Cream Legbar Egg Size

[Bresseman]

My Legbars are due to start laying any day. They are Greenfire stock. Is anyone out there seeing small egg size with these birds? I'm told that their are some strains in the UK that have almost bantam sized eggs.

 

[otakalhasas]

Okay, I know this is a REALLY old thread by now, but I'm trying to figure out if I want to add a couple of Cream Legbars or true Ameraucanas to add color to my basket. Any idea which breed lays the bigger egg? Rate of lay? Health issues? Heat/cold tolerance?

Thanks for any input!!!!!!!

 

[GaryDean26]

My dad ordered Qty (10) Araucanas from Myers hatchery for $0.10 each in the 1960's. He has a colored photo of an Austra While hens sitting on a clutch of eggs with a pale blue egg in it. The family farm have kept blue egg layers on it ever since. I loved going to my grand dad's as a child and collecting blue and green eggs from the laying flock. When we got chickens I told my wife I wanted Araucanas. We couldn't find any when we looked locally but learned about the Cream Legbar's Blue egg ability and we really prefered their look to that of the rumples Araucana with ear tuffs. So we set up a plan to recreate the Cream Legbar for our blue egg laying breed. They Cream Legbar was imported to the USA before we could complete that projected so to save time and money we got Cream Legbars as soon as they were available and have enjoyed them ever since. Our first year we worked with three pullets. Two started laying at 24 weeks with 35 gram eggs and one started laying at 24 weeks old with 45 gram eggs. The first two averaged about 61-62 gram hen eggs and the 3rd hens avereged about 70-71 gram hen eggs. If you are culling for production your keepers will all lay over 200 eggs in the first year (while the slack hens may will be around 180 egg layers).

As far as egg quality goes, we get a lot more matte shelled egg than glossy eggs. I actually like the glossy eggs better, but my mentor told me that she selected for the matte finish since the glossy eggs all appeared more green to her in color. The first egg show that I went to after I got legbars I noticed that the Americana eggs were all biconical in shape while the Cream Legbar eggs were elliptical in shape. I haven't kept in Americana but would love to see how the two breed compete against each other when put to the test. If you get one of each be sure to report back in a year on which one you like better.

 

[otakalhasas]

My dad ordered Qty (10) Araucanas from Myers hatchery for $0.10 each in the 1960's. He has a colored photo of an Austra While hens sitting on a clutch of eggs with a pale blue egg in it. The family farm have kept blue egg layers on it ever since. I loved going to my grand dad's as a child and collecting blue and green eggs from the laying flock. When we got chickens I told my wife I wanted Araucanas. We couldn't find any when we looked locally but learned about the Cream Legbar's Blue egg ability and we really prefered their look to that of the rumples Araucana with ear tuffs. So we set up a plan to recreate the Cream Legbar for our blue egg laying breed. They Cream Legbar was imported to the USA before we could complete that projected so to save time and money we got Cream Legbars as soon as they were available and have enjoyed them ever since. Our first year we worked with three pullets. Two started laying at 24 weeks with 35 gram eggs and one started laying at 24 weeks old with 45 gram eggs. The first two averaged about 61-62 gram hen eggs and the 3rd hens avereged about 70-71 gram hen eggs. If you are culling for production your keepers will all lay over 200 eggs in the first year (while the slack hens may will be around 180 egg layers).

As far as egg quality goes, we get a lot more matte shelled egg than glossy eggs. I actually like the glossy eggs better, but my mentor told me that she selected for the matte finish since the glossy eggs all appeared more green to her in color. The first egg show that I went to after I got legbars I noticed that the Americana eggs were all biconical in shape while the Cream Legbar eggs were elliptical in shape. I haven't kept in Americana but would love to see how the two breed compete against each other when put to the test. If you get one of each be sure to report back in a year on which one you like better.

And thanks for the history on the breed - WAY cool!!!!

 

[Cool Peeps]

They lay medium sized eggs

 

[GaryDean26]

Most peeople in the USA have been reporting two sized eggs.

One that starts laying about 35 gram eggs and reaching about 50 grams eggs by the time they have been laying for 3 months and anther that stats laying about 45 gram eggs and are laying about 60 grams by the time they are 3 month into the laying cycle.

People have been reporting that the large eggs are from the first blood line imported from the UK.

 

[minnehaha]

This thread is a little old, but I thought I might bring it back up. 2 of my CLB hens are laying eggs. One layed a 53 gram egg today, the other layed a 47 gram egg. They are 8 months old, they came directly from Green Fire Farms.

 

[ll]

This thread is a little old, but I thought I might bring it back up. 2 of my CLB hens are laying eggs. One layed a 53 gram egg today, the other layed a 47 gram egg. They are 8 months old, they came directly from Green Fire Farms.

 

[minnehaha]

My girls always lay those round eggs, the only way for me to tell which is suppose to be the bigger end is to candlle it, then I can see the air sac. I read somewhere that because CLB's eggs are round, people think the eggs are smaller than they really are, the only way to know the real size is weighing the egg. That is why I weighed my eggs the other day. I was curious to see the egg size, So medium/large is what these young hens are laying right now. My black star layed a 60 gram egg the same day, which is extra large. I'll weigh the Black Orpingon's eggs when they start laying, They are 8 months old, I got them today, so they will need some settle in time, Mine lay light blue eggs too, it's so hard to get the color to show up in a picture. Chicken obsessed, how much do the eggs weigh from your CLB's?

 

[GaryDean26]

Good point on the shape being deceptive in size. I took the photo below to dispel the idea that Breda lay tint eggs that are small. They lay white eggs that looked to be a little smaller than the Leghorn egg, but when I put them on the scale the Breda eggs was 63 grams and the Leghorn egg only 60 grams. I weighed them 3-4 times to make sure I was reading things right. There is a good reason eggs are measured by weight.



As far as egg weight goes, I have been selecting for large egg size. In my first laying group only about 10% were laying Extra Large eggs. Know they ALL are laying XL's (minimum of 63 grams) and some of laying Jumbo (minimum of 70 grams).