Isbar thread

[atmaclean]

I'm glad they hatched out well. I got a mix of colors from a bluexblue breeding. (Also got a blue chick from my blue Isbar roo and a red EE hen (with grey under fluff) who is very pretty, nice lacing and white marks on the tips of the lower hackles that look like a necklace.) (The EE's eggs are similar in color to the Isbar hens and one got mixed in). I'm puzzled. You said that the hen and roo of your pure hatch are both splash and only 2 of the chicks were splash and 5 were blue or black? I thought that splash to splash only threw splash in BBS breeding??? Could a little crest have come down from the araucana used on the development of the Isbar?

Mary in Maine

Very good question! I don't know. Yes, both rooster and hen were/are splash. 2 of the chicks I hatched are splash. I had heard the same thing - that they would most likely be all splash or majority splash. I think that 3 are blue and 2 are black. I will try to get pics of them tomorrow - I will be sure you can see the little crest on the one little girl (I'm pretty sure she is a pullet).

My son and I really looked at the olive eggers today. We figured out that the 2 pullets with the Isbar daddy have my blue laced red wyandotte as the mother. They have beautiful laced feathers and around their necks and chest the feathers are like the wyandotte as well - both of them are just a very pretty slate gray color.

On another note, my husband shocked me yesterday by bringing home 5 mystery bantams from tractor supply - the last ones they had. I've been trying to identify them all day. Of course, they gave him a "deal" on them if he would take all 5. I had to act like I was very thrilled when I opened the little box. Actually, I was horrified thinking that they would be hawk bait, for sure! We will just have to be extra diligent in watching out for them once we get to the point of letting these little things out. I believe 3 of them are some type of Old English Game bantams and one is definitely a barred cochin and the other is a red cochin. They will be very cute, I'm sure. I just don't know what my husband was thinking because they are way too small and they will lay tiny eggs that we cannot sell - just like our d'uccles. We just save all those eggs for us to eat or I will cook them up to feed back to the girls. Guess we will just have a gracious plenty to keep for ourselves and "the girls" now.....

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Very good question! I don't know. Yes, both rooster and hen were/are splash. 2 of the chicks I hatched are splash. I had heard the same thing - that they would most likely be all splash or majority splash. I think that 3 are blue and 2 are black. I will try to get pics of them tomorrow - I will be sure you can see the little crest on the one little girl (I'm pretty sure she is a pullet).

BBS breeding is very simple and straightforward. Black cannot parent a splash, splash cannot parent a black. It is possible that one of the parents is actually a poor quality blue (sometimes you see that in Ameraucanas- a poor blue will have some darker/lighter ticked feathers that make it look kind of like a splash). But that should only give you blue and splash offspring. Now if BOTH birds are poor quality blues, you will get blue, black, and splash chicks.

 

[atmaclean]

Here are pictures of the parents of my Isbar chicks. There are some pics of them when they were babies on up to when they are grown. I did not feel like they are poor quality. They are very healthy and have never been sick or even acted ill. They free range all day and eat an all natural food. I feed them fermented grains every day and they also have fermented feed available to them at all times. I also give them meal worms, millet, food scraps, and probiotics in their pelleted feed. They have a huge airy coop to go in at night and it closes up in the winter. They seem very happy and healthy. We have had some extremely cold and nasty weather here this winter yet they have thrived.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Here are pictures of the parents of my Isbar chicks. There are some pics of them when they were babies on up to when they are grown. I did not feel like they are poor quality. They are very healthy and have never been sick or even acted ill. They free range all day and eat an all natural food. I feed them fermented grains every day and they also have fermented feed available to them at all times. I also give them meal worms, millet, food scraps, and probiotics in their pelleted feed. They have a huge airy coop to go in at night and it closes up in the winter. They seem very happy and healthy. We have had some extremely cold and nasty weather here this winter yet they have thrived.


SPLASH


SPLASH


SPLASH


SPLASH and BLACK COCKEREL


SPLASH


SPLASH


SPLASH


SPLASH


SPLASH


SPLASH

See my notations above the pictures. Is the black cockerel still in the pen? That would explain how you are getting blues. Black X Splash = 100% blue because black cannot parent a splash, and splash cannot parent a black. You should not get any black chicks from these birds.

 

[flitter]

Nice pictures... thank you for sharing them. did you have any issue with combs freezing on them?

 

[atmaclean]

See my notations above the pictures. Is the black cockerel still in the pen? That would explain how you are getting blues. Black X Splash = 100% blue because black cannot parent a splash, and splash cannot parent a black. You should not get any black chicks from these birds.

No, I sold the black last year. The only adults I have here are the splash rooster and the splash hen. I have not had a chance to get pics of the babies today. Too much going on!

Angela

 

[atmaclean]

Nice pictures... thank you for sharing them. did you have any issue with combs freezing on them?

No, I didn't have any problems with their combs freezing. I use heat emitters in the winter when it is cold. I do have one pen that I don't heat and my lemon cuckoo orphington is in there - he did have a tiny bit of frostbite on his comb. Also, my Cream Legbar rooster had a bit of frostbite but he sleeps in a heated pen so he must have gotten it when he was out during the day....? I have no idea how he got it on his comb - he has a really tall comb.

Angela

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

No, I sold the black last year. The only adults I have here are the splash rooster and the splash hen. I have not had a chance to get pics of the babies today. Too much going on!

Angela

Not sure what happened in your breeding pen, but splash are homozygous, meaning that is the ONLY thing they can pass on. Splash X Splash = 100% Splash and there's no disputing it.

 

[yaya1215]

In 2011 gff imported a trio of isbars(f1) which turned out to be siblings, so they hatched out there eggs and raised them up(f2). The chicks they originally sold were the offspring of f2. So everyone has been breeding sibling's, without sourcing from different breeder's the breed will stay weak. The 2013 gff isbar imports are completely unrelated to the 2011.

 

[Carlas Marans]

The second hatch for Isbars finished and these were much stronger than the first hatch. I talked to the man for whom I am hatching them, and he confirmed that eggs were from different sources. I was much more impressed with the second group of chicks than the first group of chicks. Without knowing more about the sources from whom he purchased the eggs, I am left with a mystery. Was the weakness of the first batch genetic OR was it from sick or poorly cared for parents? I guess I will never know.

thanks again to everyone who helped answer my questions. I have put all the chicks in the hands of their owner, and I may never hatch any again, but it was fun to observe these rare birds.