Cream Legbar or Mutt? getting ripped off? please help.

So I have been looking for a good breeder / source for Cream Legbar hatching eggs to start my CLB flock. I live in Chesapeake, VA and it is not easy to find someone in driving distance... I do not want to resort to ordering eggs through the mail.

anyway I finally found someone who is going to sell me hatching eggs. He sent me some picture of the hens from his flock and all seemed well, they look pretty good, and i was pretty excited. Here are the first pictures he sent:





...not bad, right? not perfect maybe, but a couple pretty good looking birds. HOWEVER, then he sent a couple more that made me very concerned. Here are the pictures I am worried about:




...the colors are there, but the face on these hens clearly looks like an easter egger or an americana, like it is some kind of cross breed or fake CLB. the guy assured me that this was a normal variation and that it happens and these birds were in fact pure bred CLB's. My question is, is this correct? do they sometimes have beards like this? should i go ahead and get my eggs from him? Or does it seem like he is trying to pull the wool over my eyes with some kind of americana mix mutt birds?? I would appreciate anybody's thoughts on any of this. Thank you very much!

hunter

Most of those, including the rooster look like Legbar/Easter Egger crosses. Definitely not a flock that has been kept pure, but if all you want are blue eggs, then they should do just fine.

Hi hunter. No beards on CLs. Never.

To answer your question, no they are never bearded. That is straight up misinformation. Deliberate or not, good question.

Also, the rooster appears to be pea combed. Could be a frost bitten comb however he is not showing much of wattles(pea combed birds typically have much reduced wattles) and his neck feathers have almost the 'bull neck' appearence common to EE, ameraucanas.

Pea combs are not supposed to happen in legbars either... if they try to tell you that's normal variation too, the whole thing is a joke.

btw the hen on left of first pic has a beard too. Her breast is too dark. Breast is not correct color in the middle hen's. Seems like a possible sighting of beard on rooster in third picture. The hen behind him seems to be quite off in color- too dark.

Hen in second picture also looks rather heavy and short bodied for pure legbar but I am not up on all the legbar types of the separate importations. But combined with the pea and beards being present in other birds this gets suspicious.... especially as the last picture shows a short and heavy type.

Quite a fair number of things off about this flock....

A huge percentage of people that look for birds from a "local farmer" end up with poor quality birds. The seller may be as honest as the day is long, but they're also usually clueless as to what a good quality bird is. They usually got their birds from the guy down the street, who assured him they were purebreds. There is rarely any reference to the SOP for mating selection, if there actually is any mating selection vs just random flock breeding, and you end up with some pretty laying hens of no particular pedigree. They're fine chickens, but they're not XYZ breed.

If you want pretty chickens that lay pretty eggs, then there's nothing wrong with these birds, assuming they are healthy and produce the eggs that you want. There's no reason that every person who wants a pretty egg has to buy quality CLs.

But if you want good quality Cream Legbars, you may have to accept the fact that the vast majority of people do not live within driving distance of good quality CL breeders. Shipping, meeting somewhere, having a friend in a distant city come visit you and bring the eggs, that sort of thing is usually how you get these eggs/chicks/birds from one place to another. Yes, you will possibly have some losses due to transport. But ending up with fewer good quality birds than you ordered is better, in the long run, than ending up with every poor quality bird you bought, if in fact you want good quality CLs instead of just a pretty hen that lays a pretty egg.

Yes, I have been researching them long enough to be at the point where I don't think I'll be able to settle for sub-standard birds.@Sydney Acres I contact the cream legbar club and found that the regional VP lives about 2 hours drive from me. I have been in contact, now I'm just praying she gets back to me soon and will sell me 20 eggs ... I have a brinsea octagon 20 coming in tomorrow And I just can't settle for filling it with sub-par birds. I have already tried getting eggs shipped. Out of ten I have 2 maybe 3 developing ... It's too much money to risk shipping again especially if I can get them with just a 2 hour drive.

It sounds like you're in luck!! The Brinsea is a reliable incubator. If the regional VP of the CL club is that close and she will sell you some eggs, that is definitely your best option. Even if she doesn't sell eggs, as many good quality breeders don't sell eggs or chicks, she might have a good quality trio or quad available to get you started. Or she might be able to point you in the right direction, since she would likely know most of the best breeders in the area. Shipped eggs is always a risk, but there are some sellers that pack them much better than others. Many people have good luck with shipped eggs, from the right seller.

@Sydney Acres ...well, keep your fingers crossed for me... She hasn't responded to my e-mail inquiry yet. I REALLY hope she will help me out though! I guess a little trio isn't a bad idea... I kinda have my heart set on hatching my flock but that would be good too. Both places I ordered eggs from packed them well. The first was an eBay listing (they ALL died, some were not fertile). I am having much better luck with the second group tho... Sent from Brinkhaven Acres... Actually I highly recommend them... Side note. (They even sent me 4 extra BLR Wyandotte eggs for free!) and 3/4 of theCL eggs are developing. But, they're still early on and you never know what they go thru in the mail. These were small orders. I want to set 20 eggs and if I am going to drop that kind of dough, I can't risk them in the mail, you know?

FiveMileFarmer said:

@Sydney Acres ...well, keep your fingers crossed for me... She hasn't responded to my e-mail inquiry yet. I REALLY hope she will help me out though! I guess a little trio isn't a bad idea... I kinda have my heart set on hatching my flock but that would be good too. Both places I ordered eggs from packed them well. The first was an eBay listing (they ALL died, some were not fertile). I am having much better luck with the second group tho... Sent from Brinkhaven Acres... Actually I highly recommend them... Side note. (They even sent me 4 extra BLR Wyandotte eggs for free!) and 3/4 of theCL eggs are developing. But, they're still early on and you never know what they go thru in the mail. These were small orders. I want to set 20 eggs and if I am going to drop that kind of dough, I can't risk them in the mail, you know?

Click to expand...

Good luck with your hatch. The CL Club VP is actually a he. Bear in mind that for some of us -- our CLs are just now gearing up to lay again after molt and short winter days. Hope you get all the eggs you are seeking and you have a really good hatch from them.

Thanks @ChicKat yea, that has been part of the problem. I just let the first guy know that, unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to buy the eggs from him since I want to start with a definite 100% pure CLB blood line. I just told him nicely I wanted to be sure and know exactly where they were coming from. I have researched and wanted these birds long enough.. Might as well wait a little longer for eggs that I am positive are coming from the best stock I can find. AND, Lord willing, I may blessed with my first 2 or 3 CLB's from Brinkhaven acres on or around January 30!