Icelandic Chickens

[AK Michelle]

Quote:
What a great way to put it!

Icelandics diversity is not for some. Some people like to have something to strive for. With the Icelandics it is what they are...no improvement needed.

And THAT'S a great way to put THAT!

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
What a great way to put it!

Icelandics diversity is not for some. Some people like to have something to strive for. With the Icelandics it is what they are...no improvement needed.

And THAT'S a great way to put THAT!

Potential Objectives of Breeders with Respect to Genetics
1) Most folks that are breeders of for showing are trying to refine (reduce variation and keep the average around some static ideal form).

2) Those breeding for production are trying to improve (increase production / resource (food, time)).

3) Those breeding to conserve (maintain or increase numbers) do so in a manner that reduces loss of genetic variation without contaminating with genes / alleles from other populations.

It is difficult to target all three objectives above. The ALBC promotes such. Efforts with Icelandic chickens fits squarely with objective 3) which is at odds for parties interested in showing or economic value related to productivity. Wildlife folks I work with also interested more in objective 3).

 

[AK Michelle]

Quote:
And THAT'S a great way to put THAT!

Potential Objectives of Breeders with Respect to Genetics
1) Most folks that are breeders of for showing are trying to refine (reduce variation and keep the average around some static ideal form).

2) Those breeding for production are trying to improve (increase production / resource (food, time)).

3) Those breeding to conserve (maintain or increase numbers) do so in a manner that reduces loss of genetic variation without contaminating with genes / alleles from other populations.

It is difficult to target all three objectives above. The ALBC promotes such. Efforts with Icelandic chickens fits squarely with objective 3) which is at odds for parties interested in showing or economic value related to productivity. Wildlife folks I work with also interested more in objective 3).

I'm so glad you pointed this out.

They are very different mindsets, and each needs to remember the other is not wrong, just different.

 

[Jake Levi]

Interesting discussion here, typing on a forum is an inexact medium so I have to remind myself often to cut slack instead of shooting first and asking later, as some may recall,

Centrarchid brought three very major points up on the directions most people on this forum have, and I think most of us agree that the folks on this thread are major concerned with preservation of the Icelandic Chicken as a resource of rare and unusual genes. We also have a ball watching and interacting with our chickens, I know that I do, every day !!

Thats a big reason why we all are concerned about maintaining the purity of our stock, they truly are an unknown quantity genetically, Iceland is a small country with a small science ag center, and they are the ones I give the most credit to, so to be doing any crossing with them is to contaminate a very unusual and limited gene pool. There is a great deal that we dont know, and the knowledge is going to come out like peeling layers of an onion, a bit at a time. There isnt going to be a big mass of info dumped out at one time. Its going to take time and study.

When I first read of them, here on this forum I was immediately fascinated with them. Being isolated as long as they were is itself unusual, there are older breeds in the world, but, those have been continually exposed to other genetics added in, the govt of Iceland has been very strict against letting any other imports into the country for hundreds of years, a great many of the breeds currently in the American standard only date back to strains of the early 1900s. The Icelandic was at that state a 1,000 years before !

Eventually we will know what the close timeline is, until we do know differrent I accept the 800s-900s as their likely introduction to Iceland by Norwegian settlers.

Having read and enjoyed the Iceland sagas, and those of Norway I know a little bit of life back then, it was hard, cruelly hard, nothing we in our cultures can remotely relate to. I am fascinated at a Breed/Landrace of chickens that could survive in a country that had very little grain production ! How many of our current modern breeds can do that ?

We are just beginning to crack open the door to peek in at this Chicken that fascinates us so much. I know that inevitably we will exert selection pressures, I myself prefer rose combs, so, to guard against losing another trait I am keeping a SC roo also. I am trying to keep multiple different roos to breed on a flock basis to keep as many of the genes that are in my flock as I can, while also starting other interested folks with them.

The learning about the Icelandic Chicken is probably going to take many more years then I have, but, in the meantime I am going to enjoy learning what I can and sharing it with others. I know of several other traits that I dont have, and hope to add next year. And by then I will probably be looking for others. Its a long time thing pursuit, just of finding out what we have.

Time to go out and hobnob with my friends of the cluck persuasion.

Life is good ! And Better with Icelandic Chickens and Goats !

