Icelandic Chickens

[NotAFarm]

Welcome Cheryl, We are happy to have any interested peeps join us!

If you've read through all the posts, you'll find some information and also that much of what The Warden (aka Mary) has found is in Icelandic and therefore not accessible for many of us. Hang around and learn with us and if you find something, let us know!
Seinna, The Other Mary

 

[cheryl98117]

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Thank you for the welcome! If I find any new or different resources on this breed I will deffinately share!

 

[cheryl98117]

Just a thought... Well more like a question...

To band these chickens, what sizes of bands would you recomend for them? Also how if at all, are you keeping your breeding records?

I haven't been able to get this thread, and these birds off my mind at all today. lol They are just so intruiging. "sp?"
But before I commit to any birds I would rather have myself organized a bit on how to keep track of who's who. So there wouldn't end up being any breeding of parent birds to offspring... Also... For those of you who have adult birds, for a coop and run, does the size need to be larger? Or does the standard of 4-5 square feet per bird work?

Thanks!

 

[Camelot Farms]

Well... Jokul and Buri have taken to free ranging...more than I would have liked.

My adult birds free range 24/7, roosting on the top of 8 ft horse stall walls. Today I let the boys out to play for the 1st time. They looked so miserable watching everyone else that I just had to suck it up and let them out.

I assumed (silly me) that at dusk, they would return to the pen that they had been in for the last week. Ha Ha Ha.
They managed to get up on the stall walls with the big birds and they are looking all proud of themselves.

I hate that they arent safely locked in a pen but they looked so happy to be out there in the green grass and sunshine. They scratched and ate bugs and grass. So, I am letting them stretch their wings and just hope that they listen to the big roos who keep everyone safe.

 

[NotAFarm]

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Cheryl, I don't have any adult birds.....and my experience with my juvies is only one week, but I've noted from the week I've had the two boys (hatched last week of March and first week of April) and two girls ( both hatched first week of May), that while more vocal that my other chiickens, they have been fine in their "holding cells" while in quarantine. I worried that they might not take confinement well, but that has not been my experience. I've had them out, totally supervised by me, for two free ranging periods of about an hour each, bringing their "holding cells' (boys and girls are housed seperately) directly to a part of my yard/garden that my other chickens don't visit. I let them out to scratch and explore to their hearts content while I watch them and weed and do deadheading. They have not been a problem, so far......., to "herd" back to the cages when their time is up. Based on my very limited experience with them, I'd say standard allowances are fine. Maybe some long time breeder of them will come by and tell us different........

Edited because it's too early to spell properly! & again because I missed one !

 

[NotAFarm]

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Kim, You bring up a good point here, and Cheryl did when she inquired about the desire to avoid inbreeding by marking birds, about the "keeping and care" of the Icelandics. I would like to see a discussion on this. When I was talking to my DH about the near extinction of them, and told him of the uninhabited island that eggs were collected from, he asked if we were going to "just let them be the way they were wild on that island". "Wouldn't that be truly preserving them the way they were?' he asked. Good question I said and now I'm here asking it. Do we need to keep "breeding pairs or trios" or do we let them decide who breeds who and "let nature take it's course"? Where is the balance between preservation and "making a mess of it"? I hope Sigrid will let us know what the successful Icelandic breeders have been doing to preserve the breed without losing what makes them so unique.

Seinna, The Other Mary

 

[Camelot Farms]

Good morning! I am happy to report that the boys survived their first night in the big bird world. LOL
I got a little nervous when I couldnt find Buri but of course I wasnt looking in the waist high grass behind the barn...what was I thinking? lol

And there is no way that these two are ever going to let me pen them up again so hopefully they are wise enough to listen to my big roos and stay under their protection. Ugh!

My thoughts on the whole breeding are still sort of jumbled but lets see if I can spit it out in a way that makes sense.

1) I dont want to be a zoo. =/ I dont want them confined to a breeding pen set up. These two boys just dont seem prone to that.

2) We dont allow broody layers here so when the boys become men I dont have to worry about reproducing their genes mixed in with my Wyandottes and Orps cause we eat all of those eggs or sell them.

3) To me, preservation means keeping them as they were in their own environment so I dont plan to oversee their matings as far as Icelandic to Icelandic. On that same note, I also dont want to breed too closely to the same lines so I think that there should be a willingness to trade eggs amongst Icelandic 'wardens' (lol) annually in order to mix things up a bit.

4) The hens are going to be a different story tho'. Since we need to foster the birth of new birds in order to build the population, my hens will have to remain in some sort of breeding pen at least for a few months each Spring. After that, they can hang with everyone else.

5) If I only had Icelandics, this would be easier...

 

[NotAFarm]

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Hear, Hear.........on that one!!

Seinna, The Other Mary

 

[Happy Chooks]

From what I know in discussions with Mary (and her telling me about her conversations with Sigrid), it is their intention to keep the breeding to pure Icelandics only, not crossing to other breeds. Mary had to work really hard to convince Sigrid that she would keep them pure. Mary now has Icelandics from 2 different sources, as to not inbreed since they are so rare. And being the generous person she is, I don't think any of you will have trouble getting eggs later on.

Icelandics lay white eggs cheryl, so if you have them in a coop with a bunch of colored layers and the Icelandic is your only roo, you just hatch the white eggs and they are pure Icelandic. (assuming you don't have any other white layers in that coop)

Sorry if I'm speaking for you Mary.

 

[The Sheriff]

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Not a problem Kelly. That is why I don't have any roos except Icelandics and the only white egg layers I have are Icelandic. I have a small flock of brown egg layers for fresh eggs for eating. I put icelandic eggs under broodies and remove any mutt eggs they may be sitting on.

Sigrid may show up here and share here experience. I know I plan to house hens from one of my strains for a few days with roos from the other so that I get some gene pool diversity. It will be interesting to get Sigrid's take on it.

Mary