Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[mrheinz77]

Kari hatches lots of Iowa Blue and culls hard.

 

[Hurley]

Hello all,

Haven't been around for a while, this summer zapped a good portion of my flock, horrendously hot. The Iowa Blues fared the best, though, tough little birds.

I've currently got 2 cocks, 4 hens, and 14 or so juveniles growing up. Can't wait to see how they mature. Think I'll collect up one more batch of eggs to incubate for December and will cull out this summer.

Hope all goes well with everyone.

Snapped a couple photos of some of the IBs just now while checking for eggs...

"We are not amused to have our slumber disturbed."

 

[Hurley]

And Kari, those "Iowacanas" are looking great. I wanted to make some of these this spring, may just have to hit you up for some instead!

 

[karimw]

Karimw,

They look great! Thanks for posting! how have you gotten to your current results? Just hatching and culling for certain traits? Or have you had to borrow traits from other breeds?

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with the direction they are going. I haven't introduced any outside traits yet but I do have some Silver Penciled Rocks from Dick Horstman I may start a side project with. I'd really like to introduce some better size, laying ability and clean up the penciling on brown variety. I will still keep my pure flock though.

And Kari, those "Iowacanas" are looking great. I wanted to make some of these this spring, may just have to hit you up for some instead!

Thanks, I just love them! They lay beautiful eggs and have just the coolest personalities. I sold all but 4 mine, but I have some new AM hens and an extra Iowa Blue roo I'd like to put them with this spring. Glad your flock is doing well!

 

[Hurley]

Thanks, I just love them! They lay beautiful eggs and have just the coolest personalities. I sold all but 4 mine, but I have some new AM hens and an extra Iowa Blue roo I'd like to put them with this spring. Glad your flock is doing well!

I loved my Ameraucanas, the eggs are just so pretty. My side thought was they were also quite large birds, how fun would it be to start a side project using black (or silver if I could find them) Ameraucanas to work towards a bigger Iowa Blue that lays blue eggs, but select back towards the IB traits (i.e. select out the muffs/beards, pea comb, etc.)

Like you, I have also considered bringing in SP Rocks to beef them up, but don't have room for too many projects, so thinking I'll focus on two flocks, pure IBs and "Iowacanas".

 

[karimw]

I have read that pea combs are linked to the blue egg trait. All my colored egg layers have pea combs, though some of my brown egg layers have pea combs as well.

I have a few F2s - AM/IaB hens crossed with an Iowa Blue roo, The pullets mostly look like black Iowa Blues, some with muffs, some with pea combs. The cockerels were gorgeous, but I couldn't justify keeping any. I'll be curious to see what you come up with!

 

[Hurley]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7413575

Yes, looks like they are significantly linked, which means it is more difficult to get the traits to separate...however once they do and you get a crossover at that site, you can perpetuate that line of blue egg linked to "not pea comb" just as tightly. Sounds like your brown egg laying pea comb birds split the trait, so you got the pea comb without the blue egg. Harder to select for the other way around since you have to grow them up to see what they lay, but my plan will be in the F2 to save back all straight combed hens and look for "the one". I know that the majority statistically will probably lay brown eggs, but it just takes one to lay a blue egg to use to start the cross again, this time with blue "linked" to straight combs. Take that blue egg laying straight combed hen back to an IB cock and should get 50% blue egg layers in the next generation and can go from there to work towards homozygous blue egg genes.

I like the Ameraucana for a cross on theIBs as they already have black legs (a difficult trait to get back, from what I hear), they have nice temperaments, I have ready access to them as Wayne Meredith (who have some very nice show stock) lives roughly 10 miles from here, his birds have the size and nice feathering to promote a nice quality bird, and I'd get a kick out of having blue egg laying "Iowa Blues"...tickles my irony bone to have a non-blue chicken named blue that lays blue eggs.


In my Iowa blue pullets, I've certainly seen a split in size, with some fairly small and scrawny, others nicely filled out and plump. I'll be keeping these big bodied females to produce my next generation and try to select away from the "runt" gene. Looking forward to the next year and hoping to swap some stock to bring in a little more genetic diversity. I also need to work towards shedding the gold influence in my guys. I would love to eventually have a pure silver breeding group. I just find them more attractive.

We'll have to plan some sort of an IB meeting/get together in 2013. I've got family in IA, so happy to drive to where the rest of you are.

 

[Hurley]

A couple photos from today.


The pair are my favorite cock and hen together. Love the body on the hen.




The cock by himself




And just a cool image with a little photoshopping out of the background...

 

[karimw]

He definitely looks pure for silver! I like that hen too. We put up snow fence today so I missed the good light for pictures.

The yellow legs are one of the reasons I don't want to go to heavily with the rocks. Their legs are bright yellow. I am now getting the brown chicks with dark legs, so it is possible to get rid of the yellow.

 

[Hurley]

Mmm...I think the photo washes it out but he does have just the faintest cast of color to his saddle feathers. Not sure if that's just exposure to elements or gold shining through. The other adult cock I have definitely carries gold. Photo below of "Black Bart". (The one in the previous photos I've dubbed "Silverman".) OK, not so original with the names, but hey. He's my backup, but next year's eggs will be from "Silverman". We'll see what develops in the young ones, too. I've got 2 cockerels/3 pullets in the older 5 and have 8 undecideds that are 3 weeks old. Looking forward to a ton of chickies next spring. Finally got my incubator fixed up. This summer had the heat source go out at day 18. Different "hatch" had the fan quit out on me late in incubation. Soooooooooooo, now the bator is equipped with 2 fans and a ceramic heat source. Did well for the last two hatches, roughly 70% + hatch rate. I'm still perfecting my technique.


"Black Bart"