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I am so honored to be elected Vice President of this great club representing a fantastic breed!
My husband Brett and I have never known how fun chicken keeping was before 2013. My interest in providing fresh, healthy food spurred an interest in having a “few” chickens. I did some internet research on chicken keeping and decided that I would like to help revive a heritage breed along with having healthy fresh eggs. My first choice was the Chantecler breed. However, when Brett heard I was thinking about getting some chickens, he saw the cute little fluff balls at the feed store and bought 6 Red sex links at a great price. There went my idea to get some Chanteclers! We made a make shift pen with dog fence and tarp in the spare bedroom to raise the chicks until they were old enough to go outside. I am sure everyone who starts with chicks inside will never do that again… :)
We both joined the Backyard Chicken web site and learned quite a bit about chicken keeping. That is when we discovered another Michigan member looking to rehome his Delaware chickens. The Delaware is on the endangered list so I jumped at the chance for two free pullets. The funny thing was, one girl was patterned typical Delaware. The other girl was silver pencil patterned and not like a Delaware color at all. The man swore she was also a Delaware. I started to review past threads the man posted and noticed he got hatching eggs from Dark Horse Acres, Iowa Blue chickens. This penciled girl looked just like the Iowa Blue!
After getting in touch with the Iowa Blue thread, it was decided our penciled pullet was indeed an Iowa and not a Delaware. We fell in love with this silver penciled pullet we named “Sweetie”. The same man decided to rehome the remaining of his Iowa hatches and we told him we will take the last three he had. The remaining Iowa’s consisted of a silver cockerel and two birchen hens. We were going to help revive this wonderful breed after reading the history and knowing firsthand how great the birds are.
Thus began our journey into keeping Iowa Blues! We are so fortunate to have these very smart, personable birds. They “found” us and we are so glad.
We now have 53 chickens. More than I thought we would ever have but it became the best hobby to us. Our largest breed flock is the Iowa Blue and we are breeding for personality, size and getting as close to the original breed coloring possible. Our birds are far from the current standard, but our farm goal is to work toward the dark grey blue feather hue (Birchen ER base, all chestnut color chicks which feather out to be light charcoal).
Welcome to new members, new enthusiasts and please feel free to contact me with any questions.
My husband Brett and I have never known how fun chicken keeping was before 2013. My interest in providing fresh, healthy food spurred an interest in having a “few” chickens. I did some internet research on chicken keeping and decided that I would like to help revive a heritage breed along with having healthy fresh eggs. My first choice was the Chantecler breed. However, when Brett heard I was thinking about getting some chickens, he saw the cute little fluff balls at the feed store and bought 6 Red sex links at a great price. There went my idea to get some Chanteclers! We made a make shift pen with dog fence and tarp in the spare bedroom to raise the chicks until they were old enough to go outside. I am sure everyone who starts with chicks inside will never do that again… :)
We both joined the Backyard Chicken web site and learned quite a bit about chicken keeping. That is when we discovered another Michigan member looking to rehome his Delaware chickens. The Delaware is on the endangered list so I jumped at the chance for two free pullets. The funny thing was, one girl was patterned typical Delaware. The other girl was silver pencil patterned and not like a Delaware color at all. The man swore she was also a Delaware. I started to review past threads the man posted and noticed he got hatching eggs from Dark Horse Acres, Iowa Blue chickens. This penciled girl looked just like the Iowa Blue!
After getting in touch with the Iowa Blue thread, it was decided our penciled pullet was indeed an Iowa and not a Delaware. We fell in love with this silver penciled pullet we named “Sweetie”. The same man decided to rehome the remaining of his Iowa hatches and we told him we will take the last three he had. The remaining Iowa’s consisted of a silver cockerel and two birchen hens. We were going to help revive this wonderful breed after reading the history and knowing firsthand how great the birds are.
Thus began our journey into keeping Iowa Blues! We are so fortunate to have these very smart, personable birds. They “found” us and we are so glad.
We now have 53 chickens. More than I thought we would ever have but it became the best hobby to us. Our largest breed flock is the Iowa Blue and we are breeding for personality, size and getting as close to the original breed coloring possible. Our birds are far from the current standard, but our farm goal is to work toward the dark grey blue feather hue (Birchen ER base, all chestnut color chicks which feather out to be light charcoal).
Welcome to new members, new enthusiasts and please feel free to contact me with any questions.
