The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

Here are the 7 of 8 Aloha Naked Necks that hatched. I lost one on the second day after hatch.

This one and another chick (or the same chick?) that was showing a white line of feathering down the back, are the most promising in terms of color.

Draye, you will probably need to keep a SUPER COLORFUL "Aloha" rooster to pull colors from in the future. One that shows a ridiculous amount of white. So far, it has been tough to get Alohas Naked Necks with full spotting. This is normal. When you cross a spotted to not-spotted, all the babies CARRY spots. (But don't show them.) Then, when you breed a spotted carrier with one that shows spots, only HALF of those babies will have show spotting.

But - here's the catch - showing spotting could mean they show just a few tiny speckles here or there? Finding one that not only has spots, but has the all-over fabulous incredible super flashy spotting, that's a totally different story!!!

I raised 8 Aloha Naked Necks myself, and out of the eight, only ONE had the color I wanted:


Not only is she beautifully spotted, she has much better size than the original Alohas! (Because she is probably 3/4ths "big chicken" and only 1/4 Aloha.)

The other three that technically are "spotted"?

See for yourself:






I now have this hen and the not-spotted-enough rooster up for sale on my local Craigslist. (At a good price, though!)

OK, here's some more recent babies, see for yourself:


Not spotted.


Not spotted.

I have about four "not-spotted" NN's that I'm going to sell. Sure, they have some faint spotting, just not much!

Like before, I also have about half (about four) chicks that show NICE spotting. But - the last batch - the white faded out at four months!!!

So I have to wait and see if this fabulous guy KEEPS his white! If he does, he will be perfect to cross with the hen with the beautiful spotting. (The one hen out of eight from the first batch.)



And by hatching 16 and keeping the best 2, then I know the next generation should (hopefully?) have really nice white. I know these two are related somewhat (via the NN grandma) but I also know they have different daddies, because this roo has the yellow legs.

Anyway, in the meantime, I will breed the super-spotty NN hen with the BIG darker Speckled Sussex type NN rooster, and look for babies that show a lot of nice spotting. I will replace the too-dark and not-spotty-enough roo that looks Speckled Sussex when I have something better. At least this guy is BIG and I know he carries the gene for yellow legs, so that's good, yay!

Don't be surprised if a lot of your Naked Neck babies show no white. That's what the Aloha eggs were for, so you can find a super spotty hen and rooster to "pull" spots from in the future.

If you hatched 7 Aloha Naked Necks, don't be surprised if only 2-4 actually show spots. That would be normal statistics.

 

[alohachickens]

These are some very beautiful birds. I am still reading through all the information, but had a couple questions.

What breeds did you use for this breed, since you they don't have any blommehon lines?

When will you sell hatching eggs to non-breeder/hobbyists?

I began the Aloha project BEFORE there were any Swedish Flower in the U.S.

I was inspired by THIS photo on "Feathersite"


I loved how these chickens were mostly white - with little colored flecks. Totally opposite what Speckled Sussex look like!

The funny thing is, it turns out, this is NOT the typical Swedish! I didn't know that of course, it was before they were imported to the US. Once Greenfire brought them in, it turns out, most of the babies look spotty like this, but once they reach about 4 months old, they totally "drop" the white feathering and end up almost solid color? Some of them look spotty but it turns out (because they carry the "blue" color) what you are actually seeing is just a Splash chicken - and Splash looks a lot like a colorful mottled chicken! These hens in the Feathersite photo? They do not show blue. They TRULY have this much white spotting! This amount of white has been my goal.

Problem is, where to get it? This kind of color is found on "Calico Cochins" but not much else. And the Cochin type is not what I was breeding for. So how to get it?!??!

I started with a "base" of Exchequer Leghorn / Speckled Sussex crosses.

I also added New Hampshire Red and Buff Orpington at first, to improve size. Later I tried Buff Rock (big and has yellow legs) but spots have been hard to put onto any Buff breed that has an all-over yellow body - including yellow tails. Later I finally figured out you need to use "Buff Columbian" which is buff yellow color with a black tail tip, and black ring around the neck.

But my big break was finding not one but THREE "mystery hens" from South Phoenix. Unlike any known breed. The main hen used to get this color was "Oddball" who was crossed with a Sussex / Exchequer rooster. Her color, it turns out, was VERY easy to replicate, and it did breed true. It technically would be Crele Mottled, I guess?


