The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

Here is a photo of the other hen who could possibly be the Mom of the Dun Mille chick. This hen is small and TOTAL Aloha in shape, size, and temperament! She is SO CRABBY! And feisty. And small. And TOUGH. It's hard to believe that she is basically half Light Sussex. Everything about her screams "Aloha".


Her momma was one of these hens.

Typical Aloha - she went super broody and I gave her chicks to try and break her. She would cross great with a pure Speckled Sussex rooster. The chicks would then be 3/4ths Sussex. Half would inherit the Dun gene and in theory half would be Mottled.

So - I just won another set of the super-spotty Sussex eggs! I bought a dozen a while back and the box had a rough trip, and nothing hatched. Got lucky and there were no bids, so going to try again since it was just $4.99 plus shipping for the dozen. Hoping to get a super-spotty Sussex roo that I can cross with my Buff Sussex and Buff Sussex / Aloha crosses.

I saved a couple pics from the auction. We'll see if anything hatches this time:


(NOT MY PICTURE - from Ebay auction.)


(NOT MY PICTURE - from Ebay auction.)

I know Ebay will take down auctions after about 2 months, so I wanted to save a couple of photos for reference of the parents, in case I get anything to hatch?

 

[knjinnm]

The chicks are embarrassed by their naked necks! ;-)

 

[Deerfield Acres]

alohachickens, hope you have success with the new batch of Speckled eggs. Those are beautiful spotty birds.

My little chicks are starting to feather and there are indications of spots on one of the lightest chicks so it will be interesting to see how it actually feathers out. Could end up anything but it's fun to hope. Right now it looks like a Buff chick with white spots. That would be really fun.

Lost one of my Buff/Speckled crosses last night to the Speckled curse. Last night it was all running around and happy, this morning lying dead. Just makes me sick because it was one of the lightest Speckled cross chicks. Ack! Oh well, still have 7 crosses.

knjinnm,

 

[draye]

@alohachicken

Here is a shot of one of the Aloha's, I think a cockerel:

This is one of 2/3 cockerels with a lot of white to them.

They range from a lot of white to neatly no white at all. Some have white tips on their feathers.

Here is 2 shots of one if the NN Aloha's:

I think this one is a pullet.

Next two shots are of an unrelated chick, no Aloha or none of my stock.
This one is the only one left from three that hatched from @learycow here on Backyard Chickens. It is from a Red Naked Neck rooster over Golden Comet hens (basically a Red Sex Link), I'm hoping that it will help with the laying part and hopefully with the Aloha project.

Not a great photographer so forgive the quality if the pictures.

 

[alohachickens]

@alohachicken

Here is a shot of one of the Aloha's, I think a cockerel:




This is one of 2/3 cockerels with a lot of white to them.

They range from a lot of white to neatly no white at all. Some have white tips on their feathers.

Here is 2 shots of one if the NN Aloha's:




I think this one is a pullet.

Next two shots are of an unrelated chick, no Aloha or none of my stock.
This one is the only one left from three that hatched from @learycow here on Backyard Chickens. It is from a Red Naked Neck rooster over Golden Comet hens (basically a Red Sex Link), I'm hoping that it will help with the laying part and hopefully with the Aloha project.





Not a great photographer so forgive the quality if the pictures.

Thanks for the photo update!

 

[alohachickens]

alohachickens, hope you have success with the new batch of Speckled eggs. Those are beautiful spotty birds.

My little chicks are starting to feather and there are indications of spots on one of the lightest chicks so it will be interesting to see how it actually feathers out. Could end up anything but it's fun to hope. Right now it looks like a Buff chick with white spots. That would be really fun.

Lost one of my Buff/Speckled crosses last night to the Speckled curse. Last night it was all running around and happy, this morning lying dead. Just makes me sick because it was one of the lightest Speckled cross chicks. Ack! Oh well, still have 7 crosses.

knjinnm,

Gosh, Deerfield, that is weird about the Speckled. But I can't say it's something unique to you! I can't explain why last year on that horrible 116-degree day, it was three Speckled chicks that were lost. The fourth did recover. The Alohas were fine and the Buffs were OK.

But we've had a mild respiratory thing going on - must be carried by wild birds because it popped up in my "closed" flock and likewise in a "closed" flock of another nearby breeder who lives about 10 miles from me. It was very mild, she did not treat her birds. Both of us experienced no drop in production and no deaths. But the weird thing is most of the Alohas had no symptoms. The Aloha crosses, mild symptoms. The Naked Necks, no symptoms. The pure Sussex were hit most hard, and I finally treated the flock with Tylan because those Sussex just couldn't really shake it. They weren't losing weight, but thought they needed a little help to get over it. I still get a slight sneeze from the full Buff Sussex rooster. I will probably separate and treat any Sussex that are still showing signs, once the breeder pens are totally broken down in a few weeks.

It was really strange seeing how some of the flock was 100% unaffected while others just could not get rid of this thing. All were the same age so it's not like there were older ones with better immunity?

One of the things that I hope is most beneficial to this project is the "hybrid vigor" from mixing a few breeds.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Yeah, so strange. None of the other chicks have fallen and there is no sneezing, pasty butt, droopy chicks otherwise and they aren't even outside. They are in the shop in their brooder. Crazy.

