Hi, I am looking for some Silver Penciled Iowa Blues. I need them shipped because I live all the way in Arkansas. A breeding pair, eggs, chicks; I'll take anything as long as I can afford it. Thank you so much for your help. I am looking so forward to raising this beautiful breed!

If you're willing to wait a little while for them, I'd reach out to Denny Johnston. He has a sone that lives in Arkansas and he visits him often. It might be possible for you to meet him somewhere in Arkansas the next time he's down there. It's worth a shot at least.

I can't remember if they drive down or fly down. I was thinking they drove....but I could be wrong. You'll have to touch base with him on that. Kari ships eggs and chicks, and her prices are right where they should be. You could try her as well.

I'm thinking they drove as well. I didn't know if Denny was still selling much or not because he wasn't on the Breeder's Directory last I checked. I have a few 2014 Johnston pullets in my grow out pen now and they're looking fabulous!

Denny's still breeding, just on a lot smaller scale than last year. He's planning on mostly working with other breeders.

I read an article about them in Backyard Poultry and between their history, temperament and the looks of the silver penciled I have been enthralled with them since.

I did some more research and found this site and, through this site, found Connie Hurley's site. Her birds are beautiful so I sent her an email seeking some fertile eggs. She sent us 28 eggs, 26 were fertile and 23 hatched. We have had chickens for a long time and have hatched quite a few but 23 out of 26 tells me that there is some real good genes in there, strong breed genetics in a sense. Not only was there a good hatch rate but the chicks seemed to "recover" much quicker than some of the other breeds we have hatched (mostly layers). In one instance, the last chick that hatched seemed smallish, weaker and somewhat splay-legged. My wife put a little band-aid "splint" between the legs and we put that chick in with 4 of its siblings so it wouldn't get pushed around and could get to the food/water easily. Long story short - The next morning the splint was laying on the ground and the only way we could tell which chick it wore it was the slightly smaller size. Other than that the chick was as lively and fast and the other 4. Amazing resilience, great genetics. I have only become even more enamored with them LOL.

I hope to build a good flock of them here in Southern MD and "spread the word" LOL.

We also raise Narragansett turkeys and Muscovy ducks. We like those breeds because they are broody and hatch their poults and ducklings. While we still use incubators we like the poultry to have and retain their natural traits and instincts. Another reason I like the IB's.