The Aloha Chicken Project

[alohachickens]

Here are some more photos of the breeder pens at Stephen's. They are small pens but nice.

This is Stephen's pen #1. A full brother to Cheeto, in with 3 hens. The hens are all brown with white spots and show very little black.



Wow, look at the size difference . . . .

 

[alohachickens]

This is Stephen's pen #2. It has the HUGE purebred Sussex roo that Laree hatched out and gave to me, along with four (or five?) "Ginger Girls". I love how the Ginger's in this pen have all different amounts of white. I can't wait to hatch out chicks from this pen.

 

[alohachickens]

This is Stephen's Pen #3. Just the one hen and one roo. I'm going to give Stephen my two big buff half-Aloha hens to put with this guy. Seriously we need more BIG hens. Good thing I just bought those pure NHR and pure Buff Rock chicks. Unfortunately, these chicks I bought a few days ago are still babies - so have to wait for them to grow up. Sigh! If I had any adult hens NOW, I would put Buff Rock and NHR hens in with this guy. Unfortunately, Cheeto's one full sister was the only female Buff Rock cross that made it through the summer heat. So she is the only hen with him right now.





I'm sure you guys can totally see, though, even if not one single new chicken was brought in for a couple of years, how just crossing the babies from these three teeny tiny breeder pens against each other might create some amazing chickens.

It is a total of three roosters and only ummm, nine hens? This is about the perfect small-scale Aloha setup, in case anyone is thinking of joining in. (Also you'd need a grow out pen - but in terms of breeding stock, even this small scale should get some wonderful results!)

 

[runsw/scissors]

Hey there from the snowy NW! The chicks are looking good here, bright eyed and lively.

As they grow up what would you want me to do? Or should I wait to see what they look like? I can certainly order some SS from ideal if they seems best.

These are flighty lively little buggers though very entertaining to watch.

 

[alohachickens]

Hey there from the snowy NW! The chicks are looking good here, bright eyed and lively.

As they grow up what would you want me to do? Or should I wait to see what they look like? I can certainly order some SS from ideal if they seems best.

These are flighty lively little buggers though very entertaining to watch.

They are real pistols, aren't they? Very much survivors, smart and active. They are friendly but quick. They swarm around my feet, and bump into my legs, but they don't like to be held.

I'd say it's time to see what's up with MaBo and Tam'ra? I know Tam'ra had some pure Sussex she was working with. I am trying to remember exactly what MaBo had, I think he said he'd actually found a Buff Rock rooster? You might need some "red layer chicken" lines at this point. Like New Hampshire Red?

I'm adding Buff Rock bloodlines via my rooster Cheeto, Cheeto's brother, and Cheeto's sister. And Sussex through a few pure Sussex hens here with Flame, my Aloha rooster. Plus there is a Sussex rooster with Aloha hens in that pen at Stephen's. So I just bought some NHR hen chicks to balance things out this fall.

So I think it would be helpful to see photos of Karen's Sussex from Ideal - to see how varied her variations are! And also to see Tamra's Sussex hens. How happy she is with them? Are they big enough? Do they have nice spotting? Are the Ideal Sussex THAT much better? Overall check in with the other two folks up there by you, to see how things are looking. They have some half-breeds to hatch out this Spring, what will you guys in the Pacific NW be lacking after that?

Down here, I'm trying really hard to keep a balance between Aloha, and the other main outcross breeds I've been using. So that it doesn't lean TOO heavily towards one breed. The goal is for Alohas to look like their own unique breed. So now that I've been using a lot of Buff Rock and Sussex this spring, this fall I'll make sure I hatch lots of NHR crosses instead.

 

[tazcat70]

Ok, first, I am going to apologize that you may see this posting more than once.

