ISABELLE LEGHORNS IN USA!

[Wheaties]

BACKWOODS POULTRY FARM HAS THE ONLY ISABELLE LEGHORNS IN THE USA! Just google the farm name and find out for yourself. Other claim to have the finished work, but we have proof. Leghorns are suppose to have yellow legs, lay white eggs, have large white earlobes. If it does not have these characteristics, it is not a leghorn!

 

[cjwaldon]

@cjwaldon- I use DBL to make my splits. I know most use LBL. What do you feel is the difference in appearance or is it just personal choice and what is on hand?

I'm using DB as well. Whatever the base color is will be diluted by the lavender gene. The DB have darker redder hackle/saddle than LB. However, since my Isabels were initially created using LB (I got them from Buddy Henry), I consider my splits DB x LB. Therefor, if you prefer the lemon yellow, use LB. If you prefer the darker wheaten color, use DB. IMO.

 

[cjwaldon]

Here is the link to the study on earlobe color inheritance in poultry.

http://www.genetics.org/content/genetics/13/6/470.full.pdf

Short short summary, crossing white earlobe birds to red earlobe birds "The resulting offspring exhibited all gradations between entirely red and entirely white earlobes. . . . all four grades of earlobe color are found in the F1 generation." A sex link gene may be involved in determining earlobe color in some breeds. ". . .there is evidence for the existence of at least three factors influencing earlobe color."

I thought there was more in there about successive generations. I just skimmed it this time around. I'll go back study the paper when I'm not distracted.

 

[ChicKat]

------> Endorsements <--------------

Well, first endorsement is that Isabel, Isabelle, Isabella or lav-brown however you want to identify them are even more gorgeous than their pictures~~
second endorsement -- both CJWaldon & Cree57i can supply you with AMAZING birds!!! (eggs too I think)

Really am pleased that I have two 'lines' one from each.

Here on their first day outdoors are the ones I got from TN (Cree57i)







Just beautiful!!

and here are some from MO (CJWaldon)






IMO this is the most beautiful plumage coloration of all the chickens I have ever seen... if you are on the fence about getting some -- take the plunge - that's my advice. They are just beautiful and there are two good sources for them right in this thread!!

 

[ChicKat]

Here are a couple of shots of the Isabel(les) I got from Cree57i - wow have they grown and they are so beautiful. Photography doesn't do justice to their plumage they have a kind of luminous quality -- so pretty!


Here is a set of photos of the younger ones that I got from CJWaldon --







Love Isabel or Isabelle, or lavender-brown -- or how ever you want to define them they are just gorgeous!!

 

[cree57i]

I got 1 pullet and 3 cockrels! I think the 1 egg that hatched may be a pullet. Those I got from cjwalden. When i take the littles out i let them stay in the crate during the day and bring them back in at night for a couple of weeks. Then when i let them out i leave the door open only far enough for the littles to get in. I have the door wired so it wont open more and a brick so it wont close more. Not sure what I'll do with the extra cockrels guess I need to build a bachelor's pad.what do think about my Isbars? I think the splash I have a pullet Izzy and a cockrel Freckles. But im not sure about the blues yet both combs are anout the same.

I am not the be all and end all of sexing birds, but I think you have 2 blue cockerels and one splash pullet with the Silverudd Blue. If I were you, I would grow your cockerels out and then pick the best one. Since you have a CJWalden isabelle, that one is a bit removed genetically from the ones you got from me, so you might have a good breeding pair. When you start breeding birds you have to have 'your ducks in a row' and know who came from where so you know how they are related. Legbands or some other sort of identification is a must. All of my SB cockerels get along well. When they hit that teenage boy stage they are somewhat obnoxious, but not as bad as some other breeds I have. You can always use them to make some very nice olive eggers when crossed with other breeds. With all the chicks you have been hatching, you are going to need a BIG bachelor pad!

 

[ChicKat]

I love love love the pure white and lavender. I think the peach golden color makes them look dirty lol.

As they say. Beauty is all in the eye of the beholder!

It is really pretty

-- all the lav colored are IMO

..but something about the Isabel (Isabella, Isabelline ( a new word delved from research -- look at this color chart of cheetahs http://strangebio.com/post/79726674587/big-cat-color-morphs-from-messybeast-the-model-is )

In other animals - such as horses etc. the Isabel is 'warm' colored. -- or straw may be a better descriptor... it needs that warm color to contrast with the lav. -- So interesting...

Seems too that a female with the really STRONG salmon breast would help preserve the color going forward. Lavender is meant to dilute both the black and red pigments but not to wipe them out entirely. ;O)

 

[ChicKat]

Love to see these pictures -- the one above looks like it is taken at that "magic hour" for photography -- when everything is more beautiful -- 1- hour before sunset or 1-hour after sunrise -- but sunset usually has warm enchanting colors.

sasafras! -- Like what you like! IMO - and keep what you want to keep. The Isabel can most likely have a range of color intensity - there can't be doubt if the chicken is lavender or not.....and if the basis is a brown leghorn -- then it will be a lavender-brown -- and hence authentic Isabel (as opposed to only lavender).

Don't go the route that the Cream Legbar went where people began telling others that there bird 'wasn't cream' because it was 'too coloroful' -- Isabel coloration can be subtle and ultra pastel -- or more saturated so that the dilution of the underlying brown leghorn pattern can be visible -- or somewhere between. IMO

Meanwhile, as you know the whys and wherefores of how the plumage look was built, you may apprecaite both- I hope that you can keep both for awhile and evaluate them as they grow out.

 

[cree57i]

These guys hatched yesterday. The ones with the yellow band are from CJWaldon line via a trio I bought and sold last year from with the understanding I could get eggs. There are 3 of them. The others are from my birds. I swear I don't see a feathers difference. Some are lighter and some are darker in both groups. The camera is just an iPhone 4.
I know they may grow out with different characteristics, but they seem to start off pretty much the same.


Middle one has yellow band.



2 outside ones have yellow bands.

 

[cjwaldon]

Update on one of these. He caught my eye today so I caught him and took a few pics.