The Aloha Chicken Project

[Deerfield Acres]

I am picking up some German New Hamp chicks and hatching eggs this weekend!

Okay, I will grab every egg I can get from my pretty girl and stalk her with camera today. I'll weigh her too. Right now I have a Lavender/Buff Orp roo that's just maturing, a Buff Rock, and the Speckleds.

I am going to have Swedish roos ready in a couple months so this should be great fun!

In about 5 to 6 months, the Germans and Wellies will be ready.

 

[cmfarm]

I live in Central Texas so we have mild winters. I would also take hatching eggs but I understand that the shipped eggs ya'll have sent have not faired well.

 

[alohachickens]

I live in Central Texas so we have mild winters. I would also take hatching eggs but I understand that the shipped eggs ya'll have sent have not faired well.

Great, hopefully we can get you started earlier!

Also you should see about getting some pure Sussex and something lighter with yellow legs to work with from Ideal Hatchery, since they're in your state. You don't need very many "outside" breeds for this project. Just a few NICE ones. Like two NHR and maybe one Buff Rock, and three of the most-spotty Speckled Sussex chicks!

But since the minimum order of any breed at the hatcheries is five per breed, and 25 chicks total minimum order, I'd order five NHR, five Buff Rock, and 15 Speckled Sussex. Raise them all to a few months, pick out the biggest two NHR, the biggest Buff Rock, and the spottiest three Sussex hens, and sell the rest. Then put them in with a really pretty (but probably too small) Aloha roo.

We get lots of colorful roosters, but the most flashy ones tend to be small. If you had some big hens, it would help a lot.

Remember if I send you chicks, half are going to be boys, so you'll have lots of awesome roos to choose from. But we still have to work on size and body type in addition to color, and you'll have to go outside my little flock to add that.

 

[notinoz2007]

sorry for the poor quality, they are from an old camera phone. i really do hope he gets bigger. he's the same size as the 2 pen 4 hens that i have, not sure if thats good or bad.


his tail has potential, i am hoping for flash.


i tried to get an up close pic so you can see nice red hackle feathers are coming in. and yes, that is a small black spotted tail feather there. he also has a nice straight comb. he's really a good looking roo i think.


here is one of the pen 4 ladies, sorry pic is rather dark. she has a nice aloha fan tail with slender body type.


this is the biggest aloha i have. cant get a good pic cuz she wont stand still - EVER. she is as big as my wyandotte rooster. she is molting and some feathers are coming back different - she was all red before. will keep track of her. oh, this is the one who has been sick, but she is feeling much better now.


snickerdoodle, she's a mirror of your nui. thats the big girl behind her there. eating some more.


petey. from pen 4. she still interests me. i hope she gets some good size on her. i'm confused about her tail. its always looked frazzled - and thin, she's pretty flighty, i wonder if she's being picked on...


just a broad pic of some of the ladies in the breeding pen. some spotted, some not.


ps, today is lock down for the newest batch of alohas!!!

 

[notinoz2007]

WHOA sorry for the huge pic! i went back a few pages to find this, to show Mr Yellow a month ago. he's growing up!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I stalked my Aloha hen, however, I'm just not that great with a camera. I thought I had some decent pics but it's hard to tell with that small screen. There just wasn't enough contrast in the background to really show her coloring well. I'll do better tomorrow. At least it can't get worse.

 

[notinoz2007]

lol karen. i feel the same. in about 2 weeks my mom will be back and she's bringing the good camera, lol. she's in kansas right now and about to finalize her move here. her house in edgerton sold in a week!
btw i think its so cool that i get to see pictures of chickens that i transported as eggs!!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

It's just ridiculously windy today and Little Miss Aloha isn't happy. I'm going to need some help with her photo op so I'll wait till my resident photographer (DD) gets home from school.

Okay, so you know I'm picking up German New Hamp eggs and chicks Saturday. Well, as it turns out this guy has a trio of large Speckled Sussex with much better spotting than mine, so I'm going to snag those while I'm there. I'm also getting a handful of Wellies because I have two hens a friend gave me and no roo. I'm really excited to have found these birds. I won't have to wait for SSX chicks to grow up and I won't have to try to hatch German eggs that have been through the post office.

 

[alohachickens]

sorry for the poor quality, they are from an old camera phone. i really do hope he gets bigger. he's the same size as the 2 pen 4 hens that i have, not sure if thats good or bad.
his tail has potential, i am hoping for flash.


i tried to get an up close pic so you can see nice red hackle feathers are coming in. and yes, that is a small black spotted tail feather there. he also has a nice straight comb. he's really a good looking roo i think.


here is one of the pen 4 ladies, sorry pic is rather dark. she has a nice aloha fan tail with slender body type.



petey. from pen 4. she still interests me. i hope she gets some good size on her. i'm confused about her tail. its always looked frazzled - and thin, she's pretty flighty, i wonder if she's being picked on...




ps, today is lock down for the newest batch of alohas!!!

Hoo boy. Those little girls and that rooster have NO TYPE at all! Ha ha ha ha!!!

I know everyone is still a bit young and they may fill out a little more . . . but still . . . I have a hard time believing that Petey and the other hen are half Sussex!

But, here's the pic again (for everyone) showing the parents of these two hens:








Small, gamey, Buff Barred + Mottled Rooster, with pure Speckled Sussex hens.

So, the cross of Mr. Yellow with these two little hens, will probably result in small, gamey, poor type birds . . . BUT some chicks may have amazing color plus yellow legs! Especially since Mr. Yellow Legs is so light, and the hen's daddy (pictured above) was also light in color. We could have the recessive light colors "pop out" in this cross, even from the darker hen, Petey.

If we got some colorful babies with lots of white and yellow legs, those chicks would be very valuable for out-crossing with less colorful but much larger birds. Perhaps by the time the chicks from this cross are of age, six months from now, we'd have a suitable large, stout rooster that would be perfect for crossing with them? Colorful hens with yellow legs could be used with all kinds of roosters, like NHR, Buff Rock, pure Sussex, or combos of any of those breeds.

I think, however, we have proven that the influence of the parents is about equal. As in, hatching eggs out of big Sussex hens does not automatically mean you'll get bigger chicks when grown. You can work with small colorful hens and a big, plain-colored rooster. It looks like it doesn't matter which way you go!

 

[cmfarm]

Great, hopefully we can get you started earlier!

Also you should see about getting some pure Sussex and something lighter with yellow legs to work with from Ideal Hatchery, since they're in your state. You don't need very many "outside" breeds for this project. Just a few NICE ones. Like two NHR and maybe one Buff Rock, and three of the most-spotty Speckled Sussex chicks!

But since the minimum order of any breed at the hatcheries is five per breed, and 25 chicks total minimum order, I'd order five NHR, five Buff Rock, and 15 Speckled Sussex. Raise them all to a few months, pick out the biggest two NHR, the biggest Buff Rock, and the spottiest three Sussex hens, and sell the rest. Then put them in with a really pretty (but probably too small) Aloha roo.

We get lots of colorful roosters, but the most flashy ones tend to be small. If you had some big hens, it would help a lot.

Remember if I send you chicks, half are going to be boys, so you'll have lots of awesome roos to choose from. But we still have to work on size and body type in addition to color, and you'll have to go outside my little flock to add that.

I am bidding on some Speckled Sussex eggs on e-bay right now (also perfect timing for the Halloween hatch) so hopefully I can hatch some out. I just bought 2 huge incubators (they can hold at least 1400 eggs each) so I can do a lot of hatching. I am also really close to charm1704 who has swedish flower hens so maybe I can get some roosters or something from her to work with.