The Aloha Chicken Project

[notinoz2007]

i was going to wait til tomorrow to candle but i couldnt wait another second!! its day 10 anyway... 1 pulled 3 which brings our incubation count to 36. i HOPE HOPE HOPE i get a good hatch!!

 

[alohachickens]

Quote:
Hmm, I'd have to see what it involves to be NPIP . . . . . time to research . . .

I'm pretty sure you are supposed to be NPIP certified to legally ship live birds out of your own state at all, even within the continental US

Wow, the Post Office didn't ask for any kind of paperwork, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to look into becoming NPIP regardless? Sounds like perhaps a good idea all the way around.

 

[RAREROO]

Quote:
I'm pretty sure you are supposed to be NPIP certified to legally ship live birds out of your own state at all, even within the continental US

Wow, the Post Office didn't ask for any kind of paperwork, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to look into becoming NPIP regardless? Sounds like perhaps a good idea all the way around.

Yep, some POs probably don't know to ask for the forms. I had looked into it a while back and it has its ups and downs, but probably more does. You big down for me was once you are certified, you can only buy birds from other certified breeders and I like to buy and sell at our local livestock auction/fleamarket and they are just regular backyard bird people and aren't certified. And I actually have a friend who is a NPIP tester and he said its basicly just another way for the government to make money off of you, though the fees depends on your state and particualr tester I believe.

But to legally ship live birds though I'm pretty sure you need to be so you may want to look into it. I will be wanting to do some shipping within the next couple years so I will need to be looking back at it myself.

 

[MaBo]

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[alohachickens]

Ugh, Rareroo, I don't like the idea of being restricted in my choice of stock, either! And that won't work well if I'm trading eggs stock from other Aloha members who may not be NPIP. On the other hand, I do want to be "legit". Eh, I wonder what it even costs, anyway? OK, time to start wondering and just ask . . . . there is the contact info online.

Other news - back in October, I had a hen sneak off and sit on eggs while I was out of town for a week, and the pet sitter didn't collect the eggs. Didn't have the heart to kill her eggies, so let her hatch them out. These are updated pics of the chicks, who will be two months (exactly) on Christmas. So that makes them . . . about six weeks???

One is noticeably larger than the others. Three appear to be Confetti, like the mom. The fourth looks really cool now, but I had a couple like him this spring, that ended up being Buff Barred. At four months, the spots disappeared. (This happens with all Barred/Mottled Alohas, which is why I've been trying to breed out the barring in them. Barred Mottled looks super-cool until three months, then the neat color just goes away. Zzzzzzz.)

I have been keeping them safe in this brooder cage this entire time, but I'm afraid when I start to travel in a few weeks, they will have to go in the main pen and fend for themselves. Just hope they don't escape, I've tried hard to chick-proof the "main pen" but the little bitty chicks can be so sneaky!!!! One chick is SO MUCH bigger than the rest. It's hard to tell from these photos, but it's clearly half again as tall as the rest. I wonder how large they will grow?

 

[RAREROO]

Yep I don't like it at all either and that's the biggest reason I decided not to become certified a while back. I sent my friend a message last night to ask about what can be done about the restrictions and ill let you know whati hear back. You can email or cal your local DNR to see what the costs would be for you, like I said it depends on your state and if you are being tested by a state employee or a private tester who will have their own fees.

And those are some really cute birds. One the ones you said the spots were disappearing on, were the firdt generation crosses of a mottled and a non mottled ? If so then that's why because the mottling gene needs teo copies to fully express. I bred a SS roo to barred rock hens and my little sexlink pullets were black with a mottled chest and the mottling disappeared at around 4 months. But a bird with two copies should keep the spots. I would like to see some adult barred mottled birds, if my mottled javas wouls start laying again, id get a barred roo for them and work on that color.

Oh and is your PM inbox opened back up yet ?

 

[alohachickens]

Barred + Mottled - they do technically "keep" the spots, they don't actually disappear, but the light/dark barring tends to hide the mottling so it visually just fades away. It's like putting polka dots on top of a checkerboard . . . kind of takes away the impact of either pattern. If that makes sense. LOL.

