Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[karimw]

You have a wide variety of choices! I like to rotate my boys in the breeding pens every few months. You could hatch some from each one and see what you get

 

[draye]

You have a wide variety of choices! I like to rotate my boys in the breeding pens every few months. You could hatch some from each one and see what you get

Here's the younger birchen & silver & the older birchen cockerels (2 pix of each) :

I like number 1 and number three

 

[karimw]

We are hopefully going to start up an online chicken show for the Iowa Blue club, and start some discussions on the standard. You will have to share your pictures for sure! It is so difficult to photograph chickens. Try to get some good profile shots that show body shape and tail angle. I like #1 too, but beware of the white spot on his red earlobe. I see that a lot too, but we do want to get rid of that. #3 has an awesome wide body and a full broad feathered tail. I can tell they have some developing to do yet, but they are off to a great start!

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Boy has Junebug turned into quite the handsome fella! I liked him from the start and I'm enjoying his type. You've got some good pics of him which aren't always easy to capture in an Iowa. He's definatly a Charcoal.....all around a nice bird to use as your flock sire. Color is a little light, however what I really enjoy seeing is the lack of autosomal barring in him even though he was born chestnut colored. It goes to show that things aren't always what they seem to be with this breed. Get some offspring out of him as soon as you are able....you don't want to miss the opportunity to use him. Lightning is your technical "back up"....but I wouldn't use him. If something were to happen to Junebug, I'd wait until the next group of young cockerels mature out.

About this chick......this color is one that I first shared about a year and a half ago.
Here is the pic again for reference.

I had hatched a large clutch from Kari and I had two of these show up. I know her flock was pure as I was there gathering eggs for her when she was on vacation and she has done a great job of creating her breeding pens. This caused me to question if there were a few individuals in the flock that were carrying Co. As most didn't show signs of Co clearly, this caused some confusion and it was generally assumed that Co wasn't floating around in the bloodlines. I did not raise these two that I hatched, however they were about 3 months old when I moved them on and they definitely expressed a Co pattern in their juvenile feathering.
About 6 months or so ago you posted this chick (if memory serves me right) and most on the thread said they hadn't seen anything like this before. I referred readers of this thread to my earlier post and hashed about the possibility of Co in the bloodlines. Definitely something that needed/needs to be bred out, but something that was floating around in there. Seeing the adult pic of this chick confirms to me that Co is lingering around. Your pic of Lighting doubles that confirmation to me that Co is hanging in there as evidenced by his single laced breast.

I know that Kari hasn't seen any of these show up in her flock which makes me think that there was one lone "rogue" Iowa hen that would pass this along. At least that's my assumption at this time. Glenn Drowns had shared that he would have one of these show up randomly and very rarely after he had brought in some outside blood, so it would stand to reason that they sprang out of his bloodline, however it's possible it could have also been inforced by Ideal's breeding......doubt we will ever know.

 

[BunnyTheSlayer]

I just found out that I'll be getting my first incubator this Christmas! Weeee! After I've practiced hatching a couple of times I reeeaaally want to get some Iowa Blue eggs to hatch. Yay! That is all. Sorry for my outburst

 

[karimw]

I don't blame you! O have 25 out of 25 developing in the incubator now From Diesel, the cockerel I took to the EIPA show a few weeks ago.

 

[brucelanthier]

This Spring we got started on our IB flock. We are going to transition over to all IB's in the next couple of years. We hatched out 23 hatch out of 26 which I thought was phenomenal. Our thanks to Connie Hurley for the eggs and advice. There was 12 roosters and 11 hens. Of course we are keeping all the hens but we are down to 3 roosters. We have been watching/evaluating roosters for our flocks for years and I select for "temperament" first, conformation second. Anyway, I am very happy with the attitude of all 3 but more happy with 1 then 2 then 3. In the end we will likely keep just two as I watch more and, now, confirm their spot in the lineup. I won't get into all the reasons I like the "white" one best, then the "black" and then the "brown" one but I would like some opinions on how they look. Thanks in advance for any advice or comments. I will attach pictures in the following posts.

 

[brucelanthier]

This one is the one I call the "white" rooster.

 

[brucelanthier]

This is the "black" rooster.

 

[brucelanthier]

This is the "brown" rooster.