Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[Hurley]

I would anticipate, if ER Fay is the culprit that breeding to a Silver will yield more of the same or half this appearance, half silvers if the birds carry the eb gene. I would not personally breed for this trait as I find it aesthetically not pleasing as well as not true to original type. However, if the birds are superior in size/shape to what we have that is correctly colored, I wouldn't throw them out. I'd use them to bring in desirable type while working towards weaning out the ER Fay gene. Easy enough to do, crossing to a silver especially. If, however, they are exactly the same other than color, I'd cull them from the breeding flock.

Alternatively, they could be the result of standard ER with additional melanizers adding the black head. I would hope for them being ER Fay - this is much easier to remove quickly from the breeding gene pool.

 

[ottbjumper06]

Not to change the subject at all, but I'm working on coming with a design for another coop and want to know how big all of you make your breeding pens and how many birds you put in them. The addition will be approximately 16x18 with a concrete floor.

 

[karimw]

I believe the calculation is 2 square feet per bird? You can by with more if they have a run. My 2 main breeding pens are converted sheep stalls about 6 X 7 with a pretty good sized run. I have 9 in one and 8 in the other right now. They seem to be OK at that number though they aren't getting outside much these days.

 

[karimw]

I was doing a little reading on the black head subject and thought I would throw this out there. This page is from Sigrid Van Dort's book and discusses the color restricting gene Charcoal (Cha). Not to be confused with the Charcoal variety of IaB. There isn't much known about it, but it does appear to me there is some restriction involved because of the distinct "cap". I have no idea where this would have been introduced.
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[karimw]

In other news, I have chicks! I hatched 10 on Sunday.
These are from Curt's Smoky hen fro Sandhill (which he was kind enough to allow me to add to my Smoky project) and his Charcoal rooster.





3 Smoky, 2 Charcoal and 2 Birchen

From my own pen, I didn't do as well. Only 3, but they are all Silver. They are out of my Silver pullets hatched last spring and the cockerel I got from Denny. They look pretty red to me. One has white skin though, so I'm happy about that.





I have quite a few more from my pen set to hatch this weekend, so I'll be sure to update.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Great looking chicks Kari. I noticed that some of my chicks from Denny were on the redder side. W.C. Fenton mentioned that reddish colored chicks were within the range of what he used to witness in his chicks.

I forgot to mention this in my email to you Kari......Of the two Charcoals, here's my experience. The lighter chestnut colored chick should grow up every bit a Charcoal. However, the darker Charcoal that looks almost mulberryish (it's color is between the black and chestnut) will grow up looking like a Birchen with lots of autosomal barring. Kari, do you remeber that cockerel I had from Sandhill that I was going to get rid of, but he looked to "birchenish"? He was this same mulberry color. I'll be curious to see how they develop. But am uber excited you've got a nice chestnut colored chick!!!!

 

[iamfivewire]

Cool - congrats on the new babies

 

[karimw]

Great looking chicks Kari. I noticed that some of my chicks from Denny were on the redder side. W.C. Fenton mentioned that reddish colored chicks were within the range of what he used to witness in his chicks.

I forgot to mention this in my email to you Kari......Of the two Charcoals, here's my experience. The lighter chestnut colored chick should grow up every bit a Charcoal. However, the darker Charcoal that looks almost mulberryish (it's color is between the black and chestnut) will grow up looking like a Birchen with lots of autosomal barring. Kari, do you remeber that cockerel I had from Sandhill that I was going to get rid of, but he looked to "birchenish"? He was this same mulberry color. I'll be curious to see how they develop. But am uber excited you've got a nice chestnut colored chick!!!!

I did! Your cockerel obviously carries it. I'd like to see what else you get from him.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

I know! I've got him on a Charcoal pullet right now and am saving eggs......I'm sure there's plenty of recessives hanging around in there. It'll probably take a few generations to solidify the genes some, and hopefully we'll learn a lot more about what's going genetically in the process!

 

[karimw]

On a different note, here are some pictures of one of my Smoky pullets hatched this fall. For those of you keeping track, she would be a grand daughter of Rex on both sides. She was by a pure silver cockerel with loads of white on him and out of either a Silver or Smoky pullet.
As you can see she shows just a hint of color left from the Autosomal Red on e+. What I would like to see is this color with white skin. Those willow legs would be baby blue.













Here she is next to my Delaware cockerel. Interesting comparison don't you think?