I used to have photos on my old computer! OK, here we go, look on this page, under "OTHER WILD COLORS" for the hen "Illusion":

http://alohachickens.webs.com/february2010.htm

She looked pretty darn cool there, and continued to look neat for another month. Then, the pattern with the spots just kind of lost its "ooomph". Wish I had a photo of her a few months later. Re-homed her as an egg laying pet for a local BYC'er.

 

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

Both my roos and one (or more) of my hens are barred (gold barred, if that makes a difference) with mottling. I got them in mid April, so that makes them... 8 months old this week! The spots are still way more visible, the barring is pretty subtle. Just some black stripes on the ladies' wings and some varrieagted red/gold on the boys' saddle and hackle feathers. If I didn't think to look for it, I might not even notice it.
That doesn't mean I won't select against it (though it sure makes a handsome rooster!) just wondering if the color of the barring makes a difference. I would think at 8 months old, my birdies should be close to their final color/pattern.
Since the barred ones will be split up and paired with Sussex or Buff Orps, I will be taking the non-barred offspring only to breed together, so the barring should disappear pretty fast once I start that.
I'm not super worried about it. Even the culls are lovely chickens and I could have sold way pullets than I had last summer. Most people just want eggs and don't care if their hen was regected for having stripes!

 

[alohachickens]

Yes, I don't really mind the barring that much on the roos - the one that I gave my neighbor next door looks CRAZY with the barring against huge patches of white! A friend said it looked like a quilt. LOL. However, I avoid barring on the roos right now, and ignore on the hen if I like everything else. Figure as long as only one parent has it, it won't take over.

Awww, my little Thanksgiving babies are growing up! I just moved them over to the grow-out pen. Poor things, no electric in the coop, first night without a heat lamp. But they were getting cramped, and their head feathers are coming in now, so I guess it's time.

I took TONS of photos!!!

First are my two month olds - the four chicks hatched out by one of my Confetti hens. These really should be Cheeto's chicks, because it really doesn't seem like any of the other roosters would have been old enough to mate in September? But their wild color - wow - can these really be his kids??? One may end up barred, the one with the little dots. The smallest hen has a leg issue and too much white. Will be culled. Which leaves me with two AWESOME babies!

This one, I hope is a hen! If she's a she, I'm calling her "Lemondrop". Adorable round body, excellent size, loud Confetti with perfect balance of 50/50 dark gold and white. If she ends up "normal" size, she'll be amazing! She was very annoyed that I had to pet her for so long today, ha ha.

This one, might be a roo? Either that or I'm thinking it's a roo because it's HUGE. Light brown and white Confetti 50/50 pattern. Excellent if he's a roo, but will be a game changer if one this big ends up being a hen:

And then there are the about 20 Thanksgiving chicks! Culled three this morning with too much white, after taking pics. But I gave them to my next door neighbor, so if they did an amazing turnabout I should still be able to get them back if needed. Of the remainder, about half just look like regular Sussex chicks at this point. Two of the "Mock Sussex" ones do show a bit lighter color. Most have black on the back of the neck/shoulder but two are bright cinnamon red instead! I have high hopes for those two. Here's a pic of one:

And the other half of the chicks are orange/buff colors. Does this look like maybe Mille patterning? I hope I hope I hope!

I really want that Mille D'Uccle color on a big chicken.

Okay, but even if they are not mille, but more Ginger-patwork oranged mottled, I hope they are at least bigger! I could live with that. Ha ha.

Also . . . Buff Mottled?? Not a lot of white, but then if it's the Sussex type of white, that won't really come in until about four months? So . . . . HMMM. We'll see if it turns out flashier.

And I have one oddball that doesn't go here nor there. Not quite a patchy Confetti. But way, way more white than what a Sussex would show at one month. Sort of a salt and pepper effect. (Of course her name will have to be Pepper if she ends up a keeper hen.) Though it's probably just barring?

What fun it's going to see watching these grow up! A few new MYSTERY colors. Yay!

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Beautiful babies!

I do think I see some faint barring though

I like the barring but I know you don't want it. I'll wait till they are a bit older though, sometimes it can just bee the way they grew their feathers when they were young.