Cream Legbars

GaryDean26 said:

I paired a non-crested hen with a small crested cockerel. About 50% of their offpsring were crested. Most were small crested, but I have one with a medium crest and good type that is now 13 months old that I am currently collecting eggs from.

So...the original cockerel that the non-cressted pullet was paired to only had one cresting gene. To carry this breeding line forward I have mated the 13 month old hen with the guy below (don't pay any attention to his color. I am focusing on big crests and straight combs with this pairing).

Oh... I also pair a medium crested hen to the same small crested cockerel as the non-crested hen was paired with. 100% of her offspring were crested.

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Good to hear the ratios in your results. Can't wait until you get true cream into this guys line- he has awesome type!

Well of course no one would be still but I snapped a couple shots of my crazy CCLs out among the flock this afternoon.

lonnyandrinda said:

Good to hear the ratios in your results. Can't wait until you get true cream into this guys line- he has awesome type!

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Well, I am pretty sure he is at lease double crested. Last year he was mated to a large combed pullet and that didn't work out so good. The pullets turned out very nice, but the cockerels were all floppy combed. The cockerels did have big crest though. I am hoping with this pair which has a smaller comb and smaller crest hen that the balance will work out. I would love to see that comb crest comb on some future cockerels.

3 months old. Tentative keeper as I have a few more that look to have better potential. Also did an inventory of the feathered out pullets I have left -26 total with 11 automatic culls. May keep 6 out of the rest. Have about 8 girls still left in the brooder and about 4 males.... One I'm really hopeful about but I'm done for the year. Going to make selections for next year now. Not planning on doing the mass hatches I did this year!! As always hoping for better luck in the year.

blackbirds13 said:

3 months old. Tentative keeper as I have a few more that look to have better potential. Also did an inventory of the feathered out pullets I have left -26 total with 11 automatic culls. May keep 6 out of the rest. Have about 8 girls still left in the brooder and about 4 males.... One I'm really hopeful about but I'm done for the year. Going to make selections for next year now. Not planning on doing the mass hatches I did this year!! As always hoping for better luck in the year.

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Good plans! When you pick your keeper pullets be sure and post pics!

#ON HAND ORG BAND PNK BAND BLU BAND YEL BAND HACKLE G HACKLE C CREST LEGS OTHER

4 orange cream no crest yellow cull
1 orange gold crest yellow wht spots cull
1 pink blue- GFF cream sml crest pale leg keeper
2 pink blue -GFF cream crest pale leg keeper
3 orange pink cream crest ylw/line toe watch
2 pink yellow cream crest good yllw sml spot cull
1 orange yellow ? cream? crest watch
1 pink cream crest good yllw young keeper
2 orange gold good crest crkd toes 1/2 + 1/1 cull
2 orange yellow cream crest lots spot cull
1 orange pink cream crest ylw/line miss tail watch
1 orange yellow light crest spots cull
1 pink yellow cream crest ylw/line watch
1 pink cream crest good yllw perfect so far keeper
1 pink yellow dirty crest yellow imprecise barring cull
1 orange pink yellow cream crest pale leg lined salmon watch
1 yellow cream crest wilo pale lined salmon watch

I have selected 5 so far as keepers but this may go up or down depending on how the others develop. They all have some sort of issue or flaw but I’m happy with the overall results. I have a few that look good with nice yellow legs but there are these lines on a few of their toes that I cannot tell if it was dirt on the scales or a color… we’ll see this weekend. I’m looking forward now to those that are still in the brooder that hatched with the Marans and are from my Macbeth and only the cream colored girls. I decided on this last hatch to toss most of the eggs and to only hatch out 2 from Macbeth and my new line GFF pullet, I got a pair and the male looks really nice but I’m going to let her eggs size up a bit before I set them again. Seeing that I have some with no crests I’m sure that Macduff is single gene for crests so that’s my next focus area. I have dumped everyone back into a single pen for the winter and will see who makes the ‘cut’ for spring. They are laying spotty in any case as I’ve been bouncing them around the pens trying to organize everyone these last few weeks. I have some eggs promised to some folks so I’ll try to get to those in the time ahead. I sold my Jubilee breeders to Puglady so I have extra room which I needed, but I have a couple females left for the eye candy.

