The Aloha Chicken Project

[cgmaster]

Oh, and forgot to add - Russian Orloffs would not be a good mix with Alohas.  Wrong body type.  Alohas should look like Sussex or New Hampshire red in body type.

Orloffs have the pea combs, muffy faces, more "upright" body shape.  Alohas should be nice and deep through the keel.  Good round "traditional" chicken shape.  Alohas should be the "farm chicken" body type - like you took a Rhode Island Red and dressed it up in fancy spotted colors.  

When I said the Russian orloffs I was think more about color than body shape, I have a bantam silver penciled rock roo if I bred some of the smaller alohas ( that is if I get any) with him the body type would work while keeping then small right? But the color wouldn't mesh?

 

[cgmaster]

To cla

There is a "bantam" version already!  It is a very rare Swedish breed called Olandsk Dwarf.  They are exactly what I am trying to get my Alohas to look like, only I want my Alohas much bigger, LOL!  Here is a recently ended auction for hatching eggs:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Olandsk-Dwa...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I heard the Olandsk can be tricky to get started, those eggs are expensive and like all shipped eggs, hatch rates are hit or miss.  I have had anywhere from 0 to 6 chicks hatch from a dozen eggs sent to me.  How far the eggs are shipped makes a big difference, my best hatch rate was on eggs shipped from California.  That being said, I also tried to ship Aloha eggs to a person in Los Angeles and they had zero hatch!  And I sent a LOT of eggs!  So you never know what the Post Office is going to do with that box, LOL.

If you don't want to invest in pricey Olandsk eggs, since you are in town, I could try to see if I can pen up some of my smaller original Aloha hens.  They are the most colorful hens.  They aren't Bantam sized, but they are definitely smaller.  Most people wanting to buy are looking for BIG chickens so I am trying to breed them up in size.  Nobody who has come to the house to buy has requested Bantams.  All buyers have shown a lot of interest in my biggest roosters, I get a lot of comments about people being very impressed with the "big boys" and it seems folks will pay more for large hens vs small hens.  

So if you are looking for Batams with the Aloha look, check out the Olandsk and let me know if you get into them!  

If you want some Alohas, I have plenty of gorgeous hens on the small-ish side.  Some hens are so gorgeous, even if they are small, I have to keep them for the amazing color!!! 

to clarify I do not live IN Phoenix I live further south in safford

 

[alohachickens]

When I said the Russian orloffs I was think more about color than body shape, I have a bantam silver penciled rock roo if I bred some of the smaller alohas ( that is if I get any) with him the body type would work while keeping then small right? But the color wouldn't mesh?

Neither of those breeds will really work, and trust me, it is so much harder to fix things later, it takes years - try to get the BEST you can get to start and save yourself tons of work and headaches later.

If you really want Bantam Alohas, do look up those Olandsk Dwarf. Eggs have been HOT sellers on Ebay, so you'd make your money back easily if you got a flock going. You'd make way more $$$ in the long run doing that.

If you want a spotted Bantam rooster, he's too small to breed to Alohas, but some little spotty thing has been left in my yard. I don't know where he came from, he showed up about a month ago. I don't know if he flew in here on his own, or if someone in the neighborhood didn't want him and figured I liked spotty chickens and dumped him on me? I've been offering him food and water and he's not a threat to the hens (he's too small to breed them) but he's cute and free if you want him. You could try to find mottled Seramas or something like that locally?

 

[alohachickens]

To cla
to clarify I do not live IN Phoenix I live further south in safford

Safford is a bit further away!

 

[cgmaster]

Neither of those breeds will really work, and trust me, it is so much harder to fix things later, it takes years - try to get the BEST you can get to start and save yourself tons of work and headaches later.

If you really want Bantam Alohas, do look up those Olandsk Dwarf.  Eggs have been HOT sellers on Ebay, so you'd make your money back easily if you got a flock going.   You'd make way more $$$ in the long run doing that.

If you want a spotted Bantam rooster, he's too small to breed to Alohas, but some little spotty thing has been left in my yard.  I don't know where he came from, he showed up about a month ago.  I don't know if he flew in here on his own, or if someone in the neighborhood didn't want him and figured I liked spotty chickens and dumped him on me?  I've been offering him food and water and he's not a threat to the hens (he's too small to breed them) but he's cute and free if you want him.  You could try to find mottled Seramas or something like that locally?  

my thought process on the rocks was that I already have them and by adding in a couple aloha hens I would still get some of the pure rocks, I don't really like the body shape of the olandsk dwarfs, may I ask what kind of problems I would see down the road usoing my rock rooster with some alohas?

 

[alohachickens]

my thought process on the rocks was that I already have them and by adding in a couple aloha hens I would still get some of the pure rocks, I don't really like the body shape of the olandsk dwarfs, may I ask what kind of problems I would see down the road usoing my rock rooster with some alohas?

The color would be ruined. You wouldn't see anything with the Aloha color again for generations. It would just be a bunch of mutt chickens that didn't have spots.

Edited to add: Alohas are a bunch of recessive genes, so just about everything else "covers up" their colors and traits.

If a gene is recessive, both parents need to carry it for it to show.

 

[alohachickens]

Here is an Aloha crossed with "something else" that I did to improve size and add the Dun color.

It would take about 3 generations to restore color.

I'm still working on restoring the color, and I'm half way there in this photo:


See the dark and light super spotty hen? Then there is a hen next to her, with kind of a grayish neck and no spots? The orange rooster is net to her, on the left

Gray neck hen now has the "silver" color restored to brown. Her size is good. Now I have to breed her to something with spots, and get the spots back. That will take even more breeding.

So I have a hen that is big, and brown with Dun lacing instead of black, and now have to add the spots.

The goal is chickens like this but with even more spotting:


But it takes generations to work through all this.

I think I got started on this line in 2012 or 2013.

 

[cgmaster]

What does the spotted rooster you mentioned look like?

 

[cgmaster]

The color would be ruined.  You wouldn't see anything with the Aloha color again for generations.  It would just be a bunch of mutt chickens that didn't have spots.  

Edited to add:  Alohas are a bunch of recessive genes, so just about everything else "covers up" their colors and traits.

If a gene is recessive, both parents need to carry it for it to show.  

my silver penciled rocks have single combs and yellow legs, their feather color (silver penciled) is just silver partridge with the pattern gene, I have actually found it to be hard to keep the pattern gene when cross breeding ( I recently started a buff laced white ameraucana project) breeding a silver based rooster with a gold based hni would get boys split to both silver and gold and girls that are just silver based, breeding one of those boys with a gold based hen I would get gold in both genders and silver hens as well as gold/silver based roos

 

[alohachickens]

my silver penciled rocks have single combs and yellow legs, their feather color (silver penciled) is just silver partridge with the pattern gene, I have actually found it to be hard to keep the pattern gene when cross breeding ( I recently started a buff laced white ameraucana project) breeding a silver based rooster with a gold based hni would get boys split to both silver and gold and girls that are just silver based, breeding one of those boys with a gold based hen I would get gold in both genders and silver hens as well as gold/silver based roos

Do you have any photos of the cross breds? That might be neat to see.