Iowa Blue Chickens - Understanding The Traditional Type

[IowaBlueCurt]

Although this thread isn't an official "mouthpiece" for the Iowa Blue Chicken Club, I do want to put in a plug here for the work that the club has done. One of the things that has been difficult for breeders is a lack of unified descriptions of the different colorations that we're seeing. There hasn't been a super unified nomenclature due to a lack of APA judge imput and the differences between what the traditional and modern breeders referred to their colors as. Once we are able to have a unified nomenclature and a sound understanding of the off types within the breed, we can really solidify the breed's direction and create clearity where decades of confusion have taken their toll.

So, in light of this, the members present at the club meeting (at the Mason City Show with the help of the judges) set about to help solve the dilema! Below is the proposed nomenclature when describing the Iowa Blue among breeders as put forth by the IBCC. I find these descriptions to be very helpful and informative and I think the members present did a great job coming up with a unified nomenclature. This will now doubt make things much easier to describe and share thoughts in the future. From this point on, I will embrace the club's decision and refer to the proposed descriptions. Below are the descriptions as proposed -

***** It was suggested that we promote the Silver as the Iowa Blue, listing the other colorations as non-standard colors in the order of Charcoal, Smokey, and Birchen. Examples will be shown on the IBCC website for education and discussion, but the Silver will be promoted as the ideal for the breed and will be petitioned to the APA as the description of the Iowa Blue

a) “Iowa Blue” (aka Silver, Silver Penciled, Mealy Gray, Gray, Medium Gray, etc.) This is recognized as the ideal Iowa Blue coloration and the original appearance and goal for the breed. For the sake of naming them vs. other colorations, “Silver” was suggested. (As I understand from talking with Connie and Kari, the plans are to have the Iowa Blue recognized in the Silver coloration only (at least at this time) and will petition the APA to have the Iowa Blue admitted as such. Therefore, the result will be that the name Iowa Blue will bring up in the mind an image of a Silver bird. The remaining colors will stay as non-standard colors with a preference on color as follows Charcoal, Smokey, Birchen.)
b) “Charcoal” - (aka Dark Silver) - suggested as the name for the darker variety of Silver recognized in Sandhill lines. Genetically believed to be the Iowa Blue pattern over birchen, these have an intermediate appearance between Birchen and Silver Iowa Blues.
c) “Smokey” - (aka Silver Gray, Silver Duckwing, Duckwing) – suggested as a name for the lighter variety of Silver recognized from multiple lines, genetically believed to be the Iowa Blue over an e+ base.
d) “Birchen” - The black colored ER based bird with silver lacing, likely to be lost over time as it is already becoming less sought after and considered by many to be undesirable to keep in the lines.


This may take a little getting use to at first, but the rewards of having everyone on the same page when describing our birds will prove greatly beneficial!!! Thank you to the members at the meeting for getting this started. If anyone has any questions be sure to ask them! And if anyone who was present at the meeting wants to interject any additional information, please do so!

 

[WVDan44]

Hey Curt, I'm impressed by every post on this thread as they are each providing an opportunity for learning. I feel the information on here is exciting, content-rich, and as reliable as we can possibly expect. I like the fact that you "identify" any statements that are not verifiable such as hearsay and lore. All in all, this is the best we can hope for at the moment. Your last post makes a lot of sense; thanks for laying it out in an understandable format for us late comers to the breed.
Dan

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Dan, thanks for the feedback! It's much appreciated. Before I started this thread I was thinking to myself, "I wish there was a place I could go to where information was being put out about the traditional type and coloration. A place where the "right" type and color were being compared to the "wrong" type and color within the traditional lines." Then I thought, "well, why not start a place for that to happen!" And here it is.

I know it's been mostly me posting my thoughts, obervations, and comparisons to historical accounts, but hopefully others will feel comfortable sharing their observations as they experience and study our history and present day birds that share traits with out historical accounts!

Thanks again Dan! I've enjoyed sharing what I'm seeing and hopefully others have found this as helpful as you have. Have a great night!

 

[karimw]

I find this thread a source of good information as well and Curt has done a great job researching the origin and history of the birds. I don't feel qualified to comment on comparison since I don't have any Sandhill birds yet, but I am looking forward to getting some! I am very interested to see what the introduction of a Sandhill male will do for my line.

 

[Henk69]

Smokey and Charcoal in genetics are burdened words. They are mutations that are not involved in the phenotypes of the Iowa.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Smokey and Charcoal in genetics are burdened words. They are mutations that are not involved in the phenotypes of the Iowa.

Thanks Henk69. We are aware that Smokey and Charcoal aren't involved with our breed from a genetic standpoint. The members were looking for "simple" descriptors of the color morphs for the inner circle of breeders to use as indicators. Seeing how the breed club desires to pursue the Silver coloration for the Iowa Blue solely at this poin, I would predict that most of the off types will disappear over time. Of the three proposed descriptions for the "non-standard" colorations, the "Charcoal" is the only one that is technically part of the original breed coloration alongside the Silver.Howver, they end up looking like darker versions of the Silver and therefore will probably be shown alongside the Silvers and in time my guess is that they will simply be referred to as Silvers as well.

