Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[karimw]

OK, finally I have pictures

Here are some of my May 17 hatch. There are 7 pure Iowa Blues, 2 of which have the brown birchen pattern. There are also 7 chicks out of Ameraucana hens and an IaB rooster and 4 poults.

Here is a black and one of the brown birchen chicks - pretty sure a cockerel (right)

The one on the left is the other brown birchen - pullet I think.

Here is a new batch of 8 hatched by a cochin mama:

 

[Hurley]

Photos of my older 5:


The two brown birchens ended up being cockerels:

The other 3 are black birchens and there is 1 cockerel and 2 pullets: (first 2 pics of cockerl)

 

[karimw]

Hurley, those look good! I like the look of the brown birchens. Mine will be very similar I think, but I don't know if the lacing will be quite as heavy on the body. Time will tell!

 

[Hurley]

Update on the 3 older cockerels. The two "chipmunk" chicks turned into these two heavily laced males, the darker one was a black chick.

I love the cleaness of this guy, but obviously way over-laced. Little bit lower tailset, though he can raise it higher.

Better overall patterning than Roo 1, but dislike the brown in the wings. He got picked on a bit young. Overall better proportion of lacing.

Much less lacing than the other two. Curious to see how much his head lightens at maturity. Also has a little brown in the wings that I could do without.


The younger ones are getting bigger and I have two pullets from the older batch that I need to get photos of. Had to move the older cockerels out of the grow-up pen, they were picking on everyone.

 

[enggass]

There may be too much lacing, but I love the look of Roo #1. Nice pics - love to see the pullets...

 

[Hurley]

Yes, I agree, I find Roo #1 the most pleasing overall. The pullets I have so far are pretty dark, so he will probably be a nice cross on them. Will see how the younger ones turn out. Will get some photos from the other pen when I can.

 

[karimw]

Here's an update on my flock. Right now I have about 40 chicks ranging in age from 9 - 13 weeks.
Here are some of the older group.

Heavy laced cockerel and pullet here - I have several of the brown chicks growing up that look like this. This is my favorite type, but not sure if that's what we are looking for. I'm planning to breed these pullets in one flock and the "black" type in another. I do have a couple with the heavy red/brown markings too.

Some of the young flock:

The one on the left is 1/2 Ameraucana. I have a bunch of these too and I like them very much! Most of them show lacing on the breast and wings and I have quite a few blue ones too.

 

[Inkheart]

Beautiful intersting birds! I just read the whole thread- back when as i started in chickens one of my books had pictures of them and very limited info - thank you for all you have put on this thread! Gives me a better understanding of them!

 

[Hucklekree]

I just finished this thread as well and really appreciate all the information and especially the pictures! I've been wanting to get into breeding and preserving a rare breed and have been shopping around so to speak. I'll keep these in mind

 

[Inkheart]

Quote:
Ditto!!!!