Oddball banty hen - color source for Aloha


I found a total of THREE odd chickens that do not really resemble ANY known chicken breed? They were large Banty sized. Located in Phoenix, owned by Hispanic families, unknown origin.

Oddball was the main one, but I knew I would get bottlenecked if I didn't find anything else. Then, I got a call from a friend, she saw an ad on Craigslist that had two hens that were just like what I was looking for. These hens were probably OEGB lines? That's the best we can figure. They came along right when I needed, them, so I called the "Karma" and "Mystic". Karma was the main one I used because her base color was the lighter brown.





As you can see, all three of the "Mystery Chickens" had the all-over super-white spotting pattern I was looking for!

Unfortunately, they were all Banty sized (Karma and Mystic were large Banty - but still too small) and the Exchequers are not big either. So, it's been a struggle to get these color patterns on BIG size chickens, and something I still fight with today!

However, these hens in my flock are NOT BANTY sized - and are *larger* than Exchequer Leghorn hens - but still show the extreme mottled colors:







But getting them large AND colorful - consistently - eludes me still.

I can pump out super colorful hens of the smaller size variety - about the size of Exchquer hens - and they do breed true! But every time I introduce a "big" chicken strain to improve size and quality, it messes up the color, then I go back and fix that, and in the process, I usually lose my size and have to start the process all over again. LOL.

I just keep plugging away . . . someday it will all come together! I hope!

 

[alohachickens]

Ok, I was curious - since this is the first photo that I saw of Swedish Flowers. And my impression was, this is what they were supposed to look like. Super spotty, lots of white, yellow legs, no crests. This is the Aloha goal, basically. Note the hen in back has more red or gold white colors showing in her chest while the hen in front has more dark colors? Likewise, I wanted the American version of this to also so some variety of color.

Anyway, I searched all over the 'net trying to find ANY other Swedish that looked like this. Remember Swedish are a rare breed, with maybe 500 in Sweden. And this photo was up on Feathersite when I saw it in 2007 or 2008. That means it could be much older, and it might be, that at one time, there was a flock of Swedish that actually DID look like this - but maybe there are not anymore?

One trick I found was to search for Swedish in their own language - "Skansk Blomhonna" or "Blommehons" etc. Instead of searching for "Swedish Flower" in English. When I did that, I did find this one teeny tiny photo on a foreign web site:


There was no way to enlarge the photo, but it seems to show a larger, full sized, single combed hen with an excess amount of white. The white is NOT from "Splash" (double dose of blue) because you can clearly see that tail feather is black. If she was Splash, the color would be white with a few gray feathers here or there.

Here is another photo - taken from a foreign breeder web site - that shows Swedish with excessive white that was what I loved so much about the original "Feathersite" picture:


Look at the crested hen (above) with the tremendous amount of white!

I don't like the crests but compare the photos of her and the others above, to the color of this Aloha hen:

(Small Aloha hen - NO Swedish - from Karma / Oddball Aloha lines)

Here is what appears to be a classified ad for Swedish Flowers. The rooster shows no blue and a large amount of white. Behind him is a mostly-black hen with hardly any white (nope) but behind THAT black hen appears to be a Mille with light color and a lot of white, which would also be closer to the Aloha end goal:

http://www.lantbruksnet.se/lantmarknad/sok/annons.php?aid=115284&inriktning=&typ=

Also frustratingly in the background, is a hen (you can really only see her head) who appears to be mostly white but has black flecks - so is not a blue Splash hen -

http://www.lantbruksnet.se/lantmarknad/sok/annons.php?aid=113872&inriktning=&typ=

You can see the rooster in front also has a crazy amount of white, much more white than is typically shown in the U.S. Swedish Flower imports. To the right of that rooster is a more typically seen Swedish rooster, who is more brown and doesn't show that much white at all.

But, aside from color, the Swedish are slow to mature compared to many Heritage US breeds. My pure Swedish rooster took 8 months to show interest in breeding. He grew very tall at first, and then slowly filled in, reaching mature height at about 6 months but he looked thin and gangly until he was 12 months. The Aloha goal would be for a faster maturing, predator savvy, dual purpose breed - but in terms of overall "looks" would be more similar to the Swedish shown here.

However, as the Aloha project took on a life of its own, colors started to appear that have no equivalent in Swedish Flowers, so while it started as trying to "copy" the Swedish breed, it has stated to morph into a unique breed, that you can say was inspired by Swedish Flower Hens.

