The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

That is most DEFINITELY dun! How awesome!!!

 

[alohachickens]

Previously, I'd hatched out an AWESOME dun baby Naked Neck rooster, so I didn't keep very many hens with Dun, as I figured the rooster would provide plenty. He was huge, with tons of white, and the Dun gene. Unfortunately he broke his leg jumping off a high perch and didn't recover.

So currently there are only 2 hens in the flock, which makes it extremely easy to ID the possible parents of your chicks. Here are the two Dun gene hens:

Both are good size, because they contain both Buff Sussex and Light Sussex in addition to Speckled Sussex and Aloha.

One hen is darker brown in color and she has a terrific pattern and amount of white, especially for a young hen who will only get more white as she ages:

Her sister is a Mille with the Dun color replacing the black. I prefer her base color but I think the darker one has more bold spotting of the two! She's very striking:

This close up makes it a little easier to see the Dun where the black normally would be:

Based on the time frame when I collected eggs, I would guess the Daddy would be a very brightly colored and friendly rooster.

I try not to name my chickens but this guy has ended up with the nickname "Mr Eyebrows" for obvious reasons:

He's not as large as I'd like (think Leghorn sized) but has the best personality. Always friendly and never ever aggressive. Even let me pick him up and hold him, which is weird, because I tend to not handle my chickens. He just is that gregarious.

I put him in the pen with my less colorful but extremely large Sussex bred hens, as I felt maybe the girls could bring up the size of the chicks, especially the 3/4 and full Sussex hens!

 

[alohachickens]

In order to introduce the Dun gene, I had to start with Silver Sussex that had a Dun tail and neck, so the first step was to replace the "white" body with Buff, and introduce the Mottled gene. However, since Mottling is recessive, I knew there would be an "in-between" stage where they would be "solid" color yes with the Dun replacing the Black. Here is a previous hen, and if you look by the tail, you will see one stray little white feather tip that was a hint that she was a carrier of Mottling. I had to go through this awkward stage last year before I could get the fully expressed pair of Dun Mottled hens pictured above.

This hen is very likely an ancestor of your chick!

 

[alohachickens]

Here's another picture of the Dun Millie with the NN hen in the front showing the "normal" black coloration.

What is fascinating is two copies of Dun make "Khaki" which would replace the grayish color with a very pale beige. I have no idea what that is going to look like? I would have been able to try it this last year, had the Dun NN baby rooster survived.

My guess is if the hen pictured had Khaki instead of Dun, she would probably look Buff Mottled but it would appear as if the white spots were very, very large. I really hope I get a chance to carry the project to that next stage and see it in person!

I have never seen a photo posted of this color, although Dun is carried in Seramas, perhaps a Khaki Mottled has shown up there??? If it appears in Alohas in the next generation, it will probably be the first time the color would have been seen in "standard" size chickens.

 

[alohachickens]

I decided to put Mr. Eyebrows in the "main" pen, so I had to move a youngster into his pen. I'm seriously lacking in good roosters despite all my best efforts. The new boy is only temporary - there's a much larger fabulous male waiting in the wings - but when I put the bigger young male with the BIG hens he cowered in terror, so he's apparently not ready to make a move yet!

So for the moment, the "place holder" in with the Dun hens will be this boy:

He's even a bit smaller than Mr. Eyebrows (boooo) but he does have AMAZING color and fabulous yellow legs. Other than amazing plumage, he doesn't have a ton to offer, however, but I need about one more month before his brother is ready to step in, apparently?

I will be saving eggs to hatch for my own flock and will be trying to keep and raise as many as I can in late April and all of May. I also have a flock of 70 chicks in my horse trailer brooder and I did get at least one with Naked Neck and Dun from when I had the previous Mille NN rooster in the pen with the Dun girls.

Hoping to ensure I get enough genetic diversity in the roosters with those "big" girls as I will probably keep a lot of their chicks as breeding stock for next Fall.

 

[bramblefir]

I'm pretty sure I have at least one Naked Neck Dun too. Lots of white on it too!:

There's for sure 2 regular Alohas with Dun but I imagine there's probably more. So many little chicks to try and look at!

 

[bramblefir]

Crappy cell picture of "Shoulders" one of the bigger Alohas who has solid white shoulders. I'm thinking cockerel, especially with all that white coming in on the breast. It looks like his legs aren't going to be yellow.

 

[bramblefir]

Whew! I have caught, banded, weighed, and done some (very) basic evaluation on the Alohas this week. They're 9 weeks old. You can find my results in this spreadsheet here.

I culled out 11 cockerels based on weight and one pullet who has not been doing well. They are marked in the list with a reddish background. There are a few that are being sneaky on gender and are labelled as "P?" for now.

 

[HEChicken]

Howdy - long time, no talk. BYC changed the format and I couldn't find the "where I've posted" option which means I couldn't find the thread. Even tonight, doing a search, it took me awhile

Last year I did not get anywhere with my project but this year I was able to segregate some hens and one promising rooster. The 17 chicks who hatched are being raised by a single Leghorn hen - she is amazing. There are a couple in the group that are looking promising. Here are two pics of the best cockerel and one pic of my favorite pullet.

 

[alohachickens]

Howdy - long time, no talk. BYC changed the format and I couldn't find the "where I've posted" option which means I couldn't find the thread. Even tonight, doing a search, it took me awhile

Last year I did not get anywhere with my project but this year I was able to segregate some hens and one promising rooster. The 17 chicks who hatched are being raised by a single Leghorn hen - she is amazing. There are a couple in the group that are looking promising. Here are two pics of the best cockerel and one pic of my favorite pullet.View attachment 1439781 View attachment 1439792View attachment 1439790

Hey there! Took me six months to find your post here, LOL, so don't feel bad, ha ha.

Wow, this is pretty exciting! Since I hadn't heard from you in a long time, I kind of figured that something awful had happened. What a relief to see this!

That Millie rooster in particular is looking very striking.