I was just out to see the others and they are looking really good, type-wise. I'm going to have a decent assortment to work with. I'm surprised at how many of the chicks show slight mottling and how they are feathering in. The lighter looking Buff/Speckled cross is feathering in darker than the dark colored chicks. Go figure. Doesn't really matter, they are going to change a lot before maturing anyway and aren't going to be spectacular color-wise.

The older pullet, Buff/Speckled cross, is a really sweet bird. No more white coming in at all so that's too bad but I didn't really expect it to.

My plan for the Aloha hatching eggs once they are grown out is to use the best rooster over my Aloha/Buff and Speckled/Buff cross hens. At the same time, cross the best Aloha hen with the best AlohaX or SpeckledX rooster. Then I will cross the off spring from the two separate groups and see what happens. At the same time I will cross my Waltz Ark Buff and Speckled Sussex to use if we need more improvement on size/type.

This has taken a lot longer than expected with all the set backs, but it's nice to have some chicks growing out again.

 

[draye]

@alohachickens

I just thought of these. They are sold by Ideal Hatchery.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Catas/BRKCatalana.html

I'm not sure that Ideals turn out this big but would that color work for the Aloha's.

 

[alohachickens]

@alohachickens

I just thought if these. They are sold by Ideal Hatchery.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Catas/BRKCatalana.html

I'm not sure that Ideals turn out this big but would that color work for the Aloha's.

They look OK - the German ones on that breed page are nice in particular -but not really any more promising than what we have here? Some had white legs and some had slate legs, but I didn't really see yellow legs? I do like their big combs, that's nice. However, in all honestly the Buff Sussex that I have here are spectacular! We just need to add the SPOTS to this line!



The Buff Sussex and Speckled Sussex don't have the yellow legs, but the yellow legs can be found in New Hampshire and Swedish Flowers.

More than introducing a ton of new breeds, what I really need in terms of help, is more folks willing to slog through the tedious process of hatching and raising generations of chicks and picking out the best of each generation and crossing them back to each other. I think the Sussex and New Hampshire are just fine options, to add size and build.

There really isn't going to be one "magic bullet" that saves us the hard work of breeding a spotty something to a nice quality not-spotted something, and then having to hatch chicks, raise those, and cross them back to each other or something else. It's all that hatching and hatching and raising of peeps to 4-6 months that is exhausting! And then having to do it again and again until what you are looking for finally pops up! LOL.

Like the 8 chicks that I raised to get that one AWESOME spotty NN hen! It's a lot of work for just one "keeper" hen. Breeding chickens is not for wimps! LOL.

I see more very promising chicks in there - I culled 4 solids and am left with about 5 more NN's that show color. But I'll have to slog through raising another group to 4+ months to really see what I've got. I think we have most of the ingredients, finally - though trying to find better quality Sussex, New Hamps, etc, is always a good idea!

 

[alohachickens]

Yeah, so strange. None of the other chicks have fallen and there is no sneezing, pasty butt, droopy chicks otherwise and they aren't even outside. They are in the shop in their brooder. Crazy.

I was just out to see the others and they are looking really good, type-wise. I'm going to have a decent assortment to work with. I'm surprised at how many of the chicks show slight mottling and how they are feathering in. The lighter looking Buff/Speckled cross is feathering in darker than the dark colored chicks. Go figure. Doesn't really matter, they are going to change a lot before maturing anyway and aren't going to be spectacular color-wise.

The older pullet, Buff/Speckled cross, is a really sweet bird. No more white coming in at all so that's too bad but I didn't really expect it to.

My plan for the Aloha hatching eggs once they are grown out is to use the best rooster over my Aloha/Buff and Speckled/Buff cross hens. At the same time, cross the best Aloha hen with the best AlohaX or SpeckledX rooster. Then I will cross the off spring from the two separate groups and see what happens. At the same time I will cross my Waltz Ark Buff and Speckled Sussex to use if we need more improvement on size/type.

This has taken a lot longer than expected with all the set backs, but it's nice to have some chicks growing out again.

I'm so excited to see what you get!

I really wish it hadn't taken me so long to get my new breeder pens done, I'm at end of season when I have so many more crosses that I'd like to do.

But it's just going to be too hot!

I have some eggs from the pen saved up for you, but want to know, should I kick out the two NN hens? I put them in there to get eggs for my own hatch, one is the Buff hen who is big with no spots. She was with "Chirp" who was a nicely formed but not very big Aloha rooster. Here is the cross:


BIG Naked Neck hen with (faded) yellow legs, was housed with Aloha "Chirp" seen below.

All chicks will have NN. May have spots because it turns out hen is a Mottled carrier. All chicks will have yellow legs.

Then I put the NN hen in there - she's a young hen and I don't even know if she's laying?!?


She is really decent size - bigger than most Aloha hens thanks to her G-ma Naked Neck. Legs are pink. I suspect her Dad could be Thing 1 or Thing 2.

She was in the pen with ALL the roosters - so any boy could be the daddy? Her half brother (NN Speckled Sussex, big but dark) her dad/uncle Thing 1 or Thing 2, and the solid pure Buff Sussex were all in the pen. Plus a too small and super spotty Aloha boy with yellow legs. And this rooster that she's in with now was also running in the pack. So it's a total mystery, if she is laying, who the daddy is. (Any of her chicks will probably give us good clues, though!)

Half her babies would be NN the other half "normal" feathered. She does carry the gene for yellow legs.

I can take these two ladies out for a few days if you want to avoid the NN influence! Please let me know!