Wild Flowers
A beautiful Flower! An array of flowery birds. The name derives from the old Scanian word "bloomed", which comes from the fact that each feather has a white spot at the tip.
The Swedish Flower Hen, Swedish: Skånsk Blommehöna, is an endangered traditional Swedish breed of domestic chickenThis is the largest of Swedish landraces. It was relatively unknown outside of its’ native land of Sweden until 2010 when a few were imported to the US. Even in its’ own country, it was virtually unknown until the 1980s when its’ plight came to the attention of Swedish preservationists as it was teetering on the brink of extinction. The Swedish Flower hen has the distinction of being a landrace chicken. Landrace birds were not ‘engineered’ by mankind but rather adapted naturally to the environment in which they lived. The weak did not survive.
The Swedish Flower Hen evolved to become very adept at survival in the sometimes harsh climate of southern Sweden and became the traditional farm hen of that region. Although its origins can only be guessed at, it is likely that seafarers’ and settlers brought chickens to remote settlements in trade for other things and also as a food source. It has been written about at least 300 years ago in various documents from that period. They would have contributed eggs and meat to the farmer and the feathers were used to fill comforters, it’s unlikely that they were cared for as livestock. They would have fended for themselves and did a fine job of it too. As with many older breeds, the rise of the industrial hen almost saw the extinction of this lovely, hardy bird. By the 1970s’ very few were left in Sweden. A few isolated flocks were found and a restoration and breeding plan was put into place by the Swedish Genetic Project. The object of the Project is to raise the awareness and numbers of this endangered species and to preserve their status as a heritage hen.
The body shape is round and robust with a strong and wide chest. Bone and beak color varies between skin color, yellow or black spot. The comb shape is simple and the comb is usually medium-sized. The bay color is characterized by a wild-colored, black, gray, or light yellow base color. Brown varieties have a black band on the feathers between the base color and the white tops. The base colors can range from black, blue, yellow and reds. The feather pattern is mille fleur (thousand flowers), the feathers are white tipped. The combinations are many and varied – black/white; white/red and a pattern similar to the Speckled Sussex hen. The rarest coloration pattern is called ‘Snow Leopard’. Some of the white tips are replaced by black tips giving an overall picture of gold/white/black markings named after the rare Snow Leopard. The skin can be yellow or black mottled in color, with legs being clean and light tan in color. Chicks’ legs can be a pink or grey color.The Swedish Flower hen has never been bred to any written ‘standard’ therefore there is no standard for this chicken as yet.
This dual purpose landrace chicken can hatch crested and non crested. In Sweden the swedish flower breeders tend to breed for non crested and the crested have become quite rare. Breezy Bird Farms maintains both crested and non crested birds.
Hens lay light beige to creamy tan colored eggs. Eggs are medium in size.
Beautiful round and robust birds that are a great addition to any flock. Weight for hens ranges from 4-5 lbs and cocks 5-7 lbs.
Calm quiet birds. It is not common for the hens to go broody. Hens like to pile up and lay together. They lay well in the nest boxes and don't need much coaching if any on where to lay the eggs.
When pullets begin to lay, their eggs can be quite small but will increase in size as they age. They typically will lay 150-200 eggs per year.