The Aloha Chicken Project

[Deerfield Acres]

Adorable! I set mine a day after you and as I was moving them to the hatcher tonight, I have a pip. It is in a Sommer egg.
I have all of Sommers in one tray and Laree and Rays in another. I hope to mark them when I take them out.
Here's to lots of little Alohas in a couple of days!

Yay!!!!! Congrats, Tonya! I don't think anything is going on tonight but am hopeful by morning my little one will have company!

My DS discovered the chick this morning and this afternoon after school his older sister ratted him out -- she saw him picking up the eggs and turning them over looking for pips. For crying out loud! He's just the type to give them a good shake but his sister didn't think he had enough unsupervised time for that to happen. Hopefully, no harm done.

 

[alohachickens]

Waiting for updates . . . .

 

[alohachickens]

I noticed something really cool, yesterday! Well, I finally moved my four "real" Swedish Flowers into the main coop with the Alohas.

There are also some chicks that I hatched the exact same week as the Swedish Flowers. They are all exactly the same age. Mine were half Aloha, half Sussex chicks. I took my biggest Aloha hens and put them with the Sussex Roo. Well, this one hen isn't much to look at, just looks like a poorly bred Sussex (like all the half-Sussex half-Alohas do) just a slightly lighter tone to the mahogany brown color. But, here's the cool thing - she is about an inch TALLER than the pure-bred Swedish Flower hen!

Finally, here's hope that our Alohas can not just be "as big as" a Swedish Flower, but possibly even bigger! For the record, this hen's mom was half Aloha, half Buff Orp. So, we may have to jump up to 75% "outside" blood to do it. But these hens are both the exact same age, and the one with Aloha breeding is bigger than a pure Swedish. (Now if only they'd stand still long enough for me to take pictures to prove it, ha ha.)

I can't wait to take that big hen and cross her with one of Cheeto's baby roos! Man, can't believe I have to wait until this fall for them to mature before I can see the results. Argh, the waiting!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Okay, so today I have a total of 5 chicks hatched (including yesterday's early bird). Look how light this baby is:



This one is wetter than above chickie, still it looks to be darker. What fun!



Look how big early bird is compared to this little newby, another pretty light baby.



Last but not least another light chick. So, so pretty!

Noticed all those pips, did you? We had 7 pipped this morning.

Even my DH is excited about them. He set up the brooder box and got first chick started eating and drinking for me, since I'm still immobile. This evening the other chicks will probably be dry and ready to join him. Yay!

 

[runsw/scissors]

How exciting Aloha!! You're on the right track...

Isn't it thrilling Karen, watching the next generation making it's appearance? It's a sight that never gets old!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

How exciting Aloha!! You're on the right track...

Isn't it thrilling Karen, watching the next generation making it's appearance? It's a sight that never gets old!

It's just amazing! How such an intricate little creature comes of an egg full of goo in 3 weeks. All excess anxiety aside, I expected it to happen but when it did it really struck me how miraculous it all seems. I'm sure it's not something I'll ever get tired of. I'm still laid up with this goofy ankle but my DH has just left to count how many chicks we have now. I have a Genesis Hova-bator with the big picture window in the house with a few eggs so the kids can watch them easier. I can't wait to find out how many we have today!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

This evening we have 11 total babies for the whole hatch so far. Yay! Sure hope we get lots more tomorrow. Go Alohas!

 

[notinoz2007]

this is so great, i love all the pictures. i feel a connection to these eggs because they went on a road trip with me, i wonder if they remember any of the songs we sang. LOL

*99 eggs in a box in the trunk. 99 eggs in a box...

 

[alohachickens]

Waiting . . . argh, the waiting! I can't wait to see what hatches in KS.

Yesterday, I cleaned the chick brooder, and it was the first time I did a final count on the babies hatched the other day. (Because I just kept piling more in there as they hatched!) I counted 53 total new Alohas here.

Over 30 of the new babies are from Stephen's flock, so this will be the first time we will see a big group of those develop. (For the record, Runswscissors also has some of Stephen's in her group, but only 11 of Stephen's eggs hatched last time, total, out of 60 previous chicks. So this is our first "mostly Stephen's" group of chicks.)

The remainder of the eggies in there will be Flash's and Cheeto's kids. So we'll have eggs in this batch by five different roosters. Six, if you count Butterscotch, who is in there with Flash, maybe catching a hen on the sly, but doesn't have his own pen yet.

So, for Stephen and I to raise, I've hatched out 53, plus about 30 from the last batch, plus Cheeto's 13 (now 12, the colorful hen got sick and died, sad!) Add Larissa's stock and we're over 100 Aloha chicks hatched in 2012 in Arizona.

Derek continues to stop by and pick up MORE eggs to hatch. I've been giving him anything that would go to waste when the 'bators are full here. I keep asking him if it's too many eggs, and he keeps saying no. So who knows how many he's going to hatch out this year! I gave him about 10 dozen the other day! Wowza. In return, I'll be welcome to pick out whatever I need from what he hatches.

 

[alohachickens]

Oh, forgot to mention . . . Stephen is game for ONE MORE group of chicks to hatch out here. So we may have another 40-50 Alohas born here before all is done this season. WOW.

I warned him that because of my upcoming surgery and work travel, he's pretty much going to be stuck raising them from newborns. (Last year, I raised them to about six to eight weeks and then gave them to Stephen as fully feathered, well-started youngsters. I don't have room to raise many chickens to adulthood, but when they are small I can raise a lot to pullet stage, at least.)

We are planning to set his next eggs on Friday, April 13th which seems like an unlucky day to me, but is actually good for him - it's the day he met his wife! (Awwww.) They'll hatch May 4th. I'll get them up to him before the surgery. The resulting stock would be of breeding age by November of next year . . . . just in time to set up breeder pens for New Year's Hatch 2013! Ha ha ha.

How's that for counting chickens way, way, way before they hatch? LOL.

I'll set only Stephen's, plus Cheeto's special breeder pen. Going to skip using Flame's group this next time. I'm waiting for Cheeto's six big golden-buff daughters to mature so I can cross THOSE with Flame in the fall. That could be really cool! (Flame needs bigger hens for the best results. Flame has good color and he is NOT small, but he's not huge either.)