Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[Jake Levi]

Here is a bit of an update on my 3 week old IB chicks. Curt, I tried to find the chick you wanted me to tag from a previous pic and I was able to narrow it down to these 4. Hope you enjoy .

Beautiful chicks and very nice growth on them ! They look really at home ranging in the grass !

 

[Hurley]

Set my first small batch of eggs from the new flock. They are pullet eggs, so who knows if they'll be fertile yet, but it's what I have to play with right now. LOL That'll be it as the producing ones are now in coops and I don't want Big Ben marring their beautiful plumage this close to the show. They are starting to get used to the coops, and aren't complete wild children when I open the doors now. In fact, Fiesty Birchen let me pick her up today with a minimum of fuss. Big Ben is still a snot, mostly just running amok when the door opens. His feathers are not going to be pristine, I fear, but he will be handleable by next weekend. They got some leftover tatertots and a bit of pop tart with breakfast this morning. We'll see if that sweetens their feelings towards the big scary person coming to get them. Hehehe. Both girls gave me a lovely egg this morning, so they must not be too stressed.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Emily-

Your chicks are coming along beautifully! Their color looks good and I like the look of their fine barring at this stage. Very nice. Did you find the information on this post about the Silver Duckwing Iowa Blues? If not, PM me and I'll see if I can help you out with that.

Connie-

It sounds like your birds are adjusting well to their coops and are starting to figure out what is expected of them! haha Looking forward to our first meet and seeing the Blues in the showroom.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Emily-

Your chicks are coming along beautifully! Their color looks good and I like the look of their fine barring at this stage. Very nice. Did you find the information on this post about the Silver Duckwing Iowa Blues? If not, PM me and I'll see if I can help you out with that.

Connie-

It sounds like your birds are adjusting well to their coops and are starting to figure out what is expected of them! haha Looking forward to our first meet and seeing the Blues in the showroom.

 

[ottbjumper06]

Curt-
Thank you! And yes, I did find the info on the SD coloration you posted. Is it safe to assume it's not a recognized variation because it's not mentioned on the website? I'm also seeing the word "Icelandic" popping up here and there on this page, is this another variation or a another breed entirely? Thanks!

Jake-
Thanks! I really like them, they have such personalities. I can't wait to see how they look when I can tell the genders, and what their adult weight will be.

Emily

 

[Hurley]

The silver duckwing pattern is one that has been noted to pop up in sandhill and Kari's lines, instead of the ER (birchen) or eb (partridge/brown) melanin pattern base, silver duckwing is based on the wild type e+, presumably, given the salmon breast and the yellow downed patterned chicks.

The Icelandics are another free range type of breed, smaller, very variable in appearance, I believe the history goes that they were brought to Iceland by the Vikings and over the years adapted to free ranging in that colder climate.

 

[Hurley]

Got up this morning with the plan to head out and process all the chickens (i.e. vaccinate, treat against mites/lice, blood testing)...yeah, just finished now (3:20pm). It took forever, but it was worth it as the boys "helped" with everything. They caught up a good 2/3 of the chickens we were working, chased the big chickens out from under everything so I could catch them, watched ever so carefully as momma applied the "medicines", and otherwise had a good time watering everything else with the hose.

Phew, time for breakfast.

Next up, put together a Dalek cake for Tyler, it's his 3rd birthday and he loves the Daleks from Dr. Who. "Ex TER min NATE!"

 

[Hurley]

Dalek cake went over HUGE, I think Tyler wanted to take it to sleep with him tonight, but momma had to be mean and put it in the fridge.

Here was the cake before it was destroyed by two very enthusiastic boys...


EXTERMI-CAKE!!!

 

[debs_flock]

That is adorable, good job!

 

[ottbjumper06]

So technical... But great information! Thank you guys for tolerating my beginnerness, it's much appreciated! So when you say e+, eb etc, are these genotypes?