Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[IowaBlueCurt]

If anyone is interested in showing Iowa Blues (or any breed for that matter) at this show, please feel free to reach out to the EIPA Secretary or myself and we can get you a sign up sheet!

 

[Hurley]

Ugh, my girls all look featherpicked around the neck currently, everyone is in full moult. It's not looking food for me to show anything, harrumph.

Hope to get to see everyone there, though.

 

[ottbjumper06]

Ugh, my girls all look featherpicked around the neck currently, everyone is in full moult.  It's not looking food for me to show anything, harrumph.

Hope to get to see everyone there, though.

That's not good! All of my Ameraucanas save one are looking like pin cushions with all of their new pin feathers coming in. Hopefully the IB girls wont start until AFTER the show, lol.

 

[Candy442]

It appears the SP cockerel I got from Jake has wry tail...unfortunately. So, no breeding for him

 

[ottbjumper06]

It appears the SP cockerel I got from Jake has wry tail...unfortunately. So, no breeding for him

I have quite a few SP cockerels growing out right now. In a few months I'm going to be thinning down and would have something to offer you then. Where are you located?

Also, in Ameraucanas it's not uncommon to have cockerels with wry tail because of added testosterone and feather imbalances, so a wry tail is not considered a DQ at shows in that stage of the bird's life. Your boy may grow out of it

 

[Candy442]

I have quite a few SP cockerels growing out right now. In a few months I'm going to be thinning down and would have something to offer you then. Where are you located?

Also, in Ameraucanas it's not uncommon to have cockerels with wry tail because of added testosterone and feather imbalances, so a wry tail is not considered a DQ at shows in that stage of the bird's life. Your boy may grow out of it

I appreciate those words of encouragement. He is young IaB(I am thinking 17 weeks at this point-just started with a real raspy pathetic crow At times he does hold the tail upright, but it does lay to the left normally. Otherwise, he looks wonderful with his head, legs spread nice, he doesnt seem to have any other issues. We are in mid Michigan. We are planning on coming to the EIPA show the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I would like to see how the Iowa Blues are judged and get to know the breed much better.

I am pretty upset with this as Jake's entire hatch probably holds the recessive for wry tail. I believe there is only a slight chance (25 percent) that any of the girls are pure non wry tail as opposed to 75 percent do have the recessive.

I don't know a lot about this genetic situation or how common it exists among the breed. Trouble is, you are not able to know that a normal appearing cockerel or pullet even has the recessive until it shows up in the offspring.

 

[karimw]

I appreciate those words of encouragement. He is young IaB(I am thinking 17 weeks at this point-just started with a real raspy pathetic crow At times he does hold the tail upright, but it does lay to the left normally. Otherwise, he looks wonderful with his head, legs spread nice, he doesnt seem to have any other issues. We are in mid Michigan. We are planning on coming to the EIPA show the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I would like to see how the Iowa Blues are judged and get to know the breed much better.

I am pretty upset with this as Jake's entire hatch probably holds the recessive for wry tail. I believe there is only a slight chance (25 percent) that any of the girls are pure non wry tail as opposed to 75 percent do have the recessive.

I don't know a lot about this genetic situation or how common it exists among the breed. Trouble is, you are not able to know that a normal appearing cockerel or pullet even has the recessive until it shows up in the offspring.

He is pretty young still. I have had many with "floppy" tails as juveniles that out grew it. They tend to hold them low until they gain confidence. If you watch you might see the pullets do it to. As a breed they seem to have very flexible tails? Probably something we should steer clear of down the road since it did seem to make one of the judges nervous at the Mason City show. If you have another choice you might switch him out, but I wouldn't put him in the stew pot just yet.

 

[Candy442]

Thanks Kari, that makes me feel lots better

. He does hold it upright, but it doesn't stay that way. I will watch him for "confidence" as maybe it's a bit early to worry about wry tail? I have a friend that lives close who is not a chicken vet, but a small animal vet and she told me it could be wry tail

. Otherwise, she gave me kudos for very healthy looking happy birds.

Does anyone know if birds can have a DNA test (without harming them) to see if the gene is present? If I breed, I guess I would feel better to know that the stock is 100 percent without that recessive gene IF they do in fact have wry tail...

 

[karimw]

Thanks Kari, that makes me feel lots better

. He does hold it upright, but it doesn't stay that way. I will watch him for "confidence" as maybe it's a bit early to worry about wry tail? I have a friend that lives close who is not a chicken vet, but a small animal vet and she told me it could be wry tail

. Otherwise, she gave me kudos for very healthy looking happy birds.

Does anyone know if birds can have a DNA test (without harming them) to see if the gene is present? If I breed, I guess I would feel better to know that the stock is 100 percent without that recessive gene IF they do in fact have wry tail...

I don't mean to discourage you, but I would save my money on that. I've had wry tail crop up in my stock, so I know it's in the breed. I am fighting squirrel tail too which is pretty common as well. Your birds are the 6th generation I raised from original Ideal stock, but I have birds that originated from Sandhill too and they have problems of their own. I could go on and on about the undesirable traits floating around. Because of all the outcrossing Sandhill and Ideal have done, you will see anything and everything crop up if you raise enough babies. You will need to prioritize what traits you want to promote, but you will likely have to keep birds in your breeding program that aren't perfect. This really is more of a restoration of a breed when it comes to Iowa Blues, and we have a lot of work to do. I'm not trying to discourage you in any way, but I've seen other breeders discouraged by this. I've hatched over 200 babies this year and I have yet to raise a cockerel I'm 100% happy with.

Now I enjoy this kind of thing, but you should know what a challenge it will be to breed these birds to a standard going in!

 

[mrandmrschicken]

Make sure you give the birds a chance to mature. Some feather conditions will change after molt. I have also had people at a show tell me a bird I was exhibiting had a twisted feather and could not find it, nor could the judge. Sometimes they will twist backing into something when it is not twisted.