Looking forward to seeing this 7 week old Iowa Blue cockerel chick grow out, maybe in a few months he will look like his father but with a better comb. :)
Nice looking chicks Candy, I plan to concentrate my attention on breeding more for the "pheasant striped chicks & more solid chestnut colored chicks" in the future. One of my goals in the future is to start getting more of a 50/50 split of the two color pattern chicks above. I will be keeping...
"The Iowa Blue was developed in the early 1900's near Decorah, Iowa. A folk legend tells the story of a white Plymouth Rock hen emerging from under a building with a clutch of chicks colored solid chestnut to striped. Old-timers tell the tale that the chicks were sired by a pheasant."
If...
Hi Kari, I could be wrong but going on the wing feathers growth this chick looks to be a female. Very curious to see how she feathers out. I also have one that looks to be a male with no hint of brown in it's chick down. He is mostly a dark smokey color at this time.
A few pictures of my first Iowa Blue chicks that I pulled out of the incubator earlier today! It is a small hatch but more Iowa Blue eggs will be going into the incubator tonight. :)
In the picture above the darker chick in front to the left is from my darker hen with the red leg band, the...
Hi Candy, I plan to keep a great amount of record keeping on these Iowa Blue chicks also. I am very much looking forward to getting started into this very interesting breeding of the Iowa Blues! :)
Thank you so much Wappoke for the help as I very much appreciate it. I will follow your breeding plan & only collect eggs from the duller/darker hen first, then only collect eggs from the more defined pencilled/lighter hen later. I very much looking forward to receiving your breeding advice in...
Thank you Wappoke for the information. I got these Iowa Blues around 3 weeks ago so unfortunately I don't know what the chicken down color of them was at hatching. The male looks to have more of a straight barring pattern with a breast that is becoming more black with white spangles. I will be...
Yes I also take out as many predators as possible but between the predator problems lately & a few that I decided to send to another home I still have a trio of the Iowa Blue that I am very much looking forward to hatching eggs from. :)
After reading your opinion on the two pullets from Sand Hill I decided to keep them but they would not go into the chicken house at night as they preferred to sleep in the trees at night & unfortunately I haven't seen neither of the two going on a week now. I keep hoping they will show up but I...