My mother-in-law is in the hospital. She has been for a few days. She is REALLY sick. Today I found out what is all going on, and they are still doing more tests. She has blood clots in her lungs, with pnuemonia, and her heart is only outputting 14% (not sure of terminology) and they did a CT scan of her chest and found a HUGE (their words) mass in the center of her chest that is pushing on her lungs and heart. They are still running tests to find out if the mass has spread to other parts of her body, and are taking surgery. So we will be making a trip to Texas tomorrow morning as soon as I can rent the car.

What this means is that my chicken stuff is on hold. I have my parents coming over to take care of everything, and there is a lot of that stuff going on, with eggs in the bator and chicks in the brooder, but I wanted everyone to know that I plan on getting my swap eggs out on time, and meeting up to get eggs, and swap pea chicks and pick up chicks.....But if I can't do it on time, I will make it right.

My email addy for BYC goes to my cell phone and so if anyone needs to get in touch with me, please send me an email. I get the PM notifications too, so you can also PM me.

Thanks for understanding.

Tonya

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Ok, first, I am going to apologize that you may see this posting more than once.

My mother-in-law is in the hospital. She has been for a few days. She is REALLY sick. Today I found out what is all going on, and they are still doing more tests. She has blood clots in her lungs, with pnuemonia, and her heart is only outputting 14% (not sure of terminology) and they did a CT scan of her chest and found a HUGE (their words) mass in the center of her chest that is pushing on her lungs and heart. They are still running tests to find out if the mass has spread to other parts of her body, and are taking surgery. So we will be making a trip to Texas tomorrow morning as soon as I can rent the car.

What this means is that my chicken stuff is on hold. I have my parents coming over to take care of everything, and there is a lot of that stuff going on, with eggs in the bator and chicks in the brooder, but I wanted everyone to know that I plan on getting my swap eggs out on time, and meeting up to get eggs, and swap pea chicks and pick up chicks.....But if I can't do it on time, I will make it right.

My email addy for BYC goes to my cell phone and so if anyone needs to get in touch with me, please send me an email. I get the PM notifications too, so you can also PM me.

Thanks for understanding.

Tonya

Tonya,

So very sorry to hear it. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. Lost my mom 2.5 years ago -- hard stuff.

Karen S

 

[alohachickens]

Tonya - so sorry to hear that! Prayers for you, hang in there . . .

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Finally got the pics taken. It's really hard to get decent pics when the chicks don't know the first thing about posing!

These are some of my SSX from McMurray. Look at all the white breast feathers coming in! Some of them have quite a few wing spots as well and the occasional white wing. I know it's not a great thing for SSX, but for Aloha's I'm really happy with my birds.

What is this ramp leading to? you may ask. Well this is one of the "play areas" my children have created to keep the birds entertained. It's just sand in the white box but sometimes they put a few mealworms or a little scratch in it to keep them coming back. The birds seem to really enjoy making the trip up and taking a little dust bath. The sand is the same stuff under the wood chips but this is the "spa" version evidently.

This is blurry but you can still see lots of white on these two SSX chicks. The one on the right is one of the more carmel colored chicks but feathers are coming in much darker.

Oh well.





Lots of white breast feathers on the SSX just left of middle!

The SSX standing in the middle of the pic is Sweetpea. She was one of the carmel colored chicks and you can see how spotted she looks in the brown areas. She has just a bit of white on her breast feathers but she's a definite keeper just because she is so friendly. When I sit down to watch the chicks, she always comes over to snuggle in my hand, under my chin for a quick nap. It's just so darn cute. The SSX to the right has lots of white on its wing feathers -- that one is really unusual for the group. Then to the right of that bird is another SSX with lots of white on its breast. I think I'm going to have plenty of really good birds to choose from for the program!




Okay, couldn't resist throwing in a pic of Sweetpea with my DD. She's a sweetpea too, by the way.

I LOVED the pics of Stephen's birds. That rooster is beautiful -- can't wait to have something like that in my yard!!!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Life is good! My cabinet incubator is going to arrive on 3/7!!!!

Perfect timing for the 3/10 egg delivery.