Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[IowaBlueCurt]

Awesome! What I would have given to have stumbled across such a list from our past breeders!!!!

 

[ottbjumper06]

I've been doing the same as well

 

[Candy442]

Sorry to have to inform you all, but my charcoal girl is gone. She was in the chicken tractor hoop house with the rest and we found her dead. Poor Nat. The best we can tell is she was caught near the bottom wood base and got stuck there somehow.

 

[Candy442]

With a more positive note...

Here is the June Bug 3 days old. The body is more black, but I tried to get a close up of the head which is a dark brown tone. We may see lacing on the breast we may not, otherwise, there is some lighter areas of down, but not typical of most birchen chicks that I have seen.

 

[karimw]

With a more positive note...

Here is the June Bug 3 days old. The body is more black, but I tried to get a close up of the head which is a dark brown tone. We may see lacing on the breast we may not, otherwise, there is some lighter areas of down, but not typical of most birchen chicks that I have seen.

That is interesting. The ones I have hatched from my birchen girls and Jaguar(Silver) are all dark too. No yellow/white on their bellies or chin. I am also getting a lot of the dark chocolate color on my silver chicks. they have the stripes and the light brown belly, but are super dark chocolate on the head and back. Wish I had time to post pictures, but I'm supposed to be studying for Pharmacology now.

 

[Hurley]

Had the last of my eggs hatch this weekend from my mixed birchen and silver flock (I've since sold the hens, so no more birchen adults). Of the 6 birchen chicks, 3 have brown faces, three are solid black. If I had the room and the inclination, I'd keep back those brown faced birchens who are likely the first step to recreating a "charcoal" from scratch. However, time and space will limit that endeavor as I have other things I'm more interested in moving forward into the next generations. Have silver chicks galore right now, from 4 different groups/pairings, that I'm looking foward to comparing as they age. Will grow them up through fall, then select those that get to over-winter with me.

Ooo, looks like my Iowacana project birds are getting nearly ready to start producing. I have an F1 black male with slight birchen markings to put over my blue 3/4 IB/1/4 Marans/1/4 ameraucana female to bring the blue gene over to my Iowacana project. I've also got 3 F1 black Iowacana pullets in with my big big Silver rooster to make F2s from that side. Can't wait to get a few generations into this one. The blue pullet that is 3/4 IB really looks IB in body type and character. I bet this next round I'll start getting some of the IB patterning as I concentrate the IB genes. It's a fun side project.

Hope all are doing well.

 

[IowaBlueCurt]

Sorry to have to inform you all, but my charcoal girl is gone. She was in the chicken tractor hoop house with the rest and we found her dead. Poor Nat. The best we can tell is she was caught near the bottom wood base and got stuck there somehow.

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO! Sorry to hear about this Candy! From the last pic you had sent, she looked to have a great Charcoal color.

Looking at June Bug, I suspect she won't turn out the same....but time will tell. In my experience, you need a "black based" chick that is at least half colored with the Chestnut coloration.

I have seen many chicks similar to what Kari is talking about where the silver chicks have a lot of solid chocolate coloration. While they are similar they are eb based and not the Er base of the Charcoal.

 

[Candy442]

NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO! Sorry to hear about this Candy! From the last pic you had sent, she looked to have a great Charcoal color.

Looking at June Bug, I suspect she won't turn out the same....but time will tell. In my experience, you need a "black based" chick that is at least half colored with the Chestnut coloration.

I have seen many chicks similar to what Kari is talking about where the silver chicks have a lot of solid chocolate coloration. While they are similar they are eb based and not the Er base of the Charcoal.

Thank you Curt...we are devastated. There are 14 total in that grow out pen tractor and the only one to perish was poor Nat. We were just so shocked!!!

We also think that June Bug will not feather out like Nat, but I sure hope we get another charcoal. I think we have the right parents to work with...sigh. Just heartbreaking of all the chicks, that Nat had to be the one... of course we love all the babies, but we know Nat was special.

 

[ottbjumper06]

I'm sorry to hear that Candy! It can be very disheartening when you lose valuable breeding stock.

We finally had our first outstanding hatch rate here, and there are more of the yellow colored Silvers in this hatch as well. There have been 1-2 in every hatch since the first time it happened. I'm hoping to isolate the hen(s) that has been producing these. I'm curious to know which line the gene is coming from. I'm assuming it is a Johnston pullet, but we will see.

After letting my flock free range in the sun, I'm seeing gold leakage on my main rooster I got from Denny last winter. It's not an ideal situation, but he's free of AR so I suppose I'll keep using him until a better prospect comes along. It's not the worst thing in the world that could happen here, so as long as I have healthy stock to work with, I can overcome! I have 5 cockerels growing out right now, and there is 1 that I like but of course, he has loose wings. There is another whose wings are tight but has lots of AR and his comb is larger than I'd like to see. I need to start keeping back a few more chicks than I have been, I've basically been selling everything I've hatched the past few months because of school obligations.

I have a young pullet (I'd have to check my books to see how old she is) that is very much resembling the hen that Curt commented on a few months ago. I'm very excited to see how she turns out! Right now my flock consists purely of Silvers. I'm hoping to come into ownership of a few Charcoals at some point and break off into two breeding pens, but until then, I have plenty to work with. I have 4 hens that will be 1 year old on the 19th, and after that I have anything ranging from day olds-8 months old. There are 12 Silver girls in my coop right now. Small potatoes compared to the master breeders here, but I really need to cap it somewhere! There was talk this winter of expanding, but until our renovations on the house are wrapped up my confinements are 12x24 LOL.

Hope all has been well with everyone, now that summer is finally here I promise (I mean it this time!) to post pictures of what I have!

 

[ottbjumper06]

Here are some photos taken earlier today from my flock. I let everyone out so that pictures could be taken in good lighting.

This first guy is my main cockerel. He'll be a year old next week. For the most part I'm happy with him, but he does have his issues: light eyes, light legs, loose wings and a sparse tail. I guess I didn't notice it before, but he does have some AR popping up on his wings.


This is my three month old pullet that is out of the hen below. I had one a lot like this pullet only with slate legs, but I lost her to the respiratory disease that took a lot of my juveniles and older stock. She usually carries her tail 10 degrees higher than in the photo.




Same pullet. I like this 3 month old cockerel as well so far, but am disappointed that he, too, has loose wings.


This 7 month old cockerel is a little dark for my preferences. He also has loose wings and a touch of AR.


Same 3mo cockerel strutting his stuff

.


I like this 8mo pullet a lot, but she also has AR showing in her lacing. She has slate legs and nice dark eyes.


Denny again. This photo shows is gold leakage a lot better.




A group shot in the front yard. My pullets came quite a ways this year; I'm hoping next year to focus a lot more on finding the "perfect" rooster.
Some of these weren't the best and I left quite a few photos out. There will be a lot of pictures coming from me this summer!