Stephen's 2013 Alohas

Yesterday, I paid an visit to Stephen, who has been raising a huge group of about 60 chicks that I hatched for him, back in May and early June.

This hen has the perfect (excessive) amount of white for an Aloha.
There is no mistaking this hen for a Speckled Sussex.

We have done two rounds of culling previous to this, mostly to remove excess roosters and anything that was obviously too small, or not spotted enough.  The previous batch of culls were eagerly bought up locally, and this final culling has many chickens that two years ago would have been the best I had bred!  But we've made tremendous progress this year, thanks in large part to Stephen and his efforts to set up breeder pens and raise groups of chicks to adulthood.

Yellow legs!  Some with good size and body type.

The biggest leap forward this year, has been in the addition of yellow legs.  Now that I better understand the gene (it is recessive) we've better paired the pens and the result was a much higher percentage of yellow legged chicks!  The first season we successfully focused on improving comb type, and now leg color is working itself out.

Blurry pic showing more yellow legs.

Unfortunately, less progress was made this year in improving size.  While the current generation has the added Sussex and Swedish (plus just a dash of NHR and Buff Rock) that has improved heft and shape on a lot of hens, there are still a lot of very colorful but too-small hens.  

I adore the gold spotting, tons of white on this hen.
She's tiny but so beautiful.

I think we have finally found the ingredients that will get us over that hump next year, provided they aren't met by unforeseen tragedy.  Much of the size issue in past years, has been fighting natural selection, as the lighter gamey type of chickens seem to be tougher, more disease resistant, and less prone to heat stroke.  So naturally, in times of stress, (our 115 degree days) the larger and heavier chickens pass first.  (Perhaps their mass produces more body heat?)

Hen in foreground has great color, but poor type.
Rooster in background has size, but looks Sussex.
However, he did inherit the yellow legs!  

Speaking of natural selection, Stephen and I were busy catching every last rooster and hen in the large coop.  When we were totally done, he noticed something I'd completely missed!  Hidden atop some stacked cages, were two crafty hens.  They flew up there when we first started catching all the other chickens, and had stayed up there the entire time.

We laughed and decided that, being as if we had been coyotes or dogs, those would have been the ONLY two survivors in the entire coop, that they probably deserved to stay.  Neither was that remarkable in appearance, they pretty much looked like Speckled Sussex.  However, they get bonus points for being the smartest chickens in the coop.  

These hens are about 2-6 weeks from laying.  We will sort them out and set up new breeder pens for 2014.  The real exiting stuff, however, is the new additions, to try and finally fix the size issue, which are the subject of my next Blog post.

I took a ton of photos of the many gorgeous chickens from Stephen's stock.  Chicks should be hatching all of Spring 2014 from this group plus my own pens.

Sometimes, I get the feeling, I take entirely too many photos of the Alohas. But I just love how all the patterns and colors on their feathers and different.  The colors and different amounts of white fascinate me!

By far the most spotty rooster, we kept him for color despite the pink legs.

These hens show the variance in body type that has not yet been worked out.
The "round" shape of the hen on the left will be favored over the lighter build.

Neon yellow legs!!!

Adorable round, fluffy caramel-colored spotty hen.

So many pretty spots

But, even the cull pen this time around, looks beautiful.  I think the real sign of progress is not only how pretty our keepers are, but the improvement in color and quality of our culls.  

Below are some of the "culls" who will be sold as pets and laying hens:

Trio of lovely small hens.

These two hens look just like miniature Speckled Sussex.

These hens would have been in the breeding pen last year.

Fall Breeder Pen #2

Since I'm on a roll, I'm going to go ahead and cover the other breeder pen that I'm setting up right now.  I still need to move a few hens around, but at least I can describe what the goals are.

First, the rooster.  I believe he is 3/4 Swedish Flower.  He looks very much like a pure Swedish, as you can see.  So why do I not think he's pure?

A few reasons, one, he's a bit smaller than his pure Swedish father, though just barely.  He still towers over the old-style tiny Aloha hens.

Mostly, I don't think he's pure Swedish, because of how he looked as a chick.  Today he shows little mottling, which is a huge letdown.  But there is something else going on there, because as a chick, he showed MORE WHITE than about anything I'd ever seen!  Can you believe THIS is how he looked as a baby?

No, not kidding.  Same chick.

Still the same chick.  About 4-6 weeks later.

My rooster crop this year was kind of a bust, I had only one really jump out at me, who had great color and reasonable size, and he's in pen #1 right now.  So this guy, being the tallest and clearly carrying something more than the regular Swedish, as I've never had a Swedish show that much white as a baby, is getting a chance.  Sometimes, hidden recessive traits only show in later generations.  Let's see what happens!

Well, he is tall at least.  Half Sussex hen beside him.  She's pretty big.

  We'll at least use him until I see how the 8 or so roosters that Stephen is raising turn out.  LOL.  I may change my mind after that!  Since those won't be ready until January, however, this guy is what we've got to work with in the meantime.

He looked very Aloha as a chick, but now that he's grown, I would say he would easily pass for a pure Swedish Flower rooster.  I had some half-Aloha, half Swedish hens in with a pure Swedish rooster last year, so it is very possible that this fellow is the result.  I am hoping that the little bit of 25% Aloha blood will pop out some new colors in his babies, when crossed back to the teeny little colorful hens in the pen with him.  Worth a shot.

