Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[TNBEARCHICK]

Yes very cool. I love chicken antiques.

 

[Leahs Mom]

LOL - I agree with you! While I do not have "vintage scale", I do have a digital kitchen scale that I sue all the time. It works great to classify eggs per the USDA weight standards. But what I really use it for the most is weigh eggs during the incubation process. When I weigh incubating eggs, I use the gram scale. It is much easier to discern weight loss in grams and understand the implications than the roughness of tenths of ounces.

Good point if you're incubating a lot!

 

[jmarie]

whhooo just got caught up on this thread I have been offline for a while...

I have a question, I had 6 SFH eggs under a broody (who is doing a terrific job) but today when I checked on her one of the eggs was open at day 18, with a not quite done dead chick, do you think broody mama somehow crushed it? I noticed the shell kicked out of the nest first and the inside still had lots of blood vessels...just kind of strange. I think it was the egg that had more light in it on day 14. I had five that looked great on candling and 1 that had light spots on both sides.

I hatched eggs from the same source in spring and I did have one egg that hatched on day 20

 

[PugBug]

Here is a better pic of them sorry for the quality. But isn't the black one awesome.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the black!!! I'm glad you found a rescue for him. The one on top looks like one of mine

 

[PugBug]

Hi. I am in Livingston, Texas. I don't know how far I am from you but I am going to have a couple or more black based cockerels. I have some pretty young babies but also have one that was born in June or July. This older one is not crested. The younger black chicks that I would be willing to part with are probably going to be crested. PM if you want to talk about them more.

I am waiting on pics from a lady in GA that has a couple of 5 month olds, if those don't work out I'll get in touch with you about your non crested one. Can you post pics of him? And would you be willing to ship if I were to get him?

 

[TxFlowers]

I am waiting on pics from a lady in GA that has a couple of 5 month olds, if those don't work out I'll get in touch with you about your non crested one. Can you post pics of him? And would you be willing to ship if I were to get him?

Hi. Here is his picture. Born July 15th. He has been vaccinated for Marek's and has been fed 20% protein feed along with fermented feed. As for shipping, I would be open to it but would need to find out if I need NPIP certification. In searching here on BYC I understand I do not need the NPIP. Can someone confirm this?

 

[SunnySkies]

I have been off for a few days, prepping to slaughter birds, which took all day Friday. What a job, but it was significantly sped up by having a plucker and a team of people.

Someone once asked about how big the SFH carcasses are, but I didn't have a firm number to answer with. I butchered a 6-7 month old roo (Wasp, mean to the end) Friday. He processed out to 3.2 lbs. Not a lot of meat, especially when compared to the FR/Rosambros we were processing at the same time, which averaged 6.8 lbs (there were halves of birds we vac packed that were the same weight as Wasp was in his entirety, with many bigger...there was one 10 lb bird).

SFH are NOT roasting birds. Don't butcher one thinking you will be frying it up either. To be a decent size, they are older and therefore tough, but butcher younger and they are just too skinny. But soup, or cooked and pulled, or chicken a la king, served over biscuits, or maybe coq a vin, works just fine for them.

After having butchered several breeds now, I'd use heritage breeds for the above, like SFH, and raise FR for fryers and roasters myself.

My SFH flock is now in a coop by themselves. In a few weeks, I'll save eggs and hatch some. I have a handful now in the bator (not sure they are developing, but it's only been 3 days), but I am marking them as possible crossbred birds and not breeding them; one of my hens was hanging out with a mutt roo, and while he is handsome, that isn't acceptable.

 

[Kyzmette]

I was given this gorgeous fellow to rehome. He's so beautiful and so sweet. Could somebody verify for me that he's a roo? She wasn't 100% positive, but almost.

 

[HaplessRunner]

I was given this gorgeous fellow to rehome. He's so beautiful and so sweet. Could somebody verify for me that he's a roo? She wasn't 100% positive, but almost.

That young bird is definitely a cockerel. Enjoy!

 

[HaplessRunner]

I have been off for a few days, prepping to slaughter birds, which took all day Friday. What a job, but it was significantly sped up by having a plucker and a team of people.

Someone once asked about how big the SFH carcasses are, but I didn't have a firm number to answer with. I butchered a 6-7 month old roo (Wasp, mean to the end) Friday. He processed out to 3.2 lbs. Not a lot of meat, especially when compared to the FR/Rosambros we were processing at the same time, which averaged 6.8 lbs (there were halves of birds we vac packed that were the same weight as Wasp was in his entirety, with many bigger...there was one 10 lb bird).

SFH are NOT roasting birds. Don't butcher one thinking you will be frying it up either. To be a decent size, they are older and therefore tough, but butcher younger and they are just too skinny. But soup, or cooked and pulled, or chicken a la king, served over biscuits, or maybe coq a vin, works just fine for them.

After having butchered several breeds now, I'd use heritage breeds for the above, like SFH, and raise FR for fryers and roasters myself.

My SFH flock is now in a coop by themselves. In a few weeks, I'll save eggs and hatch some. I have a handful now in the bator (not sure they are developing, but it's only been 3 days), but I am marking them as possible crossbred birds and not breeding them; one of my hens was hanging out with a mutt roo, and while he is handsome, that isn't acceptable.

This is good information. I have been wondering whether SFH could really serve as dual purpose birds. It appears that you would need to cross breed them with other breeds or caponize them if your intent is to obtain a meat producing bird. The fact that they are slow maturing mitigates against meat bird usage as well.