Cream Legbar Club -- WWIT

[ChicKat]

For everyone who is interested in the Cream Legbar breed. For everyone who is diligently working on gathering the history and who is working on SOP----

this thread is for you. ;O)


At first I thought that club would go hand-in-glove with SOP, but now I'm thinking that although the club would "own" the SOP and develop it to completion and get the breed 'recognized' by the APA in the USA......

I'm wondering if a club couldn't be established...by those interested -- right now.

so my question for discussion for all y'all is 'what will it take' to establish a club. (WWIT).

Please share your thoughts here.... obstacles, discussion, people volunteering to do things.

Since we are scattered, and since Rinda has about (correct me if I am wrong) around 20-names and contact info---of people interested. I think we have a critical mass. I also think that we have to establish it as a virtual club. That means that we would meet online. There are some AMAZING and FREE apps out there now to do just that. It can be real-time. No one needs to travel etc. -- so that obstacle can be easily surmounted IMO.

Greenfire Farms has generously offered to partially fund a database. Greenfire Farms has also offered to load the database with their chicken information. As the Cream Legbar population increases in the USA, the database will be an excellent reference to track the bloodlines of these birds. For people who like to be pioneers, as we know of there isn't yet a breed database for chickens. The Cream Legbar Club could be the first. Also if we care about these birds, this is one way to insure their continued value and their good care.

Please - put your thougts and ideas here. (BTW....the Easter Eggers have already started a club on BYC. (sheesh those EE people-- and I love my EEs so don't get me wrong.))

I will link to this in the other threads discussing...and hope that we can get some things resolved.

Who likes a challenge....do you think we could get this accompliished (like before the world ends on 12/21/12 or some other reasonable deadline. Let me know. :O)

 

[ChicKat]

I just hatched out 5 Cream Legbars. These are my first CLs, so I'm hoping for some backup help on sexing them. I see only one boy out of five. Am I missing one?

Such cute chicks. CONGRATULATIONS..... I would say that one boy is correct...unless the lighting is tricky. The back stripes and eyeliner are the giveaways for girls. You have a nice set of Cream Legbars to get you going.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I say American Cream Legbar Club sounds like a good name. There are a few folks here in Washington/the Pacific Northwest that have legbars so we would probably have to have a mini election for the regional president. I know if we have a club, I would do premiums at shows for the best of breed and all that good stuff. When the club is up and running, it would also make awareness much easier since so many people tend to think they are mixes due to the composite name. We do vinyl and banners so I could make one for our region to be used at shows.
I am probably one of the few people that isn't too interested in a database, I keep personal records but don't want to worry about mess ups or anything like that.

 

[stoneunhenged]

Actually, it is the market and not individual sellers that most often set the prices on legbar hatching eggs. Many egg auctions start at just $1 and bidders in the free market ultimately decide what they'll pay for hatching eggs. If you believe in free market capitalism this is a good example of how it works.

The purpose of a pedigree registry is to build a stronger breed. Besides ensuring that animals are purebred, a registry also provides critical data when making breeding decisions for livestock. Among other things, it helps breeders avoid inbreeding. There are hundreds of breed registries in America --many of them coordinated by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy-- and they serve a very useful purpose. It isn't about promoting elitism, and if you look at the humble and cooperative way people have approached this legbar club, they strike me as the opposite of elite. They're seeking input and ideas in the most open way. Assign bad motives to people who have been nothing but generous with their time and ideas seems out of place in this thread.

 

[stoneunhenged]

A predigree database serves a number of functions if it's properly designed and implemented. It gives novice buyers of birds some degree of assurance that they're buying purebred birds. It gives more sophisticated users the ability to see the physical traits of flocks from which they're contemplating acquiring birds, and it helps them avoid inbreeding in the future. If pedigree registries are useful to improve other species of animals, I don't see why they wouldn't be useful for chickens.

