Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[ottbjumper06]

Love the way your silvers are coming along, very nice!  Are you going to show these?

Hatch was not great, but thanks for asking!  I shipped 13 chicks, 11 Iowas out to the state of Washington on June 18th.  Buyer is thrilled with them and they all arrived in great shape!  They got one silver and the mulberry one even though she wanted only birchen's and smokeys.  I just didn't get the birchens I thought I would this hatch.

Total of 17 hatched out of 27 eggs.  So, I got two silvers, the two charcoal chicks, two mulberry colored chicks, five solid birchens, and three smokeys out of this hatch.

I have 36 more eggs for the hatch to start incubating this week. 

I kept two charcoal and the late hatch silver that was just out of the shell when I had to rush the chicks to the PO.

I "see" your "addiction" and raise you another incubator full of eggs!    

I have yet to have any Iowa's go broody. I have just one broody and that is my Delaware.  I hope some of the Iowas get the trait. If not, the three my Delaware is raising hopefully will ingrain the desire...although I think both of the "charcoal" looking chicks are cockerels and the silver is looking like a pullet but she is so small..

Don't worry about the Silver chick. She'll most likely catch up with the others.

I am planning on showing these assuming I can get them in condition. They currently have broken feathers from the rooster. We'll see. If nothing else my pullets are looking pretty good too. I'm planning on showing at both Mason City shows and hopefully the state fair this year. Maybe the EIPA show as well.It really depends on how they look.

Thrilled to see you're still hatching out Charcoals! I'm planning on having a pen next year purely for my own enjoyment and I hope to have all the original colors in it.

Are you planning on doing any showing this year?

 

[Candy442]

Don't worry about the Silver chick. She'll most likely catch up with the others.

I am planning on showing these assuming I can get them in condition. They currently have broken feathers from the rooster. We'll see. If nothing else my pullets are looking pretty good too. I'm planning on showing at both Mason City shows and hopefully the state fair this year. Maybe the EIPA show as well.It really depends on how they look.

Thrilled to see you're still hatching out Charcoals! I'm planning on having a pen next year purely for my own enjoyment and I hope to have all the original colors in it.

Are you planning on doing any showing this year?

I am not planning on actually taking any birds to show, but Brett and I are looking to have a display showing photos of the birds at one of the largest shows of poultry here in Michigan in October. Thank you for calming me down about how tiny "Tiny dancer" is. She is very small, about half the size of her cocoa sibling! She must be a trooper though, she is still hanging in there with the others and hasn't been abandoned yet. I will look forward to hearing the results of your showings

 

[iamfivewire]

our Smokey cockerel lookin' pretty nice so far (from march 19th hatch):

 

[iamfivewire]

Started up the incubator & set 39 eggs tonite - 31 IaB & 8 EE. We'll see what we get in about 20~21 days. Hopefully a better %age than the last time.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

our Smokey cockerel lookin' pretty nice so far (from march 19th hatch):

Rolo is a great looking fella. He's big! And that's a huge plus. I like how wide his leg spread is as well as his color. Don't be afraid to use this guy just because he's a Smokey. He will no doubt be able to out show most of the Silver males I've seen......

 

[Candy442]

Rolo is a great looking fella. He's big! And that's a huge plus. I like how wide his leg spread is as well as his color. Don't be afraid to use this guy just because he's a Smokey. He will no doubt be able to out show most of the Silver males I've seen......

Thanks Curt...

Don't forget he is half smokey half silver

too! We are pretty excited about Rollo although he does have that AR showing on the wings. He often is in "crow" mode so he looks more leghorn in the picture, but he does have some "brick" to him. He is taller than Gandalf now and has those beautiful slate silver gray legs.

I hope Brett posts the pictures we took of June bug (a cockerel! ) Cocoa (also a cockerel) and Tiny Dancer (we think a pullet at this point-silver). All three have the silver gene in them.

I would love to hear your thoughts. You felt June Bug is a birchen, but remember he had a dark brown head? he is starting to develop the same laced breast feathers that Nat had at the same age... . When you see the pictures of June Bug, let me know if he looks like he is developing like a typical Birchen cockerel.

Also, Cocoa, who you though had the perfect coloring for a charcoal at birth is getting slight laced feathers on the sides of his breast.

Please let us know what you think of those three from our second hatch.

Also Flap from the first hatch is a Birchen pullet with no patterned feathers on her neck at all. She just has that mossy pattern on her back. Should we use her? I can have Brett post a photo of her as well. Hope he is reading the thread.

 

[iamfivewire]

the Tiny Silver


junebug




Cocoa

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Candy and Brett-

Your silver looks great for color. I especially like the wild face markings!

Now to Junebug. It's hard to say how he'll turn out. If he were a pullet that was this marked then we could safely say it was charcoal, however, Birchen colored males can look like this at this stage. The "nail in the coffin" on this boy will be whether or not he develops a stippled patter in his wing where the white triangular "duckwing" is located on the Smokey and Silvers. The short answer....he could develop like a Birchen or Charcoal at this point. It's too hard to tell until that stippling settles in or not.

On Cocoa, he was hatched the right color, so you should be golden on him. Keep us posted on him as he develops. The couple that I had, developed a little more brown on the feathers, but it could just be the lighting in the pics as it's really hard to capture the color of the chestnut chicks as they feather out.

Concerning your Birchen pullet with the mossiness.......I'd put her on Rolo as he's got a lot more white on him. You'll probably spit out a few more Charcoals that way.

 

[iamfivewire]

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Actually, if this is the "lady" in question, she's much too dark! There will be an overload of melanizers in her.......it'd be best not to use her for breeding. My opinion anyway....