The Aloha Chicken Project

[runsw/scissors]

I went ahead and got some buff orp chicks today, with an eye to increasing the Aloha size. This is going to be such fun!

 

[tazcat70]

Tazcat - Good to hear from you! Laree had a special present for you that she slipped in the carton along with the Aloha eggs.

Wow, you guys get going a lot earlier than what I thought! Hatching in the Midwest for New Years? Hmm, now that I think about it, a lot of people back there did the New Year's hatch. But it's strange I had these chicks die here when it is so mild right now. I think these hatchery chicks were just weak. They shouldn't have died at 55 degrees with one lamp and a whole brooder full of buddies to snuggle up with. Since then, another died and there is no excuse. So that's five out of ten of my new "outside" breed chicks that have passed.

Thanks! Hmmmm, I wonder what it could be that Laree would send.

Welcome back, tazcat!! My incubator arrived on Tuesday!

Laree, Sommer, notinoz: My incubator is ready! I'm so ready!

Sommer: LOVE the pics! ALL the birds are just gorgeous and I can't wait to see what comes from my hatch!

Thanks Karen.

I know, me too!!!


Quote:

I so appreciate you trusting us with them! 200 eggs is wonderful!!!! Tazcat and I are going to split them and so I was hoping for around 50 each. 100 each is twice as good!!!!! Wow! I can't wait to get them in the bator! Do you think I should let them "rest" before putting them in? If so, how long?

My family is so excited about the Alohas. My husband didn't really get it at first but he's warming up to the whole chicken thing now. He's a great guy to have done all my projects. He's really into the Aloha eggs coming, so that's great! The guys he works with are asking when the hens will start laying, they're really interested in the fresh eggs. NOT my Aloha eggs though! Those are going in the bator!


Thanks so much!

I know, I was figuring on about half that many eggs too! It is so awesome that there are so many.

I think I am going to put them in ASAP but I will leave the turner off for the first day.

 

[LarryPQ]

I sended presents. Not lotz of presents, but that wasn't up to me...

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I went ahead and got some buff orp chicks today, with an eye to increasing the Aloha size. This is going to be such fun!

Isn't it!

I don't think I'm going to get any sleep tonight I'm so excited about our hatching eggs coming tomorrow!

 

[tazcat70]

Sommer,

I was also thinking about your disappearing spots. I had a turken roo that looked like he was going to be mille fleur/spangled, and I got all excited. It seems that he was feathering out wheaten. Do you remember what color yours was as a hatchling? Here is his time lapse.

 

[tazcat70]

I sended presents. Not lotz of presents, but that wasn't up to me...

And I love your presents!!! Hmmmmm, Notinoz has to make a return trip too....want some roses? Or EGGS? LOTS OF EGGS?

 

[LarryPQ]

LOL. I can see notinoz dropping off a bunch of wilted roses.

I'll take eggs for the Easter hatch, but not many please--I suspect Dar may be using bator space again.

 

[alohachickens]

Sommer,

I was also thinking about your disappearing spots. I had a turken roo that looked like he was going to be mille fleur/spangled, and I got all excited. It seems that he was feathering out wheaten. Do you remember what color yours was as a hatchling? Here is his time lapse.

Wow, that is really, really strange! No, I don't recall what color he was as a chick. Today he is a deep orangey tan color. A few wing feathers do appear to be staying white. He does have a few random white spots, still. All the recent chicks that have had issues with "disappearing spots" have been buffy-colored - either buff or tan. The dark or red ones - no issue. I have not seen this happen yet on a dark brown or red chicken. Yet I *have* seen Buff Mottled in Mille D'Uccles, so Buff + Mottling - it has to happen? So confused! It's almost like Buff + Spots don't like to play with each other.

So I can't figure this out yet, but so far, I have noticed a larger number of my Buff chickens have turned out solid in color. So far, the closest I have gotten to a Buff Mottled is this ONE rooster, out of 8 Buff chicks this fall, he is the only one that shows Mottling still. ALL the rest, some had spots but they faded away as they grew.
Note that he's BARRED, too - I wish we could see this on a solid buff, because his stripes kind of make it hard to see how much white he really shows:



He is showing even less white today, this photo was taken a couple of weeks ago. But there is still some white there, especially on his chest. AND - I have to remind myself, that a lot of Sussex roosters show little white! Just on their chests. Hens show more Mottling than roosters, anyway.

Normally I don't keep Barred roosters, but since this is the ONLY Buff Mottled I've been able to get, I decided I should hang onto him for a while . . . hopefully a non-barred version will come up this spring, but if not, here is a backup! I will get a more current photo of him soon.

I tried bringing in a purebred solid red NHR rooster, and there were NO issues with disappearing spots with his bloodline. All of his "grandchicks" came out spotted, exactly as predicted. So that breed/color seems "safe". If a bunch of us have issues getting Buff Mottled, then we'll know something is up, and will have to swap over to more NHR lines or something? I hope not, because the Buff Mottleds I've seen are very cool. Maybe it is just too early to tell.

 

[alohachickens]

Taz and Karen -

Don't freak out too much because of the 200 eggies, the oldest eggs in there are pushing two weeks! I took the very oldest of them and set my 'bator with those, and when I candled yesterday, fertility on the oldies was barely 50%.

So if you get even 100 live chicks out of these eggs, I'd call it a huge success!

But then HALF (or more) will be roosters . . . .

So if you end up with 20 nice, colorful hens, after you pick out the best - and a handful of nice roos, it will be a success!

Karen, pass those numbers to your hubby if he starts to panic when he sees them. This many eggs doesn't actually translate into 200 chickens, ha ha ha ha!!!

 

[alohachickens]

The egg swap says "pure breed only" and I don't think our Alohas qualify just yet . . . though honestly, I wish mixed-breed eggs were OK in that swap, as what I'd LOVE to get is some mixed breed eggs to cross with Alohas. Like RIR + Buff Orp eggs. About two years ago, I saw someone's flock of them on Ebay, they turned out fabulous! Darker than a pure Buff Orp and not as "floofy". I bought their eggs and hatched out three chicks from those crossbreeds, but the chicks found a hole in my fence (now fixed) and were eaten by my neighbor's dog. Darnit. So those crosses never made it to the program.

Yet again my plans to "improve" the Alohas were thwarted back then. Speaking of which, YET ANOTHER pure "outside" breed chick died yesterday! That's six out of ten, eeeek! And still, not a single Aloha has died. All 25 Alohas are thriving. The chick that passed was not pecked on or harassed in any way, and it did not have pasty butt. It just died.

Hey you aloha chicken peoples,

Go to this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/495213/large-fowl-only-crazy-egg-chain/580
and take an offer of someones eggs and offer up some of those beautiful Aloha eggs.
I myself would love to have some, but I could only mix them with my Easter Eggers or Naked Necks right now, because of no extra room for a pen of their own.

Who knows with all the wonderful colors of EE's they would probably come out looking great.