The Aloha Chicken Project
- Thread starter alohachickens
- Start date
Well it is really cold as heck here in New Mexico ... so nothing new except we are expecting rain and snow tomorrow.
- Thread starter
- #2,713
Yes, I did a big Blog update back around Halloween, and have been taking more pics since. I've been super busy which makes it tough to post both places - so I picked the Blog to post on as it does help me "catalog" what is happening. It's for sure time for a new update - starting to hatch out chicks now!
http://alohachickens.blogspot.com/2016/10/fall-2016-update.html
Remember this guy?
Well....I need to get updated pics on him. I'm sad to say he lost ALL his white. He now looks a lot like a NH except that he does still have a lot of spots.
However I do have lots of good news. First, my F2s are all a really good size - think heritage (not hatchery) NH size - both hens and roosters. Second, many have a lot of spots so we've kept the gene. Third, they are starting to lay!!! That is a huge improvement on their Exchequer Leghorn parents who were slow to lay, last to start every spring and first to quit in the fall. It is too cold right now to separate into a pen for collecting eggs but in another month or so, I hope to start collecting eggs for the next generation and I have high hopes for this year.
Well....I need to get updated pics on him. I'm sad to say he lost ALL his white. He now looks a lot like a NH except that he does still have a lot of spots.
However I do have lots of good news. First, my F2s are all a really good size - think heritage (not hatchery) NH size - both hens and roosters. Second, many have a lot of spots so we've kept the gene. Third, they are starting to lay!!! That is a huge improvement on their Exchequer Leghorn parents who were slow to lay, last to start every spring and first to quit in the fall. It is too cold right now to separate into a pen for collecting eggs but in another month or so, I hope to start collecting eggs for the next generation and I have high hopes for this year.
- Thread starter
- #2,715
That is wonderful on all counts, and that is probably more evidence that something weird was happening with the hatchery that Spring, as I also had horrible luck with my chickens bought from the same source at the same time. As the original Excehquers here were early layers and strong layers. (As are NHRs.) I'm guessing in the case of your Exchequer chicks, it was environmental not genetic issues.Remember this guy?
Well....I need to get updated pics on him. I'm sad to say he lost ALL his white. He now looks a lot like a NH except that he does still have a lot of spots.
However I do have lots of good news. First, my F2s are all a really good size - think heritage (not hatchery) NH size - both hens and roosters. Second, many have a lot of spots so we've kept the gene. Third, they are starting to lay!!! That is a huge improvement on their Exchequer Leghorn parents who were slow to lay, last to start every spring and first to quit in the fall. It is too cold right now to separate into a pen for collecting eggs but in another month or so, I hope to start collecting eggs for the next generation and I have high hopes for this year.
I can't wait to see what happens when you collect eggs and we see the next generation!
- Thread starter
- #2,716
Some of the highlights / low points of the last few months:
*Lost 3 amazing large hens to egg binding over the summer. I should have given them more oyster shell. I was heartbroken - as these were my BEST and BIGGEST hens.
*There were 3 sisters and another less related hen - one of the 3 sisters has survived and I'm praying that I will get chicks out of her.
*I also have what I think is the daughter of the less related hen. Her color is wrong but she was built just like her mom (very wide) so that's why I think she's related to one I lost.
Also, I lost both of my Turken / Aloha NN roosters that I was keeping. Both were very heavily Sussex bred. One was Buff Sussex, basically, but the Naked Neck told me that being related to the original NN x Aloha cross would mean he'd carry the genes for good spotting and for yellow legs, even though he visually looked like a Buff Sussex with a naked neck. He had *amazing* size and was twice the size of other chicks in the same hatch. The other NN rooster was also a good part Buff Sussex and Light Sussex and displayed amazing amounts of white.
The three hens and two roosters that were lost, could have built an amazing Aloha flock all on their own. Devastated.
