Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[bigmrg74]

Well, you never know It helps when they are old enough to defend themselves at least. Our Iowa's will throw a "head" type peck to another breed at times or the youngsters we integrate, but never see any contact or any blood thank goodness. Good Luck and keep an eye out

wanted to lock the girls up a little early tonight, the buffs were all in the coop, so it was just a simple matter of having somebody there while the big girls were rounded up. Then my black Iowa, who I believe to be the bottom of the old pecking order here, went after one of the buffs and drew some blood right behind her comb. looks worse than what it is, but that Iowa is currently sitting out in the mini coop tonight. The other girls don't seem to bother them at all.

 

[bigmrg74]

Tonight went a lot better when I locked the flock up tonight. The Iowa's were already up on the roost getting their spot picked out, so it was just the matter of getting the buffs into the coop. Think I'm getting through the worse of the integration process with the buffs as they don't seem to be so worried about the bigger girls in the flock.

 

[Candy442]

Just shipped off a beautiful batch of Iowa Blue chicks to Bloomington Indiana area. There were about 8 chestnut chicks, and four silver patterned as well as two darker brown. Total of 14 in all. We had to get them to the post office quickly and did not get a picture of them unfortunately however I hope we have a new breeding enthusiast in Indiana for the Iowa Blue

Also, the last two hatches had chicks with twisted legs. We have never had that until the introduction of the Jamaica line. Has anyone else had hatches where the chicks had twisted legs? We know they came from the Jamaica line because the eggs they hatched from were much smaller than ours.

Sad...three so far that had to be culled due to badly twisted legs. Maybe it is because the pullets are under a year old?

@bigmrg74 Glad to hear the buff integration is going better! It is difficult to add new babies, but they all learn to get along after awhile.

 

[bigmrg74]

Yeah, think it's getting better. Had to lock them up early tonight because of the storm rolling in tonight. Just gotta get that black iowa convinced that they don't really have any plans right now on trying to move up higher on the pecking order. She just might regret that in about a month or so when they're all a little bigger and they all realize that there's six of them and only one of her.

 

[redcreek]

I have 5 iowa blue hen s young 5 months looks great, any 1 have a roster in FL.

 

[Candy442]

I have 5 iowa blue hen s young 5 months looks great, any 1 have a roster in FL.

Wish we did have a dedicated breeder down in Florida I was contacted by a lady in Florida looking for some Iowa's. We are in Michigan, breed Iowa Blues and have mailed eggs/and chicks out. It is pretty expensive to mail out full grown birds (the box to ship it in costs 20 dollars and shipping is added onto that. The rooster itself we can sell for $5.00 to someone looking to breed. Where did you get the five Iowa Blue hens?

 

[redcreek]

Wish we did have a dedicated breeder down in Florida I was contacted by a lady in Florida looking for some Iowa's. We are in Michigan, breed Iowa Blues and have mailed eggs/and chicks out. It is pretty expensive to mail out full grown birds (the box to ship it in costs 20 dollars and shipping is added onto that. The rooster itself we can sell for $5.00 to someone looking to breed. Where did you get the five Iowa Blue hens?
Rural King farm supply I was not sure but my wife said yes there growing on me I like them almost 4 months old

 

[Candy442]

Wish we did have a dedicated breeder down in Florida I was contacted by a lady in Florida looking for some Iowa's. We are in Michigan, breed Iowa Blues and have mailed eggs/and chicks out. It is pretty expensive to mail out full grown birds (the box to ship it in costs 20 dollars and shipping is added onto that. The rooster itself we can sell for $5.00 to someone looking to breed. Where did you get the five Iowa Blue hens?
Rural King farm supply I was not sure but my wife said yes there growing on me I like them almost 4 months old

Would you be able to find out where Rural King gets their Iowa Blue chicks from? I am the Vice President of the Iowa Blue club (www.iowabluechickenclub.com) and there are only a few dedicated breeders of this land race to keep the bird as true to the original colors as possible. This is why I am curious where Rural King ordered their birds from.
Here is a photo of some of our flock. We have all the varieties (silver, charcoal, smoky and birchen) of Iowa Blue, but the "birchen" variety was not a part of the original line from the 1900s. Your picture above is one of a over melanized pattern:
The Iowa Blue is an amazing bird! We love their curious personalities, hardiness, good protection and free range awareness. They mature fast and'
are very smart! You should be seeing eggs soon, usually they start laying anywhere from 24-26 weeks old.

Enjoy these photos

JB, our #1 rooster (charcoal)


Brownie our best charcoal pullet


JB with some of our girls.


Tiny dancer- our best silver pullet


Photos of pullet and rooster from original line. We are trying to get back to the dark gray blue appearance of the feathers

 

[redcreek]

Ty that was help full. good looking birds going to R K Tomorrow is what I can find out. two of mine look like the first pic. 3 are darker like the 1 on the right

 

[Candy442]

Ty that was help full. good looking birds going to R K Tomorrow is what I can find out. two of mine look like the first pic. 3 are darker like the 1 on the right

They are darker than should be, but that doesn't mean you can't coax a light pencil out of them. There was a hatchery called Ideal that sold Iowa Blue chicks in the midwest, but these are all Birchen variety birds and not like the original. It could be someone direct selling to RK, but they are also not selling the correct color if they all are like yours. Some will come out dark even in our flock because of Ideal's mixing of the stock (our birds came from Dark Horse Acres stock and she was breeding Ideal Hatchery chicks---all birchen but since has found some silver pencil and charcoal with selective breeding).