Iowa Blues - Breed thread and discussion

[Hurley]

You'd have to try pretty hard to offend me. I enjoy the discussion.

The point I guess I was going after is "here's what I've been about to find out, there is no official historian that I've been able to find". I asked Sandhill what they get in their stock, since as far as I can tell they are credited with preserving the breed for the most part. They get both types. When I ordered from them, I got a combo. Unfortunately the browns I got were all cockerels and when I selected birds to keep, they were the poorest examples, so I've kept only black ones at this point.

 

[karimw]

Hi Hurley! Good to hear from you again. I hoped you were still with us! I'm with you. I like the old story and fully believe the brown chicks are important to keep. I really kind of think somewhere along the line the description of the Iowa Blues turned into a description of "Birchen" so of course the ideal of that is the black type bird which were used to help resurrect the breed. From my research into color genetics I think the base color on the E allele is eb (brown) with a lot of black melanizers thrown in. My proof/disproof of this is whether or not you can get rid of the white wing feathers on eb (brown) Of course I don't real know if Iowa Blues should have white or black wings or not.

In any case I intend to keep both going for now. Just set 30 more eggs today and now I'm going to swap my roosters.

 

[Hurley]

Excellent, when I get out from this mountain of journels and articles I have to absorb, I'll contact you for some more eggs/chicks. This year I'm going to focus on just producing a large quantity of IBs to see the spectrum and pick some keepers to go forward with. Would like to get some more brown chicks.

Talk to you all in a few weeks, hopefully.

 

[schroeder vanh]

 

[schroeder vanh]

good morning IB's
thank you for posting the painted and Storey images
these are my photos all chicks looked like this one
thanks Art for the 2 other hens
Jesus my roo was hatched on easter
is this what the birds should look like??????
i had to create a new name i just couldnt access my old acct
schroeder

 

[anderson8505]

The above photo is my one IB. I'm guessing he's really a cockerel: his feathering and comb, and he mounts the silkie next to him. He's from Jim Heinz. Hatched 11/15/11, so he's two months today.

The below photo is just to show more of his coloring.

 

[eggdd]

is there a way to sex ib baby chicks?

 

[karimw]

is there a way to sex ib baby chicks?

Other than they mature pretty early, I haven't really noticed. I'm going to watch my new brood closely and see how early I can tell the difference.

 

[karimw]

They look pretty good! Nice neck lacing on the girls. Gotta watch the tails on the roosters. There is a strong tendency to have squirrel tails where they angle past the vertical point toward their neck. I can't tell from the picture but you might want too check him. It's a fault you don't want to reproduce.

 

[karimw]

Nice silver lacing! I don't see any gold which is good. I do see signs of the autosomal red on his back though.

Man we have to get that cleared up. I don't think I have any without that, though its hard to tell on the females

The above photo is my one IB. I'm guessing he's really a cockerel: his feathering and comb, and he mounts the silkie next to him. He's from Jim Heinz. Hatched 11/15/11, so he's two months today.

The below photo is just to show more of his coloring.