Good news? Well, I did get two nice hens back. A person had bought some Aloha chicks from me and ended up with two beautiful hens. Unfortunately, she is going through a divorce and the house is to be sold, so she had to sell her chickens. I was able to purchase the two lovely hens, which feature good medium size (not huge but not small either) and fantastic color. One even has yellow legs. The other looks basically like a Speckled Sussex but shows way more white spotting than a younger Sussex hen should display.
*Lost 3 amazing large hens to egg binding over the summer. I should have given them more oyster shell. I was heartbroken - as these were my BEST and BIGGEST hens.
*There were 3 sisters and another less related hen - one of the 3 sisters has survived and I'm praying that I will get chicks out of her.
*I also have what I think is the daughter of the less related hen. Her color is wrong but she was built just like her mom (very wide) so that's why I think she's related to one I lost.
Also, I lost both of my Turken / Aloha NN roosters that I was keeping. Both were very heavily Sussex bred. One was Buff Sussex, basically, but the Naked Neck told me that being related to the original NN x Aloha cross would mean he'd carry the genes for good spotting and for yellow legs, even though he visually looked like a Buff Sussex with a naked neck. He had *amazing* size and was twice the size of other chicks in the same hatch. The other NN rooster was also a good part Buff Sussex and Light Sussex and displayed amazing amounts of white.
The three hens and two roosters that were lost, could have built an amazing Aloha flock all on their own. Devastated.
Good news? Well, I did get two nice hens back. A person had bought some Aloha chicks from me and ended up with two beautiful hens. Unfortunately, she is going through a divorce and the house is to be sold, so she had to sell her chickens. I was able to purchase the two lovely hens, which feature good medium size (not huge but not small either) and fantastic color. One even has yellow legs. The other looks basically like a Speckled Sussex but shows way more white spotting than a younger Sussex hen should display.
- Thread starter
- #2,717
More good / bad news. I set up two breeding pens, one with my rooster who was the son of the Blue Eyed Hen with some good colorful larger girls, and the other breeding pen with my super white AMAZING boy. Fertility in the eggs was good at first, and I got 17 chicks hatched - raising them now but too early to know what is there?
Then, I saved DOZENS of eggs, and oh my gosh, fertility is in the *dumps* again! ARRRGH.
So, I have now brought in Robin the Naked Neck rooster, and put him in the son of the Blue Eyed Hen's pen - because Robin was a good breeder and I really need fertile eggs out of those good hens, even if he brings down the size at least he's a true Mille with yellow legs, so I should get good color and some yellow legs if nothing else. Better than "blank" eggs!
In the other pen, geez, I *really really really* want chicks out of THIS rooster and THOSE hens - so I thinned the flock down a little, down to 10 hens, maybe I was just asking too much.
I may need to cut down even more? Another thought is to pen a few of the bigger ladies with his younger brother - who is smaller but just as nice in overall quality with tons of white - and reduce the number down to maybe 7 hens and see if that fixes things?
Anyway, here's a bunch of photos of the breeding group, the BIG rooster with TONS of white, in with some of my best hens. Some of the hens are plain - those are pure or part Buff Sussex and have little to no spots - but have tremendous size. I was hoping crossing the big roo with tons of white with those hens might get me some nice big boys. If I could basically "clone" this big colorful rooster, and get 5-7 boys just like him so that every hen was with a big colorful boy, it would make a huge impact on the breeding program.
Right now, I'm breeding for ROOSTERS with this pen - and hoping I get some more like Daddy -
That's the dad, very BIG and tons of white. Bummer he doesn't have yellow legs but that's minor issue.
Photos of him with the breeding flock - it's hard to figure out who to cut out, if I need to reduce his number of ladies to ensure fertility?
Above: Gold hen, bottom left, half Buff Sussex. Hoping this rooster could add spots without ruining size?
The Speckled Sussex / Buff Sussex hens lack good spots but are HUUUGE.
Above: Not a huge hen but WOW that white!!!
