Autosexing & Breeder Use

True autosexing is different from a one-generation sex-link cross. In a correctly maintained autosexing line, male and female chicks show repeatable differences in down color or pattern at hatch generation after generation. That makes chick pattern itself a trait worth selecting for.

Breeder Interest

Our interest in the Silver 55 Flowery Hen centers on the same practical trait that makes the breed special: repeatable day-old sex distinction. We select with attention to chick pattern, adult appearance and breeding consistency.

Breed & Line Notes

The 55 Flowery is one of the quality White Egg Layers you will ever own. They lay some of the largest eggs I have ever seen. They are descendants of old fashioned leghorn varieties but aren't as flighty and nervous as todays modern commercial leghorns.

They are great foragers and turn little feed into huge eggs. In many countries they are used for their commercial egg market. Baby chicks can be sexed by anyone at any age.

They are a popular choice for backyard flocks because of their egg laying abilities and hardiness as well as their autosexing gene which will allow small farms to keep the pullet chicks and a male or two just to keep them around the farm, and to sell the surplus. We keep our Golds and Our Silvers separately. My personal favorite is the silver variety.

I had to also have Golds too. Fiftyfive Flowery is the first Swedish breed of chicken. It appeared in 1958 after selection in a panmixi strain (panmixi = random crossing) which had 2/3 white leghorn (VL) and 1/3 Brown Leghorn (BL) in the pedigree.

Fiftyfive, which means fifty-five, symbolizes the year (1955) when the first crossing was carried out, which led to the rise of the breed. Flowery means floral and refers to the white-spotted drawing of the hens (the roosters miss this completely). Today's FF is grown almost exclusively in silver, though in the beginning Fiftyfive Flowery was only in gold.

In a breed like the Fiftyfive Flowery, silver gives almost unlimited possibilities for sex-crossing "sex-linked" or "autosexing" type. A draw that Martin wrote about the work with the Swedish breeding work being or not to be. Fiftyfive Flowery is available in silver and is therefore a typical hen line.

What to Expect From Live Birds

Breed descriptions are a guide to the line, not a promise that every individual will mature identically. Egg production, mature size, temperament, color and breeding performance are influenced by genetics, age, season, nutrition and management.