Which ones tend to have the most desired color?
The Aloha Chicken Project
- Thread starter alohachickens
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #2,493
I'd say the ones with the most white and / or colors not found in other breeds - in other words the ones most different from Jubilee Orps and Speckled Sussex (both in one color - mahogany - with small white spangles.)
It was actually THIS chicken I was trying to create when I started:
These are Swedish Flower Hens - BEFORE they had Swedish Flower Hens in the US. Old picture: This photo was on "Feathersite" back in 2006 or 2007 when I was first looking at chicken breeds. I was like, "THAT is the chicken for me!!!"
Little did I know, that is NOT what the typical Swedish Flower hen REALLY looks like! They usually have less white spotting, and of course you can see the two here don't have crests.
So I had it stuck in my head THAT was a "Swedish Flower" and I loved the bold white spotting.
I set out to create the "Swedish Flower Hens" that were in that picture. I've seen pictures of maybe a few that almost looked as white as these, but the vast majority of Swedish don't look anything like this to me.
Here is what I have bred, based on this "Feathersite" photo, but not at all related to the "Feathersite" photo chickens:
But I've also created some stuff that is "new". This hen is a good example, she's not a color really seen in any existing breed:
She is huge, orange with bold white spotting. This hen is young and just started laying a couple months ago. Some Sussex will spot up like this by 2-3 years old, but she's shy of one year.
The hen to her right is pure Sussex - Buff Sussex and Speckled Sussex mixture. Note the Sussex hen of about same age has much less spotting, and pink legs, while Aloha hen has more spotting and yellow legs.
Well Sommer, I finally have a little news to report. After ONLY 3 years of working on this project, I am collecting eggs to go to the next stage
I'm sure you remember the history of this project for me so I won't recap. Two years ago I got 3 hens and last year 3 cockerels. Those cockerels have grown up to really impress me. They are wonderful foragers and spent all winter out in the pasture, going great distances from the coop, foraging for their food, rarely returning to eat, even when they knew I was filling the feeder. They always returned at night to roost though. Quite often they hopped the fence into coyote territory and I worried I would wind up in spring with nothing to show but all three have survived, indicating they are also quite savvy. But the best part is two of them have amazing speckling on their chests - I think you will be pleased. None are large roosters but they've matured with decent body type and I'm very happy with them. (I know, I know, pics, and I've tried. But they are super skittish thanks to the leghorn influence and even with max zoom, the pics I've taken have not shown them well.
Last week I went to the coop after dark and got leg bands on both the hens and the roosters so I can tell them apart. I've also rated them with the best hen and rooster sharing a leg band color, second best and so on. Then I took the second-best rooster and all three hens and put them in a breeding pen. I am now collecting eggs from them and as soon as I have an incubator full I'll be starting it up. I wasn't sure they were laying when I put them in the pen. All of my birds stopped laying sometime in December and I didn't start getting eggs again until late in January and had no idea if these three were among those laying. It turns out all three were laying and yesterday I got 3 eggs from that pen!!!
The incubator will only contain half Aloha eggs this time around as I also have another breeding pen I'm collecting eggs from. However as soon as I start it up, my plan is to trade out the rooster who is currently in this pen with number one, and collect another incubator full (it only holds 20 eggs so don't get too excited). I will set those as soon as the first batch hatches.
I'm hoping with roughly 30 chicks from the two hatches, that we'll see some decent chicks. I'm super excited to FINALLY be making some progress.
I'm sure you remember the history of this project for me so I won't recap. Two years ago I got 3 hens and last year 3 cockerels. Those cockerels have grown up to really impress me. They are wonderful foragers and spent all winter out in the pasture, going great distances from the coop, foraging for their food, rarely returning to eat, even when they knew I was filling the feeder. They always returned at night to roost though. Quite often they hopped the fence into coyote territory and I worried I would wind up in spring with nothing to show but all three have survived, indicating they are also quite savvy. But the best part is two of them have amazing speckling on their chests - I think you will be pleased. None are large roosters but they've matured with decent body type and I'm very happy with them. (I know, I know, pics, and I've tried. But they are super skittish thanks to the leghorn influence and even with max zoom, the pics I've taken have not shown them well.