Above and below pics are good for scale. Dark brown hen - is a HUGE Buff Sussex / Speckled Sussex hen - not Aloha.
The Aloha hen with all the white, eating beside her, is maybe Welsummer size? Small but not Banty.
The hen that looks basically all gold colored with a few white spots is an "in between" size - not huge but big - and is Buff Sussex / Aloha cross.
Above hen with good form and yellow legs is actually about 1/4 or more Light Sussex!
Above Pic: Background is nice new hen I bought back, thick Sussex build. Foreground, right front: hen in front is a bit smaller but displays great Mille coloration.
Then, I saved DOZENS of eggs, and oh my gosh, fertility is in the *dumps* again! ARRRGH.
So, I have now brought in Robin the Naked Neck rooster, and put him in the son of the Blue Eyed Hen's pen - because Robin was a good breeder and I really need fertile eggs out of those good hens, even if he brings down the size at least he's a true Mille with yellow legs, so I should get good color and some yellow legs if nothing else. Better than "blank" eggs!
In the other pen, geez, I *really really really* want chicks out of THIS rooster and THOSE hens - so I thinned the flock down a little, down to 10 hens, maybe I was just asking too much.
I may need to cut down even more? Another thought is to pen a few of the bigger ladies with his younger brother - who is smaller but just as nice in overall quality with tons of white - and reduce the number down to maybe 7 hens and see if that fixes things?
Anyway, here's a bunch of photos of the breeding group, the BIG rooster with TONS of white, in with some of my best hens. Some of the hens are plain - those are pure or part Buff Sussex and have little to no spots - but have tremendous size. I was hoping crossing the big roo with tons of white with those hens might get me some nice big boys. If I could basically "clone" this big colorful rooster, and get 5-7 boys just like him so that every hen was with a big colorful boy, it would make a huge impact on the breeding program.
Right now, I'm breeding for ROOSTERS with this pen - and hoping I get some more like Daddy -
That's the dad, very BIG and tons of white. Bummer he doesn't have yellow legs but that's minor issue.
Photos of him with the breeding flock - it's hard to figure out who to cut out, if I need to reduce his number of ladies to ensure fertility?
Above: Gold hen, bottom left, half Buff Sussex. Hoping this rooster could add spots without ruining size?
The Speckled Sussex / Buff Sussex hens lack good spots but are HUUUGE.
Above: Not a huge hen but WOW that white!!!
Above and below pics are good for scale. Dark brown hen - is a HUGE Buff Sussex / Speckled Sussex hen - not Aloha.
The Aloha hen with all the white, eating beside her, is maybe Welsummer size? Small but not Banty.
The hen that looks basically all gold colored with a few white spots is an "in between" size - not huge but big - and is Buff Sussex / Aloha cross.
Above hen with good form and yellow legs is actually about 1/4 or more Light Sussex!
Above Pic: Background is nice new hen I bought back, thick Sussex build. Foreground, right front: hen in front is a bit smaller but displays great Mille coloration.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #2,718
Here is a pic of my BIG girl. I have TWO like this - one with better spots, one with almost no white.
I was lucky to get any spots at all - because Daddy was Buff Sussex - solid Buff - but was a "carrier" of spots which means he must have crossed with a Speckled Sussex back a ways in his pedigree? Because of the Buff Sussex, these hens are WAAAAAYYY more substancial than any normal run of the mill Speckled Sussex.
These hens do not carry *any* Aloha bloodlines. Just Sussex.
It is interesting to show how strong the dark Mahogany color is. This hen is lighter than a "normal" Speckled Sussex but that dark brown really carries through.
I would love to hatch out some rooster chicks to beef up my Aloha hens. I may take her sister and half sisters (the half Buff Sussex hens) and I could cross with this other young boy who is showing tremedous white and pretty good size. His body color is a bit too dark, and his size not as good as my favorite boy, but he does have yellow legs. And he is not small - just not as exceptionally big as my #1 pick rooster.
