Icelandic Chickens

[centrarchid]

The Warden,

I would like to ask a couple questions in reference to Icelandic Chickens. I have read most of thread to this time but not found information of interest.


Could you direct me to the paper that investigated the Icelandic Chickens relatedness to other breeds?

Did at least some populations exist under feral conditions for a time?


Are they good at scratching through snow to get food? I am not familiar with snow depth where breed was developed.


Will you and your fellows interested in the breed at some point begin exchanging birds to conserve genetic diversity?

 

[Camelot Farms]

Update from Camelot Farms...

From peeps (July 1, 2010) to parents (2/1/11)

These gals are egg laying machines. Its not unusual to collect eggs every 18 hours!
The bator is full and they just keep coming. Trying to bribe a silkie into broodiness...mua haa haaaa.

 

[kathyinmo]

Congratulations on your chicks! I am hatching now, and I am finding some consistency in the colors. I am getting alot of blacks and tuxedo (oreo) like chicks. Your chicks are different colors than mine. We will have to trade some!

 

[Camelot Farms]

Thatd be great Kathy! I should have 1st ones hatching in about 2 weeks. We'll see what we get

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
OH GREAT ! ! This is so fun!

 

[The Sheriff]

Good grief, call a therapist for me stat. I was planning to ship a couple dozen fertility test eggs out today. The morning weather showed the expected storm of the century back east and the reporter at the airport talked about delayed and cancelled FedEx flights out of the area. FedEx carries the mail for the postal service here! Yikes, I panicked and put the 26 eggs in the incubator!

I honestly used the following chicken logic to convince myself.

Twenty six eggs, hmm, probably only half are fertile. Ok, that's not bad, only 13 chicks will hatch. Thirteen chicks hatch but at least half of them will be roos that will be re-homed, so that really is only 6.5 new chicks. In the incubator they went!

I have 29 Icelandics in the barn coop and four babies in grow out. Thats 33. Then I have 15 developed eggs incubating, that's 48. Add the 6.5 chicks I should keep from the 26 I put in the incubator today and I could have 54 Icelandics in three weeks. Well, actually 60 counting the ones that will eventually turn out to be roos! I have 7 layer hens of various breeds, 2 olive egger babies and 8 bantam cochins in the grow out coop. That's 77 chickens folks! Seventy seven. OMG, I am limited to 100 by zoning before I have to apply for a poultry farm license.

Two and a half years ago I converted a playhouse to a little coop took a road trip to buy three hens so we could have fresh eggs and fulfill a lifelong dream to own chickens like my grandmother. My grandmother never had 77 chickens! I need a Xanax.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

"Chicken Math"

 

[greatergraceoffbg]

Mary that is so funny and so "chicken logical" ! If you start harvesting one rooster a day, learn to cook a fabulous Rosemary pecan crusted chicken, stewed chicken with varied potatoes, squash and onions, slow cooked oven BBQ chicken, it starts to become just a normal part of life to eat chicken almost daily, nevr get tired of it and stay under the 100 birds you need for a great preservation program! Who'da thought.....this could lead to all sorts of fun stuff!

Andy

 

[The Sheriff]

Oh no Andy I could never do that. The same grandma that inspired me also scared the heck out of me by grabbing them by the neck, wringing them and making us pluck them and eat them for dinner. Not gonna' happen.

I have the utmost respect for people who can and do enjoy homegrown chicken but no way!

Edited to add:

What I wouldn't give to have her back for just one day. We could talk chickens all day long.

 

[greatergraceoffbg]

Kathy, the silkies are sooooo cute! they look like a little group of Black Gospel singers every time they dipp their beaks in the water together and come up heads held high and moving their beaks, if I didn't know they were just doing the chickens version of swallowing, I would think they were singing! And the cotton balls are now angels in transition as they grow out their little wings! We got a hellish freeze here, and you were exactly right, the hova bator Brooder is only good for about two days, they pushed it further open and I came in to little coveys rushing to every corner, they lie down just like quail. I never saw ANY chickens do this before! Another unique observation...anyone else notice this before?

Andy