Last week I went to the coop after dark and got leg bands on both the hens and the roosters so I can tell them apart. I've also rated them with the best hen and rooster sharing a leg band color, second best and so on. Then I took the second-best rooster and all three hens and put them in a breeding pen. I am now collecting eggs from them and as soon as I have an incubator full I'll be starting it up. I wasn't sure they were laying when I put them in the pen. All of my birds stopped laying sometime in December and I didn't start getting eggs again until late in January and had no idea if these three were among those laying. It turns out all three were laying and yesterday I got 3 eggs from that pen!!!
The incubator will only contain half Aloha eggs this time around as I also have another breeding pen I'm collecting eggs from. However as soon as I start it up, my plan is to trade out the rooster who is currently in this pen with number one, and collect another incubator full (it only holds 20 eggs so don't get too excited). I will set those as soon as the first batch hatches.
I'm hoping with roughly 30 chicks from the two hatches, that we'll see some decent chicks. I'm super excited to FINALLY be making some progress.
I'd say the ones with the most white and / or colors not found in other breeds - in other words the ones most different from Jubilee Orps and Speckled Sussex (both in one color - mahogany - with small white spangles.)
She is huge, orange with bold white spotting. This hen is young and just started laying a couple months ago. Some Sussex will spot up like this by 2-3 years old, but she's shy of one year.
The hen to her right is pure Sussex - Buff Sussex and Speckled Sussex mixture. Note the Sussex hen of about same age has much less spotting, and pink legs, while Aloha hen has more spotting and yellow legs.
Those two hens are gorgeous!!!
I'll admit not being a fan of the mille fleur or the typical mottled sussex coloring. used to think I was simply not a fan of mottling but some of your birds like the two above made me realize it might be more of the color pattern/combination rather than mottling itself....
so you have made at least one mottle fan convert.
- Thread starter
- #2,496
This is such exciting news! I can't wait to see if we get the recessive red colors!Well Sommer, I finally have a little news to report. After ONLY 3 years of working on this project, I am collecting eggs to go to the next stage
I'm sure you remember the history of this project for me so I won't recap. Two years ago I got 3 hens and last year 3 cockerels. Those cockerels have grown up to really impress me. They are wonderful foragers and spent all winter out in the pasture, going great distances from the coop, foraging for their food, rarely returning to eat, even when they knew I was filling the feeder. They always returned at night to roost though. Quite often they hopped the fence into coyote territory and I worried I would wind up in spring with nothing to show but all three have survived, indicating they are also quite savvy. But the best part is two of them have amazing speckling on their chests - I think you will be pleased. None are large roosters but they've matured with decent body type and I'm very happy with them. (I know, I know, pics, and I've tried. But they are super skittish thanks to the leghorn influence and even with max zoom, the pics I've taken have not shown them well.
Last week I went to the coop after dark and got leg bands on both the hens and the roosters so I can tell them apart. I've also rated them with the best hen and rooster sharing a leg band color, second best and so on. Then I took the second-best rooster and all three hens and put them in a breeding pen. I am now collecting eggs from them and as soon as I have an incubator full I'll be starting it up. I wasn't sure they were laying when I put them in the pen. All of my birds stopped laying sometime in December and I didn't start getting eggs again until late in January and had no idea if these three were among those laying. It turns out all three were laying and yesterday I got 3 eggs from that pen!!!
The incubator will only contain half Aloha eggs this time around as I also have another breeding pen I'm collecting eggs from. However as soon as I start it up, my plan is to trade out the rooster who is currently in this pen with number one, and collect another incubator full (it only holds 20 eggs so don't get too excited). I will set those as soon as the first batch hatches.
I'm hoping with roughly 30 chicks from the two hatches, that we'll see some decent chicks. I'm super excited to FINALLY be making some progress.
To recap for those of you not keeping up to date with this "side" project - here's the rundown.
