The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

Updated photos of the babies! Some are looking really nice. There are definitely some mottled chicks in there. More than I thought at first.


On the far left, is the one chick that REALLY stands out - yellow legs and totally spotty!!!

As for the rest, we see a lot of white ones that took after that "Light Sussex" type Colombian coloration. Some have black neck rings, others have the Dun color.


Other chicks are basically Buffs. But they do carry Mottling at least.


Here is a "SURPRISE!" chick. I thought this one was Colombian, with a little red leakage, because it had so much white. However, seeing it now, it may be Mottled - carrying tons of white! And looks like yellow legs to boot. How nice! Love it. Behind that chick is a beauty that shows Buff and Dun, and trace amounts of Mottling. The Mottling is going to be super minimal, and may fade out totally, but I will keep the chick to grow out and see. Might be good for breeding stock?


Below, you can see Buff Colombian and Light Colombian marked chicks.

But then there is this dark chick, with a black back, orange wings, and a white chest:

Speckled Sussex are born with a white chest like this, and then the color "spreads" out to beautiful spotting at four months old. I can't wait to see how this chick turns out! And - YELLOW LEGS. This rooster has not let me down with the yellow leg gene.


The above chick is really pretty. Probably will have little to no white mottling, but maybe the next generation?


Above: Another view of the group. The weird black & orange chick with the white chest - see how there is NO white on the back? I thought it didn't have mottling at first, because I just saw the black and orange back. It's only starting to get the white now. So that's a "surprise" mottled chick, yay!


This teeny peep did the same thing. Had a "solid" back and then got a white chest. She's small. Might end up pretty though?

I'm really happy with this batch. I see four with great odds of staying mottled as adults. Several others (the Buffy ones) may make good breeding stock. About half are the wrong color for my program, but still very happy, healthy, fat and marketable babies to sell.

That's out of 21 peeps. Got 27 in development in the 'bator for a local gal to raise. She'll be trying to replicate what I've done and keep the most promising ones.

Then, I loaded the 'bator with over *60* eggs from the Dun pen plus another breeder pen. So maybe - just maybe - I'll hatch another 20 chicks from this pen before calling it a day?

Unfortunately, I have to move this boy on, because I need to try other projects and I only have the two breeder pens. A bummer I don't have more room as I could replicate this experiment over and over and over, just to pick out the ones with the right colors.

Very happy with the (few) chicks of the right color that I got with this breeding.

 

[FridayYet]

The chicks look great! What a fun project and I like following along.

Will be interesting to see how their adult feathering comes in.

 

[alohachickens]

Check this out - it's Orange / Black chick a few weeks ago! See how I didn't think it was going to be spotted? Thought for sure this was a "solid" chick!


It's the same chick that is shown on the bottom left here. What a happy surprise to see that orange and white "bloom" all over! Glad I didn't cull this one too early!

 

[alohachickens]

This might be Orange / Black chick's Mom. She was in the breeder pen.

One of my largest girls.


Only flaw : No yellow legs. But if this is her baby, look at those legs:


Problem solved - maybe?!?

I wonder . . . .

 

[FridayYet]

I have a few Russian Orloffs - they also change dramatically from chick to juvie to adult. You are never quite sure how many spangles you'll end up with. It's fun!

 

[Kev]

Check this out - it's Orange / Black chick a few weeks ago! See how I didn't think it was going to be spotted? Thought for sure this was a "solid" chick!


It's the same chick that is shown on the bottom left here. What a happy surprise to see that orange and white "bloom" all over! Glad I didn't cull this one too early!

That chick has the e^b chick down pattern. It's better known as dark brown, as in dark brown leghorns etc. It's a pretty dark color- compare dark brown leghorn with light brown leghorn for example.

The suspected mother also looks to be e^b.

 

[HenHoneyGirl]

Hello, alohachickens! A fellow chicken fanatic told me about your breeding project and I'm fascinated! Your chickens are beautiful!!
I'm trying to do some experimental breeding too, I just started crossing last year though and I'm not quite sure what I want yet, I was mainly trying to figure out this whole incubating business and created some barnyard mixes. Your Aloha chickens sure are giving me ideas though.

My founding rooster is a white plymouth rock and he crossed with RIR's, NHR's, and EE's. I think I'm going to go for chicken thats, bearded, fast maturing and large, I'd like them to lay blue eggs also. (I honestly think there should be way more blue egg laying breeds.) As far as color goes, perhaps mottled with this kind of color:

I know it's kind of hard to see, Cardamon is shy and this is the best photo I have of her. but she's a very nice soft gray. I'm getting Blue Andalusian to see if I can't emphasize that a bit more. I like their white earlobe too. I got an interesting boy out of my first generation though, hes WPRxRIR and unlike his siblings he has very pronounced red spots on his wings, I'm keeping him, you never know what you can do with an anomaly!

Perhaps I might expand upon his genetics in a different line.
I was wondering if I might could maybe buy some mottled babies off of you, I don't need perfect aloha's, I just want to see if I can get the mottled gene into a silver and white version. Or maybe black and silver. I might be able to help you in your endeavor later on also, your chickens sound wonderful and I'd love to breed them, I only have room for one project right now though, maybe next year. I've managed to squeeze out a coop expansion from my dad, I can't throw another on him when he hasn't even finished the current one!!

