Chicken Breed Focus - Iowa Blue

[sumi]

The Iowa Blue is an American breed that was developed in the early 1900's near Decorah, Iowa by John Logsdon. The original stock came in a unique form of the silver penciled pattern that made the hens appear to be a blue-grey color from a distance, hence the name. It was available through the 1960’s from several hatcheries, but it lost popularity and was nearly extinct before several dedicated breeders began efforts to preserve the remaining flocks in the 1980’s. It is currently undergoing a re-surge in popularity. The Iowa Blue breed club is currently working on fulfilling the requirements for APA recognition, they anticipate meeting the requirements by 2017.

The Iowa Blue is a dual-purpose bird, exceptional foragers with good predator awareness, and the roosters are good flock protectors especially against hawks. The hens are good layers, will go broody and are good mothers. They are an excellent breed for the homesteader and are becoming more popular with the backyard flock owner looking for a friendly productive brown egg layer.

A number of different breeds have gone into its make up, originally including Black Minorca, Rhode Island Red, White Rocks, and legend has it, a pheasant cock was used to produce the original stock.
It is currently found in four colors, Silver, Charcoal, Smoky and Birchen. They are single combed with medium sized comb and wattles. They are quite weather hardy, tolerating both heat and cold.

Details:

Breed purpose: Dual purpose.
Comb Type: Single, medium-large sized.
Broodiness: Occasional, good mothers.
Climate Tolerance: Good, hardy in both heat and cold.
Weight: Proposed standard calls for roosters 8 lbs, hens 7 lbs.
Egg Productivity: Good.
Egg Size: Medium-Large
Egg Colour: Brown
Note: They are available from Ideal Poultry.


Iowa Blue Flock picture @karimw


Iowa Blue Hen picture @brucelanthier


Iowa Blue Rooster picture @brucelanthier


Iowa Blue Chicks picture @Iowablu

They have also been immortalized with a five foot cast aluminum statue; Iowa Blue: The Urbane Chicken, nicknamed “Betsy Blue” part of the Iowa River Landing Sculpture Walk in Coralville, Iowa.


"Betsy Blue" picture @Hurley


Link to the BYC Breed reviews:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/iowa-blue

Link to the Exhibition, Genetics, & Breeding to the Standard of Perfection thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/469317/iowa-blues-breed-thread-and-discussion/0_20

Link to the General breed discussions & FAQ thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/823838/iowa-blue-chickens-understanding-the-traditional-type/0_20

Do you own Iowa Blues? Are you an Iowa Blue breeder? If so, please reply to this thread with the your thoughts and experiences, including:

· What made you decide to get this breed?
· Do you own them for fun? Breeding? Some other purpose?
· What are your favorite characteristics about this breed?
· Post some pics of your birds; male/female, chicks, eggs, etc!

We have a bunch of other awesome breed-focus threads for you to enjoy. You can see all of them here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-project.975504/

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Thank you BackYardChickens for featuring the Iowa Blue in your Breed Focus! I will do my best to answer the questions you posted.

What made you decide to get this breed? I first became aware of the breed when I was fifteen years old (17 years ago) and at that time I began instantly hooked on them. Mostly what attracted me to the breed was that it was native to my home State, and in desperate need of support. In 2002 I was able to obtain some starts from Glenn Drowns. By that time I had raised and bred over 100 different breeds. From day one the Iowas were different in temperament and personality. Not 'better' than other chickens, but just different, and different in a way that I found extremely intriguing. After having raised so many breeds, I had thought I'd 'seen it all' in chickens and then came along this breed that exposed me to things surrounding chicken behavior that I had never seen before. It was fun and it captivated me. From that point on I was hooked on them.
By 2013 I began to realize that there were a LOT of chickens being sold as Iowa Blues that didn't meet the historical accounts of the breed. I set out to locate as much of the breed's history as possible as well as locating pictures of the original stock. This lead me to interviewing past breeders from the 1950's-1960's as well as the grandchildren of the gentleman who created the breed. After accumulating a massive amount of history and pictures of the original birds, I began to search for birds which matched the breed history....I was only able to locate less than 10 individuals that matched the historical accounts. I presented this information to the Iowa Blue Chicken Club (which had started in late 2012) and so began the work of preserving, conserving, and restoring the Iowa Blue to its original type and function. When I got started with the breed, I never imagined it would turn into this for me. I have met some of the most interesting people while researching the breed's history, and made some great friends along the way.

