The Aloha Chicken Project

[Deerfield Acres]

Yep, a tell tail.

Good one!

 

[alohachickens]

I threw my camera in my pocket when walking out the door to do chores last night thinking if I had the opportunity to get any good photos of the NH's I would. I didn't. However I caught the hen with the white earlobes by herself and was able to get a few good photos. And in doing that, guess what I found? A tell! I can't believe I've never noticed it before and now I feel like I have to go back and look at the others a little more closely as well. It was snowing at the time so there are a lot of snowflakes on her but I think you will find the telltale white spot even with the snowflakes for distraction.

BRRR. Looks so cold back there.

Ha! Her "Tail Tell" is really cute. She's a lovely hen, actually. Compared to regular Leghorns, she does show a lot more body size. Very pretty!

When you look at the other hen, don't forget to check her wings. I had a couple whose tell would be a spot on the wing that you didn't really see when they were folded up, but if you stretched the wing out, you would find it. I have no idea if the "tell" shows up only on the first generation Mottled / Solid - or if the "tell" will be a sign on ANY chicken that might carry Mottling, even if the Mottling is from Great-Grandma Speckled Sussex? The gene can hide - so in theory, when bred to a solid, half this hen's chicks will carry it, and the chicks that carry it will pass it to half of their babies, so in theory you could have a Speckled Sussex several generations back in a barnyard mix and when bred back to a Sussex you could have some spotted chicks appear. Not many folks have tried for it or studied it though. So nobody's tried crossing Sussex to solid birds, and look for random stray white spots on the future generations. LOL. Pretty sure I'm the first person to mess with the gene in outcrosses so extensively. I only wish I had more breeder pens to perform truly dedicated experiments. That was kind of the hope with your NHR / Exchequer experiment. (If only the hens would cooperate!!)

Are your NHR roos from German stock or American?

 

[HEChicken]

Are your NHR roos from German stock or American?

One is German. The other two are his sons (so not total genetic diversity) out of American mothers (Frank Reese line).

Oh - I just remembered I have some photos of one of the sons taken on Sept 15th last year. The first is not a great picture but does show his color pretty well (at least on my monitor). Keep in mind he was only 5 months old in this picture as he hatched in April. Both sons look so similar that I'm not sure I can tell them apart.


And this photo makes his eye look really weird but I mainly took it with objects in the background to better show his size. Now that they are coming up on a year they are closer to fully mature and are both bigger and better filled out.

 

[alohachickens]

One is German. The other two are his sons (so not total genetic diversity) out of American mothers (Frank Reese line).

Oh - I just remembered I have some photos of one of the sons taken on Sept 15th last year. The first is not a great picture but does show his color pretty well (at least on my monitor). Keep in mind he was only 5 months old in this picture as he hatched in April. Both sons look so similar that I'm not sure I can tell them apart.


And this photo makes his eye look really weird but I mainly took it with objects in the background to better show his size. Now that they are coming up on a year they are closer to fully mature and are both bigger and better filled out.

They are both gorgeous boys! Would LOVE seeing those with spots!!!

 

[alohachickens]

The last 3 batches of chicks had just 2 or 3 Naked Neck chicks - compared to 7 or 8 in previous batches. So, to give them a few more "buddies" I tried to pick out the biggest, fattest, roundest looking chicks out of the 70-80 or so hatched. I ended up with about 20-some chicks over 3 batches. Just culled 8 because they are eating like crazy and I can tell those colors won't work out. These are the 15 that I kept:









One of the Naked Necks in particular has beautiful pale gold Mille color!

 

[alohachickens]

I am trying not to get too excited, because these guys change so much as they mature. But, there is a baby rooster in there who is HUGE with yellow legs. He shows lots of white. His breast is soft and squishy - very "meaty" like a Sussex! I can't tell you how much it would boost the program to have a rooster with all the things I'm looking for - size, spots, yellow legs, big upright comb. Keeping my fingers crossed!



The boys generally lose a TON of white when they hit 4 months old. That being said - he sure does have a lot to spare!



No way of telling who Mom and Dad are. But this boy sure looks promising. Keeping my fingers crossed.

His brother isn't half bad, though his legs are the wrong color and he's a bit smaller. Still pretty so growing him out as a back-up.

 

[alohachickens]

The BIGGEST chick by far is this beauty. I don't know if it's a hen or rooster. I thought rooster for sure, based on sheer size, but the tail feathers almost look too neat.

Based on size I'd say the white Cinnamon Sussex hen would be Mom, and Dad would be Buff Sussex, but how would that account for the yellow legs?!??

Wrong color but could be much worse things to work with than this, and the body shape and size is just so, so nice. If quality and body size matter this one has both. Just a lovely chicken.










This chick is so big, he / she towers over all the rest.

 

[HEChicken]

I agree - he is looking really promising!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

X2 on that cockerel! Look at him straight on from the back and check out the position of his tail. I am so hoping that tail is aligned straight-on. It almost looks like a wry tail in that top pic but I'm praying it's not so. I think it's just an optical illusion from all that white. That's a pretty bird. I also like the shape on that white one and you do have some lovely keepers. Exciting to see your progress!

 

[HEChicken]

It is finally above freezing and the snow is melting - yay!!! I took my camera out to get some pics of the NH sons and here they are.



That is my billy goat lying just behind this one, in case you were wondering what the blob is.