Icelandic Chickens

[BoldogKennel]

Ah! Now were getting somewhere!

Hopefully someone will come up with the info requested by the last poster!

centrarchid, your stuff is really interesting. After reading your post, I'm surprised that dogs and wolves and dogs and coyotes, etc, can breed and be fertile! I guess about the only wild "dog" that won't cross with a domestic dog is the cape hunting dog.

Off the topic slightly, I have enjoyed reading many many accounts in really old (i mean WAY back) gamefowl magazines of the horrific fights that went on between those who believed a pheasant and a chicken could breed together and those who said they could not. The old Irish guys said "yes they can" and the young bucks said "no they can't". One person even offered a substantial reward for anyone presenting such a beast at a bird show. And, of course, it CAN be done, though it is incredibly rare. (And the offspring are not fertile).

I'm curious about your research with sunfish... is it genetic research?

 

[Braclin]

Quote:

I'm confused! What does breeding dogs with coyotes and Irishmen breeding pheasants to chickens got to do with Icelandic chickens? Is there some connection i'm not seeing?

 

[BoldogKennel]

If you have been following the posts? I came here curious to see if there were any serious type Icelandic breeders here who could help me research the "uniqueness" that some claim for these birds. I have heard that they were "isolated" for the past 900 years on Iceland, and priimarily I am curious how this one species can retain such a diversified appearance when other populations move toward "type". For instance the sheep, dogs and horses on Iceland all faced the same challenges and presumably the same lack of selection by their breeders/and/or Nature, however they all look and breed VERY much to type. That got into a discussion about the supposed genetic isolation of these chickens, and how they differ from other populations,which would make them very valuable! Have you not wondered about this yourself?!!!!?? Now we have someone knowledgable discussing how species with differing numbers of chromosones (i.e., Icelandic chickens and other chickens) can breed and not produce "mules" like muscovy and mallard or pheasant and chicken.

There, I just saved you reading the last three pages!

Still hoping some references will be forth coming. In the meantime I'll go check my chicken's diapers...

 

[Jake Levi]

Right, you now have only 777 pages to go, give or take,

Believe me it is well worth the effort.

Re the hardcore scientific info, it is going to be awhile, meanwhile our own observations are where we are at. I can discuss chromosomes too, and have, my favorite freshwater fish is the Lepomis magalotis paltastes. One of the sunfish family, the Longeared.

But I dont on here because most folks here are not farmers but just as the forum is named Back Yard Chicken breeders . But it is a great resource.

And referring to other species and their genus does help to put things into perspective, Wolves and Dogs have the same DNA and are the same species with each a subspecies. This overlaps with other canis members, Coyotes for instance .
Some subspecies have diverged sufficiently that crossing with others in the species is more difficult.

Whether a species can successfully breed with another is the chromosome count, if they match its doable, if they arnt, but close you usually get a sterile offspring, if anything, with an odd number chromosome count that prevents them from being able to pair chromosomes from each parent. This gives rise to the mules which is also a term to name any animal that is sterile from two similar but different species. Sometimes its just one sex of the first cross which is sterile, such as with Bison and Cattle, crossing produces first cross (F1) bulls that are sterile, but the cows can backcross to either parent, in sucessive crosses the bulls become fertile as the chrosomes pair up in the offspring. This happens with many species, breeding domestic cats to Servals, Carracals, or Bobcats does produce fertile females in the F1, but sterile males, in successive crosses the males will be fertile.

So, lots of differences, and possibilities. My approach here is much the same as others on this thread, to build a sustainable flock and learn as much about them as I can while waiting for the Ag Dept in Iceland to be able to devote enough study time to the Icelandic Chicken to teach us more about them. Now they also have the imported commercial strains of broilers and layers to support in their work. They are a small agency and only have just so much in resources, it will take some time.

In the meantime I am sold on them just for the beautiful creatures that they are, they are to me worth existing just for who and what that they are, as information comes forward it is welcomed, and it will all build.

There are several articles in the back pages here, I forget which, perhaps someone can mention which pages that they are but they are excellent and well worth reading. I have picked up a lot from reading the whole thread, twice and am about to start it again while I get ready for a major move west.

But to me, life is good, and with Icelandic Chickens and Packgoats it is better !!!

 

[NotAFarm]

The Icelandic website is www.haena.is/ It is in the Icelandic language and if you don't speak it, you will need an internet translator, which does not do a very good job but is better than nothing.

This is a copy of the email I received when I asked about information on the Icelandic being "crossbred" and the genetic uniqueness of them:

"I don´t know if there are crosses in US, but they are not here and I´m sure Sigríður Thordarson has no crossbreeds.


It happens that this in one of the oldest (if not the oldest) known breed in the world, brought to this island in the middle of the Atlantic ocean somewhere around the year 900.

We had a new DNA test done this summer, but t he results are not all in,- I´ll see if the new DNA resurch is in English when it´s ready.
The older DNA on the Viking chicken here in Iceland shows that 78 % of their genes are only found in them.. no other chickenbreeds.


There´s not much on this breed in English (maybe that´s why ths discussion is on)
There´s an article in the Practical Poultry Magazine issue 28 july 2006"


Sigríður Thordarson is who The Warden (Mary) got her starting flock from.
I could not find the July 2006 issue among the back issues available online, if someone does, please post the link here so we can all read it.

 

[NotAFarm]

Here are a couple of pics of Anna out ranging with her brood. She takes them out under the fence that connects our side yard with the chicken yard and then all over the place. I couldn't find her the other evening and finally saw her up along our property line at the neighbors. They have a "bag a bug" trap for Japanese beetles that hangs on one of those low garden sign stands. She and the chicks were "camped" out there, catching the beetles as they came to the trap. Wish I would have had the camera with me. My neighbors are very tolerant (of course, I try and do everything I can to minimize the noise near them and prevent anyone going over there and messing around their gardens, etc) and love watching the chickens but especially her and the chicks. What a great Momma she is!!!

And here is a close-up of "Quail girl"..........what I call the little one that likes to sleep in the rafters with the big girls!

 

[daisychick]

Hi all!

I love keeping up with this thread. There is always something interesting to read and of course I love all the pics of everyone's beautiful Icelandics.


On a non-chicken note, I love Mary's blog and her recipes! Mary, I made fish tacos last night for the first time ever using your recipe and they were a huge hit at my house. Soooooo good!

Have a great day everyone.

 

[Jake Levi]

Michelle I keep meaning to answer your post on the turkey nests and keep sidetracking myself,
happens a lot it seems

My Wishard turkeys ranged like the Icelandics and I found nests literally everywhere, the place they liked the most was in a hay manger,

finally I did what a friend did and used truck tires stuffed with hay, milk crates were only used by the
Wyandottes or Muscovys.

Some did use the tires, others nested in the haymow. I saw some once at a friends that used a bath tub that had been a water trough.

Good luck with them,

looking forward to seeing pics of your barn.

 

[LarryPQ]

My turkey likes to cram herself into the mini-doghouse and lay in there. Otherwise it is the cabinet nesting boxes, or in my husband's Jeep.

 

[AK Michelle]

Quote:
Cabinet nest boxes

Laree have you been holding out on me?