Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion - Page 41

Sorry have been away for a while.  Studying for boards (2 weeks away), so haven't had any time.  

On the "cull the brown chicks" thought, though...  one of the things I actually liked about getting into Iowa blues was the whimsical little story of a hen coming out from under a building with chicks that were said to look like they were sired by a pheasant.  Obviously not true, but a cute story nonetheless.  I've heard 2 variants, one story saying the brood looked half pheasant, another variation on the story said the brood was a mix, half resembling a pheasant.

To me, with the split mix of chicks we see, the brown ones actually resemble this description more.

(pheasant chick below)

Not really saying I prefer one over the other, just another side to present before we cull out half the color genes in the breed this early on.  :)

I currently have all black chick Iowa Blues at the moment, but darn those little cocoa chipmunked chicks were cuties. :D

I've only had brown cockerels, but really do like the look of the brown-chicked pullets in the photos.

Question is do you preserve both looks...perhaps breaking them off into two variants to work on, two standards for color, or do you cull out the (for example) brown chicks whole hog and lose that look forever?

Since we're at a make-or-break point in where to go with the breed since we're all in this to bring it back and would like to improve on it, it's really a popularity race on which to make the "true" Iowa blue, or do you call it a draw and give the two variants a name and work the lines separate?

In my personal view (just to put it here since you likely won't see me for another few weeks), I would like to see both looks preserved and each given a color variant name.  Birchen and ?  What officially are the cocoa chicks?  Partridge in the hens?  Penciled?  There is nothing to say we have to make them true to the birchen coloration, they are Iowa Blues.  We need to decide on the look and names if we keep both phenotypes, and work on expanding their numbers to have enough diversity to select from.  We already have a pretty narrow gene pool, would hate to see half the genes go out in the first cut before the breed even gets anywhere.

Not sure where my Storey book is right offhand, will have to look for it, but for grins, here's a painted representation of the Iowa Blue breed from a hatchery website...it escapes me which one at the moment...

In the Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds, the photos and the story are slanted towards the brown chicks.

Incidentally, slightly off topic...the combs in the photos sure look different from the ones I have.

Pics below are full credited to Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds for comparison basis in this discussion.  

Interestingly the Iowa Blues are in the meat section.  We'll have to beef them up if they are to fill that purpose.  Mine are smaller than what I'd call a meat/dual purpose breed.

Oh, and yes, like you I have spent hours trying to trace anything online that would help and everything just repeats the same story almost word for word.  Not much out there.

Think the history of these guys precedes the intarweb.