Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[karimw]

Quote:
This is good advice, but I don't have any that look like either one of these

I guess I need to find some Silver Sussex to cross?

 

[mrheinz77]

What about a Silver Dorking?

 

[karimw]

Quote:
I don't know much about them but the pictures I found show a LOT of red on them. One site even claimed 5 toes???
Most of the silver greys I've found show brown on the females, the silver sussex included.

 

[Myabcs3]

I'm thinking that Chookschic meant those as examples of base coloring and pattern to work towards?

For some that have had IBs for a while - is there documentation of what the ultimate color and pattern of black chics versus brown chics? Karimw commented that the browns seem to feather with blotches of red and gold, but is everything else okay? Do they all do it or is it hit or miss?

Isn't there some linkage between the chic fluff and the ultimate color/pattern of the bird?

Sorry to be throwing more questions!

 

[karimw]

My theory on the Iowa Blues goes back to the folk lore that they originated with a cross between a Pheasant and a chicken, so they should be brown.
What we have seen in the cockerels born brown is big splashes of solid red on their wings. This is a separate trait from the gold tint that shows up where they should be silver.
Here is one of my original roosters and you can clearly see how much yellow he has. You can actually tell if they have this when they are born, especially if they are black. The tips on their wings will be yellow if they are carrying the gold gene and more white if they will be silver. Even the silver ones will turn yellow in the sun though

What I want to see is this:

He is young, but at this age his saddle and hackle is still pretty white. I need a more current picture of him, he truly is lovely.

 

[karimw]

I borrowed this picture from Hurley who posted it earlier on the thread:

This one shows the bright red spots we are trying to avoid. If you go back the some of the earlier posts on this thread you'll see some good examples of what we are getting.

 

[karimw]

This is one of my cockerels born brown that was loaded with silver lacing:

Sadly he died before I could tell if he would show red

 

[ChooksChick]

Okay, there is a general sticky on other sites that discusses chick down coloring and what the genotype is- that is to say, the genetic make-up of that bird. Phenotype is the term that refer to what a bird LOOKS like, whereas genotype refers to what is in there that will come out in future breedings.

Because we're looking at a whole enrichment project and improving a breed back to its original intended 'standard,' we should focus on the genotype and cull to avoid the bits we know need to be removed, such as the mahogany and the gold.

That being said, the lacing of the chest and the striping of the hackle and saddle can be preserved and improved independently, and culling the brown chicks seems to be the easiest way to remove the undesired traits right off. The brown chicks seem to have the wrong base color, and that may allow the desirable traits to be more apparent.

Here's a chart showing what chick down indicates at hatch:

NOW- if you are looking for a Silver Pencilled, which is what that multiple pencilled hen is closely resembling, then the brown base would be a good indicator because it can be that you are looking for a Partridge base at the e locus. I'm at the depth of my knowledge here, though, and think it's time to call Henk69 in to help out on this...

 

[karimw]

So given that my chicks have more of a pattern than the eb and less than the ebc we maybe have some combination? I'm going to ID the ones that have the definative markings and see what they turn into compared to the rest. I will also tag the silver tipped vs gold tipped black ones, though I'm pretty sure that's a fairly common identifier. I'll do some documentation photos and post them.

 

[mrheinz77]

Melissa Rose had one hatch from me that looks eb from her picture. I am new enough to the chicken genetics that I am unsure what each results in.