Swedish Flower Hens
a lovely addition to
our animal friends
Last year, Marek discovered and fell in love with Swedish Black Chickens, also known as Svart Honas, so I set about trying to find a few.
I contacted one breeder, only to discover that they were charging $99 for a single chick, which just didn't compute in my thrifty Scottish soul. Maybe for an adult breeding pair; but NOT for one chick of unknown gender.
The lowest price I found among breeders was $49 per unsexed chick, which I frankly didn't want to pay, but was beginning to think I would have to.
Than last spring, I lucked out and saw a listing for a breeding pair of Svart honas for $35, about 45 minutes from our home, so I immediately called the woman to see if that was accurate.
Alas, the price was accurate, but she had just sold her last breeding pair that morning, and all she had left was three young roosters, which she was willing to part with for a mere $5 each.
I asked Marek if he wanted one: No. He wanted all three.
What sets Svart honas apart from other chickens is that they are fibromelanistic, a trait they share with the Indonesian chicken breed Ayam Cemani, which means that not only are their feathers black, but so is their skin, their flesh, their organs, their tongues . . . every part of a Svart hona, of both genders, is jet black.
And they are a landrace breed, which means that rather than having been purposely bred by humans for certain desirable traits, they instead came about as a natural interbreeding of whatever chicken varieties were kept in the part of Sweden where they developed, with little or no human intervention.
Landrace chickens tend to forage and fly well, to be predator savvy, to raise their own young successfully, and in short to be quite economical to raise, as they are largely self-sufficient, and their foraging will greatly reduce the cost of their food bill.
While I was speaking with the woman who had the three roosters, she mentioned that she also raised a second Swedish landrace breed; Swedish Flower Chickens, so called because the colorful and mottled appearance of their feathers resembles a field of flowers, and gives them excellent camouflage against predators.
And, because they developed as a breed in the absence of human intervention, they have a great deal of genetic diversity, which results in an amazing array of colors and patterns. And she did have one last breeding pair of Swedish Flower Chickens at the same price.
So the following day, we set off for her place, pet crates at hand, and promptly fell in love with some of the other animals at her place, including her two Great Pyrenees dogs, and her gorgeous Sebastopol geese.
And we will definitely wind up with some Sebastopol geese; likely by next spring. But we have to rebuild our large enclosure first.
But in the meanwhile, we picked up our three Svart Hona roosters, and our pair of Swedish Flower Chickens, which I had already completely fallen for, just from her vivid descriptions over the phone.
We returned home at just about dusk, as our chickens and ducks were already roosting for the night, so I simply placed the carrier inside the enclosure, and opened the door, so that come morning our new arrivals could come out and explore their surroundings at their own pace, and introduce themselves to our existing flock.
And, as much as I was expecting some ruffled feathers, literally, things went amazingly smoothly, and by about noon, the new chickens were feeding next to our older birds, and everything was peaceful, with no apparent aggression.
Of course, of the five birds we brought home, four were roosters who had yet to start crowing, so the fireworks were yet to come.
It's getting really late here, so I'll finish this story tomorrow, but it gets a lot better. Take care, everyone, and I love you all.
Life is wonderful, and is getting better, better, and better.
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