Iowa Blue Chickens!

[OSUman]

the game farm drop ships from ideal for some things.

 

[RhodeRunner]

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Thanks, it is nice to know that yours don't feather peck. I really hate that habit, but thankfully haven't had many issues once I started free ranging.

It is funny that they call them Iowa Blues when they are more of a Birchin color type.

Are they good flyiers? We do have a fence about 4 ft high, and it is a larger area, so that should help. But, from what I hear they seem like they are lighter birds.

The avg. cock is 7lb. and hen 6lb.
This isn't a true blue bird, despite its name. Head is silvery to white. Neck and upper breast have white feathers with a slender black stripe down the middle transitioning to black feathers with white lacing. Lower breast, body, legs, wings, and tail are bluish black to gray with penciling. Male back and saddle are similar to neck. Female back is bluish to gray with penciling.

They produce sex-link offspring when used in cross-breeding programs.

Hope this helps a little.

Neat!

 

[Rare Breeds]

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Thanks,

It turns out that Sandhill, Ideal, and DarkEggs.com sell Iowa Blues. From what I have heard Ideals are darker. Does anyone know if this matters? I have ordered from Ideal before, and have found their breeds to be very wonderful, or completely dreadful. So I am a little hesitant to purchase these from them, but I also am feeling the same way about Sandhill and DarkEggs as I have never worked with them.

Next spring I plan to order 25 chicks from Ideal Poultry & 25 chicks from DarkEggs Hatchery. Out of these 50 chicks I will pick the ones with the best birchen plumage pattern.

 

[bespoke.imports]

Every one seems pretty short on Iowa Blue photos so I'll contribute mine. My birds are all out of Ideal stock originally. I've been very happy with them. They eat anything that moves, lay more eggs than I can use, and grow to a nice size quickly. I hatched most of these birds in June and ended up with 3 hens and 4 cockerels. I'm keeping the hens but getting rid of 3 of the cockerels.

I would like to get some of the Sand Hill strain to cross into them so they don't get inbred.

Extraneous roosters looking for new homes.

The new top rooster.

The lovely hens.

The youngsters this summer.

 

[LiLRedCV]

FaceBook has a group dedicated to the Iowa Blues (I started it!). There are pics of my IB rooster and IB hens there if you're still interested. All were purchased this past spring (2011) from a feed store in Graham, WA. Not sure where they got them from tho', but I can ask.... I have 1 IB rooster and 8 IB hens. They can easily hop a 4ft tall fence when inclined! They're great free-range birds. Smaller than my other gals of various breeds.

 

[tiki244]

The rooster is very pretty, but the hens are just black?

 

[angie3881]

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I couldn't find it.

 

[mrheinz77]

The hens are supposed to at least have some silver penciling but there is mossiness since other breeds were crossed in to increase vigor. There is a group of us working on the breed. I should have eggs available in a couple of weeks.

 

[LiLRedCV]

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The hens do have some penciling - some more than others. I just haven't been able to get the ones with the more dominate penciling in pictures yet. Will work on that!

 

[LiLRedCV]

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I couldn't find it.

Should be under Iowa Blue Chickens. It's a "community" page.