The Svart Hona (Swedish Black Hen) Thread!

[orientphoenix]

wow they're awesome, deciding if i want svart hona or ayam cemani in the future

 

[minihorse927]

not my best pic and sunbleached some. One of the svart hona cockerels I'm holding onto as a possible breeder.

 

[birdman55]

Is there some with light toenails? Some of my chicks have light nails. It that normal?

White toes n toe nails n some leakage is somewhat normal. The more u breed n. I'll the less u should have . We will say maybe 10-25 percent when first getting started will have some flaw

Beautiful roosters.  I don't know much about Svart Hona  or Ayan Cemani  - could you please point out what the main differences between the two breeds are.?  Thank you in advance.

The Cemani is a lot darker with svart honas I have seen only charcoal colored mouths n meat where cemani black threw the whole bird

These r my svart honas. Very dark compared to most. U will have some with like a green sheen to the skin and ones that are charcoal color. Atleast that's what my birds produce.

The ones that have color to them or starting to color r the Hmong. These r all roosters btw.

 

[Kindercare]

Another data point for people interested in Svart Hona that I don't remember seeing posted: My hens all started laying at 22 weeks.

 

[Backyard Hobby]

Another data point for people interested in Svart Hona that I don't remember seeing posted: My hens all started laying at 22 weeks.

Thanks, that's super helpful as I haven't been able to find that information online either.

Does anyone have any knowledge of wooly Svart Honas? I got 2/12 from a shipment from Greenfire Farms. One appears to be a roo and the other a hen, so I may breed them separately when they are old enough to experiment

 

[gapey]

At least one of my five svart hona kids is a boy. This one was obvious at about 2 weeks old. He's now 4 weeks old and got his first look at the great outdoors.

 

[Zoomie]

I am surprised at being able to post in this thread. I just got 6 Svart Hona chicks, much to my complete astonishment.

(Won them in an auction. No one bid against me. Whoa.)

Qiuite exciting to me. I used to have a flock of bantams and they did fine for me as far as production and egg size. As I understand it, Svart Honas are a little bigger than bantams, and the egg size is bigger as well. I am hoping that they will do well at foraging and being wary of predators, just as the bantams were. One thing in my favor: my fences are all quite high and also close together, at least 6' high in small pens, and that makes it difficult for hawks to swoop in. I plan to invest in an automatic coop door (I'll look for one that runs on solar but the coop is RIGHT NEXT to the house so I can also run a power line to it) so they will be safe at night. My coop is the Fort Knox of chicken coops. Originally, it was a cattle chute, built of steel pipe. We poured cement etc. and built a coop that not even a mouse, or a BEAR, can get into, once the door is shut. My main predators are at night: mainly, raccoons. Who I hate with a passion, LOL! Die, raccoon, die!!!

I hope they will prove to be a nice quiet relatively tame chicken who will provide me with eggs as well as chicks. The nice thing is that if a chick has some white on it - well, it will taste great. It is actually nice to have a breed where culling is kind of straight forward... although, yes, you do have to let them grow out to see how they do, but still!

 

[Backyard Hobby]

I am surprised at being able to post in this thread. I just got 6 Svart Hona chicks, much to my complete astonishment.

(Won them in an auction. No one bid against me. Whoa.)

Qiuite exciting to me. I used to have a flock of bantams and they did fine for me as far as production and egg size. As I understand it, Svart Honas are a little bigger than bantams, and the egg size is bigger as well. I am hoping that they will do well at foraging and being wary of predators, just as the bantams were. One thing in my favor: my fences are all quite high and also close together, at least 6' high in small pens, and that makes it difficult for hawks to swoop in. I plan to invest in an automatic coop door (I'll look for one that runs on solar but the coop is RIGHT NEXT to the house so I can also run a power line to it) so they will be safe at night. My coop is the Fort Knox of chicken coops. Originally, it was a cattle chute, built of steel pipe. We poured cement etc. and built a coop that not even a mouse, or a BEAR, can get into, once the door is shut. My main predators are at night: mainly, raccoons. Who I hate with a passion, LOL! Die, raccoon, die!!!

I hope they will prove to be a nice quiet relatively tame chicken who will provide me with eggs as well as chicks. The nice thing is that if a chick has some white on it - well, it will taste great. It is actually nice to have a breed where culling is kind of straight forward... although, yes, you do have to let them grow out to see how they do, but still!

Congrats on the chicks! I'm sure you'll be pleased with them, my Svart Hona's are at 4 months old now and are super friendly and personable. I can't speak for how well they fare against predators, as even when they free range during the day, they are in the fenced in back yard with 2 German Shepherds who love raccoons, cats, and any other critter who gets in the yard. Did you win them in a local auction, or online?

 

[Zoomie]

@Backyard Hobby Thank you, I won them in an online auction. It will be a while before they can even go out to the coop of course, let alone be allowed to roam. I have thought about putting netting over the first pen they can access... that has very good fencing, the "no climb" horse wire with 2" X 4" spacing, and it's 6' high and on steel pipe. I've got time to think about it, and get nervous about it, lol, but I hope it will work out OK. Chickens have lived there before and done well. I think the big thing will be an automatic coop door. I've never had one before but those things really look awesome.

 

[Backyard Hobby]

@Zoomie Sounds great, did you win them off rba?