The Aloha Chicken Project

[Tam'ra of Rainbow Vortex]

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.

There is a mixed-breed egg swap thread too. I have been lurking fr a while, but I can't justify more chickens now if I wanna hatch out more Alohas!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/474174/designer-egg-chain

 

[alohachickens]

There is a mixed-breed egg swap thread too. I have been lurking fr a while, but I can't justify more chickens now if I wanna hatch out more Alohas!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/474174/designer-egg-chain

Thanks for the link! HMMM. I have to keep an eye on that one!

 

[tazcat70]

I love those laughing roosters!

 

[alohachickens]

I just took some photos of the Cheeto babies, (the four spotted babies) and wanted to share:



Chick #1



Chick #2



Chick #3

I have more info on the Blog:
http://alohachickens.blogspot.com/2012/03/cheetos-pack-of-chicks.html

I want to try and document if the color fades or not in the future. Thought I'd start taking photos now.

 

[alohachickens]

Oh, and here's the one hen chick. But this is weird - she always tilts her head at an angle. I don't know what that means??? She's done it all along.

I hope it's nothing bad or that will make me have to cull her! She is the one and only brightly-colored hen out of this group of Cheeto babies. It looks adorable, and doesn't seem to bother her, but of course anything out of the ordinary is NOT GOOD in breeding stock. Though I'd certainly not put her down over this - worst case scenario she ends up in my neighbor's yard next door. None of the other solid hen chicks tilt their heads like this all the time, of course. Only her! What a bummer.


Today's pic where you can see it clearly: (and yes it always tilts to the same side)





She is in the front left of the photo above, and you can see it is very minimal in this photo. The weird thing is she never tilts her head to the opposite side. I wonder if it was an injury of some sort, but I can't recall any particular chick trauma.

 

[Pele]

I love your breeding project, such beautiful birds!

Actually, a bird that always tilts it's head is a sign of a vision problem usually. Does one eye look different? Can you test by making a sudden movement on each side of her head, and see if she doesn't react on one side? It would really show when she tries to eat, as she'll have to tilt her head a lot in order to eye the food before pecking.

Oh, and here's the one hen chick. But this is weird - she always tilts her head at an angle. I don't know what that means??? She's done it all along.

I hope it's nothing bad or that will make me have to cull her! She is the one and only brightly-colored hen out of this group of Cheeto babies. It looks adorable, and doesn't seem to bother her, but of course anything out of the ordinary is NOT GOOD in breeding stock. Though I'd certainly not put her down over this - worst case scenario she ends up in my neighbor's yard next door. None of the other solid hen chicks tilt their heads like this all the time, of course. Only her! What a bummer.


Today's pic where you can see it clearly: (and yes it always tilts to the same side)





She is in the front left of the photo above, and you can see it is very minimal in this photo. The weird thing is she never tilts her head to the opposite side. I wonder if it was an injury of some sort, but I can't recall any particular chick trauma.

 

[alohachickens]

Thanks for the advice, Pele! I will test her vison out later. She is cute and appears to function just fine overall, thank goodness. So if it's a vision problem, she won't be used for breeding but should still have a good life as an egg laying cutie pie. Very sweet and friendly little girl.

Her sisters all look fine, and thank goodness, there look to be a lot of hens in this group of chicks. My last group of chicks had about 15 roosters out of 21 chicks. This group so far looks like five to seven roos out of 13 chicks, as far as I can tell. Many of the buff babies in this pen look very much like hens! Yay!!!

 

[LarryPQ]

A hen who can't see well is sure to be a rooster favorite.

 

[alohachickens]

A hen who can't see well is sure to be a rooster favorite.

LOL!

 

[runsw/scissors]

lol!

Laree!

I'm pretty excited here as I have two chicks that are showing spotting (both white and black) on their wings. Now lets hope the spotting stays! The rest seem to be plain buff chicks, it's exciting to watch them develop their spots, or not! What's very interesting is that not one chick ever got pasty butt, (for which I am profoundly grateful), also they are crazy!!! flighty, and in fact their flightiness seems to be the only thing that does them in. If they escape from their baby pen they will die at least until they were about a week old... It sucks too as I spent Heaven only knows how many hours trying to escape proof their pen before I realized that wasn't gonna happen. Mercifully I had a broody hen that was fascinated with the peeping babies. Once she took over all deaths stopped...

I'll go out and shoot some photos later so you can see the spots developing. These kids have been amazing to watch.