Iowa Blue Chickens - Understanding The Traditional Type

[ottbjumper06]

I really like the cockerel that came out from one of the chestnut chicks. What are we going to call these?

 

[ottbjumper06]

Ok, it looks like I have a decent picture of mine from about a week ago. These guys are 3 months old.

 

[WVDan44]

Ok, it looks like I have a decent picture of mine from about a week ago. These guys are 3 months old.

These are very nice! I haven't gotten an sp cockerel yet. My hatchings are running 2 or 3 to 1 birchen vs sp and I have only the mealy darker version which I guess is from Ideal stock. I'm salivating to get my hands on the traditional line. I just hatched six more birchen and 4 sp and I notice the sp (pheasant colored) are lighter in color than the first hatching where I got only one sp hen. I'm looking to buy eggs or chicks from the traditional line if you or anyone you know has some available for sale.

 

[ottbjumper06]

I believe Denny Johnston is still hatching out chicks. Mine should be laying by winter if you want to wait until then. I'd be happy to share with you I'm going down at the end of the month to pick up a young cockerel from Denny.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

ottbjumper06, your pullets are looking great. They've got some good size to them as well. I'm excited to hear how the weights are coming along on them.

As far as what to call the color types.....there is nothing set in stone, but here's what traditional breeders tend to use, and in my opinion I think it all fits real well;

Traditional Color Types-
The brown mottled chicks grow up to be called Silver
The solid chestnut chicks grow up to be called Dark Silver (But keep in mind here, that some of these will look exactly like a Silver at adulthood, so sometimes "dark" silvers aren't all that "dark", but rather it signifies what they looked like as a chick and gives the breeder/potential owner an understanding of it's genetics).

Off-Type Colors-
The black chicks grow up to be called Birchen
The yellow chicks with black stripes grow up to be called Silver Grey

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Dan-

We'll get you hooked up with eggs...hopefully it won't be too long. Denny has chicks right now, but can't ship them, however, he may be able to ship some eggs if you want to get ahold of him. Go to the IBCC and under the breeder directory you can find him - Denny Johnston.

Emily (ottbjumper06 will probably have eggs next for you)

And mine will be laying right in the dead of winter so shipping will have to wait until spring, but we can get something worked out!

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Ok, it looks like I have a decent picture of mine from about a week ago. These guys are 3 months old.

One thing I particularly like about these pullets is the nice even pigeon-grey color that they have. If you view them from a distance of say 20 yards, they'll have a nice blue-grey look to them. What is required to get that nice even coloration on the pullets/hens is to get the black and white markings as disorganized as possible. The more organized the color is (example, intricate lacing, barring, etc.) the less blue-grey they will look. They will look even more blue-grey when the sun is shining on their sides than on their backs like in this picture. But overall, a great group of pullets with nice width and depth of body!!! Even though they are only 3 months old, you can already see the fullness developing in them.......it'll be exciting to watch them develop. Thanks for posting.

 

[WVDan44]

Go ahead and send me Denny's contact info but keep me on your list as well. I also want to work with Curt as much as I can because he has really stood up and put it all on the line for this breed and I respect him for it. That said, it never hurts to have several contacts. In a few years, I may also be a good contact for all of you as we strive to maintain that hybrid vigor that is now in jeopardy

Regards,
Dan.

 

[WVDan44]

Dan-

We'll get you hooked up with eggs...hopefully it won't be too long. Denny has chicks right now, but can't ship them, however, he may be able to ship some eggs if you want to get ahold of him. Go to the IBCC and under the breeder directory you can find him - Denny Johnston.

Emily (ottbjumper06 will probably have eggs next for you)

And mine will be laying right in the dead of winter so shipping will have to wait until spring, but we can get something worked out!

Hey Curt, thanks for the info. I don't know how I missed this post earlier but glad I saw it at the last minute. I'll look him up and give him a call.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

As we study the tradtional type, sometimes we come across things that are very different from what we are experiencing on a large scale today. One of these areas we've talked about already, and it concerns the chick down coloration. I thought it would be helpful to share some exerpts from our historical archives concerning chick down color. Each of the individuals had raised the birds prior to outside genetic influences;

Kent Whealy (Who rescued the breed in 1989) - About half of the chicks were solid chestnut brown. The other half also had light yellow, horizontal stripes on their cheeks, a light yellow triangle under their beaks and chins, and two black stripes down their backs. In other words, they looked like pheasant chicks! (This description of the "pheasant chicks" describes a brown mottled chick).

Michael Moore (Who's grandfather created the breed, parents only raised Iowa Blues, and only raised Iowa Blues himself for 40+ years) - brown colored; sometimes a little mottling was present.

Glenn Drowns (Who has been the sole link between the past and present. For over a decade his flock was the only known flock of Iowa Blues) - The perfect color is a light chocolate brown with a small amount of mottling. If you get that, that chick will carry the perfect color as an adult. Anything else will be off colored as an adult. If you get a whole hatch that is that color, I will personally come and visit your flock. That’s how hard it has been to produce the right color.

Phil Roe (Who obtained his stock from Kent Whealy) - The vast majority of the chicks hatched were a solid chestnut color (just like Kent's description of the chicks), only a small minority were of a different type.

Bobby Lewis (Who obtained his stock from a gentleman who got his start from Kent Whealy) - Silvery brown like a mink coat.

From what we can gather from these accounts, not only was the majority of the chicks a solid chestnut color, but the prefered color was solid chestnut. For those intersted in breeding the traditional Iowa Blue would do well, I believe, to aggressively seek to purpetuate this trait in their flocks. The unfortunate thing is that very few lines produce this chick down coloration, and in very limited numbers at best. I would encourage breeders to pair up chestnuts at any opportunity possible. (At the moment I'm aware of only 6 chestnut birds! So you can see we've definately strayed from the original type by quite a bit.) I'm sure others exist out there, so if you have them, breed them! This project to restore the original type is a work in progress and will take a few years to get our flocks breeding true to traditional type. Glenn is currently producing a few chestnuts in his flock and so is Denny Johnston. At the moment I don't believe they have any available, but hopefully next year, they will be more readily available.

*****If you happen to have only one bird that was hatched solid chestnut, put it over a Silver Iowa Blue and not a Birchen. The Birchen may look closer in color pattern but will dominate the chestnut and everything you hatch will come out black. Instead put that bird over a Silver and you will get some to hatch out both solid chestnut and some brown mottled.*****