Iowa blue chickens any information?

[countrygurl]

I was flipping thru our chicken breed book and they caught my eye and I was wondering if any one had any information on them. How many eggs do they lay a week? How many eggs do they lay a year? Are they good winter layers? any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Goose and Fig]

This is from Sandhill's site:

Iowa Blue: Gray penciled pattern, pale brown eggs, medium to moderately large single comb with six points. Please note that these are not a blue chicken. Developed near Decorah, Iowa in the early 1900's. The breed was in desperate need of new blood and I have been working for the past few years to introduce new blood. There is still a slight possibility of an off-type bird. Chick color will range from a warm cocoa brown to black to an occasional mottled one. This breed is a somewhat seasonal layer of pale brown eggs. They go in spurts. When not broody, we get lots of chicks and then all of a sudden they go broody and we get nothing. These are not recognized by the APA Standard. They do not have yellow legs. They make a nice breed for someone who wants a good forager which will set on eggs. (UNAVAILABLE FOR 2010)

I heard that they were developed using Marans and something else. There were a couple threads about them, but information is pretty limited.​

 

[countrygurl]

Thanks for the info. : )

 

[Long Horn Poultry Farm]

Hi countrygurl

There is a old story on how the Iowa Blue was developed. A White Leghorn hen went broody under a building and when she emerged with a clutch of chicks, they were like none anyone had seen before. Some of the chicks were colored solid chestnut, but others looked like pheasant chicks, with light yellow, horizontal stripes on their chins, and black stripes down their backs. Old-timers familiar with the breed would tell the tale that the birds were sired by a pheasant. There are others that say the Campines and Plymouth Rocks probably went into its development.



There is a breed by the name of Norfolk Grey from England that is very similar in size & color to the Iowa Blue. It is said they were created by crossing Birchen Old English Games and Partridge Wyandottes.








Long Horn Poultry Farm