Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[IowaBlueCurt]

Dan,

Tough pics! I like the looks of rooster 3 and 1 the best myself. I'm not a super huge fan of the rangy build, but he could fill now a lot more in the next few months. It looks like you've got some large size going on there. Great opportunities!

Brett,
Junebug looks to be filling out quite a bit. He's got some nice color for a charcoal male. A little more white than needed, but overall he's coming along nicely.

 

[WVDan44]

here's a couple pics of our 7.5 month Charcoal boy :


Nice looking cockerel. Hope he turns out to be what you are looking for.

 

[ottbjumper06]

here's a couple pics of our 7.5 month Charcoal boy :





Brett,
I love this boy's type! Do you know his approx. weight offhand?

 

[ottbjumper06]

Curt,
The February newsletter was wonderful. Thank you for putting it together!

I'm very excited for this year as this will be the first year I'm using mostly stock that I've hatched myself. The size aspect continues to be a small issue in my hens. My 7 month old girls are much rangier than what my original birds were at that age. I'm hoping to bring in some new blood to see if that helps.

It would be my luck that the 1 EE I've kept around as a pet is the only hen that is laying! My IB girls seem to be taking a hiatus from laying LOL. I guess I need to do some tinkering with my timers....

I hope everyone is having a great start to 2015 and their flocks are doing well!

 

[bekkanblue]

The newsletter is AWESOME! I'm still reading it, I love that! Not a one sitting scan but a real sit down and read it kind of newsletter! Thank you thank you! And thanks to everyone who decided we all get to still be active for another year. Jan went by so fast, I figured I'd be booted for forgetting to renew.

My IA girls are laying up a storm, and have been for quite a while, but I don't have them divided up yet so aren't hatching anything. Have one EE rooster who might be getting lucky, tho' for the most part he stays with the EE/layer flock and the IA boys stay with 'their' girls. But I'd like to know which eggs come from which IA rooster at least so will hopefully pen them up this week in 2 groups. Ideally I want to pen the girls individually and rotate the roosters but that might be more intensive than I can manage and still have the girls able to be out and about between laying eggs. I *really* want to know which egg from which rooster *and* hen tho' to track things here at the start but we'll see. First step is to get them penned with a specific rooster and then wait while they 'detox' a couple weeks! Which works because my little bator is full of Jaerhon eggs for another couple weeks. I'm trying not to get another bator, while pretending not to keep an eye on craigslist..... : ) Tho' I did order an IncuKit to try and turn an old mini fridge into something useful... but that doesn't count right?

 

[ottbjumper06]

The newsletter is AWESOME! I'm still reading it, I love that! Not a one sitting scan but a real sit down and read it kind of newsletter! Thank you thank you! And thanks to everyone who decided we all get to still be active for another year. Jan went by so fast, I figured I'd be booted for forgetting to renew.

My IA girls are laying up a storm, and have been for quite a while, but I don't have them divided up yet so aren't hatching anything. Have one EE rooster who might be getting lucky, tho' for the most part he stays with the EE/layer flock and the IA boys stay with 'their' girls. But I'd like to know which eggs come from which IA rooster at least so will hopefully pen them up this week in 2 groups. Ideally I want to pen the girls individually and rotate the roosters but that might be more intensive than I can manage and still have the girls able to be out and about between laying eggs. I *really* want to know which egg from which rooster *and* hen tho' to track things here at the start but we'll see. First step is to get them penned with a specific rooster and then wait while they 'detox' a couple weeks! Which works because my little bator is full of Jaerhon eggs for another couple weeks. I'm trying not to get another bator, while pretending not to keep an eye on craigslist..... : ) Tho' I did order an IncuKit to try and turn an old mini fridge into something useful... but that doesn't count right?

I would be interested to see how your mini fridge experiment turns out! Do you keep lights on your birds? No matter what I try during the winter I can never seem to keep my girls laying.

 

[bekkanblue]

I have the coop light on a timer but the IAs aren't always IN the coop at night. Sometimes they stay in the barn, or the tree outside the coop. If it's super cold they'll go in the coop, otherwise not so much. So the light is mainly for the other hens. My IAs are first up and last to bed tho', and I am a little farther south than you are - maybe we get a little more light naturally. I'm getting more IA Blue eggs from 6 hens than I am from the entire laying flock of 14 or so. I do think there is a hidden layer flock egg cache somewhere tho'. And I know there's a possum around that might be well fed with a very beautiful coat from eggs and the ACV water in the heated bowl. <sigh> One thing about snow blown into the barn, you see the tracks really good!

 

[ottbjumper06]

I have the coop light on a timer but the IAs aren't always IN the coop at night. Sometimes they stay in the barn, or the tree outside the coop. If it's super cold they'll go in the coop, otherwise not so much. So the light is mainly for the other hens. My IAs are first up and last to bed tho', and I am a little farther south than you are - maybe we get a little more light naturally. I'm getting more IA Blue eggs from 6 hens than I am from the entire laying flock of 14 or so. I do think there is a hidden layer flock egg cache somewhere tho'. And I know there's a possum around that might be well fed with a very beautiful coat from eggs and the ACV water in the heated bowl. <sigh> One thing about snow blown into the barn, you see the tracks really good!

I have family in SE Iowa near Burlington, and I wish it was as warm here as it is there right now! We got hit with a snow storm last night and had a two foot drift in front of the coop this morning and the snow is still coming down

.

 

[bekkanblue]

If it helps, we're getting his with the same storm and it's snowing here too. Slushy stuff and the drive to work will take extra I'm betting! Took twice as long last night (an hour and a half!). I'm always surprised at the temp differences in this state between the SW/NW/NE/SE parts. You guys have had a tough winter, we've had a pretty mild one up till last night. Reading the newsletter makes me want to run out and get everyone separated! But I have to go to work.

 

[karimw]

My birds aren't much interested in being outside today.

The ones inside are having fun though.








First hatch of the year.