Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[ottbjumper06]

From what I was able to see, 13 out of 19 eggs are developing. Yep, it sucks a lot but for $12 an hour I'm not complaining too badly ;-).

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

I've reached out to Texas A&M about genetic markers...haven't heard back yet. But I've been thinking this morning, that sometimes maybe it's better not to know than to know. The mystery of the Iowa Blue history gives the breed a whispy, mysterious romanicism that would be lost if it were proven not to exist...........

What is everyone's thoughts on this? Maybe leaving this one untouched would be better?

 

[Hurley]

I've got peeping in the incubator.

My lone egg that developed from the first handful of pullet eggs I set hatched out a pretty little silver penciled chick.

He'll have some brothers/sisters in a week or so as all of those eggs are developing, but for now he's a lone cheeper. The boys will spoil him rotten, like the last "Baby Kevin" we had.

 

[Hurley]

Interesting photos of the chickants/pheasens. Sure could see some features of our breed coming down from such a cross, huh?

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

I have a clutch due tomorrow, pretty exciting. My wife called to say I had 4 external pips already! Fantastic. I'll keep you all posted on how they turn out!

 

[Jake Levi]

I know it can happen, I'm just not sure why someone would do it on purpose? I suppose it would certainly build in the natural survival behavior we see in our birds. It would be interesting to see about the genetic markers.

I would be wondering about the fertility of the F1s. Most such crosses have fertility issues in the males.

Right at this time I think that we are getting into enough numbers of the breed that any such purposed cross wouldnt have enough to offer to do it.

Those are attractive birds, but I like what we have much better.

Good luck on the clutch Curt !

 

[WVDan44]

I've reached out to Texas A&M about genetic markers...haven't heard back yet. But I've been thinking this morning, that sometimes maybe it's better not to know than to know. The mystery of the Iowa Blue history gives the breed a whispy, mysterious romanicism that would be lost if it were proven not to exist...........

What is everyone's thoughts on this? Maybe leaving this one untouched would be better?

Mysterious yes, and now that freakin' pheasant legend now has some teeth.

Maybe save it for later on...no need to rush. Some of you hard workers barely have time to enjoy your birds. I would be okay if you let it rest for a spell, but if you pursue it I'm okay with that too.

Genetic markers as a project can be expensive; at least that's what a dog club found when paying a university to ID them in a breed of canine, plus it took several years and a lot of fund raising. I don't know if that's what you have in mind or not or if I'm missing the boat.

 

[Hurley]

Looks like the Poultry Hatchery doesn't really care that they are ripping off photos and representing them as their own. I emailed them asking them to remove this photo from their site. For one, it's my photo of my bird that they've plastered their name on. For two, they've altered the photo to remove the red / gold influence on the bird, enhancing what it looks like. For three, it's still not a very good representation of the breed, with squirrel tail, frost bit comb, and lack of lacing.

On second thought, maybe I should be happy that's what they are advertising. Who'd want to buy from them if that's the best representative of """their flock""" that they could find.

I loved the bird as a pet, but he was NOT kept for his contribution to the breeding pen.



Here is Bart, my old birchen cock bird. Guess I made it easy for them, having him pretty much on a white background.

Really hate that I have to do it, but my photos will get watermarked from now on. I'm just amazed that after they had one of Kari's photos up and were asked rather politely not to steal photos that they took it down and immediately put up another stolen photo and planted their watermark on it. What's the point of that? To ensure no one steals your stolen photo? It just amazes me.

 

[Hurley]

My youngest pair of birds is growing up. I thought that I had a cockerel and a pullet, based on color and size difference young, but I'm still not seeing much comb development and they are half grown. Here are the pair now, about 2/3 the size of the big guys. This one is certainly going to be a looker, regardless. Getting nice and big. Reminds me of a bald eagle right now.

 

[Jake Levi]

Connie that really sucks about the PH, I wish there was an easy way to slam them.

BTW, thats a very nice watermark !

To my eyes they look like pullets, regardless, I'll gladly give them a home. Really beautiful birds.