Icelandic Chickens

[Jake Levi]

Well, have four healthy active chicks, the other eggs are sitting there, no activity but I will wait til monday morn to turn it off. I am glad these four are here and healthy. They will winter in the basement. I am really anxious to see how they color out as well as the sexes.

All four are dark, no yellow anywhere, so they should be really pretty. I am sure that they will be. They will give me a strong base of Marys to add to my Isi line.

Like is good, and better with Icelandic Chickens !

 

[NotAFarm]

Congrats Jake!

I hope you get a couple more, but from my experience they usually all hatch together unless there are temperature variances within the incubator......or the broody has too many eggs to cover them all completely and then a couple will be late. Eggs just are not meant to ride hours in vehicles and then be hatched! I'm glad you got four out of the seven eggs!!

Red, My name is Mary. Since Mary O'Brien started this thread, I became "The Other Mary" to keep things straight among everyone reading here. To make things even more confusing, both of our husbands are named Michael......but mine has always been Mike to everyone except his mother.

I didn't get any new pictures yesterday.....it was overcast and we had a bit of rain the in the morning so everything was wet and gloomy. This morning the sun is shining and I will be letting the mama hens and chicks outside while I get some chores and yard work done. I hope to get a good "photo op" and then will post some pics of the older siblings of Jake's new Falki x Fjola chicks.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Congrats Jake!

 

[NotAFarm]

Well, Heidi's chicks did not seem interested in leaving their warm coop for the 40ish weather outside so the pics of her four aren't that great....maybe another time. Elska on the other hand went on her way and the chicks had to follow or be left behind. She even got them into the dusting hole. I closed both of them back with their chicks and let the rest of the flock out. Maybe later we will try again.



Elska and her three:

 

[RedIII]

 

[Jake Levi]

Wow !

Elska is a real beauty ! and so are her chicks.

The 4 I have are look alikes, same coloring, dark, I can hardly wait to see how they develop. They are happily enjoying their tote, to be replaced in a few weeks by a large quail pen for the winter.

Is Elskas chicks the same sire as these 4 here?

I figured that the remaining eggs would be duds but wont pull the plug til morning. And put the hatcher and incubator in storage til around April. I hope by then to have 3 separate lines to be hatching. I will probably color band each of them. Thats the plan anyhow.

Life is good and better with Icelandic Chickens !

 

[Jake Levi]

Mary I keep forgetting to mention that one of the pullets from you, a dark one with a light cape is super tame, she comes to the door of the pen when I open the gate and sits on my hand, she is the only one I have now that likes to be petted and is comfortable when held. She is also low on the pecking order, which could be a lot of reason why she likes my company, but I can always count on her coming up when the door is opened, takes treats from the hand too. A real little sweetheart she is. She is also crested . I for sure want some of her chicks ! I may very well pen her separate in March with one of the new roosters from you . I am watching them closely, I do like the Blue guy, forget your name for him, he is the largest, upstanding and dominant. It will be interesting to see the flock outside with him.

I am spending a lot more time with them now. Even with the colder mornings, no frost this morning, too wet but it will be this week. Got temps in the 20s at night this week. Winter is coming.

 

[mlm Mike]

Elska is such a good mom!

 

[NotAFarm]

Then I asked if he'd like a rose combed cockerel for his hens and he chose the crested one from pics I sent him. This is cockerel he chose....

Gosi (knave, Jack):




The pullets he did not get to choose. I got eight pullets from FXF and two of them have single combs so they were out. The eight belong to four separate "pairings" of different ages or raised by different broodies or brooded by me. I chose to keep the two "siblings" of the single comb pullets so that all of them would have a buddy whether they stayed here or went to Michigan.
All have rose combs and three are crested.
So here they are........I think I have posted pictures of all of them at some point but I took these tonight......

Gjoska (Volcanic ash):



Grima (mask):





Ginna (entrap, trick):




Gletta (practical joke):
no crest but look how small her comb is and her coloring is gorgeous....

 

[NotAFarm]

Jake, My blue Falki x Forsaela pullet, Glima, has started to show some red leakage on the nape of her hackles. She is in the foreground, that is a full brother, Galsi, behind her. Do you see anything like this on Gjoska? When she left here, I didn't see any red leakage on her. Grima had on spot on her left side just in front of the wing bow that was reddish, but Gjoska was pure blue.