BLUE ISBARS - Pictures and discussion

[dfdesigns]

I'm so sorry to hear about the low chick viability numbers! I haven't had that issue - yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not a problem... I just stuffed the incubator full of Isbar and Blue Marans eggs last week, so I'll have a test run very soon. Rinda, do you have a backup roo?

I have eaten a few of my excess Isbar boys, and while not a beefy as a Marans they are quite tasty. My favorite part of the breed is how wonderfully friendly and tractable they are... I have NEVER had an active breeding pen where I could add an additional rooster. I've done that in my Isbar pen twice now. The boys are terrific, and the hens are sweet as pie. Everybody is curious and forward. They are easily my favorite breed!

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I'm so sorry to hear about the low chick viability numbers! I haven't had that issue - yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not a problem... I just stuffed the incubator full of Isbar and Blue Marans eggs last week, so I'll have a test run very soon. Rinda, do you have a backup roo?

I have eaten a few of my excess Isbar boys, and while not a beefy as a Marans they are quite tasty. My favorite part of the breed is how wonderfully friendly and tractable they are... I have NEVER had an active breeding pen where I could add an additional rooster. I've done that in my Isbar pen twice now. The boys are terrific, and the hens are sweet as pie. Everybody is curious and forward. They are easily my favorite breed!

Nice to hear!

I had not heard about the E. coli problem. Is this a regional thing or an individual line issue or hit and miss with certain flocks? Just Isbars or any breed? I need to go investigating apparently.

 

[Nomibear]

Is the E. coli problem something that will always be a part of this line? Or does this med heal them of it?

 

[jueboll]

I'm having the worse luck hatching them. Is anyone selling chicks? I'm think I'm going to give up on trying to hatch them myself.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I'm so sorry to hear about the low chick viability numbers! I haven't had that issue - yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not a problem... I just stuffed the incubator full of Isbar and Blue Marans eggs last week, so I'll have a test run very soon. Rinda, do you have a backup roo?

I have eaten a few of my excess Isbar boys, and while not a beefy as a Marans they are quite tasty. My favorite part of the breed is how wonderfully friendly and tractable they are... I have NEVER had an active breeding pen where I could add an additional rooster. I've done that in my Isbar pen twice now. The boys are terrific, and the hens are sweet as pie. Everybody is curious and forward. They are easily my favorite breed!

My backup boy is 3 months old. I ordered a mature cockerel from another farm to use for now- then of course the hens stopped laying!

Nice to hear!

I had not heard about the E. coli problem. Is this a regional thing or an individual line issue or hit and miss with certain flocks? Just Isbars or any breed? I need to go investigating apparently.

Is the E. coli problem something that will always be a part of this line? Or does this med heal them of it?

I am making no claims of what other breeders' losses are caused by. I was tired of losing all of my chicks every single hatch so I took some dead chicks in for testing to the local university (Oklahoma State University) vet testing lab. They concluded the deaths were due to e coli infection of the yolk sac- the e coli was present in the eggs prior to lay. Because I had been controlling everything that *I* could- clean nest boxes, prompt clean egg storage, disinfection of eggs prior to incubation, extra clean incubator and brooders- I do not think the e coli was introduced later than lay. The vets opinion was this had to have come from one of the two places we got our original hatching eggs from, again passed on from the hen to egg. The vet said this strain of e coli is NOT one that you can pick up environmentally or in the soil, which was my question too. So it is very possible that person's line all contains e coli. But I won't name who I think it came from as it is only my suspicion and I don't feel it's fair to slander them without proof. I do know they follow this thread and hoped by posting all of my problem they will check or treat their flock.

The antibiotic treatment should have cured them. I won't know until they start laying again so I can hatch a test batch and raise them up to 6 weeks to see how many I lose.

