Icelandic Chickens

[Jake Levi]

Nope, Hershey is a he name, cause girls love it. Simple really !

Re Marys post, I agree, we need to 'select' for all traits that arnt negatives in cold climates. I do want both crests and featherlegging, but will take all colors, and color isNOT something I will select for. The main trait I will select for is hardiness. That has to be, but I also think its not going to be hard with these.

I will be keeping two roosters in the flock, and they will free range ever four days. I will be ranging four breeds, a different one every day and each breed will have their own fenced in run for their other 3 days. Diversity is what kept the breed alive for a thousand years. Even with each familys preferences and choices.

We have a beautiful pure breed, with no known lethal recessives, lets keep it that way.

I really strongly advise keeping multiple roosters in every flock.

I am setting my first eggs of the year this tuesday, by one rooster, my Isi, son of Mary O'Brians' Isi, in three weeks I will be setting eggs by him and his dark son, all Marys line but as much diversity as I can manage right now. There will be more, as I want to get eggs from Idaho from stock with feathered legs , and more crests then I have now.

The goal is to have by fall as diverse a flock as I can get of pure Icelandics !

And I am hoping that next year all of my chicks will be raised by their own mamas. Thats another heritage trait that we MUST have.

Life is good, and better with Icelandic Chickens !

 

[RedIII]

Jake, I don't remember who it was, but someone on here posted a picture a while ago of an Icee cockerel they had with a crazy amount of leg feathering (for the breed) It was some time last year.

Other than that, I know that some of Shawn's birds have the leg feathering going on, and he usually has hatching eggs available, of late. One of my girls came from his stock and has mild leg feathering on her upper legs. Very good disposition, too.

The egg collecting is on! My friend is still willing to incubate eggs for me, yay!

Her incubator only holds seven eggs, and she won't be setting them until after May 26th, but I'm going to start collecting, anyway. What else am I supposed to do with myself? Haha. So - I am going to see if anyone in Utah is interested in the extra eggs, since it would be a shame to let them go to waste.

 

[debs_flock]

My main roo is feather legged and now several of his daughters. All my birds but one hen are crested.

This was when he was a youngster. His feathering is less apparent as an adult.
This is him as an older cockerel.

I'm actually thinking of changing him out because he has fathered a son that I just LOVE. The son is not feather legged and is a SC, but his colors are amazing. I still have the RC and FL genes in my hens.

I may keep Heimo as my backup roo and get rid of my current backup roo (an Isi look alike).

 

[RedIII]

Deb, he's beautiful! My pullet with the feathered legs is also not as pronounced now as she was as a baby. Her feathering went further down her legs when she was very young.

Interesting - I wonder if it decreases with age like this with all Icees? It just makes me think of other feather-legged breeds, like Brahmas or d'Uccles, that have very obvious, pronounced leg feathering as adults. Do you think it would be that the Icee's mainly have a different gene that lessens the leg feathering? Because I'm pretty sure that other breeds with the leg feathering have been bred specifically toward that feature.

 

[debs_flock]

The Icelandic leg feathering seems to be more like Marans. Chick down on the outside of the leg and ends up with feathering down the outside of the shank and stopping at the foot, or just extending down the outside toe.

With FL breeds (brahma, cochin, silkie, etc), they have the chick down over the outside of the leg and over most of the toes, then the feathering gets much heavier as they age.

My totally uneducated guess would be it's human manipulation of the gene. With the FL breeds, you select for the heavier feathering and coverage. With the gene showing up in the landrace breed, I would think heavy feathering would be to their detriment. It wouldn't have much benefit for warmth, etc it is too sparse. I would think the potential ice clinging to the feathers or debris (dirt, droppings) would be a potential problem for the bird.

Much like vultures have evolved to have bare heads/necks because of their feeding habits of reaching into a carcass. It led to disease and infection in the birds and natural selection favored the bird with a bare neck/head.

 

[RedIII]

It does kind of make me wonder, though, if this leg feathering that shows up in some birds could have been because at some point, someone in Iceland started breeding toward that trait, then the project fizzled out for one reason or another. I know there really is no way of telling, but it's fun to wonder about.

 

[Jake Levi]

Re the leg feathering, I think the genes are expressed in a cumulative manner, as an incomplete dominant. When its found on both parents, it shows heavier, when the grandparents also have it then its stronger. That is my thoughts on it until we know better from study. I am just guestimating from what little that I have seen of it.

I think it is possibly of questionable value when it is expressed lightly , and when walking, standing about, but even in a light expression it would enhance insulation when they are sitting on a roost. The more feathers the more insulation. I am warmer when I add layers of clothing.

I love my Isi, even with his SIngle Comb but the Rose Comb is a plus in our colder northern climate, I saw this last year with those with Single Combs getting much more frostbite then those with Rose Combs. Its a trait to be looked for in roosters I use but I wont cull any SC hens, but will select for RC roosters.

I think there is a great deal that we have to learn about all traits in the breed.

I am wanting eggs from Shawn, my line is heavily Mary O'Brians/Sigrid and I want to add some of the Behl line. The breed is heavily inbred, from centurys of isolation so any diversity we add from another line is a plus. Even if its only the two lines. And I have no idea how much diversity that we can add, but it does seem wise to try it.

The Icelandic is a fascinating breed of chicken, so much to learn about them. I really want to see DNA comparisons of them and our other breeds here. If I need to I will find a college or govt lab that has done this and will do the testing, and have my vet come and draw blood or whatever is needed for the DNA tests.

Life is good, and better with Icelandic Chickens !

 

[mstrrlm]

If anyone has Icelandic chicks available after June first, because we are moving I had to get rid of all my birds. I of course I am willing to pay for them and shipping, I only get on this site every couple of days because we are packing. So please let me know if anyone is willing to sell me 10 chicks hopefully unrelated.

 

[Jake Levi]

After you get moved you might consider getting hatching eggs. More of them available.

One breeder that I know of that ships is 'kathyinmo', do a search here for her. A few others do ship chicks I know.

Good luck on the move. Where are you moving to?

 

[Mahonri]

I have a confession to make. One of the chicks that hatched in December who's daddy is Drekki II came out of a LEGHORN egg and not an Icelandic. I don't know how I didn't notice it when I sent them to be incubated, but before I rehomed my flock to the FFA group in the East Valley and knowing that there is NO SUCH thing as a ONE COLOR Icelandic, I realized my Leghorn looking pullet with the 'interesting' comb had to have come from the two of them. (Her mama was hatched from a Trader Joe's egg) So I decided to keep her for life as a remembrance of my life with Icelandics... she just started laying and the egg looks like a cross between a leghorn and an Icelandic. Maybe I could call her "Stella II", but I can say she hasn't found her way out of the run yet!