I had a fantastic Iowa Blue weekend!!!
Saturday was kicked off by heading to Glen Drowns place to talk Iowa Blues with him and I see his flock up close. While his breeder flock is small, he is building up his numbers to make this breed easier to access next year for his customers. Two things that really caught me off gaurd.....1) They were HUGE! His cockbirds weighed a little over 10 pounds and his hens were 7.5-8.5 pounds! Incredable size!! 2) He has a hen that looks like W.C. Fenton's hen his the newspaper clip. Very white front half, darker back half. I was thrilled to see her in his pen! I'd never seen one in person before that possessed that coloration! I also saw that some of his young stock possessed this coloration as well. Glen also shared a deep desire to select his breeding pen to our Silver Penciled standard as proposed. He wants to get himself lined up with the club. That was great to hear.
Sunday started out early to make a trip to Dennis Johnson's flock on the opposite end of the state. He obtained his stock from Glen last year and so I was excited to see what his birds looked like. I was pleasantly surprized! His birds were even bigger than Glens. 9 pound hens and 11 pound cockbirds were not out of the question here! He had a couple of nice (and very large) SP cockbirds! Also, he has a hen that looks like W.C. Fenton's hen with the very white front half. Also, he had a young trio (one cockerel and two pullets) that were born a chocolate color that he sent home with me to work with. Super excited as I haven't hatched out any chocolate chicks that were pullets, everything I have is a cockerel. Fun experimental breeding lies ahead! I also brought back some chicks and another young cockerel that is very white on his front ( I suspect he is like the light colored Fenton hens........time will tell). Dennis was a fantastic guy to talk to and I enjoyed my time with him immensely!
So, what did I learn from all of this? A few things. Firstly, that our birds can obtain a much larger size than we previously thought. And they are very majestic in their size. Interestingly enough, they still maintained their aggresive breeding and hawk fighting characteristics even though they were so large. Generally one thinks of things getting gradually more docile as they get larger. This was not the case with either flock. Second, there are many color variations that are coming out. What's exciting is all of these variations were known to exist within the breed at one time but hadn't shown up until now. The club will have further work cut out. We have a standard for the Silver Penciled and the Birchen. We know that the Silver Penciled was the original color type, but that many others existed alongside the Silver Penciled. The club will have to decide whether to select for or against this other types. With the breed so low in numbers, one would be inclined to stick to the two types already recognized, and perfect those. And I think we need to keep a strong focus on those. On the flip side, each of these colorations outside of the two recognized colors are unique to chickendom and are only found within the Iowa Blue. What I find truely amazing about this breed is that even colorations that are within certain "families" (ex. Silver Penciled and Birchen), they vary greatly from what the typical coloration is for that family. Just compare our Silver Penciled Iowa Blue to Silver Penciled Rocks for instance. They are VERY different and unique. So too are these other off colorations. I plan on working with these colorations as side projects to my Silver Penciled breeding in order to help discover what's happening geneticly with these interesting variations. Below are some of the variations that I'll be working on (keep in mind that some of these types don't have a color designation, we'll have to come up with something to describe them) -
Silver Duckwing
The Penciled Birchen (Chocolate Colored Chicks ( I now have 2 pullets and 4 cockerels to make breedings with) which are born with chick down signifying them on the ER base, but are developing with a unique penciled pattern. Especially on the pullets, however I do have a cockerel with this heavy penciling as well).
The White Duckwing colored hens like Fenton's old stock
If anyone has an interest in working with these additional variations as side projects, please reach out to me. The numbers are VERY low, so only dedicated individuals please. I don't have any to offer right now, but by next spring I should have some of each of these variations to set up some nice satellite flocks.
