Swedish Flower Hens
The Swedish Flower Hen emerged as a landrace several hundred years ago, the product of a now forgotten mix of primitive breeds that were brought to Sweden by settlers and conquerors. As a landrace, this breed was not intentionally created by a breeder carefully selecting birds as part of a structured breeding program. Rather, this breed was created through natural selection and random pairings as the breed adapted to the climate and conditions of the Sydskanska Plain in southern Sweden. Similarly to how Finnsheep developed in their native land. Therefore this breed is quite winter hardy, although sometimes the tips freeze on a roosters comb, in excessively extreme cold temperatures.
As a landrace breed, they do not have a specific color or pattern of their feathers other than they are always mottled. "Mottled" means they have a white tip on each feather. this white tip is what is referred to, in this breed, as the flower. Which often become larger as a bird matures, and molts. the can also come with, or without, a crest of feathers that protrude from the top of the head.
The breed is quite active and a fantastic free range forager, and the roosters are very watchful for predators. Perhaps even more so than other breeds. But they tend to be very outgoing and curious of human activity and are particularly clever. which in my experience makes them more effective at evading predators, and particularly endearing to me.
They are also very prolific layers of large eggs and typically lay through the winter months.
this breed does not do well kept confined to a small coop, in my experience will result to picking feathers of coop mates.
This breed has been in this country for less than 20 years and is still quite rare.
The rooster above is a blue based millefleur, rather than black based like the hens at the top of the page. He is also what is often referred to as Sno, which in this breed means they have a gold dilution of the reddish base color to a straw gold, rather than the darker red normally seen on a rooster. the hen above is a splash based millefleur. where the markings on the feather that might otherwise be blue or black, as seen in the other birds, is white. Which makes the mottling appear bigger.
The hens pictured below are called blue or black mottled. Because the gold is nearly non existent, except occasionally on the hackles (neck feathers).
