Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[karimw]

We found this to be true with ours too. We also had some roos that never grew up. At least mine never did. The other roos were fully mature and one little guy just didn't thrive at all. Obviously a rooster, but very hen like in behavior. Not sure what he would have turned into if he hadn't been killed. I know Trish had one like that, not sure what happened with him.
Edited to add photo - you can see the difference in the little guy on the far left compared to the other two roos in the picture.

 

[karimw]

Quote:
I weighed on of the roosters yesterday and he came out to 5 1/4 lbs. He isn't the biggest one I have, but I'd say he's average. Neither one of us enjoyed the experience

On the bright side, I have 12 of 20 chicks hatched a day early! It looks like I may have one of the mocha colored ones in there too.

 

[jakobvanschagen]

I have hatched out two batches myself this year and my brother hatched out one large batch of Iowa Blue eggs.

My first batch had a humidity problem and only 6 out of 24ish fertile eggs survived and hatched. There was only one chipmunk colored chick in that group. That batch hatched a day early.

The second batch is hatching now. The first two were out of there shells 4 full days early. 13 others were also early by at least a day. In this batch there have been 3 chipmunks and 14 black/white marking chicks. More hatching now.

My brother also has a bunch hatching and I don't have an exact count on his yet. Will try to give an update soon as to the number of chipmunk colored chicks in the group.

 

[oldiabird]

I only have the one Ia. blue hen that I got from Steph, and thought that she would never start laying,

she layed her first egg last Tuesday, missed Wed. layed one Th. missed Fri., and hasn't missed a day since, so I now have 7 eggs , I guess she's trying to make up for lost time, 6 went in the batorthis morning, got 9 from La. , today, so they are resting and will go in tommorrow, hoping for good luck this round!!!

 

[karimw]

Baby pics!

I hatched 7 Pure Iowa blues - 1 from my lost flock, 6 from the new flock

Then I have 7 chicks out of pure Ameraucana pullets (1 blue/2 black) and an Ia Blue rooster:

I've got a bunch more collected and I just sent Hurley 3 dozen+ to help her replace her lost chicks.

 

[Hurley]

Got 2 batches of Iowa Blue eggs in the incubator, woot! Hoping for a good hatch.

Here is an updated photo of a couple of the few chicks I have left from the prior batch. On the left was a "chipmunk" chick, on the right was a black chick.

 

[Hurley]

Will be curious to see how the Iowa blue/Ameraucana mixes mature out like.

 

[karimw]

Me too! I adore the puffy cheeks and the EEs I have growing out from the spring and Easter hatches are my favorites. Most are Welsummer crosses and they are ljust ovely!

 

[karimw]

So here's a thought. The original story of the Iowa Blues states that a black hen hid a nest away and returned with a bunch of chicks that looked like a cross between a chicken and a pheasant. Would this mean they would have been the wild type color like some of the brown colored chicks we are seeing? I don't think the black chicks would make anyone consider that was likely. Does this suggest that the brown color chicks should be more desirable?

 

[Hurley]

Probably a stupid question, but lay this niggling at my brain to rest... no chance the browns are the males and the blacks the females, right? Just wanted to be sure and since I haven't raised any up old enough to tell yet, wanted to ask for a couple reasons. 1 - they're known to produce sex-linked chicks when outcrossed according to a few places I've read, and 2 - the chipmunks are turning into silver-headed chicks like the males while the blacks are mostly black with a little lacing at this point similar to the appearance of the female plumage.


As a side note, I've also heard a version of the story being a white leghorn being the hen that came out from under the building, which obviously really doesn't fit well.