The Svart Hona (Swedish Black Hen) Thread!

[birds4kids]

My broody silkie is sitting a little too tight concerned for her health, can't see any evidence she has left the nest since I put the Svart Hona eggs under her Tuesday.

When she was in the regular coop with the other girls she would at least get up and eat if I sprinkled scratch or table scraps.

 

[howesmr]

Quote:
You will both loves these birds. They are very friendly. We have 9 about 2 months old. I was in the run with them yesterday and just squatted down for awhile and they come up and visit and pecks at my toes, I was in flip flops and some would pop up on my thighs. At one point i had three up there just hanging out. They mostly let you pet them. My wife will sit in there and put on on her lap and pets it and then doesn't even need to hold it for it to stay and if she stops it usually stays for awhile. Others will pop up and visit. We have 5 female and 4 males though one male is so much smaller, we call him nugget. We ended up put him in with other chicks that hatched when they were 3-4 days old and her was 3 weeks old. And now they are 4 weeks old and most are bigger than him.

 

[Kyanite]

Joker with 2 roosters about a year old

Oh my, what a handsome trio. I have a wonderful dog who likes to sunbathe with her chooks. She's a pit-mastiff mix. I can even bring her right into the pen with the meat chicks. They run all over her and she's so gentle with them.

Back to Svarts... I'm curious about chicks with faults like a white wing feather. I know in some breeds, like BCM is not uncommon for a chick to have a white wing feather that it later loses when molting to adult plumage. Does this happen with the Svart Hona? Would you still consider the bird faulted and not breed it even if its adult plumage came in all black?

 

[campingshaws]

We dyed a dozen hona eggs!

 

[birdman55]

If it don't hatch dark. Don't use for breeding. Raise it mark it.... freezer camp

 

[birdman55]

So we have a lot to discuss.
Flock start size, fibro traits, black dots on eggs, which fibro is better. So let's gets started

Let's start off with the tray above which are svart Hona fresh yesterday off the press so to speak. You notice white wing tips this is no good. Full right away to save u money and time unless u are keeping for a free range bird or for freezer camp. Normally they will have white in the feet. Another reason to cull.

The above container of many is svart honas and the two are ayam cemani. I started with roughly even numbers between the Hmong, svart honas, and the ayam cemani. With that being said u can see in the pic below as well Hmong chickens and bottom container is svart honas
So the last container is svarts. These were hatched out the same day. Svart honas are the best productive. Some have grayish to deep purple fibro traits while others have a green hue to them. Hens are smaller. Roosters take a bit to fully mature. Then the Hmong chicken. Mid production, much larger hens/roosters then all the fibros. Color to the males (paylay) and none to hens should. Combs are different then those of sh/ac. Dark grayish to grey. Lastly comes the ayam cemani in all aspects of chickens in general. Low egg production, small birds, seems to not grow as fast as other fibro types. The only bird that dies in my brooders bc they are week. Fibro traits are generally pretty dark but not black u should have very few with defects compared to the other fibro birds.

Freshly transferred into brooder

This gets me on my discussion of fibro traits and black spots. U can see the eggs from that batch and hardly any spots now. I have been aggressive about cleaning. Seems more and more less have spots now. Starting to lean toward the mold theory. I have offered to do free things for the university with no response. Next batch I'm just gunna send some eggs in and see. That's all. Be sure to keep up with my forum a lot of new things on there. Also next subject I will be talking about is breed selection and what u should do compared to what most people are doing. See you soon.

 

[terresav]

My svart hona rooster is a complete jerk. I'm going to end up sending him to freezer camp. He is constantly sneaking up on me,(trying to anyways), and I raised him from a 2 day old chick along with a gorgeous and very sweet hen. I have a total of 5 hens and him, but I can't take his attitude anymore. He isn't perfect by his waddles,everything else is black as night,but mulberry waddles. I love his comb, looks like old black leather. I'm sick of the flogging tho.

 

[HonaHelp]

A breeder who participates in the Swedish gene bank shared this information:
"As a participant in the gene bank, you may not select for exterior or color. White, red (mullberry) and blue combs and earflaps are ok, red legs occurs and even white animals. ...But the focus should be on the pure breed and healthy animals."

 

[Kyanite]

[COLOR=1D2129]A breeder who participates in the Swedish gene bank shared this information:[/COLOR][COLOR=1D2129]
[/COLOR][COLOR=1D2129]"As a participant in the gene bank, you may not select for exterior or color. White, red (mullberry) and blue combs and earflaps are ok, red legs occurs and even white animals. ...But the focus should be on the pure breed and healthy animals."[/COLOR]

Yes, I've been reading through several Swedish webpages and this is what I've found too. Breeding all for specific characteristics is forbidden in landraces in their gene bank. I'm interested in preserving the birds to their original standard, not breeding to an American ideal or personal preference. This is my interest in all landraces.

 

[chick18]

Hi guys, This is the translation I have:
SWEDISH BLACK STANDARD
(my translation)
SWEDISH BLACK FOWL (SVENSK SVARTHÖNA)
An old farmyard breed from Sweden's northwest coast.

Type and Temperament: A small primitive, hardy and vigorous country fowl with calm temperament. Excellent forager. Not a prolific egg layer, but a good broody breed. It is hoped to preserve them as a pure rural Swedish breed.

COCK
Carriage: Proud, tall stance. Neck: Short and sturdy with rich feathering.
Back: Medium-long, slightly concave, well developed saddle feathering, smooth transition to the tail. Shoulders: Rounded, not flat. Wings: Medium size, well developed, strong, pointing slightly downward. Tail: Well developed and carried quite high in a curved arc – sickles not entirely covering the straight tail feathers. Breast: Broad, well developed, carried relatively high. Abdomen: Rather broad. Head: of medium size. Face: Black to dark purple, smooth and non-feathered. Comb: Medium to large sized firm single comb with 5-6 well-defined spikes. Black to dark purple. It is acceptable for a large comb to fall over slightly, but it should not obscure the view. Wattles: Medium sized, black to dark purple. Ear Lobes: Rather small oval, blue-grey or black. Blue-grey is preferred. Eyes: Large, dark brown. Beak: Large and black
Thighs: Medium length with strong muscle. Legs: Medium length, non feathered, set wide apart, slightly bent at hocks. Black or slate grey. Toes: Four, set well apart, black to horn coloured nails. Skin: Black. Plumage: quite tight to body, with medium wide feather.


HEN
As the cock with the usual sexual differences.
Well-developed rear, high tail carriage - 45 degrees above the horizontal. Acceptable for laying hen or older hen to have lighter leg colour.

COLOUR
Both sexes - black with green sheen.