Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[Wappoke]

I realize this is an old post, but I would like to ask what indicates this pullet is charcoal? Markings indicate to me this bird is based on eb/brown, or what we call Silver variation. What color was the chick down?

The silver pullet is still showing eyeliner, which tells me she might be based on e+ or Smokey. It's getting to be very difficult to tell on some of these. I now hatch Smokey chicks that are brown instead of yellow, but have the eyeliner.

Just curious about the differences in the lines.

an eye liner does not always indicate that a bird is wild type at the E locus. Brown chicks can also have an eye liner similar to wild type chicks. Wild type hens will have the salmon breast, this is not always the case; if a female carries enough modifiers they can have a black breast. The under color of black chickens that carry brown at the E locus will be white. Darker shanks indicate the bird is birchen at the E locus. Brown birds that are black can also show some autosomal barring even if they do not carry the pattern gene.

 

[karimw]

an eye liner does not always indicate that a bird is wild type at the E locus. Brown chicks can also have an eye liner similar to wild type chicks. Wild type hens will have the salmon breast, this is not always the case; if a female carries enough modifiers they can have a black breast. The under color of black chickens that carry brown at the E locus will be white. Darker shanks indicate the bird is birchen at the E locus. Brown birds that are black can also show some autosomal barring even if they do not carry the pattern gene.

I agree with this Wapoke, just identifying some tell tale signs I recognize in the Iowa Blues, specifically the lines I've raised. They vary quite a bit.

 

[gracefarm]

Just wanted to post a few pictures of a group of Iowa Blues that I picked up today & get everyone's opinions on them. The breeder told me the background of these Iowa Blues are from 3 different sources.

The 3 birchen pullets, 2 silver pullets & 1 Silver cockerel came from Sand Hill Preservation.

The 2 Silver hens came from a breeder out of Iowa with horse in her farm name like Dark horse Farm or something close to that.

The 1 lighter older pullet came from a breeder out of Iowa with Country in her farm name.

 

[Candy442]

Just wanted to post a few pictures of a group of Iowa Blues that I picked up today & get everyone's opinions on them. The breeder told me the background of these Iowa Blues are from 3 different sources.

The 3 birchen pullets, 2 silver pullets & 1 Silver cockerel came from Sand Hill Preservation.

The 2 Silver hens came from a breeder out of Iowa with horse in her farm name like Dark horse Farm or something close to that.

The 1 lighter older pullet came from a breeder out of Iowa with Country in her farm name.

So the person you bought these birds from mentioned the birds came from different breeders? The mostly white one is a smoky variety. The dark ones are birchen and not considered a true variety of Iowa Blue (historically). The silver variety of bird is what the current Iowa Blue Chicken Club has set as the "standard" for the breed. What you do not want to see in any of the silvers is a hint of orange, salmon, or red in any of the feathers (slight light beige is ok).

How old are the birds you bought?

 

[gracefarm]

So the person you bought these birds from mentioned the birds came from different breeders?  The mostly white one is a smoky variety. The dark ones are birchen and not considered a true variety of Iowa Blue (historically).  The silver variety of bird is what the current Iowa Blue Chicken Club has set as the "standard" for the breed. What you do not want to see in any of the silvers is a hint of orange, salmon, or red in any of the feathers (slight light beige is ok). 

How old are the birds you bought?

The 6 from Sand Hill Preservation look to be 2 maybe 3 months old.

The other 3 he got from two different breeders out of Iowa.
The 2 silver hens look to be around 1 year old maybe a little older.

The 1 older pullet that is much lighter he also got from a breeder out of Iowa. She looks to be around 6 months old maybe a little older.

I didn't think to ask the exact age so I'm not sure the exact age of them but the ages I gave above I think are very close. I was more concerned on where he got them so I was asking more questions on that.

Looking the silver ones over I see no foreign colors so very happy about that.

 

[gracefarm]

Really like the looks of these two hens, come Spring I will be hatching many from them to increase my Silver numbers.

 

[gracefarm]

After reading through most of the Iowa Blue threads I understand that the Birchen pattern has come about from more recent blood being added, so with that being the case I have decided to cull the 3 Birchen pullets I have & only keep the more Silver Iowa Blues for the breeding pens. I do have one question about the pullet that is much lighter, is there any benefits in useing her in a breeding pen or should I cull her also.

 

[gracefarm]

Let my Iowa Blues out this evening after the rain cooled things off, they seem to like running over the wet grass.

 

[Candy442]

After reading through most of the Iowa Blue threads I understand that the Birchen pattern has come about from more recent blood being added, so with that being the case I have decided to cull the 3 Birchen pullets I have & only keep the more Silver Iowa Blues for the breeding pens. I do have one question about the pullet that is much lighter, is there any benefits in useing her in a breeding pen or should I cull her also.

We got some of our most prettiest birds out of our birchen hens. They started us on our charcoal colors which produces a beautiful blue gray appearance you do not get with the silver variety. The silvers are recessive and very easy to replicate, but they are basically black and white birds. The original Iowa had that charcoal gray feathering which from a distance appeared more blue, hence the "blue" in the name. Without our birchens, which were "mossy" in their feather colors (meaning brownish but slight maroonish, dark greenish tones in the body feathers) we probably would not have our charcoal colors. It's up to you if you cull them, but I started with a clean smokey, two mossy birchen hens and a silver rooster with AR. Now I have some of the prettiest colors in my Iowa Flock

 

[gracefarm]

We got some of our most prettiest birds out of our birchen hens.  They started us on our charcoal colors which produces a beautiful blue gray appearance you do not get with the silver variety. The silvers are recessive and very easy to replicate, but they are basically black and white birds.  The original Iowa had that charcoal gray feathering which from a distance appeared more blue, hence the "blue" in the name.  Without our birchens, which were "mossy" in their feather colors (meaning brownish but slight maroonish, dark greenish tones in the body feathers) we probably would not have our charcoal colors.  It's up to you if you cull them, but I started with a clean smokey, two mossy birchen hens and a silver rooster with AR.  Now I have some of the prettiest colors in my Iowa Flock

Hi Candy, after talking with Kari Mckay yesterday I have decided to keep the birchen pullets, I also found out that the two older Iowa Blue hens I have came from her! I plan to collect eggs to hatch from these two hens this Fall then come next Spring I plan to hatch as many as possible from all my Iowa Blues.