Do you own them for fun? Breeding? Some other purpose? Initially I obtained the breed out of interest, but now I breed them and for years have used them to serve my family's needs with eggs and meat in a self-sustaining way.

What are your favorite characteristics about this breed? First and foremost - their PERSONALITY!!!! They are so different, and every person who has had the opportunity to raise the traditional type all end up commenting on how different their personality is. I like their color, which technically isn't separate 'varieties' as the APA would define varieties, but rather differing variations within the genetics which expresses itself. Originally, the breed was a landrace and for all practical purposes it still is a landrace, hence the variation in color. Some outbreeding had been brought in over the past few decades and this too has resulted in other variations appearing, but the Silver, Smokey, and Charcoal variations listed above are the main types. (Smokey and Charcoal are names the club came up with to identify the different gene expressions and are not the actual Smokey and Charcoal genes which exist in some breeds. Confusing I know to those who are new to the breed, but quickly learned!). I like how they are aggressive to things they view as a threat, yet are extremely docile toward people. I like that they brood out their own chicks and raise them up (a trait quickly vanishing from breeds that used to be known to brood). I also enjoy their adaptative traits and always noticed them foraging into places even my foraging breeds wouldn't venture. All around they are great chickens, and keepers who find the best success with this breed are homesteaders, self-sustainers, and 'back to the land' people as this breed was created to serve that niche. Keepers who might find this breed not as useful would be those who have tight confinements that don't allow the breed to really do what it was created to do.

Pictures?? Just click on my profile and you'll see a lot of pictures that I've posted on the breed over the years.

 

[Candy442]

Fivewire (Brett)and myself (Candy) stumbled upon the Iowa Blue quite by accident.
A member here on the BYC site was giving away a couple of Delaware pullets he hatched and I decided to adopt them. One looked like a typical Delaware, but the other one had silver penciling and a pattern I have not seen before. I followed some of this member's posts and noticed that he obtained and hatched some eggs from Kari McKay Widdel's Iowa Blue flock.
I read up about them and how the effort to bring back the breed from extinction was taking place. Then, concerned about this funny patterned Delaware, I posted a photo of "Sweetie" to ask the group if she looked like an Iowa Blue. They unanimously agreed she looked like an Iowa Blue, although the member insisted the bird we adopted was a Delaware. We loved her personality from the start and her beautiful smokey grey/appears slate blue coloring.
A few months later, that same member informed he was giving away the one silver cockerel and two other birchen color Iowa hens he had left. He was going to concentrate on another breed.
We enthusiastically picked those up as our foundation flock and have not turned back. We now have them for their wonderful, adaptive personality, winter hardiness, beautiful eggs and for breeding purposes.
There are stories both from history and from current Iowa Blue breeders of the tenacity of the flock to be aware of their surroundings while free ranging. We experienced first hand how our original rooster we named Gandalf protected his flock from a stray dog attack last July. He persistently lured the dog to chase him instead of going after the hens and was captured twice before he had to hide from severe injuries. Our neighbor witnessed the entire circumstance of Gandalf getting away, running, getting caught and chewed on. The neighbor shooed the dog away from the yard the third time he caught Gandalf. That dog still managed to kill three of different breed pullets unfortunately(out of 27 total birds) but we felt it could have been a lot worse without Gandalf keeping the dog focused on him. I found Gandalf alive under our deck, he had almost 1/2 of his left side body skin gone, no feathers on his fluff, and deep puncture wounds on his left thigh. We cleaned him off and nursed him back to health for almost a year indoors (we built a special box for him). He is now out in a coop hopping around on one leg enjoying being around chickens again. We feel he has earned our hearts and permanent spot in the flock.
We love our Iowa Blue chickens. They are curious, friendly, and the chicks are active within hours after hatching. We have had some chicks try flying right out of the brooder not even a day old.
Pictures: Sweetie and Icy (Two Delawares?)


