The Aloha Chicken Project

[miss heny]

purty birdies

 

[notinoz2007]

i did finally get some pictures, i will try to post them later today... or sometime this week, lol

 

[alohachickens]

Thanks, Notinoz. I can't wait to see updated pics of Mr. Yellow, now that he should be pretty much grown up. Just curious to see how he's developing? They change a lot until they reach about 6-7 months.

Derek says he has a red & white spotty roo with yellow feet that I might like. He hasn't sent any photos yet but I'm hoping he is nice. I may use him over here if he is. Derek says he has size, spots, and yellow legs. Sounds intriguing.

No new pics of the Cheeto grand-chicks. Still not a single white feather anywhere. But, to be fair, they only have some wing feathers, so far. The rest is all fluff. I'm so afraid they either won't have any white feathers, or it will fade out if it does show up! Every day I stare at them trying to find a white feather anywhere in the group. LOL!

 

[notinoz2007]

The Famous (tiny) Mr Yellow:


here, with his tiny pullet hatchmate behind him, and one of your buff rock crosses next to him.


he's not the smallest rooster ever, see, he's the same size as my ee hen...


and this is petey, who will forever remain a small interesting looking aloha. i plan to keep her, but not for the project.

 

[notinoz2007]

the new hatches. some beauties in here, and they mostly have yellow legs too. i rehomed a female with gray legs and i think there is one more in there. 2 look like they will have pink, but the rest are yellow.








looks like i got all the white over here sommer!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Wow! notinoz, those are some beauties! How exciting is that?

Over the past several days we've had thunder and wind with 60 mph gusts, now it's cold! At least the wind has stopped rocking the house. All of the breeder houses but two held up to the storm and those had the lids blown off. Those were my lightest weight houses that I was most concerned about but there were ducks in one and a rooster in the other and all were fine. I'm almost ready to replace one of those and then DH will beef up the other. I'm also going to put tie downs in the yard just so I don't have to worry about whether the silly things are going to stay in place when the wind whips up. We can get some pretty wild wind in the winter too. The pens all stayed in place, even the tarp covers so I'm feeling really pleased about that. The bales of straw around the houses for insulation moved around a bit but not bad so I think with a few more of those in place they will stay put. I had one loss to a hawk, it was a Welsummer hen who isn't too cagey. I hated losing her but I'm sure it was because I haven't been out there much since I've had the flu for a week.

I've started fermenting feed for all my birds to improve their vigor over the winter and I've been very pleased with the results. There's a lot less smell to deal with and some of the birds are looking stunningly improved. We are using a bit less feed and the birds are doing great! My goal is to improve their immune systems naturally so that I don't have to doctor sick birds or give antibiotics, or continue putting the probiotics/electrolytes/vitamins in their water. It all adds up to quite the expense and if I can avoid the extra $$'s, why not? It's kind of a nuisance to mess with and probably wintertime isn't the best time to start a project of that sort but I've decided it's worth it and will revisit whether to continue or not over January/February, since those are the coldest months.

The new wide impedance energizer I purchased for the poultry netting is working great. I'm so glad I invested the extra dollars there for a more impressive barrier to the neighborhood dogs, coyote and foxes. We had all grown weary of watering the poultry netting to keep the charge going! The wide impedance charger has met my expectations. I've purchased heated dog bowls for the waterers. I was going to do the cookie tin waterers but when I got sick, it seriously wrecked my schedule. This time of year is crazy with all the kids' activities and the holidays coming on.

I've paused in incubating eggs for now and until I'm over the flu. I'm much better but still am easily fatigued and nauseated, so I just decided to slow down wherever I could and live with it!

I only do that when I absolutely have no other choice! In the meantime, I'll see if I can talk my DD into taking a few pics of a couple of the interesting chicks growing out.

 

[notinoz2007]

karen so sorry to hear you have been sick. i had the flu at the end of september and it is just awful, feel better soon!!
i am curious about fermenting feed, what do you mean by that? do you have a link you can refer me to, or maybe you explain it?
this cute batch of chicks is going to be rehomed later this month to a friend who has shown interest, i am thinking they are going to be some large birds and am so very excited.

 

[alohachickens]

the new hatches. some beauties in here, and they mostly have yellow legs too. i rehomed a female with gray legs and i think there is one more in there. 2 look like they will have pink, but the rest are yellow.








looks like i got all the white over here sommer!

WOW! These are GORGEOUS!!!

How exciting! And to think, here I'd discounted all these "random mixed" eggs here . . . . and look at what you got. LOL!

You know what's really good news, though? I've sent Derek about 20 DOZEN eggs to try and hatch out! He said about 40-50 chicks have hatched so far. I'm going to try and get over there in about two months to pick out some good candidates to raise. Anyway, hopefully he will get some new chicks like yours. Seriously, they look amazing so far. Yay!

 

[alohachickens]

Karen -

Geez you have been dealing with a lot! I'm so sorry you've been feeling bad. I hope you are back to 100% soon!

And OMG - I feel so spoiled with our weather lately. Here everyone else has been dealing with total ickiness, hurricanes and the like. Meanwhile in AZ it's been sunshine all day every day and temps 75-90 degrees. (Just perfect for baby chickies!)

I am also curious about the fermenting feed thing. What is it, and apparently, it's been working well for you? Would love to hear more when you're up to it!

I was very bad today. I picked up three Speckled Sussex chicks from the feed store down the road. I swore I wouldn't buy any more local ones, because I've always been let down by the sparse amount of white on the Privett hatchery Sussex chicks. But they were so cute, and so cheap, I couldn't resist! I picked through the batch and found one that is unusually light in color. I wonder if it will be mahogany like the rest, or will it be lighter than a normal Sussex when all grown?

I still plan on ordering more Speckled Sussex from a *new* hatchery this Spring. If they are total duds, I can just resell them to fund some new (better) Speckled Sussex chicks in a few months . . . and if that one chick does turn out unusually light in color, all the better

 

[alohachickens]

Took photos of the three Sussex chicks:


Lightest + Darkest



One is dark, (picked her because she looked big) one is medium, and the one on the right is unusually light. Wonder if she'll stay lighter?

All the new chicks - three Sussex babies on the far left for size/color reference:



As you can see, the newest batch of Aloha chicks are not tiny! Especially when you consider the Sussex chicks are several days, up to a week older. They were at the feed store when I went there about three or four days before?

Here's just the Aloha babies:



Dads: Grandsons of Cheeto - these are all from the "special" breeder pen again. This will make about 40+ chicks hatched specifically from that one breeder pen. I feel OK now breaking up that pen and trying a new pen. I think if there is something good in here, we should have enough of to work with using what chicks we've hatched.

Derek also got some of these mixed in with the eggs I gave him. He maybe got another two dozen total from this specific breeder pen. So he'll also have a few of these at his place.

By the way - FINALLY a bit of color is starting to appear on the older chicks. Only three so far (out of 20) are showing white feathers. But, it's something. I'll have to wait and see on the rest.