 

[Oldhound]

Okay folks this is a question, not a challenge. If an average person reads about Icelandic chickens , how is this person to know if birds offered are True Icelandics? What are the identifing features of these chickens that set them apart ? It seems to me that by removing them from the isolation of their island home that their purity is in jeopardy. Disreputable people will sell mixes when they can get away with it. People die, their heirs may or may not know or care about chickens, the deceased's Icelandics and genetics can be lost . Many years ago a long time friend and poultryman was at a livestock auction. He saw a crate of chickens and knew what they were, a high quality flock of a rare breed. He bought them and still mantains that breed. Years from now could someone do the same and save a flock of Icelandics?

 

[oshun55555]

I am fascinated by these chickens, do they all lay white eggs and how much do Roosters and Hens weigh at maturity (avergage weight)? They look to be about the size of Leghorns I have raised. This is a giant thread and have read it through but must have missed the wieght. One of the main reasons I am so interested is on .. the farm when I was a teenager (50 years ago) my grandparent took me to my grandmothers anscetral home in kentucky, they had some chickens that they called bantams, but they were every color under the sun, some had topnots and some no nots. I took several hens and a couple roosters home with me, those chickens continued to throw such a variety, my favortite hen was had a chocolate body and a yellow topnot. I had them for about 10 years and they slowly disapeared to predators. These are the closest thing to those "bantams" I have seen as far as diversity in a race of chickens.

 

[Jake Levi]

Denise I was going to mention earlier but it got left out, your chicks are very pretty but take it from me that they are going to be changing daily from now til they look very different from what you see now, keep them as friendly as you can, I sit on a 5 gal bucket in my run and often have several at a time on my lap or shoulders, they can get a tad spooky if they are far ranging all of the time and have little or no contact. You are going to be surprised just how beautiful that they will be.

My two favorite pullets sit in my lap and eat from a bowl, spoon or my hand, I want them to stay this way, the 3 bigger roos now also come in close, it makes it so much easier to work with them when they are this quiet. Just like puppies. The more that you handle them the better. All the flock will be within a 6' circle around me for treats, thats the way I want it.

Re to eggs, they are white, rarely a bit off white, definitly not brown. My first pullet started off with smalls and is now a small medium egg 3 weeks later. In size they are comparable in body to a Leghorn, which when one thinks about it is an environmental selection factor, great size took more food , and size wasnt needed for the relative mild climate along the coast. In the interior it would make sense for the flock to share quarters with the sheep and cattle. So a small chicken had much more survival ability then a bigger one. They range usually 4-5 lbs, a few ozs either way. About twice the size of Bantams. Again, on an island where grain wasnt available to feed a farm flock they became excellent rangers.

Reading the thread is a real plus, I have read it through twice, takes awhile but each time more info comes through.

Life is good, and Icelandic Chickens and Pack Goats make it better !

 

[Mahonri]

I would venture a guess that my two mature Icelandic hens are a tad smaller than my Pearl White Leghorn, one lays a very white medium sized egg, the other a slightly off white medium egg, much smaller than Leghorns. The 8 month old roo that I sent off to slaughter (because he wasn't getting the job done) was probably right around 4lbs and the hens are smaller.

I am now keeping two roos with my girls they aren't mature yet but one is crowing. Dexter is a gorgeous wheaten looking single combed roo that REALLY knows how to crow. Blau is a mostly blue roo with a rose comb. I have blonde hens, almost black pullets, some part blue pullets, some blonde with red and a reddish wheaten looking pullet.

I feel that Mary and Kathy and others have been very selective in who they give hatching eggs to. I believe we all have the desire and goal of keeping the blood pure. I can assure everyone, that I have never incubated an egg that is crossbred to Icelandic. I have a "Stella" (an Easter Egger) in with my Icelandics, but her eggs have never been incubated and have always gone into the eating cartons in the fridge.

I feel confident that the eggs I got from both Mary's and Kathy are pure stock. I'm going to keep it that way.

I may in the future get some eggs from Lyle and from Lisa if they become available, just to continue to add variety so that I don't get tempted to work on a single combed blue bird.

I think most of us on this thread are working toward similar goals.

 

[allmychickens]

They are amazing!

 

[NotAFarm]

Took these pics of Anna and her brood last night. Yes, I see the comb and budding wattles, Jake: note the rose comb on him! Some of them are obviously not ready to leave Momma..........

....while this little girl seems to want to hang out with the older kids!

Yep, she's in the barn rafters, about 11 feet off the ground. She's been up there the past two nights.

Here is Asta with her brood in the "Trash Can Broody Nest"

It had two broken handles so I cut the can down, cut a door opening and put the lid back on (to protect them from the "bombs from above").
You can see the dog crate on the right that I use for a broody box. I have cardboard along the sides for privacy and so the newly hatched stay with Mom. I also use a "deflector" over it when it's occupied.