Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[Candy442]

Except for the Smokey cockerel from Curt's Sandhill hen, he is HUGE compared to the all others.

The smokey that we hatched is by far the largest bird of the entire hatch, Rollo is huge too and he is your grand chick Kari

 

[ottbjumper06]

I'd like you guys to take a look at this chick for me. I have an all Silver pen of 7 pullets and 1 cockerel. Of the chicks that have hatched so far, they all look like normal Silver chicks except for this one, which looks like a Smokey... only this shouldn't be possible. I don't have any Smokey or Birchen pullets in my breeding pen. The only conclusion I can come up with is that it has a lack of AR and/or melanization. Thoughts?

 

[Candy442]

I definitely am not an expert, but my smokeys came out very yellow with white and dark black stripes down the back with brown. They looked like the chick photos on the IowaBlue club site. This chick still has the beigey tones to it, not as much yellow by the photo color you posted. This silver chick may have more "white" to it, that is why it is lighter. Just a thought

 

[karimw]

I'm in agreement with Candy. My earlier pen A had a light colored Silver rooster that had lighter colored chicks. I posted a picture of him a while ago. We also still have a lot of stray genes floating around that will surface eventually given the right combination too. It took 6 generations for the Smokey to show up in my original flock. Likely your chick is eb based but must have some modifiers or lack of to make it that light. I bet it will be quite pretty grown up

Isn't hatching fun??

 

[ottbjumper06]

Lol, the joys of raising a developing breed! The more I look at the chick, the more I'm inclined to agree it's a Silver as well. I'll probably end up keeping it for my own grow out pen so I can see what it will look like grown up.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, and it may just be me, but the Iowa Blue breed to me is much more fickle to hatch with than when I had Easter Eggers. They seem to be much more finicky about having conditions just so-so to hatch. When I did egg-topsies today I had two that had internally pipped but failed to hatch, one that was positioned upside down to pip, and three that were quitters. This leads me to believe that I should have incubator humidity lower the first 16 days, then days 17-21(more often 20 with the IB's) get it up as high as I can to prevent drying out. Again, it may be totally me, but this is what I've noticed when incubating Iowa Blues versus other breeds.

In other news, my Wayne Meredith Blue Wheaten AM chicks are due to ship on May 21st! I'm so excited to grow them out and see what I get. The respiratory infection wiped out literally all of my fertile AM stock. I was lucky to have only lost 1 IB juvenile pullet. <<< This is just one more reason I love this breed: it's just so hardy.

 

[mrandmrschicken]

Happy to say Hannah, brought down a male and female IB to the show in Avoca! Will try and take pictures.
A smaller show this year, all in one building.
Have heard many exhibitors talking about out of condition birds, and showing anyway, or not showing, due to weather. That may explain the show size.

 

[iamfivewire]

Here's a pic of our smokey cockrel & charcole pullet (2 months old):

 

[karimw]

Lol, the joys of raising a developing breed! The more I look at the chick, the more I'm inclined to agree it's a Silver as well. I'll probably end up keeping it for my own grow out pen so I can see what it will look like grown up.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, and it may just be me, but the Iowa Blue breed to me is much more fickle to hatch with than when I had Easter Eggers. They seem to be much more finicky about having conditions just so-so to hatch. When I did egg-topsies today I had two that had internally pipped but failed to hatch, one that was positioned upside down to pip, and three that were quitters. This leads me to believe that I should have incubator humidity lower the first 16 days, then days 17-21(more often 20 with the IB's) get it up as high as I can to prevent drying out. Again, it may be totally me, but this is what I've noticed when incubating Iowa Blues versus other breeds.

In other news, my Wayne Meredith Blue Wheaten AM chicks are due to ship on May 21st! I'm so excited to grow them out and see what I get. The respiratory infection wiped out literally all of my fertile AM stock. I was lucky to have only lost 1 IB juvenile pullet. <<< This is just one more reason I love this breed: it's just so hardy.

I think my hatch rate is about 80% right now, not sure why. I think I need to swap roosters in the main pen, but I don't really have anything better than Denny's cockerel Bentley. He has lost at least 3 toe tips to frost bite this winter and it does see to slow him down. I added the silver hens from Axle's pen to his and I don't think they are fertile anymore. He is happy with his own girls and doesn't try too hard if they say "no". On the other hand I have 22 hens in with Jaguar, the silver cockerel I got from Curt, and I think they are all fertile. Some I put in were AM and EE hens that were being shredded in the general population, so I tossed them in to protect them until the extra roosters go to freezer camp Wednesday. It's easy enough to tell their eggs apart. I do have a few Iowacana eggs in there and I did hatch a black cochin cross that is just as cute as can be. Next week I set Sweetgrass and Tiger Bronze turkeys

and in another 3 weeks or so I'm going to have Muscovy ducklings coming out my ears. Now that my dog has finally stopped eating them I have no population control.

 

[karimw]

Happy to say Hannah, brought down a male and female IB to the show in Avoca! Will try and take pictures.
A smaller show this year, all in one building.
Have heard many exhibitors talking about out of condition birds, and showing anyway, or not showing, due to weather. That may explain the show size.

So glad we had some representation! I have heard it was a very rough winter for many people and their show birds.

 

[mrandmrschicken]

Hannah, and I very quickly, held for a photo op, her two IB's. The weather was getting bad by the minute and everyone was in a hurry to get under way. Hannah, is holding Ava, judged BB, and I am holding Herman (named after his ancestor) and got RB. I brought home a IB cockerel from Hannah's chicks, that a 4-Her bought four from me and she got all girls and wanted a K for breeding so they are trading birds! I think that's great. This is my first time holding these birds and I gotta say, I am surprise at how docile they are. The K I brought back has not crowed once!
Hannah also won Best Jr. AOSB for her LF BBR Modern! The male was striking! Hannah is very much looking forward to more showing and is especially excited about the IB's!
Time did not allow but Bart Pals, Pat Lacey and Art Reiber were all there along with some other judges who were showing. Bart was judging. If I'd been better prepared I could have asked them some solicited questions.