 

[lawatt]

i have tried hatching isbar eggs twice now, first hatch got one out of 11, second was 2 out of 7 -- but both batches of eggs were shipped, and i am VERY new with the incubator, so doubt that the blame lies with the eggs themselves. am hoping to try once more after the holidays, if I can get eggs... (none of mine are old enough to lay yet)

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

i have tried hatching isbar eggs twice now, first hatch got one out of 11, second was 2 out of 7 -- but both batches of eggs were shipped, and i am VERY new with the incubator, so doubt that the blame lies with the eggs themselves. am hoping to try once more after the holidays, if I can get eggs... (none of mine are old enough to lay yet)

I have my first Isbar eggs and first shipped eggs on lockdown as of today. I got 10 and six are still in the incubator. They are the liveliest chicks in the shell when candling. Mostly I have homebred Marans so it's difficult to see anything with them. I see movement but those Isbars are dancin' in there. I'm with you being new to incubating. I also set 12 Rhodebar eggs but only three are left and I'm not hopeful about any of them hatching.

So it may not be you at all. Shipped eggs are a HUGE risk, but no one near me has Isbars.

 

[DeltaBluezTess]

My backup boy is 3 months old. I ordered a mature cockerel from another farm to use for now- then of course the hens stopped laying!




I am making no claims of what other breeders' losses are caused by. I was tired of losing all of my chicks every single hatch so I took some dead chicks in for testing to the local university (Oklahoma State University) vet testing lab. They concluded the deaths were due to e coli infection of the yolk sac- the e coli was present in the eggs prior to lay. Because I had been controlling everything that *I* could- clean nest boxes, prompt clean egg storage, disinfection of eggs prior to incubation, extra clean incubator and brooders- I do not think the e coli was introduced later than lay. The vets opinion was this had to have come from one of the two places we got our original hatching eggs from, again passed on from the hen to egg. The vet said this strain of e coli is NOT one that you can pick up environmentally or in the soil, which was my question too. So it is very possible that person's line all contains e coli. But I won't name who I think it came from as it is only my suspicion and I don't feel it's fair to slander them without proof. I do know they follow this thread and hoped by posting all of my problem they will check or treat their flock.

The antibiotic treatment should have cured them. I won't know until they start laying again so I can hatch a test batch and raise them up to 6 weeks to see how many I lose.

what antibiotics did you and treatment? If the people who got the eggs from, if they did the treatment, would it fix the issue?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I first tried TetroxyHCA, which only worked as long as I kept them on it- it wasn't strong enough to kill the bacteria just suppress it. When I stopped treating I went right back to losing all the chicks. The vet prescribed Bactrim based on the paperwork from the lab. He said there was one other antibiotic on the lab's list that would work even better- the name escapes me now but I posted about it before- but that in the US it was illegal to give it to poultry, and that the FDA was cracking down on vets they caught prescribing it for chickens. Still waiting for my birds to start laying again so I can try some test hatches and see if the Bactrim cleared up the problem. Yes if the source of my eggs treated their birds with the same antibiotic it would clear up their stock.

I don't want people to just go self-medicating their chickens with every antibiotic under the sun- I really recommend if you are having trouble with your chicks surviving you take some to a lab for testing. They want 2-3 chicks dead within 3 days of each other, stored in the fridge, and taken promptly to the lab. This will tell you for sure what you are fighting and which antibiotics were most effective at fighting them in the petri dish cultures. It costed me about $100. The reason I was so vocal in sharing my story is I know many Isbar breeders are having trouble with survivability of their chicks- and this may give some of them a place to start. If this truly did come from one of my sources which the vet assured me, then it is certainly floating around all over the US. The vet said the strain of e coli being passed from the hens to the eggs is NOT a strain that you can typically pick up from the soil or environmentally. I do not know if it is sexually transmittable.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

I have Isbar chicks!! So far, of 6 shipped eggs that made it to lockdown, there are two blues and a splash. Can't take photos just yet as the hatch is not finished, but will post as soon as I can.