Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[Candy442]

Is that counting the Reject hen you guys gave me, or is she from a different rooster? I lost that one hen and then I sold the one cockerel right before I picked her up.

all of the birds you got are from JB so five total then?

JB

 

[trailrider330]

Getting some interesting hatches:

July hatch, only three eggs put under the broody:







Also a strange single hatch that came out all creamy white...now getting some black patches of feathers:
As a 2 week old:


and today:


Has anyone hatched an Iowa that was almost all white? His legs are flesh colored, but one of our smokeys also had that then when they got older, started to be a light silvery color...

Candy,

Did you ever come up with any theories as to what produced your almost all white bird?

 

[Candy442]

Candy,

Did you ever come up with any theories as to what produced your almost all white bird?

The best guess Curt has is that somehow the "Columbian" gene became homozygous with influence from other modifiers

We have had other mostly white chick hatches, but had more black tips and some minor pencilling on them. In my avatar, you can see one of the hens hatched with just a hint of pencilling around the neck. She almost looked like a Delaware, but not one.

This single hatch was all white when born and we could see two little gray dots on his back, he feathered with solid black feathers as you can see in his wings. Very strange! but that is what happens when you have a small pool to breed from. We picked up some hatching eggs that are all from a silver rooster over various colors of hens so come Sept 19th we hope to have some chicks hatch. Fired up the incubator this last Saturday

 

[bigmrg74]

all of the birds you got are from JB so five total then?

JB

OK.

 

[MHoock]

Just posting an update to maybe see how everyone's flocks are doing right now as well.

Our 1 year old & 9 month old Iowa Blue birds are almost done molting and are starting to lay again. Our younger pullets are laying as well. We'll need to wait a couple more months before starting to mate the younger gals, but can't wait to this up and coming mating season.

FYI.....we're in Southern Illinois about 50 miles Southeast of STL.

What stage of molt are the other flocks?

 

[Candy442]

Just posting an update to maybe see how everyone's flocks are doing right now as well.

Our 1 year old & 9 month old Iowa Blue birds are almost done molting and are starting to lay again. Our younger pullets are laying as well. We'll need to wait a couple more months before starting to mate the younger gals, but can't wait to this up and coming mating season.

FYI.....we're in Southern Illinois about 50 miles Southeast of STL.

What stage of molt are the other flocks?

Mine have not started yet. Usually around November just in time for the freezing weather Hope not though I just had an Iowa go broody. Mine are all over a year right now, but I have three 8 week old Iowas that probably will molt in the spring. Some of mine wait until then...

Post some photos for us if you can

 

[karimw]

The best guess Curt has is that somehow the "Columbian" gene became homozygous with influence from other modifiers

We have had other mostly white chick hatches, but had more black tips and some minor pencilling on them. In my avatar, you can see one of the hens hatched with just a hint of pencilling around the neck. She almost looked like a Delaware, but not one.

This single hatch was all white when born and we could see two little gray dots on his back, he feathered with solid black feathers as you can see in his wings. Very strange! but that is what happens when you have a small pool to breed from. We picked up some hatching eggs that are all from a silver rooster over various colors of hens so come Sept 19th we hope to have some chicks hatch. Fired up the incubator this last Saturday

I have had some as well. Pretty, but plan to cull.

 

[Candy442]

I have had some as well. Pretty, but plan to cull.

We were glad to find a loving home for him He was HUGE as a baby and growing like a weed. Real sweetheart so he went with a lady who has all sorts of chicken breeds.

I manage to sell those Iowas to other homes (most will take the off color hens no problem) as "mutt" chickens. I have to maintain a small breeding group and now with eggs from Curt, will have two breeding pens next spring. Both will be one boy over 6-8 girls though.

Brett bought the incubators Curt had and made a quicky round trip to Davenport to meet Curt and pick up. Too bad he didn't have enough time to warn you and the others out that way as well!

 

[karimw]

Hello all, is anyone hatching this fall? I have my incubator running with 60 eggs and am looking forward t seeing what my fall pen will produce. Of course my two favorite hens are broody right now

.

Here are a few shots of the group. One big silver rooster over 7 silver and 3 smokey pullets.








This is Highlander, huge and had a great tail set until I put him in with the hens, then he cranked it up. Huge comb and wattles will eliminate him once the next group grows up, but I like his size and his color.




Highlander's brother Hummer is nice too, but has a lot of white on his earlobes. I plan to put him in with the older hens when they get through their molt.

 

[Candy442]

@karimw

Oh yes! we have eggs we got from Curt in our incubator. Eight out of the nine he collected for us are developing. Also, our smokey girl Turtle is broody again and she is sitting on 3 developing Iowa eggs.

So, around the 19th we should be hearing some peeping coming out of the incubator

Not nearly as many as you have, but come spring we are going to load up the cabinets we purchased from Curt.

Here is a photo we took of some of the flock early summer: Not sure if Brett posted this one yet so sorry if it's a duplicate!