The Aloha Chicken Project

[Deerfield Acres]

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Sounds like a simple enough process but who would think they would structurally be so different? That's wild. Thanks for sharing that, very interesting to know.

 

[alohachickens]

Still waiting for @alohachickens to way in on the mottling question.

Sorry super busy right now but it could be Mottling. Technically a Mottled bird can appear out of two "SOLID" parents.

Example: Breed a mottled hen to a solid colored rooster. Much like HEChicken's NHR x Exchequer crosses. They would appear solid but may have one small spot here or there.

If you then crossed these "solid" ones together, the babies would come out like this:

1 solid (no mottling, and no gene for mottling, a true "solid" chicken)

2 solid looking - but carrying one hidden gene for Mottling. But for all practical purposes, they would look Solid.

1 Mottled - and showing spots. But to what degree? Even a few spots is technically "mottled" but not the all over super spotty look.

So far, it is easy to explain the basics, but nobody seems to truly understand what causes the "super spotty" look. Except of course breeding lots of super spotty chickens together?

 

[alohachickens]

So Draye it is possible you may have Mottled carriers. You will have to wait and see how the chick grows out to be sure. But yes it is possible for mottled to seem to appear out of nowhere - because the gene can go into hiding!

 

[draye]

So Draye it is possible you may have Mottled carriers.  You will have to wait and see how the chick grows out to be sure.  But yes it is possible for mottled to seem to appear out of nowhere - because the gene can go into hiding!

I'm guessing that the mother could be a possible carrier, her dad was the Salmon Nsked Neck rooster that died in me during the really cold weather. I know that he was a carrier as he and that mottled hen had produced a mottled for me. The mottled hen though is nowhere in the mother's pedigree. Her mother came from Blue Wgeaten Splash EE and Buff (Black Tailed) NN.

This is mom but when she was quite young.

This is mom's daddy (known mottling carrier).

This is mom's momma. She is some kind of Blue Wheaten color, I always said a Blue Salmon Buff. Best way I could describe it.

The mother is from the green egg laying line. The sure if the chick was a Black Jersey Giant. As far as I know BJG's doesn't carry mottling, but I do know that they carry Java blood ( tge black as far as I know), I think that there may have been some Langshan blood way back in the background.

 

[alohachickens]

It could of course be something other than Mottling, but in the case of chickens we don't keep pedigrees so it is hard to say for sure.

As you said Java carries Mottling and it's possible there was cross breeding or mistaken identity somewhere in the Black Jersey Giant line.

A black Java and a black Jersey Giant could get mistaken for each other at a poultry swap or when sold secondhand.

Example, if you sold a new person a red hen, and told them it was a New Hampshire Red, they could easily call the New Hampshire Red a Rhode Island Red, when telling friends about their new chicken, because they remember the name "RED" and both are red chickens. So if they said "I got this new chicken - it's a something Red? New Jersey Red?" and their friend was like "Rhode Island Red?" "Ah yeah, that must be it! Rhode Island Red!"

Without papers tracing the bloodline there could be lots of mistaken identity cases in poultry. This one Sussex hen that I bought, was hatched out of a hatchery in the upper midwest, and her owner noted that she threw babies with yellow legs when mated to her Leghorn rooster. Obviously she carried the yellow leg gene, which was good in my case. But it makes you wonder what snuck into her background to give her that hidden yellow leg gene, because that's not in Sussex. LOL. But she was a "purebred hatchery Speckled Sussex" so there you go!

 

[alohachickens]

A local person bought some chicks from me, and was kind enough to send pics of them growing out. THIS is what I spotted in on of the pics, and the new owner was generous enough to let me have her back!


Not very many people who have bought or hatched Alohas have given me updates on their progress. The fact that this beauty was found in a group of less than chicks gives me great hope, now that I'm starting to raise my "keepers" for next season.

Now I have to try and keep her alive through the summer! ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

 

[alohachickens]

Sorry I've been so quiet lately, I did a new Blog post so please check it out:

http://alohachickens.blogspot.com/2015/05/still-searching-for-mr-right.html

 

[alohachickens]

Well, I can't weigh in on the mottling issue but I do have chicks! Haven't counted them and I'm not sure how many Buff/Aloha or Buff/Speckled Sussex I have but I believe 6 total, so that's something anyway! There is one chick with just a little black on the wing. Interesting.

Cell pic -- sorry, not great.

Hey! Babies!!! Yay!

I see more than 6 chicks total. What do you have going on in the rest? Purebred Buff Sussex?

Oh - and guess what? FINALLY got that breeder pen set up. Probably needs at least one more week for the DNA to settle? It's going on 2 weeks I think?



Here's a photo of the Aloha rooster with my BIGGEST Buff Sussex hen:



I moved her the other night, and she's MASSIVE.


Also in the pen are a few nicer Aloha hens (three I think?) plus the half NHR / Aloha cross hen. (Not pictured, she was laying an egg when I took these.)

More pics of the boy:













He's probably about half Swedish, with the remainder Aloha.

I would be happy to send you some hatching eggs if you want some yellow leg genes! I've already got 40 eggs from this pen in the 'bator, although I'm sure the first ones are not out of this rooster. (I'm OK with that, because most likely Thing 1 and Thing 2 would be the daddy, which is still awesome! And I love all these hens. So I'm hatching them all, yay!)

So . . . anyway . . . I've got babies coming out of this pen. Would be happy to share a few with you. Let me know what number of eggs you want, and we can figure out what hens? Not sure if you do or don't want the Buff Sussex in there?

 

[Deerfield Acres]

alohachickens, yes ma'am, the rest were Buff Sussex. I will be selling the pullets and raising the cockerels for meat.

I will be happy to take however many eggs you can spare. 25 - 30? I will make up the difference in room in the bator with Buff cross eggs here. If not that many, it's okay. I would think that being in the pen for 2 weeks is plenty. I know they say 3 weeks but I'm not too worried about it, if you have eggs ready and waiting now. I like all the hens (including the Buff) you have in the pen with the new guy. He's really pretty and if even one of his chicks looks like him with a Sussex breast, I will be very happy. I like him a whole lot and I realize he isn't even fully grown out. Nice looking bird.

So, turns out, I did not get any Columbian Rocks, they are all White. My question is, once the Rocks are mature enough to breed, should I go ahead and cross my best Rock rooster (there are some really fast growing, big birds in one group) with my Buff/Speckled and Buff/ Aloha crosses (F1) I am now raising to get some yellow legs going? The Rocks will be mature enough this fall to accomplish that. Then, when those crosses (F1's) are mature, breed them back to a couple girls I get from this batch of hatching eggs? Is the white going to wash their color out too much? The Speckled crosses need washing out but I really don't want a ton of gray, either, right? I guess I can always just try it and see what happens. Just wondered if you may have more of an idea what that white is going to do without the Columbian in there. I suppose if they were Columbian, they wouldn't be as nice and thick as these White Rocks are. These are really substantial birds with big breasts, considering they aren't Cornish crosses.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

alohachickens, overlooked the part where you said you could share a few babies. Yes! I would be interested in babies! PM me with details (how many, costs) and we'll get this party started.