Gandalf:


Betty and Boop, our original Birchen hens:



JB as a chick:


JB now (Gandalf's Grand son )


Our first Silver chick we called Tiny Dancer (Gandalf's daughter born a month before he was injured)

Tiny Dancer now (almost one year old)



Chicks we have hatched from our first four Iowa Blues:

 

[Kelsie2290]

Got a couple of these guys in a shipment from SandHill a few years ago, just keep them as egg layers. Really nice breed, friendly as all get out, quite brave about new things and are usually among the first birds to come check something out. And they sure are food oriented, everytime you take something outside they hope it is edible.
Mine have gone broody at least once a year, but they aren't that bad to break being broody if you don't want to let them set. One nice thing about them as broodys is they are not at all human aggressive, these girls don't peck your hands when you reach under them to get the eggs. They have been decent layers, even going through the winter their second year.

First to the feed bowl everytime!

And they have better table manners! (IBs are the two in front.)

Other girls, they do like to hang out under the shrubs also.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Thank you BackYardChickens for featuring the Iowa Blue in your Breed Focus! I will do my best to answer the questions you posted.

What made you decide to get this breed? I first became aware of the breed when I was fifteen years old (17 years ago) and at that time I began instantly hooked on them. Mostly what attracted me to the breed was that it was native to my home State, and in desperate need of support. In 2002 I was able to obtain some starts from Glenn Drowns. By that time I had raised and breed over 100 different breeds. From day one the Iowas were different in temperament and personality. Not 'better' than other chickens, but just different, and different in a way that I found extremely intriguing. After having raised so many breeds, I had thought I'd 'seen it all' in chickens and then came along this breed that exposed me to things surrounding chicken behavior that I had never seen before. It was fun and it captivated me. From that point on I was hooked on them.
By 2013 I began to realize that there were a LOT of chickens being sold as Iowa Blues that didn't meet the historical accounts of the breed. I set out to locate as much of the breed's history as possible as well as locating pictures of the original stock. This lead me to interviewing past breeders from the 1950's-1960's as well as the grandchildren of the gentleman who created the breed. After accumulating a massive amount of history and pictures of the original birds, I began to search for birds which matched the breed history....I was only able to locate less than 10 individuals that matched the historical accounts. I presented this information to the Iowa Blue Chicken Club (which had started in late 2012) and so began the work of preserving, conserving, and restoring the Iowa Blue to its original type and function. When I got started with the breed, I never imagined it would turn into this for me. I have met some of the most interesting people while researching the breed's history, and made some great friends along the way.

Do you own them for fun? Breeding? Some other purpose? Initially I obtained the breed out of interest, but now I breed them and for years have used them to serve my family's needs with eggs and meat in a self-sustaining way.

What are your favorite characteristics about this breed? First and foremost - their PERSONALITY!!!! They are so different, and every person who has had the opportunity to raise the traditional type all end up commenting on how different their personality is. I like their color, which technically isn't separate 'varieties' as the APA would define varieties, but rather differing variations within the genetics which expresses itself. Originally, the breed was a landrace and for all practical purposes it still is a landrace, hence the variation in color. Some outbreeding had been brought in over the past few decades and this too has resulted in other variations appearing, but the Silver, Smokey, and Charcoal variations listed above are the main types. (Smokey and Charcoal are names the club came up with to identify the different gene expressions and are not the actual Smokey and Charcoal genes which exist in some breeds. Confusing I know to those who are new to the breed, but quickly learned!). I like how they are aggressive to things they view as a threat, yet are extremely docile toward people. I like that they brood out their own chicks and raise them up (a trait quickly vanishing from breeds that used to be known to brood). I also enjoy their adaptative traits and always noticed them foraging into places even my foraging breeds wouldn't venture. All around they are great chickens, and keepers who find the best success with this breed are homesteaders, self-sustainers, and 'back to the land' people as this breed was created to serve that niche. Keepers who might find this breed not as useful would be those who have tight confinements that don't allow the breed to really do what it was created to do.

Pictures?? Just click on my profile and you'll see a lot of pictures that I've posted on the breed over the years.

Thanks for the information. Read quite a bit of the Historical thread you started, the breed has an interesting history, very lucky that the breed didn't wind up extinct.