Here are some of the ridiculously small but vividly colored Aloha hens in with him:

Love this hen's color.  Wish she had the size to go with it.

Another view of her:

So colorful.  So ridiculously small.

That's one of the smaller hens that I bred, to replace the "old style" Aloha hens that are getting a bit old now.  Here's some of my older but gorgeous hens that are still being used:

I have kept these colorful little hens, despite their off colored legs and small size, because they are tough heat tolerant, disease resistant survivors with gorgeous colors.  But they are 2+ years now, so I have to think about breeding replacements.  Even small sized replacements.  Just to keep the pretty color.  I have noticed these older hens don't lay as prolifically as they used to!

Here's another NEW hen that is the same (tiny) size as the original Alohas,  At least we are getting hens with yellow legs now!

Some of the hens are mid-size.  They are in-between the tiny first generation, but not as big as the half Swedish and half Sussex crosses.  These hens were created by crossing a NHR to a Vanilla daughter, and taking the son from that cross, and putting him with little Aloha hens.  So they are about 3/4 Aloha and 1/4 NHR.  The improved size does carry through, to some degree.  I wonder what they will produce with this (mostly Swedish) rooster?

I have three of these "in between" hens that are mostly Aloha.  I also have a few ???? hens that I'm not sure of the pedigree.  Not as white as the little Alohas, not as big as the half Swedish.  In other words, I have no idea which cross made these hens:

Sussex?  Swedish?  New Hamshire?  Buff Rock? It could be any or all of these breeds, plus a healthy dose of Aloha.  Your guess is as good as mine!  They aren't quite as tiny as the smallest hens, but not nearly as big as the half Swedish or half Sussex.

One half Sussex is particularly stunning:

Current picture

Of all the hens, her chicks could be the ones to watch from this cross.  She is Sussex/Aloha with no Swedish.  I know that because I've had her since before I got the Swedish Flower Hens.  Here she is from a while back - last year I think.

Older photo of same hen.

The fact that she is still here, and as you can see in the first photo taken today, still very healthy despite the grueling summer temps, is really encouraging.

Right now, there are just too many hens in there in general, until I get the pen sorted and some of the other hens shuffled to other areas, and maybe cull a few more.  However, this is kind of the general program for this breeder pen, cross the big rooster with the small and really colorful hens.

Some of my oldest little Aloha hens! 

Aloha "Type"

I keep trying to introduce bigger chickens to my breeding project, but no matter what I do, they tend to (eventually) revert back to the original Aloha type!  I've referred back to the "foundation Aloha" or "old-blood Aloha" in Blog posts, and suddenly, I realize that nobody knows what I'm talking about.  To talk about any kind of "foundation" to a breed is hysterical, considering this project is only a few years old!  How much "foundation" can a breed have in only five years?

Keep in mind I use that term very tongue-in-cheek, almost sarcastically.  But, there is a kind of special look to this very, very young project I've been working on.

What is the "Aloha" type, anyway?

Okay, here's my first Aloha rooster, Vanilla, whose blood runs through every last chicken that carries even a trace of "Aloha".  He is, basically, *the* original Aloha chicken.  Vanilla's lineage:  Half known stuff, half mystery hen.

His mom was this mystery hen found in a neighbor's yard.  A tiny hen with crazy colors.  She is the unique part of this entire project, and was something totally different, colored in a way I'd never seen on any other chicken.  His dad, half Exchequer Leghorn and half Sussex, gave him better size and type.  But as you can see, he looked NOTHING like either an Exchequer or a Sussex!

This was Vanilla:

Vanilla, the foundation Aloha.

Vanilla had many sons, and grandsons.  One of them was "Jorge's Roo" who was small but really colorful.

Jorge's Roo

Two of Vanilla's sons.

Vanilla also had a full brother, Patch, who was used for breeding, for several years at a friend's house across town.  Later, I brought one of Patch's daughters back into the flock.  There should be other of his descendants at my friend's house.

Vanilla's full brother, Patchwork.

The upright body, long flowing tail, proud chest, bright colors, all of these traits continue to carry on years later.  Here are photos of many other Aloha roosters, here and in other homes:

  

Many different roosters are shown above, and those are just the ones I remembered to get photos of.  Do you see a pattern?  A common body style?  Change the colors, but the overall "look" appears again and again each generation. It's this look or style that I'm trying to enlarge, and get to full size.

One of the questions as to what makes a breed a breed, is can it replicate itself even through multiple generations?  Here are the great-great-great (whatever number of generations later) distant relatives of Vanilla.  These boys are in my backyard right now.  The first, a ridiculously tiny Aloha rooster, covered in white feathering:

And his slightly larger, and slightly less colorful hatch-mate.

I believe that Alohas have actual potential as a new breed.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but they do form a general body type that goes beyond just color.  Unfortunately, small size also seems to be an Aloha trait.  I wish I could get this type, and gorgeous colors, on a larger package!

This pen of culled roosters from Stephen's shows similar body type.
Even without spots.

The latest Aloha "old school" or what I've been calling "foundation Aloha" are these two super-small but adorable little roosters that are currently in my breeder pen.  I was going to cull them, but for now, I'm refraining.  They are mostly kept off the ladies, by the larger more dominant Swedish-bred rooster.  Maybe they could be of use with the right ladies?  I may pen them with select hens next Spring.  In particular, they would go well with the half-Swedish and pure NHR hens, to start a fresher Aloha bloodline. 

Yes, they are ridiculously small, but very cute.