So if you have any mottled cast offs let me know, and any suggestions would be wonderful! I'm still getting a grasp on genetics.

I live about an hour west of Phoenix so I could probably pick up any birds you have.

 

[draye]

I still have my Spangled Aloha rooster Mr. Bo Spangles.

You can find out more about him and how he's going to be used on the "Mottled, Calico, and Aloha Naked Neck Thread".

You can definitely tell that he has Leghorn in his background. He has the shape and carriage if the Leghorn. He may be a little bigger than a Leghorn though.

 

[alohachickens]

I still have my Spangled Aloha rooster Mr. Bo Spangles.



You can find out more about him and how he's going to be used on the "Mottled, Calico, and Aloha Naked Neck Thread".

You can definitely tell that he has Leghorn in his background. He has the shape and carriage if the Leghorn. He may be a little bigger than a Leghorn though.

Draye, he turned out REALLY nice. A little weedy - but NICE.

You should put him with some hens!

 

[alohachickens]

Hello, alohachickens! A fellow chicken fanatic told me about your breeding project and I'm fascinated! Your chickens are beautiful!!
I'm trying to do some experimental breeding too, I just started crossing last year though and I'm not quite sure what I want yet, I was mainly trying to figure out this whole incubating business and created some barnyard mixes. Your Aloha chickens sure are giving me ideas though.

My founding rooster is a white plymouth rock and he crossed with RIR's, NHR's, and EE's. I think I'm going to go for chicken thats, bearded, fast maturing and large, I'd like them to lay blue eggs also. (I honestly think there should be way more blue egg laying breeds.) As far as color goes, perhaps mottled with this kind of color:

I know it's kind of hard to see, Cardamon is shy and this is the best photo I have of her. but she's a very nice soft gray. I'm getting Blue Andalusian to see if I can't emphasize that a bit more. I like their white earlobe too. I got an interesting boy out of my first generation though, hes WPRxRIR and unlike his siblings he has very pronounced red spots on his wings, I'm keeping him, you never know what you can do with an anomaly!

Perhaps I might expand upon his genetics in a different line.
I was wondering if I might could maybe buy some mottled babies off of you, I don't need perfect aloha's, I just want to see if I can get the mottled gene into a silver and white version. Or maybe black and silver. I might be able to help you in your endeavor later on also, your chickens sound wonderful and I'd love to breed them, I only have room for one project right now though, maybe next year. I've managed to squeeze out a coop expansion from my dad, I can't throw another on him when he hasn't even finished the current one!!

So if you have any mottled cast offs let me know, and any suggestions would be wonderful! I'm still getting a grasp on genetics.

I live about an hour west of Phoenix so I could probably pick up any birds you have.

There are already a couple of breeds that have a silver and white mottled effect (though it's not really the same genes, I don't think,as Mottling?)

Have you seen these?

http://www.appenzellerspitzhauben.co.uk/

These are available at many hatcheries. The complaints I hear about them, is they are kind of small, (like Leghorn size) and very flighty. You could probably do very well trying to adapt this color onto a heavier body with a more production-friendly egg output and more manageable personality. Also, adding the Blue gene (to make a blue spotted version of this) or Blue egg gene, would probably work nicely.

Mottling doesn't really translate into a "silver and white" effect with Barred chickens (like Barred Rocks.) What happens is the white mottling, it just kind of gets "lost" in the Barred (striped) feather pattern. So it's doubtful you could get a "silver and white" effect? I did try it years ago to see what happened - and the baby chick looked cool at first - but then she just looked like a kind of weird barred rock hen. Not very amazing, LOL. Alll mottling does is add a white tip to some of the feathers.

But that Spitzhuaben is a great looking bird, yet sadly, they seem to be a kind of specialized breed. I haven't seen them really take off generally, like some of the more common "farm" breeds so I'm guessing they must not be as productive. I bet transforming that into a heavier farm-type chicken, with that awesome spangled color would be very popular. Can you imagine that color transplanted onto a heavier White Rock or Easter Egger body?

Your goals don't really mesh with the Alohas, honestly - but I think something like this Spangled color would be AMAZING on a more "productive" chicken. I'd certainly give them a look if I was chicken shopping!

The Spitzhauben don't show up often locally, but they ARE available to order through many hatcheries. The reason they don't show up in AZ, is that about 90% of the chicks sold in feed stores here come from Privett Hatchery in New Mexico, and Privett does not carry Spitzhaubens. So you never find them in feed stores, or on Craigslist from people who bought random chicks at the feed store and are looking to re-sell them.

Ideal Hatchery in TX sells them, and sometimes Pratt's in Glendale orders from Ideal. You can call and ask if they would consider an order?

BTW, the color is called "SPANGLED" and I don't know how it is different, genetically, from the Mottling gene? But it is also found in Silver Spangled Hamburgs, which is yet another very small, slight, lighter bodied breed. To my knowledge this fabulous color has not be transplanted onto any nice, heavy, "farm-type" production breed? Could be something to explore?

Edited to add: Meyer Hatchery also carries this breed and ships to AZ.