He's not too shabby though:
Again, if I have to choose between BLANK eggs or fertile eggs by my second choice, I will be choosing fertile eggs of course.
Here's a good shot of the Buff Sussex cross hen - same daddy as the Speckled Sussex looking hen, but different mom. This hen may cross really nice with #2 boy, would lighten up his body color, he would add spotting and yellow leg gene, size would not be ginormous but for sure would be decent as this hen is still very very large because of Buff Sussex lines!
I was lucky to get any spots at all - because Daddy was Buff Sussex - solid Buff - but was a "carrier" of spots which means he must have crossed with a Speckled Sussex back a ways in his pedigree? Because of the Buff Sussex, these hens are WAAAAAYYY more substancial than any normal run of the mill Speckled Sussex.
These hens do not carry *any* Aloha bloodlines. Just Sussex.
It is interesting to show how strong the dark Mahogany color is. This hen is lighter than a "normal" Speckled Sussex but that dark brown really carries through.
I would love to hatch out some rooster chicks to beef up my Aloha hens. I may take her sister and half sisters (the half Buff Sussex hens) and I could cross with this other young boy who is showing tremedous white and pretty good size. His body color is a bit too dark, and his size not as good as my favorite boy, but he does have yellow legs. And he is not small - just not as exceptionally big as my #1 pick rooster.
He's not too shabby though:
Again, if I have to choose between BLANK eggs or fertile eggs by my second choice, I will be choosing fertile eggs of course.
Here's a good shot of the Buff Sussex cross hen - same daddy as the Speckled Sussex looking hen, but different mom. This hen may cross really nice with #2 boy, would lighten up his body color, he would add spotting and yellow leg gene, size would not be ginormous but for sure would be decent as this hen is still very very large because of Buff Sussex lines!
- Thread starter
- #2,719
Here's a better photo of my #2 favorite boy.
My only concern - I haven't seen him actually breed a hen yet!
While he is full grown, at this point, I don't know if he's fully "mature" enough to handle his own pen yet?!?
Part of that is not his fault - I'm keeping him away from the main flock as I don't want him to be bullied by the older roosters and get hurt. So he has not had a chance to test himself with the 5 or so other Aloha roosters in the main barn. I could give him his own pen with hens, just not sure if he will be able to jump right into things, inexperienced as he is?
- Thread starter
- #2,720
Some of the other "barn stock" roosters - where I toss the hens not in a breeding pen with assorted roosters.
As you can see many are nice, just not quite as much white as the extremes shown in my #1 and #2 pick.
This is the top dog - strangely not the largest in the group? Just the most dominant so probably the sire of the most chicks:
There are 3 other boys in the barn, and the four co-exist happily. Robin the little NN was also in the barn, but delegated to lurking in the rafters and was bullied heavily but is managing to survive. For the long term, Robin will need to go - as he is detested by the other boys for some reason.
Here are the other flock roos, I have seen all cover a hen from time to time:
Above: Clearly influenced by Buff Sussex bloodlines.
Above: This roo is the tallest, has good chest spots and carries Dun.
Smallest boy, but still good quality, most here as a back up in case there were issues. He would be the next culled. Gets along with other roos, so stays for now.
As you can see many are nice, just not quite as much white as the extremes shown in my #1 and #2 pick.
This is the top dog - strangely not the largest in the group? Just the most dominant so probably the sire of the most chicks:
There are 3 other boys in the barn, and the four co-exist happily. Robin the little NN was also in the barn, but delegated to lurking in the rafters and was bullied heavily but is managing to survive. For the long term, Robin will need to go - as he is detested by the other boys for some reason.
Here are the other flock roos, I have seen all cover a hen from time to time:
Above: Clearly influenced by Buff Sussex bloodlines.
Above: This roo is the tallest, has good chest spots and carries Dun.
Smallest boy, but still good quality, most here as a back up in case there were issues. He would be the next culled. Gets along with other roos, so stays for now.
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