It sure would be fun to try and work with a Swedish breeder who still has some of these "super white" Swedish hens and try to import for color. But with restrictions being what they are, and the overall cost of importing, I am hoping that if I keep crossing the smaller super-colorful Alohas with larger sized chickens, eventually I will get this color onto a larger chicken body.

Also, these little Alohas have great advantages as a breed. They are extremely TOUGH. Very predator savvy. Heat tolerant. Lay like mad, VERY reliable producers! Not "fussy" at all.

 

[draye]

This one and another chick (or the same chick?) that was showing a white line of feathering down the back, are the most promising in terms of color. Draye, you will probably need to keep a SUPER COLORFUL "Aloha" rooster to pull colors from in the future. One that shows a ridiculous amount of white. So far, it has been tough to get Alohas Naked Necks with full spotting. This is normal. When you cross a spotted to not-spotted, all the babies CARRY spots. (But don't show them.) Then, when you breed a spotted carrier with one that shows spots, only HALF of those babies will have show spotting. But - here's the catch - showing spotting could mean they show just a few tiny speckles here or there? Finding one that not only has spots, but has the all-over fabulous incredible super flashy spotting, that's a totally different story!!! I raised 8 Aloha Naked Necks myself, and out of the eight, only ONE had the color I wanted: Not only is she beautifully spotted, she has much better size than the original Alohas! (Because she is probably 3/4ths "big chicken" and only 1/4 Aloha.) The other three that technically are "spotted"? See for yourself: I now have this hen and the not-spotted-enough rooster up for sale on my local Craigslist. (At a good price, though!) OK, here's some more recent babies, see for yourself: Not spotted. Not spotted. I have about four "not-spotted" NN's that I'm going to sell. Sure, they have some faint spotting, just not much! Like before, I also have about half (about four) chicks that show NICE spotting. But - the last batch - the white faded out at four months!!! So I have to wait and see if this fabulous guy KEEPS his white! If he does, he will be perfect to cross with the hen with the beautiful spotting. (The one hen out of eight from the first batch.) And by hatching 16 and keeping the best 2, then I know the next generation should (hopefully?) have really nice white. I know these two are related somewhat (via the NN grandma) but I also know they have different daddies, because this roo has the yellow legs. Anyway, in the meantime, I will breed the super-spotty NN hen with the BIG darker Speckled Sussex type NN rooster, and look for babies that show a lot of nice spotting. I will replace the too-dark and not-spotty-enough roo that looks Speckled Sussex when I have something better. At least this guy is BIG and I know he carries the gene for yellow legs, so that's good, yay! Don't be surprised if a lot of your Naked Neck babies show no white. That's what the Aloha eggs were for, so you can find a super spotty hen and rooster to "pull" spots from in the future. If you hatched 7 Aloha Naked Necks, don't be surprised if only 2-4 actually show spots. That would be normal statistics.

It seems that all the Naked Neck Aloha's have some kind of spotting or in one case not so much spots but a lot of white showing in the wing feathers. I know a lot can be lost as they begin too get their regular feathers. That is why I pulled out 5 Alohas to breed to them. If I get a good spotty rooster I'm going to pair him with my Mottled Partridge hen.

 

[alohachickens]

It seems that all the Naked Neck Aloha's have some kind of spotting or in one case not so much spots but a lot of white showing in the wing feathers. I know a lot can be lost as they begin too get their regular feathers. That is why I pulled out 5 Alohas to breed to them.

If I get a good spotty rooster I'm going to pair him with my Mottled Partridge hen.

Crossing a spotty Aloha with your Mottled Partridge hen would be a terrific idea! You would get 100% spotted babies. Be sure to pick an Aloha boy with a LIGHT body color - the darker colors like Partridge are very dominant.

 

[draye]

Crossing a spotty Aloha with your Mottled Partridge hen would be a terrific idea!  You would get 100% spotted babies.  Be sure to pick an Aloha boy with a LIGHT body color - the darker colors like Partridge are very dominant.

That is my plan anyway.

A lot of this genetics stuff goes way over my head. Not hard since I'm short.

You kind of explain things in a way that I can remember some of it. I really appreciate your explanations.

 

[5moore]

Sommer what do you think about this pullet?

 

[5moore]

here she is again with her two sisters. All three of them are different color. She is mahagony, the middle one is more chestnut and the one on the right is orange.

 

[5moore]

Here is a couple babies I hatched

 

[farmergal27]

Oh wow I wish I could have them so much but I can't keep roosters so I could not help you with breeding. Very nice birds though, keep up the good work!