The Aloha Chicken Project

[tazcat70]

Laree- Yes I did! They are so cute!!!! (the eggs, that is) Isn't that how it is. I will be contacting you in a few weeks or so to try and get some more.

I went out and collected eggs in my bantam Orp coop, and there was a hen in there (they don't have an actual nest) and I grabbed the eggs, and then I hear this soft pop, thud. She laid an egg and ran out of the coop. I grabbed it up too. Then I went to the run and was talking to them. She was looking at me, giving me the stink eye, just cussing at me....I could hear her. "You over grown, evil, egg stealer! How dare you even talk to me!" (Language changed to protect the innocent)

I love that my youngest son (3) looks at the eggs and says...."Awe, cuuuuuuutttttteeeeee!" Like he can see the potential that is the chick inside.

Karen, you also got 18 of Laree's eggs, because I only got one of her 18 packs. So you got 2 strains.

 

[LarryPQ]

I have some hatching from my breeding pen right now. Methinks they are mostly going to look heavily like SS, which is ok, since I was outcrossing. But the SS hens aren't the only ones in that pen, so don't worry if chicks from my eggs are less "Aloha-y" what Sommer's. Put those chicks in with Sommer's chicks to help improve size and egg-laying.

 

[alohachickens]

OMG! Happy happy day here!!!

Stephen, that sweetie, is driving all the way up to Salome, AZ. There is a gal up there with 40 Speckled Sussex pullets, and when Stephen called her and asked if any were "unusually marked" she said that seven of them were, so he's driving all the way up there to get these hens for the Aloha project!

Finally - hand-picked LOUD hens for our flock!

Here is a picture plucked from the Craigslist ad, see the hen in the middle and how BRIGHT she is??



THAT is what we need! Bright, bright hens.

I know that Sussex do get more white as they age, but this gal bought all of these chicks at the same time. So the colors are true variations. Two hens will be kept here, and Stephen will buy the other ones. I'm going to give Stephen "Butterscotch" my orange-mottled rooster to put with these hens for now. These hens just started laying! Butterscotch x Sussex will be the first cross.

Then I'm going to see if Derek can bring back "Cinnamon" who was a great rooster with RED RED color and YELLOW legs. But he really needed to be crossed to super-spotty Sussex hens, and I just didn't have anything that would work! So I passed him to Derek. Hope he still has him . . . . .


(This is Cinnamon, great color, great comb, yellow legs - but just not enough white spotting.)

I am SO excited. The amount of work to buy all these Sussex and then raise them to adulthood and then pick out the best, this gal just saved us six months of hard work! Whoot Whoot!!!

 

[alohachickens]

Oh, and on the eggs - the unmarked ones were from my pen. I marked Larissa's eggs with a hot pink "LE". I marked my neighbor Raymond's eggs with "Ray". The Ray and LE ones will have different rooster daddies than my eggs. So that's good you passed the Ray ones to Taz, as they will have slightly different bloodlines - though Ray's Alohas were all my stock, too. I just gave him my solid hens (that carry mottling) and a few super-colorful roosters. Half the chicks should show spots!

 

[alohachickens]

Photo of Ray's main rooster:





This is Ray's second-in-command Rooster. Hens are solid. Expect some "Confetti" hens from this cross.

 

[tazcat70]

Only 20 days to go.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Only 20 days to go.

... and counting down..

That's me sitting outside my incubator.

Finally - hand-picked LOUD hens for our flock!

Here is a picture plucked from the Craigslist ad, see the hen in the middle and how BRIGHT she is??



THAT is what we need! Bright, bright hens.

How perfect is that?

 

[alohachickens]

GRRRR!!! I'm SO annoyed!

So, Stephen drives umm, over two hours each way, and those bright hens in the photo were GONE. Can you say "bait and switch"? ARRRGH. She only had 10 left, total, of the original 40. Looks like someone beat us to them. I went and checked the original Craigslist ad, and it turns out it was posted a couple of weeks ago.

So, he picked up a few of the "regular" ones, that don't really look any different from what I have here. I guess the bright side is he's going to set up another breeder pen with Butterscotch over the "regular" Sussex hens. Oh, and these are from a hatchery in Ohio? Stephen couldn't remember the name of it, but at least it's a new bloodline of Sussex. I guess that is better than nothing.

OK, Karen, if we are to get any "super spotty" Sussex, I guess they will have to be from your group! LOL!

At least the photo I showed with the neat one in the middle, the really LOUD hen, shows you what we are looking for . . . . but absolutely can't seem to get our hands on here in Phoenix, ha ha ha ha!!!

Between this and the massive death of my recently purchased pure breed chicks, I'm really having a tough time (again) getting just the right outside blood to bring into the Aloha flock next year.

 

[alohachickens]

The eggs arrived and are in the bator. Tazcat said she is putting hers in without turning this evening so I thought I would do that as well.

I'll be thrilled with however many birds hatch! You say there may be another trip in June? (I'm greedy)

Please, be greedy in June! That is a miserable, even dangerous time to hatch chicks in Phoenix. You'd be doing me a huge favor to hatch out chicks in the summer time, because what few eggs we do get have to go unhatched, because the heat is so tough on the newborns.

You won't be getting 200 eggs, because laying slows down to a crawl, as the intense heat stresses the hens out horribly. But we do get a trickle of eggs all summer long. I will have new roosters and new hens laying by that time. I have two new roosters and three new "keeper" hens that are due to mature around June 1st.

 

[alohachickens]

I just wanted to share this "Laughing Rooster" video, it was posted on another BYC thread. Besides it being funny, check out the mottled patterns on these birds. This is kind of the gamey-type base stock that I think the Alohas got their color from, through that one weird hen. There even seems to be one rooster that I think resembles the "Confetti" roosters that I gave to my neighbor, Raymond? The perches are numbered, he's on #7. Not that I think Alohas are DIRECTLY related to these, that's not what I'm saying. These are specially bred and worth thousands of dollars. But I bet they may have a common ancestor somewhere.

I also notice that these do not seem to be aggressive towards each other (Alohas are also not "fighters") despite their gamey, rangy kind of build. Probably because they are being bred for the unusual crowing sound! But check out all the spots and mottling, and the crazy color variations. I kind of thought it was neat. Until recently, the only "spotty" chicken breeds in the US were the Mottled Java and Speckled Sussex and D'Uccle, and here's all these crazy spots and mottling and wild colors on this group of roosters!