Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[Hurley]

P.s. Going up to pick up a Dickey incubator (woot!). Plan to set all IB eggs I can this year, get some numbers to cull hard from.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

My opinion on penciled vs. barred for "THE" standard - Given that in the accounts barring was not described, but repeated mention of fine pencilings as well as the appearance of what photographs we have, I believe the penciled variety should be what we go for. I don't think fully barred is desirable, but a soft gray thinly-penciled appearance to the hens, breaking up into stippling is what I would like to breed towards. I would not disqualify barring appearing, but it should not be the predominant pattern (like campines), the penciled breast should be universally present.

Obviously we should eliminate autosomal red and gold, but I think there is room to play on the pattern with selection and refinement in breeding lines. I also agree that we need to build the barn first. These birds need more size and vigor, I would cull for small/thin/unthrifty over poor color.

Connie- I totally agree with your opinion regarding the standard.

 

[debs_flock]

Snowpetal- If she does develop some gold, I would encourage you to breed her to a Silver Penciled Rock rooster. Select for silver penciled birds that are marked according to the standard that is being written up and select for willow legs as as dark of eyes as possible. You could then take these F1 babies and breed them to some Silver Iowa Blues when you are able to obtain some. This would give you a nice "base" flock to work with that is devoid of gold leakage/autosomal red.

Just a thought.

Kari has a few of these F1 crosses, as do I from eggs I got from her. from what I'm seeing in my birds as well as Kari's, I'm thinking these F1 birds will make great assets to our breeding programs. Don't be afraid to add some outside blood to improve the birds. The main thing to remember is to select the offspring that resemble the standard the closest. And then to continue breeding for that standard.

Kari may have more to say on this subject as she has more experience on this........

This is key if you are trying to breed away from the gold leakage. I also raise SPPR (and silver campine for that matter). I do have to cull the rocks for leakage and I've seen lines where every bird is brassy. I have to admit, I LOVE the look of SP birds with red/gold leakage (beautiful), but not appropriate for the show table.

I really need to get some updated photos of my small flock of IB (3 cockerels and 4 pullets).

Deb

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Deb- Where did you obtain your stock? And I'd enjoy seeing pics of your flock!

 

[debs_flock]

Six of the birds are from eggs I've hatched from Jim (MrHeinz), one cockerel is a Sandhill bird.

Originally I got some mixed swap eggs from Jim. In the batch there were a couple of IB eggs. One hatched and of course it was a cockerel. I was going to get rid of him, since there's not a lot you can do with one roo. However, he proved to be very friendly and one of my DH's favorite birds. Then I had to start actively looking for something to raise to breed with him. I got more eggs from Jim and hatched a few more.

I had inquired with Sandhill about chicks. They told me they were having fertility issues at the time, so none were available. I had ordered a couple of other breeds and they did manage to include a few IB's. It was not a successful shipment, lost along the way and only one chick lived. The one surviving chick from that shipment was the one Sandhill cockerel that I have.

I'm prepping birds today for a show tomorrow, but next week I'll try to get some updated photos of my small flock of IB's. The two older pullets are just starting to lay, one is SP.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Are you taking any IB to show? If so, get some pics!

 

[debs_flock]

No, this is a specialty show for just seramas. I haven't tried taking any of my IB's to a show yet. As it is, I usually have 25-30 birds with me at each show, at least half of them LF. It makes for a very full vehicle.

 

[karimw]

Deb, do your SPPRs yellow in the sun or will only S/s+ do that? I haven't had mine long enough to know, but they look pure for silver now. Usually with the Iowa Blues it obvious right away if they are split for gold.

That's awesome you live in an area that has specialty shows!

 

[Hurley]

Happy dance!


Just got home after a day of traveling about with the kiddos, including a trip to Port to pick up one of the Dickey incubators...and the 5 tray hatcher...
Really honey, I needed the hatcher, too...it was such a good price!
Came with all the trays (will need to get chicken egg sized holders, he had pheasants) and both have the 5 gallon autofill humidity tray and reservoir, electronic thermostat and humidity gauge, wafer backups.

Got them unloaded, sitting in the basement waiting for me to play basement tetris to find the perfect spot for them after I disinfect them.

Super nice guy had them available, he'd been raising pheasants with them, 1200 breeding pairs or so, he said. They came with the pheasant eggs inserts, so I'll pick up some chicken sized ones and probably can use the pheasant for bantam eggs, huh? DS2 (who is most proud of his Thomas skivvies and won't cover them) helped inspect the new toys.


(Awww, my poor little red incubator in the background was used to thinking of itself as the "big incubator".)

 

[debs_flock]

Deb, do your SPPRs yellow in the sun or will only S/s+ do that? I haven't had mine long enough to know, but they look pure for silver now. Usually with the Iowa Blues it obvious right away if they are split for gold. That's awesome you live in an area that has specialty shows!

Mine have stayed nice and silver. I did cull a few birds for leakage and it was obvious by the time they were 3 mos old. My breeding pen of them is under shade, but I do have a couple of cockerels in my cull pen. That pen gets a lot of sun and I haven't seen any sign of sunburn/brassiness in them. The breeding group in someone else's flock that I saw were in full shade and they were all brassy.

This is my main cockerel, so far he refuses to grow a tail. He has been a VERY slow bird to mature.