Isbar thread

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Yes, we had a rooster with feathered legs from eggs that we hatched. That one has been disqualified because of the feather legs, comb, and general attitude is wrong. All the other seems to be correct beyond possibly the leg color. The leg color on the hens are light and the rooster is tad darker but they aren't the darkest legs I have seen either. I would hate to sell them as Isbar and they aren't correct. Is there any pictures or anything I can provide to verify they are what they were sold to me as? You guys seem to be the experts on this breed. :)
 
Sorry I haven't been around much lately. This crazy weather makes everything take longer to do. I WANT SPRING!!!

So, here is the scoop on leg color, etc. There is no standard for the Isbar in Sweden. Not only did Martin Silverudd not breed the Isbar to be shown and therefore have a standard, it is my understanding that he did not want the Isbar to be a show breed bred to a standard. The group responsible for preserving the Isbar in Sweden has a general description of what an Isbar is - a BBS (although ruddy and mottled may be added soon), single-combed, lightweight, high production, dark-legged, green-egg-laying chicken. There may be a few more points, but I haven't got it all translated yet, but it is very general. It is not nearly as detailed as an SOP.

This works just fine in Sweden because they have a very defined group of birds (speaking of specific flocks here) that are part of the preservation program. All the birds in the program come from 3 original flocks or their descendents only. There is a registry of breeders that are part of the program and no additional outside stock will be added to the program. The Swedes are dealing with a very small genetic pool just like we are. However, this approach will not work here because we have no registry, so we are going to have to come up with some kind of SOP to ensure the integrity of the breed.

Personally, I think the characteristics of the GFF original import line is a good start for an SOP for this country. The original import line is a much more uniform group of birds that obviously came from some of the flocks involved in the preservation program. I believe the "purists" among the Swedish breeders in the program breed with this goal. While the new import line may also have come from flocks within the preservation program, there are some oddball traits showing up in the new line that are not seen in the Swedish preservation stock. This puts their parentage in question. The new line is also so varied that building an SOP to include most of them would be an impossible task. We have a photo album on the FB page for posting pictures of our Isbars that our Swedish friends are looking at and critiquing for us to help us get a better idea of which birds to include in the breeding program and which should be removed. It is very educational.

If we use the original line as "the standard", then the willow or green or green/slate legs are desired. So are those dark eyes.
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It will be quite a while before any SOP is adopted and no one knows exactly what it will look like in the end. However, those who have expressed an interest in developing an SOP are leaning toward the original line characteristics, so that is probably a good goal to aim for.
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I don't think that birds that have dark gray/black with yellow legs or lighter eyes should be discarded at this point, but I think some heavy culling is going to be required to get the stock in this country to a point where an SOP can be adopted. Adding stock from someone who has the original line birds would help. Any pullet/hen who does not lay a green egg should be removed from the breeding stock or, if excellent in other characteristics, should be treated as a project bird. The goal is cockerels/cocks that are homogeneous for the blue egg gene, something even the Swedish breeders are still working on with their stock. Any birds showing obvious deviations, like feathered legs, should be culled.

With more "breeders" starting their Isbar journey with the new line Isbars, those who are serious about having a flock that will one day meet an SOP are going to have to be very careful obtaining new stock to add diversity to their breeding program. History teaches that most who buy Isbars will just breed what they have and not be concerned with meeting an SOP. Some "breeders" will hang their hat on the fact that there is no SOP and let anything slide. I would hate to see that happen to the Isbar in this country.
 
Here are the brat's out and about, scratching for bug's.
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The splash is eating, the mom is Clair. She is keeping a eye out for our brat duck's Rick & Lauren.. They always get a bit to close for Clair. Here they are climbing up the dirt mound.
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KYTinpusher said:
City farm said:
Here are the brat's out and about, scratching for bug's. The splash is eating, the mom is Clair. She is keeping a eye out for our brat duck's Rick width: 500px; height: 375px"> [/URL]
Click to expand...
Nice! Are those Blue Swedish Ducks? :love
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Yes, we hand raised them. They are so fun, & follow us, let us pick them up. Understand english. When we have people walk by, they follow us to their pool " horse trough" & jump in.. Our family lives them more than the chicken's.. she has been giving us a egg a day for about 3 months straight!! Duck egg's are so exquisite. They taste so much better than chicken egg's.
 

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