I used "Exchequer Leghorn" plus some small mottled "Mystery Hens" that I bought from Hispanic families, to get the extreme spotting in Alohas. I believe now the "Mystery Hens" were Game stock, probably Spangled Butcher lines, although the chickens were not really aggressive, just slender and gamey in build. Phoenix, AZ was also one of the last states to outlaw cockfighting in '97 (I think?) But it's taken a lot of work to breed size into this strain, as it tends to revert back to the smaller "gamey" size of the ancestors if the bloodlines become too concentrated.
I often wish I'd had the room to attack this project in a more scientific way, which is what HEChicken is doing. The hens and roos are both Exchequer x New Hampshire Red crosses. They all have the recessive Red and recessive Mottled gene. In theory, a very small percentage of these chicks will be both Red + Mottled. (I think the odds are something like 1 in 8 but could be higher?) If those chicks are retained, and bred back to each other, you would get a true breeding Leghorn / NHR cross chicken, that would be red with white spots, hopefully with the strong, reliable laying ability of the Leghorn and the improved "dual purpose" meaty size of the German NHR.
The resulting chicken would be great in its own right, as a larger alternative to Exchequer Leghorn.
In theory, the red mottled chicks could then be crossed with pure German New Hampshire once again, to work towards a 3/4 "Mottled New Hampshire" strain. At the 3/4 bloodline mark, they would begin to look much more like New Hampshire Reds with spots, and less like Leghorns. At that point, for all practical purposes, you'd have red with with spots New Hampshires.
The 1/2 or 3/4 crosses would be ideal "seed stock" to use toward making a new strain of Alohas, fresh bloodlines to cross with either existing Alohas here, or with (for example) pure Buff Sussex and Speckled Sussex, as both the Exchequer Leghorn and New Hampshire have yellow legs that the Sussex lack.
I have found that it requires 3/4 "big chicken" bloodline to overcome the small size of Games and Leghorns.
In a related sort of way, I have some friends who are crossing a Bielefelder rooster with Cream Legbar hens. Cream Legbars, as the name suggests, are strongly Leghorn in breeding. "Legbar" is shorthand for "Barred Leghorn". They lay beautiful blue eggs. However, the bodies of the hens are slight and small, as are all Leghorns. The mixes show improved size, and lay green eggs. What is interesting is they are moving into the second generation now. I have green eggs from these hens and I'm getting ready to hatch some more, as I think these crosses may be my best shot of introducing the blue egg gene into Alohas someday. I will have to breed the barring out and bring the spots in, while retaining the blue egg color, which would be incredibly difficult, but nobody said it would be easy.
Anyway, the point is, the Bielefelder was created in Germany, using German New Hampshires and the Legbar was created (I think in England) using Leghorns, so this green egg laying hybrid is very similar in type to what HEChicken is creating, and they are, I think, an improvement on both breeds, adding some size to the Legbar lines but keeping the colored eggs.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #2,497
By the way, I haven't been posting much on here, because I've been raising chicks and at this point the feathers aren't fully in on them, so it's just a waiting game to see how they turn out.
I have been hatching like CRAZY and the 'bator is popping as we speak with a large batch of probably 60 or more chicks today. That's in addition to the 50 in my horse trailer, and about 40 in a pen outside. We've had a freakishly warm winter and I'm taking advantage of the mid 80's we've had all February to raise lots of chicks. Normally it's in the 70's and the chicks would be a bit chilly out there. This is more like late March or April weather . . .
I shared these pics on the Calico NN thread. These are a bunch of Aloha Naked Necks, chicks that I gave a neighbor. They are still "Alohas" however, just without feathers on the necks, ha ha. Seeing some gorgeous colors in these. I'm raising the "regular neck" chicks over here, and still waiting for the 40-something chicks off the heat lamp to finish feathering out and see what colors we've got. Will probably be another month before I can report back on that progress.
Here's the NN chicks:
The above pullet appears to be a true Mille!
Note extreme amount of white on some of these babies.
Yellow legs and lots of white on this boy.
Large white chest and pink legs reflects Sussex lines, this chick may also end up larger in size.
