Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[IowaBlueCurt]

Here's some fun pics of some of my three month old chicks. You can see they are coming along nicely. For those who are new to the breed, this is not what the adult plumage looks like as it will be darker in some areas on the males and a little lighter in the head on the females. But overall they are looking very nice.

Silver Penciled Iowa Blues Cockerel-



Here's my favorite young rooster. Another Silver Penciled Cockerel. Look at how full his tail is. Good looking fella.







And some shots of my two older pullets.....First up is my nice round headed Silver Penciled Iowa Blue pullet. She's also fuller in the body as well.




And my "scrappier" Silver Penciled Iowa Blue pullet. She's got a more pointed head, but her color is fantastic. I think she'll develop a whiter head than the pullet above.






Here's a close up of her breast. You can see the beautiful pattern begin to take shape. This will change as she gets older, but will still carry a similar look.

 

[Jake Levi]

Real eye candy Curt Wow !!!

Keep it up !

Makes me stand by the incubator windows tapping away and sending 'hurry up' thoughts!

Waiting is such a wait.

Just about a week from today, but, alas no Iowa Blues yet, not until about the 13th or 14th.

How much caffeine can one take?

I'll lt you know.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

They are good looking birds! We have Kari to thank for that!!!

I know what it's like to hang around the incubator just waiting..........the suspense sure can take its toll on a person! hahahaha
I'm excited to see how your hatch turns out Jake. How many IB eggs do you have in the incubator at the moment?

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

An intersting observation about these two cockerels is the narrow single white lacing that completely surrounds the greater sickels. I'll be curious to see how this plays out in the next couple months when they shed these feathers and develop thier adult plumage. Also, I expect to see the breast on both of these males to fill in much darker with the white being replaced by black laced with white. Their backs and developing saddles are coming in a nice silvery white. I hope to see that develop into a prodominately silvery white area. I prefer the cocks that have the silvery white "mane" that flows heavily into and across the back, ending with the saddle, producing one smooth color flow from head to saddle. (Like what we can see in Phil Roe's cock). We'll see how close these guys get to that.
Combs are coming along quite nicely. Very straight and devoid of any side sprigs. Great leg color so far. I don't know if you can see from these pics, but the cockerel on the top has darker eyes than the cockerel on the bottom.
Kari- I think the top cockerel will have a "Rex" tail, what do you think?

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Connie-

Do you know the details about SOP admittance? I've heard two conflicting stories, both from members who have admitted birds into the standard before. Walt mentioned something about having to show the breed for 5 years before we could have a qualifiying meet with a requirement that the breed needs to be shown only once per year. Glen Drowns and Christine Hienrich (SPPA secretary) both said that you have to show for at least two years, attend two shows each year, and you must show 2 pullets, 2 hens, 2 cockerels, and 2 cocks at each of these 4 shows within that two year timeframe. So, we've got mixed requirements going on here. I was wondering if you had the details already about with way is the "correct" way to approach the SOP. What else seems to be in question (and I haven't gotten a solid answer yet) is how many breeders are required to bring stock at each of the pre-admittance shows as well as the qualifiying meet.

Also, has our Standard been supmitted to the APA yet? I thought I heard that our standard has to be submitted to the APA before our shows "count" to the years needed before the qualifying meet. Do we currently know who would be our final authority on these numerous details?

These were some of the questions Kari and I were discussing on Sunday. If you have those details that would be great! It would save Kari and I some extra work.......

 

[karimw]

Quote:
I'd say yes - big tail You have some really nice boys there. They each have something to add!

 

[Hurley]

I sent an email to Walt with our finalized standard and the most updated historical archive document. This was the response from Apr 23, that I emailed out to the committee:


I have looked it over and I don't find any glaring mistakes. I will wait to get feedback from the Committee. Can you send me some pictures of this breed that represents your written standard fairly closely? An 80 degree tail is very close to a 90 degree tail (DQ) but I don't know if this will be a problem or not. If that is the way they are it shouldn't be a problem. You need the birds shown for five (5) years by five individuals before requesting a qualifying meet. I have asked pat Horstman the APA secretary to give me the costs.

Walt

I do not believe anyone has sent them photos. At the time I had none to contribute and feel mine are still rather young for his request.

I also have not received an answer from them regarding the expected cost of petitioning.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Awesome Connie! I didn't know if we had gotten any further than that or not. I know that Kari was wanting to do a "photo shoot" with her birds to hopefully get us some good pics of good examples of the breed. From what I gathered, it sounds like the process for admittance could be quite different than what Walt shared. Kari now has the APA President's contact information and from what I understand, he's been very active getting breeds admitted into the SOP and is the final authority when it comes to admittance process. She'll be getting in contact with him soon and hopefully we'll have some "final" answers on what it will take for us to get the breed into the SOP.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Thanks for getting that information in for us Connie!! And Kari, maybe when you're talking with the APA president, you can put a little "push" on the petitioning cost and see if we can get an answer on that too......

 

[Jake Levi]

Hi Curt I have 12 eggs in the incubator right now from Kari, and hope to get some more in a month or so, right now its full with those 12, and some Icelandics and Delawares, both of which I will be incubating more of also. The goal is to wind up with 10-12 hens of each breed, with two roosters each and probably one or more backups, the other roosters not having been selected for breeding will go into the freezer, with some notes on final weights and ages. So hoping to have 3-4 roosters of each. And notes on another 3-4 culls to the freezer.

Re the application, if, there are a number of people involved for the requirements I suggest sending out a group letter with each knowing who else is being asked for the same information.

Ditto kari providing reference photos for the process.

Jake