 

[Kelsie2290]

...

Fivewire and myself stumbled upon the Iowa Blue quite by accident. A member here on the BYC site was giving away a couple of Delaware pullets he hatched and I decided to adopt them. One looked like a typical Delaware, but the other one had silver penciling and a pattern I have not seen before. I followed some of this member's posts and noticed that he obtained and hatched some eggs from Kari McKay Widdel's Iowa Blue flock. I read up about them and how the effort to bring back the breed from extinction was taking place. Then, concerned about this funny patterned Delaware, I posted a photo of "Sweetie" to ask the group if she looked like an Iowa Blue. They unanimously agreed she looked like an Iowa Blue, although the member insisted the bird we adopted was a Delaware. We loved her personality from the start and her beautiful smokey grey/appears slate blue coloring. A few months later, that same member informed he was giving away the one silver cockerel and two other birchen color Iowa hens he had left. He was going to concentrate on another breed. We enthusiastically picked those up as our foundation flock and have not turned back. We now have them for their wonderful, adaptive personality, winter hardiness, beautiful eggs and for breeding purposes. There are stories both from history and from current Iowa Blue breeders of the tenacity of the flock to be aware of their surroundings while free ranging. We experienced first hand how our original rooster we named Gandalf protected his flock from a stray dog attack last July. He persistently lured the dog to chase him instead of going after the hens and was captured twice before he had to hide from severe injuries. Our neighbor witnessed the entire circumstance of Gandalf getting away, running, getting caught and chewed on. The neighbor shooed the dog away from the yard the third time he caught Gandalf. That dog still managed to kill three of different breed pullets unfortunately(out of 27 total birds) but we felt it could have been a lot worse without Gandalf keeping the dog focused on him. I found Gandalf alive under our deck, he had almost 1/2 of his left side body skin gone, no feathers on his fluff, and deep puncture wounds on his left thigh. We cleaned him off and nursed him back to health for almost a year indoors (we built a special box for him). He is now out in a coop hopping around on one leg enjoying being around chickens again. We feel he has earned our hearts and permanent spot in the flock. We love our Iowa Blue chickens. They are curious, friendly, and the chicks are active within hours after hatching. We have had some chicks try flying right out of the brooder not even a day old. Gandalf: Great pictures! Gandalf is one lucky rooster! So glad he survived and has recovered well. Sorry about the other losses to the dog. Good luck with your flock!

 

[Candy442]

Quote: Thanks Kelsie!

Gandalf is one of two roosters we had in our flock. We have an EE rooster as well who decided to hide with the hens in the woods when all this was going on. The stray dog was estimated at about 80lbs size as well. The dog tried to come back later that evening (we alerted all the neighbors)and another neighbor snapped a photo of him to show the man who shooed the dog out of our yard. Confirmed it was the same dog but he got away before they could catch him. We have not seen the dog since, but we are very careful when allowing the flock to free range. We have 15 Iowas now.
Gandalf is made of tough stuff and the sweetest boy around! JB is a lot like his grand daddy )

I love your girls! I would LOVE to get some Iowa's as packing peanuts from Sandhill

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Kelsie,

Now we just need to set you up with a nice cockbird and you'll get good to go!

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Kelse, this girl here is spot on for color and type. In 'theory' all of the variations should look like this hen in color. In practice this has not been the case since. Many reasons for this, however, with larger numbers now, and a good group of breeders working on restoring the breed to its original type, we're seeing marked improvement on the breed as a whole!

 

[MHoock]

Curt,

My daughter received a trio of Dark Horse Acres Iowa Blues for a post Christmas present this ast year. She also got to hatch out about a dozen Smokey Iowa Blues as well. We're trying to determine how best to breed our flock for this next years breeding season. We have progeny from our original Silver trio, but have "siblings" in the Smokey line. Do you ever breed your Smokey's to your Silver's? Which would you recommend for more genetic diversity? I know we can get Silver chicks out of the Smokey line, so I don't know why we couldn't cross our two varieties, to increase diversity....Open to any and all suggestions. FYI....we just recently joined the Iowa Blue Chicken Club as well, so we're looking to help expand the breed here in Southern Illinois!