Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[karimw]

My chicks are showing a lot of silvery fluff this year. I think it's a good sign that indicates lack of the gold and autosomal red hiding in the breed. Won't know until they grow up of course, can't wait!

 

[WVDan44]

My chicks are showing a lot of silvery fluff this year. I think it's a good sign that indicates lack of the gold and autosomal red hiding in the breed. Won't know until they grow up of course, can't wait!

Silvery butt fluff is good. That means some of mine may show this as well.

The chicks you sent me are now ten days old. I cut the bands off the A pen chicks of which I only counted six. Then there are the two Smokeys, and the rest which are unmarked I assume are from your B pen.

I had nothing to band them with, so I painted the A pen chicks' toenails bright pink. Before it wears off, I need to find a more permanent way to ID them. Are there tiny elastic bands for chicks as there are for large birds? If so, where does one buy them?

I'm very excited to see these grow out. There are some patterns that are different from the first two batches I hatched from your line. I like these very much. I noticed that the two smokeys are a bit larger than the others, one particularly so.

I have a feeling this is going to be a great year for everyone.

WVDan

 

[Hurley]

I use small colored zip ties on the smallest chicks, put them on just barely tight enough to not slip off the foot and they'll last a couple weeks before getting tight, usually. I nip them off with a small sharp pair of scissors I keep just for leg band removal, lol. At that point I wing band them, but you can certainly just change out the zip ties as they outgrow them.

 

[Hurley]

I'm seeing much less of the red brown chicks and more of the slightly darker/silvery chicks that I think will turn into silver adults. Also, since that first smokey which showed up, I've been getting brown chicks intermittently that have the smoky yellow chick cheeks/face around the eyes. Betting those ones are heterozygous silver/smoky. I'll have to tag them and see how they grow/what they produce to know for sure.

Girls are kicking up the egg laying. Collected 60 since Monday. Some are still pullet eggs, some are birchen eggs, these I'm using for eating or to raise snake food, but the new pen of charcoal over silvers and a charcoal pullet are starting to produce. Looking foward to that pen, he's getting quite large. Got a big boy over the silvers in the A pen now, as well.

I need to build me a set of 6 or 8 "show coops" on a shelf that I can coop up birds to study/compare. It'll make it a lot easier when I'm trying to rank/grade/assess them. Picked up some j fasterners and wire, now to just get a decent couple days of weather while I'm off to finish the 2 breeding runs and some show coop cages. Would have worked on it last weekend but it rained and then froze. Thrrrrrrrrrrrpt.

Chicks hatching tonight, 7 or 8 silvers out so far.

 

[karimw]

You can get tiny spiral bands, but they grow so fast the zip ties work just as well. The Smokey chicks are out of the Sandhill hen I got from Curt. She is a big girl and lays a 52 gram egg. They may be the wrong color, but if you get a cockerel he should be pretty good sized.

You only found 6 bands? There were 7. Someone must have slipped one. Those are Axle's babies, should have been 7 silver and 2 smokey. Thought you were gonna post pictures?

 

[WVDan44]

Tempus Fugit! LOL

 

[karimw]

Tempus Fugit! LOL

True enough. I barely know what day it is

 

[Hurley]

Ha! That phrase always reminds me of The Music Man - Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn and her Grecian urns. "Come on, Ladies, Tempus fugit!"

Can't find that scene, but here's one of my favorites from that musical...appropriate for the BYC...

 

[WVDan44]

Ha! That phrase always reminds me of The Music Man - Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn and her Grecian urns. "Come on, Ladies, Tempus fugit!"

Can't find that scene, but here's one of my favorites from that musical...appropriate for the BYC...

One of my favorite lines from the play is when the Mayor of River City says to his daughter "You watch your phraseology!"

 

[WVDan44]

Ooouw! Strange day for strange eggs. Australorp egg nearly 3 1/2 inches long; normal IaB egg, nearly round IaB pullet egg.