On the serious side of Icelandic chicken owning, I wanna run this by ya's.
I had someone ask me why anyone would be interested in chickens that dont breed true and wouldnt they just be mutts? They need to be inbred for a standard and culled to that standard.
My 1st response was
But then I realized that as a steward of Mary's Icelandic Project I needed a better response...lol.
So here is what I wrote:
For us, that is exactly the opposite of what we want from these particular birds. There is a preservation program being put together by some of the folks who imported this breed. One of the main credos for the Preservation Program is NOT to breed them to obtain a standard.
The whole point is keep them as they are in their native country where natural selection has produced the 'best' birds. Best being defined not by color or size but rather by ability to survive and thrive in a harsh, unfriendly environment.
Iceland being an island is self contained so the genetic mutations that have caused the differences in comb size, color variation etc actually become a standard of sorts. If you have 6 Icelandics that all look the same then you probably dont have Icelandics
Taming and standardizing isnt the goal for the Icelandic chicken. It is the preservation of a species as it stands, not as 'we' would have it be.
And for me personally... I love variety. The excitement of watching them hatch and turn into individually unique birds is my favorite part.
So.... did I do good?
