Icelandic Chickens

[RedIII]

I have never in any way on any thread since I have begun posting on BYC suggested or in any way encouraged cross breeding of chickens. Of ANY breeds.

If you can find a post of mine on BYC where I said it was okay I will apologize for this post but you are deliberately cutesy twisting my words.

I was suggesting that Dar could get eggs to hatch from Bryce, purebred Icelandic eggs and hatch them out. Dar doesnot have a rooster as he has said for over a year, zoning restrictions. So if he does have a mixed flock the eggs are pure UNFERTILIZED eggs ! So if he is to incubate eggs he has to get them from a flock with a rooster ! DUH !!!

You can do whatever you want to do. But DONT try to twist others comments here to make it look like its alright to crossbreed Icelandics or any other breed of chickens.

Do whatever you choose to do. Dont make it look like I okayed it. You do.

Hey, I'm sorry. I think I came across totally wrong there. I was trying to tease* and say that we could figure out a way for Mahonri to have his Icelandics without feeling like he has to give them away in order to conserve them - similar to Sheriff Mary's Stella, in a way. I in no way would encourage breeding a chicken that is not pure, and then saying that its offspring are pure, no matter which breed!

I guess I forgot that even though we are all dedicated to preserving the breed in its pure form, some folks are more passionate than others about protecting the genetics of these birds. I did not mean to offend you in any way, and I'm sorry if I did. I really am not one for crossing out purebred birds and then turning around and trying to make them appear as if they were still purebred. I would hope that I have been making that clear here, and not giving the impression that I am okay with something else.

*And, I should add, I wasn't serious. Like I said, I was teasing.

 

[Jake Levi]

Thank you for explaining.

Yes, I am passionate about keeping the Icelandic Chicken breed pure, it is a 1,000 years of selective breeding, by the climate and the homestead breeders that kept it pure from all other genes from the medieval times.

There may be older breeds, but I seriously doubt that there are any more pure. The isolation of the breed in Iceland has resulted in a genetic phenomenon unlike any other.

I am really wanting to see DNA comparison to as many other breeds as can be done.

Its hard on a forum sometimes to tell when someone is teasing, or being serious, and I am
very acute to any suggestions to mixing the breed. There is just so much to learn about them as a pure breed, and what their role can be here in North America. I do believe that they can be and are a pool of hardiness that can help some other lines/breeds, but I see them now as a limited genetic pool that needs to be bred pure and studied before any crossbreeding is done.

And to tell the truth I am put off and on guard with the plethora of threads asking what someone will get when crossing with this or that breed. I am on half cock and ready to fire at any suggestions here of doing the same with these.

So I am sorry for up and firing at you for your tease.

Color me protective, and I dont really think over protective.

Life goes on, and it is better with Icelandic Chickens

Jake

 

[Happy Chooks]

went in to go check on them before i locked up the coop....here is one of the Icee chick's idea of a comfortable roost

Looks like a comfy roost to me.

 

[RedIII]

Thank you for explaining.

Yes, I am passionate about keeping the Icelandic Chicken breed pure, it is a 1,000 years of selective breeding, by the climate and the homestead breeders that kept it pure from all other genes from the medieval times.

There may be older breeds, but I seriously doubt that there are any more pure. The isolation of the breed in Iceland has resulted in a genetic phenomenon unlike any other.

I am really wanting to see DNA comparison to as many other breeds as can be done.

Its hard on a forum sometimes to tell when someone is teasing, or being serious, and I am
very acute to any suggestions to mixing the breed. There is just so much to learn about them as a pure breed, and what their role can be here in North America. I do believe that they can be and are a pool of hardiness that can help some other lines/breeds, but I see them now as a limited genetic pool that needs to be bred pure and studied before any crossbreeding is done.

And to tell the truth I am put off and on guard with the plethora of threads asking what someone will get when crossing with this or that breed. I am on half cock and ready to fire at any suggestions here of doing the same with these.

So I am sorry for up and firing at you for your tease.

Color me protective, and I dont really think over protective.

Life goes on, and it is better with Icelandic Chickens

Jake

Hey, I understand how it is to have a strong love for something, and then when you think you hear someone talking lightly or carelessly of it, it gets your hackles up. I agree that the Icelandic breed is an incredible treasure because of its genetics, and I do wish there was a way to add more diversity to the gene pool without outbreeding. I think that is the one downside I can see to the breed - you simply can't replicate a new strain in a few years or even a few decades. It does make me nervous about inbreeding happening in my flock, enough so that it would produce only unhealthy offspring. That's why I would like to get another strain from Iceland, if ever I can. I would really like to see the lines here in the US expanded.