I have been hatching like CRAZY and the 'bator is popping as we speak with a large batch of probably 60 or more chicks today. That's in addition to the 50 in my horse trailer, and about 40 in a pen outside. We've had a freakishly warm winter and I'm taking advantage of the mid 80's we've had all February to raise lots of chicks. Normally it's in the 70's and the chicks would be a bit chilly out there. This is more like late March or April weather . . .
I shared these pics on the Calico NN thread. These are a bunch of Aloha Naked Necks, chicks that I gave a neighbor. They are still "Alohas" however, just without feathers on the necks, ha ha. Seeing some gorgeous colors in these. I'm raising the "regular neck" chicks over here, and still waiting for the 40-something chicks off the heat lamp to finish feathering out and see what colors we've got. Will probably be another month before I can report back on that progress.
Here's the NN chicks:
The above pullet appears to be a true Mille!
Note extreme amount of white on some of these babies.
Yellow legs and lots of white on this boy.
Large white chest and pink legs reflects Sussex lines, this chick may also end up larger in size.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...a-mottled-naked-neck-thread/210#post_16612120
Check out the pictures I posted last night. @alohachickens
Check out the pictures I posted last night. @alohachickens
Fire Ant Farm
Get off my lawn
Last edited:
I'm excited as well....only 17 days until hatch
One thing I learned in going to this next step.....the "first generation" Exchequer Leghorns/NH hens are laying HUGE eggs. Now granted they are 2 year olds so they are bigger than they probably were last year but the size is impressive which bodes well to getting good sized chicks out of them. (And maybe the fact I had to wait until the hens were 2 year olds in order to get to this step will wind up going in our favor in terms of the size of the next generation.) The hens themselves are larger and bigger bodied than their mothers. The roosters look decent but are not huge. Still, I'm hopeful I'll see a size increase in this generation and the large eggs really help. The eggs are a very light brown and the hens appear to be laying consistently. I got three eggs again yesterday out of three hens. I switched out roosters after collecting enough to fill the incubator and I am now collecting eggs again to start as soon as this batch is done. I wound up setting more eggs than my incubator technically holds so instead of turning on the auto turner, I turn manually, since I have eggs sitting on top of eggs. My theory is that surely not ever egg will be fertile and develop so at the 7-day candling, I will remove enough eggs to be able to put the extras in the tray and turn the turner on.
I'll keep you posted though there won't really be any news now until hatch day
One thing I learned in going to this next step.....the "first generation" Exchequer Leghorns/NH hens are laying HUGE eggs. Now granted they are 2 year olds so they are bigger than they probably were last year but the size is impressive which bodes well to getting good sized chicks out of them. (And maybe the fact I had to wait until the hens were 2 year olds in order to get to this step will wind up going in our favor in terms of the size of the next generation.) The hens themselves are larger and bigger bodied than their mothers. The roosters look decent but are not huge. Still, I'm hopeful I'll see a size increase in this generation and the large eggs really help. The eggs are a very light brown and the hens appear to be laying consistently. I got three eggs again yesterday out of three hens. I switched out roosters after collecting enough to fill the incubator and I am now collecting eggs again to start as soon as this batch is done. I wound up setting more eggs than my incubator technically holds so instead of turning on the auto turner, I turn manually, since I have eggs sitting on top of eggs. My theory is that surely not ever egg will be fertile and develop so at the 7-day candling, I will remove enough eggs to be able to put the extras in the tray and turn the turner on.
I'll keep you posted though there won't really be any news now until hatch day
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
-
Please help, compound fracture in wing.- Latest: Kidwantschickens
-
-
Latest threads
-
-
-
-
Losing tail feathers?- Started by And now we have chickens
- Replies: 0
-
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
Please help! Hen suddenly falling asleep while standing, droopy tail! [Edit: Probable Worm Blockage]- Started by Tiffany Wikk
- Replies: 177
-
Ducklings are pipping!! - would love some distractions!- Started by PuddlesandWaddles
- Replies: 133
-
-
-