Any Cream Legbar experts?

[CSDeVault]

Hello,

I hatched 3 cream legbar chicks. I had assumed 2 were male, 1 female. 2 exhibited brown stripes with one having noticably darker stripe (which I assumed was a hen). Here is a pick when chicks (sorry not the best) and some recent pics. Any thoughts on hen/roo? Thank you.

 

[dheltzel]

@dheltzel knows all about legbars if i'm not mistaken.

I have hatched and sexed a few thousand Legbars over the years. All the replies here are correct, those are all pullets.
The amount of cresting and the shade of brown to grey varies quite a bit with the various lines of legbars out there.
There is no SOP yet for Legbars, but it is generally accepted that they should be homozygous for the cream, cresting and blue egg genes in order to be called "Cream Legbars". Some breeders are keeping non-cream lines, often called "Gold Legbars" to distinguish them.
The Cream gene dilutes all the brown to grey, so any Legbar showing brown colors is not pure for the recessive cream. The Cresting gene is partially dominant, so the small crests are also not "pure", and if bred will throw some chicks with no crests at all, obviously not what breeders should be going for.
Finally, the blue egg gene is fairly well fixed in lines of cream legbars, but the new Opal Legbars, with lavender genes from Isabel Leghorns, often is not homozygous for the dominant blue egg gene. This is particularly hard to correct because the recessive white egg gene hides very well in these birds. There is a genetic test to help breeders fix this, but it can be quite expensive to test enough birds to get a homozygous flock.
Anyone wanting to breed quality legbars should look for top quality stock to get started. It is time consuming to fix these traits and much cheaper in the long run to buy stock that has the proper genetics.

 

[Frankie89]

These are my sweet Legbars.

The boy is usually a lot lighter and Comb comes in fairly quick. These two are just over 6 weeks old ☺

Also a pic of them as chicks ♥

 

[Chad Oftedal]

So, I am far from an expert on this breed, but I currently have four CCL chicks that look to be right about the same size as yours. Three of mine are girls, and one is a boy. My boy is much lighter gray and is sprouting a pretty good comb here at a bit over five weeks of age. All three of yours look like my ladies. Based on my limited experience and comparing pics, I’d be surprised if you had a roo in there.

 

[NatJ]

This is great info! I just went to tractor supply and they had cream Legbar chicks. They’re such great chickens that I was about to buy four more! But I noticed that every single one had a white spot on the head. They did have the darker chipmunk looking stripe but that spot threw me off even though they were all supposed to be pullets. I can’t have any more roosters.
Is it possible to have a female cream Legbar that has a spot on the head?
They all looked like this picture:
View attachment 3618781
Thoughts?

It probably is possible for a Cream Legbar pullet to have a small spot on her head. The reasons I say this:

I find this online from one company that sells chicks:
https://www.durhamhens.co.uk/sexing-chicks
"Cream Legbar (Auto-sexing breed)
Females have dark stripes on their backs. They may have a tiny white spot on their head but much smaller than that on males (left)
Males are paler and duller than females and have a large white patch on their head (right)"

I looked at photos on Cackle Hatchery's website, and found one with a whole box of Cream Legbar chicks. Cockerels were in one side, pullets in the other, with labels. One of the pullets has a small light dot on her head.

The head spots are caused by the barring gene. Males have two copies of that gene (makes a bigger spot and overall larger color), and females have one copy of the gene. So having it cause a spot on a pullet's head seems at least somewhat reasonable. It certainly does cause light spots on the head of black-based pullets (example: Barred Rock and Dominique can be sexed by males having larger head spots and females having smaller head spots.)

I think the chick in your photo probably is female, although of course I can't be 100% certain. (I am not an expert on Legbars, just someone who reads about different breeds and then tries to make it line up with what I see.)

 

[dheltzel]

This is great info! I just went to tractor supply and they had cream Legbar chicks. They’re such great chickens that I was about to buy four more! But I noticed that every single one had a white spot on the head. They did have the darker chipmunk looking stripe but that spot threw me off even though they were all supposed to be pullets. I can’t have any more roosters.
Is it possible to have a female cream Legbar that has a spot on the head?
They all looked like this picture:
View attachment 3618781
Thoughts?

No worries, those are definite females. They look like they are not homozygous for the cream gene, but will still be great layers. You won't find the very best looking Cream Legbars at Tractor Supply, but they do manage to get chicks to places the breeders are not.

 

[-Chanticleer-]

They all look female. The males have lighter coloring whereas these have female partridge coloring.

 

[DLA]

@dheltzel knows all about legbars if i'm not mistaken.

 

[McChooky]

Your beautiful young pullets don't bear any resemblance to either one of my cockerels! Congratulations!

 

[Frankie89]

I'd love to have some of these hens but I'll have to thin my flock Or build a bigger coop lol

My boys will be needing new homes ♥