Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[Hurley]

Mix of 3 flocks' silver chicks, green, red, and aluminum wing banded to tell at a glance what group they are from.

I've started jotting down notes on them to track the appearance. Yellow vs. White skin, dark vs. light legs, dark/med/light body color, red vs. not-red coloration, face being dark, moderate (silver), or excessive (smoky-like), striping being white, medium, or absent, and any special notes. Interesting to see the trends on the different groups.

This was a large batch, the last of the three flocks before I remixed. I've put together another flock that I'll be keeping chicks back from, and the others are in a mixed flock at this point, which I won't be holding chicks from. Will grow out the 4 "lines" and see how they mature. Will be fun to see what I end up with. This last group will get brass tags.

 

[Jdinky]

Could some one post pics of a 10 week old cockerel? i think mine are all pullets

 

[Candy442]

Could some one post pics of a 10 week old cockerel? i think mine are all pullets

Here are photos of 8 week old smokey type Iowas. The cockerel is first and his comb and wattles are much more developed than the pullet (pic that follows him



The cockerel above has pink well developed comb/wattles coming in at 8 weeks.


The pullet above shows a yellow, very small comb development and her wattles are very small/pink. All of our Iowa chicks at this age are showing this development.

Hope this helps and congrats on pullets!

You can now choose the rooster you wish to add to your flock.

 

[Candy442]

Quote: I would love to learn more from that data, especially when viewing chicks.

 

[Hurley]

I'm looking for ways to predict adult appearance based on chick appearance. We've obviously got a few genes bouncing around that alter the appearance, just trying to tease it out a bit. Plus, it's fun to me, data collection, so there ya go.

I've started jotting these notes and am refining a recording system as I go. It actually is fairly consistent that the chicks seem to fall into 2 to 3 categories consistently for each trait I'm watching, so it certainly looks more on/off or on/off/incomplete dominance which makes me think it's a small number of genes to contend with. I am hoping to correlate these to differences noted in the adults. For example, are the really red hued chicks the ones that end up brownish/less silver as adults? I suspect so. The darker, "cooler temperature" chicks I suspect are the ones ending up more pure silver. What are these chicks that have a ton of yellow infused in the down, especially the chests? Can you predict Smoky carriage based on the face pattern of the chick? Etc.

At any rate, I'll make my notes and use them in the future for curiosity pairings, if nothing else.

 

[Jdinky]

Heres some of mine born March 27, they all pretty much look the same

 

[Candy442]

Heres some of mine born March 27, they all pretty much look the same

Those all look like pullets to me. What color were they as chicks? What line of Iowa did you hatch from?

The photos I posted were of the Iowa's we hatched on March 19th and taken about a week ago.

 

[Candy442]

I'm looking for ways to predict adult appearance based on chick appearance. We've obviously got a few genes bouncing around that alter the appearance, just trying to tease it out a bit. Plus, it's fun to me, data collection, so there ya go.

I've started jotting these notes and am refining a recording system as I go. It actually is fairly consistent that the chicks seem to fall into 2 to 3 categories consistently for each trait I'm watching, so it certainly looks more on/off or on/off/incomplete dominance which makes me think it's a small number of genes to contend with. I am hoping to correlate these to differences noted in the adults. For example, are the really red hued chicks the ones that end up brownish/less silver as adults? I suspect so. The darker, "cooler temperature" chicks I suspect are the ones ending up more pure silver. What are these chicks that have a ton of yellow infused in the down, especially the chests? Can you predict Smoky carriage based on the face pattern of the chick? Etc.

At any rate, I'll make my notes and use them in the future for curiosity pairings, if nothing else.

I certainly would appreciate seeing your results Connie.

I really am new at learning the genetics behind the patterns, so we are doing a more photo journal of our hatches with a front and back shot of feather development. I have the photos of the parents, then will do a chart based on what they produced

 

[Jdinky]

This is what they looked like at 3 days an they are silvers

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

I'm looking for ways to predict adult appearance based on chick appearance. We've obviously got a few genes bouncing around that alter the appearance, just trying to tease it out a bit. Plus, it's fun to me, data collection, so there ya go.

I've started jotting these notes and am refining a recording system as I go. It actually is fairly consistent that the chicks seem to fall into 2 to 3 categories consistently for each trait I'm watching, so it certainly looks more on/off or on/off/incomplete dominance which makes me think it's a small number of genes to contend with. I am hoping to correlate these to differences noted in the adults. For example, are the really red hued chicks the ones that end up brownish/less silver as adults? I suspect so. The darker, "cooler temperature" chicks I suspect are the ones ending up more pure silver. What are these chicks that have a ton of yellow infused in the down, especially the chests? Can you predict Smoky carriage based on the face pattern of the chick? Etc.

At any rate, I'll make my notes and use them in the future for curiosity pairings, if nothing else.

This too has been something I am very interested in. My observations from hatching last year are as follows. The redder hued Silver chicks as a whole possessed a greater amount of heavy brownish coloration in the ground color on the pullets, however, not always the rule. Depending on the line, I've seen the brown undercolor develop from Silver chicks that were more solid dark brown in coloration with little no to markings on the face and back. This brown colors seems to advance with age and the older a hen gets, the more "brown" she may appear to be. Definately not desired, but when the population is low in numbers, one can't be too picky. The Silver chicks that have a more solid coloration with little to no markings on the face and back tended to exhibit more lacing on their backs and breasts (in the females). In some cases the lacing was quite refinded and possessed a double lacing. On the Silver chicks that were more "wild" in their coloration and striping (especially the face and back) grew up with much more overall white on the body and the pullets exhibited a much cleaner ground color. I'll be curious to see how yours develop Connie.