Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[IowaBlueCurt]

I just acquired a small breeding flock of Iowa Blues and wanted to learn more about them. After research I believe mine are Birchen? Any info, suggestions or comments are greatly appreciated. TYIA

Congrats on your new flock! I think you will find them very enjoyable to work with. As Kari shared in her post, there is some gold that will need to be bred out. I would take turns using one male at a time over your hens in order to get as much genetic diversity as possible. If you're looking for some silvers to hopefully pop out, not every male in the pen may carry the silver recessive, by isolating the males you'll be able to identify which, if any, carry the silver recessive genes to breed more if that's what you're looking for. Also, keep in mind, you'll need at least one of your hens to carry this same recessive to get the silver to appear as you need two doses of the silver gene.
Welp hatchery drop ships their Iowas from Ideal as does Privett, so Kari was spot on in identifying these birds as being the same stock as she started with. Keep us posted on your progress with the breed and if you have any questions, fire away and we'll do our best to help out.

 

[Dirt Farmer]

I agree with Kari, first two are charcoals the last one appears to be a very dark Birchen. I have seen a few birds that I believe are based on E instead of Er and if this were the case, they would come out looking like your #3 bird. This one also appears to be a male from the pics. Personally, I would shy away from using him in your breeding pens. I was out to Glenn's place this past summer and noticed that his breeding pens are currently filled with Charcoal colored hens and cockbirds. He had lost his Silvers, however it may still be lingering around. I did send some silver chicks to Glenn as well as a breeding group of Silvers. He has those separate from his Charcoal pen and currently has three breeding pens of Iowas. The Charcoal pen, the Silver pen, and a pen mixing some of the offspring from both pens. So, I assume in the future others will be getting some of all the pens when they order chicks are are given extras.

I do really like the look of the pullet in pic 1. I hope you stick with them as they are a very fascinating breed with distinctive personalities as you've already noticed.

I agree #3 has a nice fryer build. I'll add a before and after picture when the time comes if anybody's interested seeing carcass type. I doubt that there is much point in going past 14 weeks, 16 weeks at the most. Thanks for the input.

 

[karimw]

I do find my last generation with the sandhill influence get bigger but take longer to get there. I let mine grow to 5 - 6 months. Mostly I needed to let them mature enough to choose the keepers.I'm trying to learn to evaluate them accurately earlier.

 

[karimw]

This is a 3 month old smokey cockerel by Cadillac. It's difficult to photograph them, but I have him pegged as a possible replacement for his sire. I like his shape, wing set, leg color, and size. He does have to many points on his comb and white on his earlobes, but I might have to let that slide. I hope at least his comb doesn't get as big as Daddy's, and he feathers in a bit darker.






This is the flock he came from with sire, Cadillac. He is a smokey hatched out of eggs from Curt Burroughs' Sandhill stock. Poor guy is losing that huge comb of his

.




I have 40 eggs in the incubator now from his current flock.
8 smokey girls of different varieties.

 

[mrandmrschicken]

Have not been on the thread in a while. Couple reminders about LHF, they want 12 to 15 birds. I also have a Mankato, MN city park, Sibley Park wants a pair or trio for their petting zoo area! I will be supplying them with young birds and hopefully some ducklings for the petting zoo this year. They will not need them til mid April.
Please email me if you have an interest in donating or selling the birds to me for donation.

Hope all are having a great New Year so far.

Eric

 

[Dirt Farmer]

I do find my last generation with the sandhill influence get bigger but take longer to get there. I let mine grow to 5 - 6 months. Mostly I needed to let them mature enough to choose the keepers.I'm trying to learn to evaluate them accurately earlier.

Do they get to roaster size (say maybe 4.5+ lbs dressed) if given that much time? Do they get gamey tasting? I understand the need for waiting that long for breeding purposes. My personal preference is to keep expenses down, accept a "rubber chicken" looking carcass, and avoid the stronger taste of the older birds.Those are some very pretty chickens your're breeding. I love almost any breed that's done well. That dark birchen cockerel of mine got a stay of execution for good behavior. I had a customer that came over to purchase Dorking pullets. They decided that they wanted a cockerel to replace their cock that fell victim to a predator. They had never heard of an IB; but he was so docile compared to the Dorking cockerels he won them over. Since he will not be used to produce IB chickens, just barnyard mixes, I saw no harm in letting him have a happy ending.

 

[bigmrg74]

Hello everybody. I'm thinking of getting a couple of Iowa Blue chicks here in another month or so to add to my flock that I got last year. They're a mix of BSL and white isa browns that I got from the local TSC. For the most part they're well behaved, but I do have 1 minor issue with one of the white girls tending to challenge my dog Belle when she's trying to herd the girls when I've had them out for some free range time. Belle is a Mini Aussie Shepherd, probably should be classified as a toy as she's not even 10 pounds, and her first birthday is coming up pretty soon. But she loves going out and checking on the girls and rounding them up when its time. What I'm looking to find out here is, if some Iowa Blue Pullets were exposed to being herded at a young age, would they likely respond well to being herded?


Not much herding has been going on here, as the girls are not really wanting to leave their coop here in Michigan. This makes Belle very sad as she thinks the snow is tons of fun.

 

[karimw]

Hello everybody. I'm thinking of getting a couple of Iowa Blue chicks here in another month or so to add to my flock that I got last year. They're a mix of BSL and white isa browns that I got from the local TSC. For the most part they're well behaved, but I do have 1 minor issue with one of the white girls tending to challenge my dog Belle when she's trying to herd the girls when I've had them out for some free range time. Belle is a Mini Aussie Shepherd, probably should be classified as a toy as she's not even 10 pounds, and her first birthday is coming up pretty soon. But she loves going out and checking on the girls and rounding them up when its time. What I'm looking to find out here is, if some Iowa Blue Pullets were exposed to being herded at a young age, would they likely respond well to being herded?


Not much herding has been going on here, as the girls are not really wanting to leave their coop here in Michigan. This makes Belle very sad as she thinks the snow is tons of fun.

What an interesting question! I think if they were exposed to it young they might adapt well. Mine respect my Great Pyrenees, but he isn't allowed to interfere with them in any way. If my iowa blues are pushed or cornered, they tend to fly the opposite direction you want them to go. They might be a challenge for your dog

 

[bigmrg74]

What an interesting question! I think if they were exposed to it young they might adapt well. Mine respect my Great Pyrenees, but he isn't allowed to interfere with them in any way. If my iowa blues are pushed or cornered, they tend to fly the opposite direction you want them to go. They might be a challenge for your dog

Hmmmm.... That would keep her busy for quite the while. She's a little bundle of energy, and having her out to supervise the girls is a pretty good outlet for that energy. Much better than going after a shoe anyways. Can't hardly do anything without her approval now. I come home late after a date here and I'm getting grilled by her.

Mostly I'm just looking for some chickens that should be likely to tolerate her being around and not likely to go on the offensive with her.

 

[karimw]

Hmmmm.... That would keep her busy for quite the while. She's a little bundle of energy, and having her out to supervise the girls is a pretty good outlet for that energy. Much better than going after a shoe anyways. Can't hardly do anything without her approval now. I come home late after a date here and I'm getting grilled by her.

Mostly I'm just looking for some chickens that should be likely to tolerate her being around and not likely to go on the offensive with her.

As long as she's bigger than they are, she should be safe