Here's an example. I'm in the process of trying to breed better black copper marans. There are many cosmetic defects associated with this breed: mossy chest coloring in the roosters, squirrel tails, white tail feathers, inadequate leg feathering, wrong eye color, etc. There are also some flocks that produce eggs that are too light in color. I've spent quite a bit of money acquiring breeding stock, but mostly it's a crap shoot. I've gotten a few nice birds, but I also I've wasted hundreds of dollars on hatching eggs and chicks that ultimately produced inferior adult birds. I've culled dozens of expensive birds that didn't make the cut. Would it have been useful if I could go to an online database and see not only the parents of my birds but also their ancestors extending for generations? Yes, very much so, and I would be happy to pay more money for a bird that could prove it came from sound genetics. Would it also be nice to be able to select birds that wouldn't result in a high inbreeding coefficient with my current flock? Yes, again, this would be very helpful.

The goal here is for legbar breeders to have as much information as possible about the birds they're breeding. That's a powerful thing and something that doesn't exist now. More access to this type of information is a good thing, not a bad thing.

 

[RyeRanch]

I also have some mixed feelings about the viability of a database for chickens. As many have pointed out, the prolific reproductive habits of chickens make tracking who comes from where a somewhat overwhelming task. I am not sure that I could expect a breeder or backyard chicken keeper to know who comes from who if they are operating on any sort of scale. I know that even with my small flock (5 hens, 2 roos) I might not be able to report correct lineage for everyone.

At the same time, as a purchaser of stock it would be very valuable to see even a very broad picture of the genetic pool you are purchasing from. For example, if you had offspring that you knew came from one of 2 or 3 different roosers and had photos and descriptions of them and you had photos and descriptions of the 10 hens or so along with photos you could get a good idea of the gene pool likely present in the dozen hatching eggs you may purchase. I think a tool like this could be useful for moving towards an SOP as well as for both new and old lovers of the breed to get good information. I guess at the end of the day, even an imperfect and inexact record would be useful. For that reason, I think it is worth making a go of it.

I also am concerned about the potential for people to be put off from the breed because they can not "register" their birds or because they feel it is an insular sort of organization. I think we all have to work together on the honor system with the information that is entered into whatever sort of database may be as well as aware that we not put up any unnecessary roadblocks for new enthusiasts to join in. I do like the idea of having some sort of feedback mechanism that incents people to keep their information as honest and transparent as possible.

I suppose blazing a new trail is never straigforward nor easy, however that does not mean it should not be attempted. I thinik that it will be good to try it on a small scale while the breed is relatively new. It will allow us to be more flexible in making changes to formatting. reporting, and input as we see fit.

 

[ChicKat]

yeah, I was a little confused with the coloring as well. one is lighter than the others, but doesn't have the head spot. the one that has the spot is more of a blot than a well defined spot. they don't have the textbook coloring I was expecting, so i'm not completely sure.

The white spot on the head of your boy looks a bit like the number 8 or the letter B. I had one that looked like a heart, and one that looked like an arrow...(Hence their names Heart and Arrow)

 

[faykokoWV]

As you know, I'm all in for starting a club. I think the first thing is deciding on a name for the club. how exciting that Greenfire Farms is going to help with the data base! I don't have a lot of free time, but if there's something I can help with just let me know

 

[GaryDean26]

When GFF made their offer on the data base a month ago my thoughts were that the CLB club should be in pace and ready to accept people's first year of membership by on the first of January 2012.

I have never been a part of a poultry club so I really don't know any the in's and out's, but I know that some of the things that other clubs do is have regional egg contest to promote the breed. Travel Table display kits that can be sent to people working club tables and poultry shows, news letters, annual meets etc.

I was invited to repeat the table display at the Fancy Feathers Poultry show in New Braunfels next March. I think that if we could get a half dozen CLB owner to commit to work the table and participate in an egg contest that would be a good location for the first CLB club meeting for the Texas group.

We probably need to get a website up, and club logo, and treasure, regional representatives, etc.

 

[nicalandia]

how exciting that Greenfire Farms is going to help with the data base!

I dont think they will like to hear that some(at least partially) of their stock are just not close to standards and exhibit some Heterozygosity