Icelandic Chickens

[NotAFarm]

Quote:
Beautiful! Not a single chipmunk? Wow that's odd! Asta is going to be a busy girl!

Yeah, no chipmunks this time........this group is all from Audun and Anna (except for possibly one that may be Asta's-she was brooding her single chick and just started laying when these eggs went in the incubator). Asta will surely be busy with these 10 compared to the single chick she raised last time!!
This brown chick has an eye stripe that is different than any before..it looks kinda like a Zorro mask:

Anna is keeping busy with her 11 chicks.......she is getting some "help" from one of the March hatch boys that has "taken a shine" to her. He accompanies her all day and even calls her and the chicks when he finds a treat. He is one of Ari's sons that I call AJ....he may just be a keeper!!

 

[The Sheriff]

Quote:
Beautiful! Not a single chipmunk? Wow that's odd! Asta is going to be a busy girl!

Yeah, no chipmunks this time........this group is all from Audun and Anna (except for possibly one that may be Asta's-she was brooding her single chick and just started laying when these eggs went in the incubator). Asta will surely be busy with these 10 compared to the single chick she raised last time!!
This brown chick has an eye stripe that is different than any before..it looks kinda like a Zorro mask:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/44049_eye_stripe.jpg


Anna is keeping busy with her 11 chicks.......she is getting some "help" from one of the March hatch boys that has "taken a shine" to her. He accompanies her all day and even calls her and the chicks when he finds a treat. He is one of Ari's sons that I call AJ....he may just be a keeper!!


https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/44049_aj_n_chicks.jpg

Heck yeah, he's a keeper if he helps take care of the babies!

 

[NotAFarm]

Quote:
Okay, you should do that!! We'd love to see pics and hear stories every day!!

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Beautiful! Not a single chipmunk? Wow that's odd! Asta is going to be a busy girl!

Yeah, no chipmunks this time........this group is all from Audun and Anna (except for possibly one that may be Asta's-she was brooding her single chick and just started laying when these eggs went in the incubator). Asta will surely be busy with these 10 compared to the single chick she raised last time!!
This brown chick has an eye stripe that is different than any before..it looks kinda like a Zorro mask:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/44049_eye_stripe.jpg


Anna is keeping busy with her 11 chicks.......she is getting some "help" from one of the March hatch boys that has "taken a shine" to her. He accompanies her all day and even calls her and the chicks when he finds a treat. He is one of Ari's sons that I call AJ....he may just be a keeper!!


https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/44049_aj_n_chicks.jpg

NotAFarm,
The cockerol you indicate as March hatch appears to be undergoing an eclipse molt. Were lower hackles a lighter color just a few weeks ago?

 

[NotAFarm]

This is AJ on June 25. His hackles have been bi-colored for quite some time now. It was one reason I was thinking of NOT keeping him........but he is proving to be a very good protector and since he still young, his coloring will most likely continue to change until his adult plumage comes in. He has his father's beautiful blue lacing but lacks the lighter hackles.

 

[AK Michelle]

That's a good looking boy, and I agree with Mary, if he's going to help with chicks he's a keeper!

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
NotAFarm,

The tips of his lower hackles look decidely rounded like in my birds that undergo eclipse molt. He (your bird) is too young for eclipse molt. The aberration you note is a indicative of some of the rare alleles still within Icelandics that have been lost in most other breeds.

 

[Jake Levi]

Mary my solid Silver girl was that way too, but in the last 2 weeks she has started geting gold lacing around each feather in her cape, it looks like small gold wire rimming each cape feather, very beautiful. Her crest is still the dark silver.

Laree sorry to hear about the coop, any of your chickens hurt?

 

[tazcat70]

Quote:
NotAFarm,

The tips of his lower hackles look decidely rounded like in my birds that undergo eclipse molt. He (your bird) is too young for eclipse molt. The aberration you note is a indicative of some of the rare alleles still within Icelandics that have been lost in most other breeds.

Can you break this down more for people like me who don't completely understand what you mean. Is this a good thing ot a bad thing?

 

[centrarchid]

As with many ducks, the eclipse molt reference means birds (especially adult males) molt many of the contour (body) feathers following peak of breeding season. In roosters it is mainly hackle and sometimes saddle feathers. Those feathers are replaced by shorter, less colorfull feathers that are themselves replaced by the standard colorful feathers during the typical molt we are all so familiar with this time of year. Hens to my knowledge do not undergo an eclipse molt. The eclipse molt in todays domestic chickens is a holdover from their wild jungle fowl ancestors. This trait has been bred out of most domestic breeds.

I think eclipse molt is good. My birds do not deal with visually oriented predators much but the eclipse feathers may be the equivalent of a short-sleeved T-shirt during hot summer months.

I would be very surprized if Icelandics do not have several discernable attributes that helped them survive hard times over the centuries in Iceland. Some of those attributes also likely retained from their northern European ancestors that left no other descendents we recognize.

Red jungle fowl roosters showing typical feathering and eclipse feathering.
Typical
http://redjunglefowl.webs.com/RR.jpg
Eclipse
http://redjunglefowl.webs.com/1776IMG_2364.3.jpg