he's so busy.

I'm sure once he's settled in ONE home again he'll be able to collect from the Buff pen daily. Good news, his new home is in a much cooler location, so hopefully won't have the kind of heat related deaths we see in Phoenix. It's still very hot up there but about 10+ degrees cooler on average than Phoenix. That means on the hottest days they may still reach a sweltering 105, but still much better than 115+ down here! Any relief for the chickies is a good thing. May see his pens get an earlier start in the Fall laying, which would be great for me.

Like mine don't really start laying until October, which means I can't hatch chicks until November, three weeks after the eggs are laid. If Stephen's pens are laying in September, then I can maybe actually HATCH chicks in October and get a jump-start on the new season of baby chicks. The warm but not sweltering temps in October are terrific for raising baby chicks down here.

 

[alohachickens]

It's wonderfully overcast today, perfect for taking photos.

I have this hen growing out, I shared photos maybe a few weeks, or a month ago. I keep expecting her to lose her color as she matures - but she hasn't! So here she is again today, the closest to my goal I've ever reached. Check out her size, and how she obviously looks very different from a Sussex in color:


Behind her, to the left, a small "regular" Aloha chick. Great color on that little hen, lovely. But she shows the size issues clearly.

Behind her - partially hidden, a pure Speckled Sussex. Also to her right - pure Sussex in front. She's no slouch!

Yellow legs, good size, TONS of white! Going to write a Blog post about her soon.

Another pic:


That's her with a pure Sussex. Look at how big she is!!!

 

[alohachickens]

Just did a Blog update with lots more photos of this hen. (And others!)

http://alohachickens.blogspot.com/

 

[CheyAut]

Interesting about my "brahamas" (I like that word hehe). One of the buffs has no feathering on the legs, and one has very little compared to the rest. I also have one other chick, about 2.5 weeks old (well, two, but one will be white).

Glad to know who's a boy and who's a girl with the alohas!

Here are some pics of Apparoosta and his ladies that I took today... not the best, but they weren't exactly posing for the camera LOL

 

[alohachickens]

Interesting about my "brahamas" (I like that word hehe). One of the buffs has no feathering on the legs, and one has very little compared to the rest. I also have one other chick, about 2.5 weeks old (well, two, but one will be white).

Glad to know who's a boy and who's a girl with the alohas!

Here are some pics of Apparoosta and his ladies that I took today... not the best, but they weren't exactly posing for the camera LOL

Thanks for the pics! And yes, the buffy chicks with the least leg feathering, if they are hens might be able to breed that leg color out and the Buff Columbian might make a nice Mille color on the future generations.

I am having a tough time understanding some of the genetics involved, but I think their might be kind of a "dilute" gene for some Buffs (Cream?) that makes the Mille chickens really "pop".

Like, most of my Mille's have been this rich orange color (which is still nice BTW) seen here on a D'Uccle breed:

http://www.chickenforum.com/images/4/4/4/mille-fleur-bantam.jpg

But I've also seen certain Mille's in D'Uccle and Cochins that have more of a "palomino" background that is lovely:

http://farmchronicles.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/napoleonjosephine9-06.JPG

(note the hen color in above pic) and another one:

http://www.backyardpoultry.com/wiki/images/Citroen_Millefleur_Belgian_hen_2006.JPG

Still haven't figured out if there is a "dilute" gene involved or if these are just color variances . . .

 

[chef glenn]

 

[chef glenn]

Hi All you Aloha fanciers!

Afraid these are not the best pics, I will work on that. New camera and manual not very helpful but then again even if it was an OLD
camera the pics probably would be same.

Next time I will try to get the largest Aloha Hen in with a Speckled Sussex the same age. The cockerels are very cool, one a cream color and one
a dark reddish brown.

Glenn from Palomar Mountain