The bands are orange, pink and yellow for different cull or potential breeding reasons

I make my next decisions but I’ve banded all the girls so I can notate who is who. Some of the age bands came off so I took them all off and will be guesstimating their ages using my hatch records and their comparable size but the oldest dates from a June 4th hatch. For the boys I'm going look at their tail angles this next weekend and notate where they lie now but it's still too early to really judge, so right now it's just on if the color is right and they have a crest and if their combs look like they may . go too askew, This was my first year to really to really go crazy hatching so it’s been fun but now I need to cull down for the winter. I know my breeding plan is not to everyone’s taste but I’m really liking what I see despite all the flaws. Next year will be another interesting year with the influx of the Rees birds but a little genetic diversity is good for everyone. I’m hoping to concentrate on building back my Marans pens next spring. I’m thinking about the Rees birds and think genetic diversity is a good thing but not seeking to revamp my whole flock for those and tossing out what I have. I’m happy with where I am.
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KPenley said:

All of my boys are crested. But, I did have one little girl come out non-crested from crested parents, so I determined they were both carriers for non-crests. I think that lack of cresting is just another thing in the long list of DQable and non-desireable traits that we will need to breed out over the next few years.

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There may be an advantage to keeping around a non-crested bird. They are not show-quality, but assuming they are of good type, they can be bred back to another bird that has a bouffant style too-large crest. If there were no non-crested birds then eventually the crest size could drift to being overly-large.

I my mind there are obvious traits to be expunged from the flock--deformities or truly off color (like black breasted vs no Cream) that need to go. There are other traits that may leave an individual bird unshowable such as lack of a crest but the bird has usefulness for breeding purposes to balance or correct other problems with type on otherwise good quality birds. Sort of like unshowable Splash birds do not meet breed standards, but are useful to breed to Black birds to get the Blue. Its a balancing act.

blackbirds13 said:

3 months old. Tentative keeper as I have a few more that look to have better potential. Also did an inventory of the feathered out pullets I have left -26 total with 11 automatic culls. May keep 6 out of the rest. Have about 8 girls still left in the brooder and about 4 males.... One I'm really hopeful about but I'm done for the year. Going to make selections for next year now. Not planning on doing the mass hatches I did this year!! As always hoping for better luck in the year.

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It is a nice problem to have--that this roo is on the maybe list. He looks really nice from what I can see of him! Good luck figuring out the girls to eliminate. Must be really hard to try to figure out which flaw to keep or get rid of if they are other wise equal. I know some breeders go by a theme where one season they are going to focus on one trait over others then move on. Do you have that sort of plan, or are you going more off of gut feel? You are doing such a wonderful job, so whatever you do it seems to be working!

GaryDean26 said:

I paired a non-crested hen with a small crested cockerel. About 50% of their offpsring were crested. Most were small crested, but I have one with a medium crest and good type that is now 13 months old that I am currently collecting eggs from.

So...the original cockerel that the non-cressted pullet was paired to only had one cresting gene. To carry this breeding line forward I have mated the 13 month old hen with the guy below (don't pay any attention to his color. I am focusing on big crests and straight combs with this pairing).

Oh... I also pair a medium crested hen to the same small crested cockerel as the non-crested hen was paired with. 100% of her offspring were crested.

Click to expand...

Wow---
do you believe this?? Dh just walked into the room and I had this image up on computer screen...and he said -- "Is that Ice?" and I said..."yes, I believe it is". Nice rooster, nice plan, hope you have great success. .

I got a cpl shots of some of the roosters just thought id share. I refuse to go onto the ameraucana thread, it just makes me mad and feel really bad about how nasty people can be. Its so sad to see the type of things that go on in that thread so i thought id share here. My Blue wheaten male almost has is mature feathers. His beard needs to change color and he has a few more black penciled neck hackles to replace yet but hes looking good.





This guy is actually looking kinda shabby and he was flapping his wings and didnt pull his wings back together for the pic but he still pretty. hes some type of game x EE. his beard used to be full but the hens had him clean faced a month or so ago.







Here is my best cream roo as of now. He has a double point but his comb is straightest out of all the creams and his color is good. He has good form also with nice even color on the earlobes.. His hen has the straightest 6 point comb out of all my hens. Shes not crested or a good cream but her earlobes and form is also very nice. All my roos tails that were looking so good have gotten higher. in the second pic you can see the double point. How likely is that going to be passed on to his offspring. will all his offspring get it or will it be random.