Thanks for the head's up though! Your advice is much appreciated! I'm also not too concerned about using these discriptors as (to my knowledge) true Smokey's and Charcoals do not exsist in breedable numbers here in the States. At least not in the typical "hobby" or show circles.

On another subject. Did you see the comparison pictures of the two pullets that I posted awhile back? One was a soft grey, the other a darker grey color. My quess is that melanizers are at play here. What are your thoughts? Could it be something else that's causing some to be lighter and some to be darker?

 

[Hurley]

Just dropping a note in this thread, sorry I've been scarce online recently. Very exciting times for the Iowa Blue, indeed. Great reader's digest of the important points here, Curt. Good to see you here, too, Henk69, and thanks for the input.

Agreed, the names are meant more for an internal reference nickname, rather than genetic names. We're trying to form an internal reference name set for the phenotypes, since right now there is confusion between the types and the genetics are not fully understood. I agree with Curt that with the lack of those genes in the US in general, it shouldn't cause too much confusion, especially since this isn't a breed (like some of the bantam breeds) that will be produced in numerous colors. I do foresee a constriction of coloration back to the original type over the next probably 3-5 years, given the response we've gotten this year. I expect to see birchen drop out of the breed entirely, with the majority focusing on the silver with probably a handful of people keeping charcoals and smokeys as they are pretty to look at and will show up time to time, at least in the near future.

I look forward to revising the standard to a single standard for the Iowa Blue for the Silver coloration now that we're getting a better feel for the history and the breed's coloration this year. Great work, everyone, amazing advances this year.

Hope to see you guys in Iowa City if I can swing it.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Quote:
I foresee a very similar turn of events within the upcoming years regarding the color and direction of the breed. This year of massive hatching has taught us all a lot about this breed and the historical information that continues to unfold causes us all to sharpen our eyes when it comes to breed identity.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Quote:
I too am excited to regroup and discuss what we've all learned and shape the Standard to really reflect what we've been learning. And I believe the single standard that the club is gearing up for is exactly where we should be heading.

That weekend will be a busy one for me, but if we're planning on having a club meeting, I'm going to do my best to be there!! After the success of the last show/meeting I don't think I can afford to miss another meeting!

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

On Monday I posted some pictures comparing two Silver pullets that were hatched out brown mottled. One possessed a nice soft grey ground color, the other had a darker steel grey ground color. While both of these pullets were out of a traditional line, and both were Silver, we looked into the historical accounts to see what ground coloration would be the preferred color (once we get to a point where we can get picky about our birds).

Naturally the questions that arise are as follows; Why the variation and what causes it? The pattern is very consistant with a laced breast developing into a "stippled" penciling that becomes more stippled as it progresses to the tail. Why do some hens have lacing that starts up high on the breast and others it starts lower on the breast? Why are some hens penciled more on the wings and back and others less penciled and more stippled? Why are some more laced and others less laced on the breast?

At first glance it may seem like we're talking about two different things - ground color variation and pattern variation. In some respects we are, but in other respects we aren't. To answer our questions we'll need to look at the genetic understandings of the breed. Not only what genetics are in play, but how they interact with eachother.

So, let's dive in. (Some of you out there will no doubt already know where we're going, but for those who are new to the breed or aren't formally brushed up on the genetics, I think this will be helpful).

Our Silvers find there "home" on the e-locus of eb. Consider this the foundation of a building, it's the base which everything else will be built on. All of the pattern genes that we add to this base will alter how the base is "seen" or expressed in the physical form.
On this base we'll add the Silver gene (S) so that our birds will be silver colored and not gold colored.
Next we'll add the pattern gene Pg to the mix. This gene is responsible for the creation of penciling in all it's forms, from the look of a brown leghorn to the beautiful penciling of a silver penciled rock. Consider this gene as the structure of the building itself. These two genes (the eb and Pg are the easiest and most basic of our Iowa Blue genes, the fun stuff comes up next!)

Now add Db to the mix. Db is called dark brown because it causes the chick down to be a dark brown color. As adults the effect of Db is seen as a suppression of black coloration. This is particularly noticable on the head, hackle, saddle, and breast of both the hen and the cockbird. Db has what is commonly referred to as "Columbian like restrictors" and in extreme cases Db can produce a bird that looks very much like a Columbian patterned bird. The moral of the Db story? It restricts black.

Lastly, we'll throw into the mix melanizer genes, symbolized as Ml. Ml does the exact OPPOSITE of Db, in that it ADDS black! Yes, you read that correctly. Our Silvers possess genes that both restrict AND add black pigmentation! It is this restriction and addition that causes our birds to have variance in ground color as well as variance in the location and degree of breast lacing, side and back penciling, and overall gradual stippling at the tail's end. Now, as if this tug of war between the genes wasn't enough, both the Db and Ml are "unstable" genes in that they can express very different results depending on modifiers that are present within the individual bird! So, you can see, variation within the Silver pattern is here to stay. The work breeders have before them is to do our best to solidify both the Db/Ml tension and the modifiers.

To my understanding, the modifiers are limitless in number, so the key is to select birds based on how the color is expressed on the individual. By breeding "like to like" one can effectively "fix" or "set" the modifiers. Not completely, but near completely.

If anyone has any questions about this or anything to add to this feel free to do so!