And thank you, apology accepted

 

[Jake Levi]

It is just because of that inbreeding that has happened in the breed over so long a time that I am really concerned about ill advised outcrossing into the breed.

Because of the isolation for so long the bad recessives have been eliminated for all practical purposes. The breed is a real genetic treasure because it is strongly inbred and a known quantity.

I think that it has real possiblities as a controlled outcross for OTHER breeds, but I really donot want to see any other lines bred into the Icelandic breed. Dont dilute champagne with vin ordinaire.

Maybe not a good analogy but the best that I can think of before 3rd coffee.

We will do best to identify the colors, lines etc that we have and track them. I have the Isi line of Mary O'Brians, in fact one from her, son of her Isi and two of his lookalike sons. I will be breeding them all in my little flock, I also have two Black Breasted Redwings that I will use, and hoping to get a blue or two from them. If possible I want to develop two lines from these, one being dark with some blues and the other the splash red and whites. For want of a better name I am calling them the Isi line.

The dark line will wait for a name but it will be.

This is where I am at. Crosses will happen, I just strongly urge they be outcrosses for other breeds, and NEVER into an Icelandic flock. Keep them pure please.

Life is good, and better with Icelandic Chickens !

 

[RedIII]

Jake, interesting. I have thought about trying to get two established lines going from my birds, as well, partly because I'm hoping that down the road, I could cross the two lines if needed to add to their gene pools. Would that just be working backwards?

The only reason that I have not elected to breed for specific traits is that this bird had no human influence in what traits were allowed to be passed on to future generations. In a way, it almost feels like altering the breed if I try to selectively breed them, just because I don't want to cut out any precious, elusive genes that my birds might carry. So if I did divide them into two groups that didn't interbeed (at least for now) I would still let each flock breed as they will, rather than only letting one roo out of two do all the breeding, ya know?

The exception to this for me, of course, is if I find an individual that has an obvious defect that's not supposed to be in the breed, from what we can observe of the Icelandic chickens today. I think most anyone would cut that out of the pool, in that case.

 

[karimw]

Most old time chicken breeders will tell you that chickens are not the same as other kinds of livestock in that there is minimal long term damage done by inbreeding. If you want a good guideline for how to do it in a systematic fashion, check out the American Livestock Breed Conservancy. They have proven methods of preserving genetic heritage from a very limited genepool. The only reason to introduce outside birds into a flock is to add a trait that does not already exist. This is definately not a problem for Icelandics since they have it all One thing that will happen over time is the natural elimination of traits that are not passed on or consolidation of traits we have available in each breeding flock. For example I have heard the mottling is common in Lyle Behl's line, but not so much in Sigrid's. I personally am selecting against giant straight combs that don't fair well in Iowa winters. Not necesarily by design, but if I have several roosters to choose from....well I can't keep them all

 

[NotAFarm]

I think it would be foolish of us to think that over the centuries, Viking families did not "chose toward" or "chose away" from certain traits. A certain flock may have been known for it's mottling (like Lyle Behl's) and another may have been know for it's blue feathering (like Sigrid's) and yet another may have been known as prolific egglayers and another for it's large single combs or unique rose comb and another for their dark legs and so on. I would love to keep every one of the chicks hatched here but that is not possible. Some choices have to be made. The Vikings made choices about who to eat for dinner and which birds would be kept through a winter season with meager supplies. We have choices to make and our goal should be the same as theirs was. We should want to keep healthy, efficient, beautiful/handsome representatives of this treasure that will produce more of their kind in the future. We may all have different reasons for making the choices of who stays and who goes, but we should all want to chose wisely with our primary goal being to keep the genetic pool diverse and pure. There will be those that may want to chose to have a flock of all mottled and crested birds....to those I say, why didn't you just chose Swedish Flower Hens? They were bred "toward" mottling and crests so why not just have them? Icelandics can be mottled and crested but it shouldn't be the only reason we have them because they are more than mottled and crested. They are genetically a treasure. Consistently choosing "toward" or "away" from certain traits will eventually cause a narrowing of the genetic "choices" available.
Okay, so I'm a bit passionate about these birds..... I'll get off the soap box and give someone else a turn.
Seinna, The Other Mary

 

[Twister-n-Dos]

The Icelandics don't seem to be bothered by this never-ending winter. Yeah, don't think I can honestly say the same for the rest of us though.

The big rooster on the right has a large single comb that ended up a little frost bitten this winter. Other than that they handled an interior Alaska winter fine. As we choose who to keep in the flock from future hatches those big single combs won't be making the cut. Just not the right equipment for this climate.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Brrrr, makes me cold just looking at it. Beautiful spring day here, 85 degrees.