Iowa Blue rooster temperment?

[IowaBlueCurt]

Not a goofy question at all. The original Iowa Blue was a silver penciled bird. They differed from say, a silver penciled rock in that the silver penciled lacing (on the hen) started on the breast and blended into a stippled pattern as the pattern progressed to the tail. This stippling did two things on the hen. First it disorganized the black, gray, and white markings on the feather, and second the fluff on her backside turned a steel gray color. From a distance (20 yards ish) the hens look every bit a blue hen with a white head, one only realizes that they aren't a blue hen when they get close to the bird. The other unique feature to the breed is that instead of a green sheen on the fleathers (particularly the greater sickles, lesser sickels, and wing bow on the male) there is a beautiful teal-blue to cobalt blue sheen. Some of that distinct sheen has been lost in our current population, but we're seeing some fantastic developments in this area with this year's young birds. All of my young birds have a teal-blue sheen and I'm hoping with continued selection my birds will possess the coveted cobalt-blue sheen in short order.

The birchen Iowa Blues came on the seen decades after the silver penciled variety was created. The breed club recognized both varieties with a preferrence on the silver penciled as it was the original. When we put forth a standard for the silver penciled, we decided to establish a standard for the birchen as well. Our standard calls for the birchen variety to exhibit the blue sheen as well. Obviously, the birchen hens will not look blue from a distance.

Hope that answers a few questions! If you have any more, give a shout out.

 

[Felix1]

Yes it does...thanks.

 

[countrydream7]

heard someone say they are gamey do u find this to be true

 

[countrydream7]

do u find iowa blue chickens to be gamey tasting that's what I hear

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Not in my opinion, I think it tastes like any other home grown traditional type chicken. Definately more flavor than a Cornish Broiler, but tougher due to the active nature of the bird. But that goes for anything that is active. However, I don't eat a lot of chicken, so take it with a grain of salt!

 

[Chickadee-23]

@Iowabluecurt Is my rooster a Iowa blue or some mixer of one, this is the good of pic i can tke hes not to good humans do to the fact someond fight him when i got hes was beat up bleeding, i felt bad hes happy now, he trust me just not enough to get close to him heres the pic

 

[Chickadee-23]

Heres another pic of him:

He roams free with to other roostets, they freak out when they are closed in, so i let them free range. Thanks

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Chickadee-23 Thanks for the pics!

My best guess is that no, he is not an Iowa Blue. Two things in particular about this fella signal to me that he's not a purebred. 1) He exhibits a white pied pattern on one of his sickle feathers and 2) His white/pink legs and toes.

With this guy, any combination of breeds could be used to produce his looks so it makes it mard to really pin point what's in his background. Overall, it's safe to say that he's not an Iowa Blue, but could contain some Ideal line Iowa Blue genetics in his background.

Hopefully that will help you out somewhat. If he was used as a fighter he could have some birchen game in his background........just a thought.

 

[Chickadee-23]

@Iowabluecurt Thanks, hes sometype of game mix, he came with 2 others & their a game mix breed i dnt knw if hes was used for fighting or attack by a dog, the guy i got him from doesnt know much about them other than he said their gamecock roosters, the other 2 i found out are game mix to, so he probably is i just cant find his color online in game breeds tho, is why i asked, but thanks for info

 

[kristi83]

Told this was an Iowa blue. Pretty rooster.