Online Large Fowl Chat Thread

[CapricornFarm]

So the hens look similar?

 

[mrheinz77]

I'll have to find a picture. I'm at school right now. I might have one on my computer.

 

[mrheinz77]

These are pics of the other Iowa Blue. I don’t have any pictures of the hens. I will try to get some tonight. The pics of the pullets resemble the hens. We are trying to breed the mossiness out of them. They are supposed to have a silver birchen color pattern. I don’t know if a red was used in trying to fix the genetic diversity of them or not. I’ve seen some with less mossiness. I have a pullet that is quite silver but when I locked everybody up in the breeding pen, I didn’t see her.

Another view of my cockerel.

A pic of one of the pullets.

A picture of a few pullets along with some of my crosses out of my Blue Wheaten Cockerel and my crossbred hens.

From Sandhill’s catalog:
Iowa Blue: Gray penciled pattern, pale brown eggs, medium to moderately large single comb with six points. Please note that these are not a blue chicken. Developed near Decorah, Iowa in the early 1900's. The breed was in desperate need of new blood and I have been working for the past few years to introduce new blood. There is still a slight possibility of an off-type bird. Chick color will range from a warm cocoa brown to black to an occasional mottled one. This breed is a somewhat seasonal layer of pale brown eggs. They go in spurts. When not broody, we get lots of chicks and then all of a sudden they go broody and we get nothing. These are not recognized by the APA Standard. They do not have yellow legs. They make a nice breed for someone who wants a good forager which will set on eggs.

From http://www.raising-chickens.org
These birds were developed around Decorah, Iowa in the first half of the 1900's. This bird is very rare and hasn't been recognized by the APA or ABA.
The almost folk like story of these birds is that a White Leghorn hen went broody and hid under a building to brood her chicks. When she finally came out she had a group of chicks that were unlike any chicks in the area. Some were colored chestnut, but others looked like pheasant chicks, with light yellow, horizontal stripes on their cheeks, and a triangle of yellow under their chins, with black stripes down their backs. Some of the old timers that are familiar with the breed would tell you that the breed was sired by a pheasant.
In the 1960's some hatcheries within Iowa carried the breed readily. As time passed, and these hatcheries went out of business the breed was almost lost. Ken Whealy, of a Decorah based non-profit organization that was dedicated to the preservation of heirloom plants, discovered a few struggling flocks of these birds in the 1980's. Since then he has been trying to distribute birds to any interested parties in an effort to restore the breed.
The breed is a dual purpose bird and is known as a good forager. Hens lay light brown eggs and as the story suggests, they do tend to go broody. When the Blue roosters are used in cross-breeding they produce sex-linked chicks, such as gray cockerels and black pullets when crossed with a White Plymouth Rock hen, or a reddish gray cockerel and blackish gray pullet when crossed with a New Hampshire.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Reminds me of Dark Brahmas. Mine are not quite at pol yet, but very pretty birds.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I worked on my pen for the silver Sussex today. Got the frame built, wire on all sides but one. Half the roof has wire on it now. So one half still to go. Still have to dig trenches and bury wire .
The bad part is I still have not caught chickens to take to the sale, and I need to check the girls in the barn. Tired tonight , how are you folks doing?

 

[mrheinz77]

What a day. My physics students were sitting in class working on a project and I was scanning the room. I noticed one young man had a large bottom lip. I said his name and he said "oh, I probably shouldn't have this in. I'll take it out. " He went to the trash and removed his tobacco. I said what about your spitty. He said "oh, I'll take care of that too." He then sat down like nothing happened. I tried to get somebody from the office to come to my room but they were "too busy dealing with other stuff" to come down. I dug the evidence out of the trash and took it to the office after class. Without it they can't do anything. He will get an underage tobacco ticket Monday. I've never had a problem with this before. My policy is if you do it, fine, but out of respect for me you won't do it in my class. I'm respected enough that it doesn't happen in my room.

How old are the Silver Sussex? Good luck at the sale tomorrow.

We have a sale tomorrow for my wife's grandpa's estate. He passed away last Dec. The sale is for farm toys. He collected as well as restored them for years. My wife's grandma is also selling most of her doll collection. She doesn't want us to be stuck with it when she passes, which hopefully won't be for quite a while.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Yuck, chewing tobacco? Bleah! No brain, no pain.
The Silver Sussex are juveniles, don't know exact age. When I saw them last she wasn't planning on selling. But I know she has lovely, healthy birds, only a few select breeds. My Light Sussex are from her line. Gorgeous big birds.
Must get some shut eye, got to get up at 6 to pack chickens for the sale tomorrow at TSC.

 

[Chicken Coach]

Here's what I've got done so far.But didn't get much done today.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Went to the swap today. Sold two roosters and a hen. Bought a trio of gold laced Polish, black polish chick, a Coronation Sussex rooster and got two other roosters free. Oh , and a dozen coronation Sussex eggs to hatch. Nobody even looked at the young birds I took:-(
So after waking up at 6 am, by the time I got home I was tired so I had a nap. No progress on the run, but I am getting my flock tomorrow morning so I will have to finish up.
Now that I sold most of the goats, people are showing up to buy them. You just can't win.

 

[Chicken Coach]

We went to sales all day. First think this morning we went to pick up the rest of the furniture that we bought Friday night. Came home and fed the animals, loaded up two goats and took them to the livestock sale,said hi to all my chicken buddies, stopped by a upscale flea market and rented a booth,went to a antique sale and bought more stuff,had to make two trips in the small pickup to get it all home and got home around midnight!! p.s. i'll take those sussex eggs