these are the muts I was selling. Thank you again for all this info it has been a great help. Here are some of the other comments I received on my adverts
nice people I think not xx
Hi Kezza666 and
It is so hard to assess the quality of a bird from a photograph--especially one where they are not by themselves and posed from the front and side in proper lighting! I actually have mostly stopped commenting on flaws in color for that very reason. I would hate for a bad photo to cause someone else to cull a bird when it wasn't that serious of a problem but rather a lighting issue.
The folks you are getting scolded from are breeders that have worked hard to breed the best stock they can. In any given year they will probably breed over 100 birds and cull 90% of them becasue they are too flawed to move forward. It gives them a perspective of being overly critical of any birds since they are to their own and also of being very protective of the breed they have worked to hard to breed. Many breeders in the States are the same way and very harsh and critical--yet if you ask them advice they are very friendly and very willing to share their knowledge. I guess I am saying to try to keep things in perspective and try not to take offense.
Greenfire Farms is a hatchery in the US specializing in importing rare breeds and selling their offspring. As a hatchery they are not engaged in breeding to specific standards but imported the best birds they could and are breeding those birds and selling offspring. They have 4 different lines of Cream Legbars they are breeding and selling. Many of the birds are off-type (they lack crests and are undersized etc) and there are many color issues becasue the original stock was imperfect plus the different strains/lines are now being crossed in tho home flocks which is jumbling up genetics and revealing hidden genes that were stable in the individual strains. I remember one honest Brit came on here and basically said all of the US stock was so deeply flawed that we should scrap all of them and start over with better stack (this was before the Rees line was imported and they are not without flaws, either).
For the most part, folks are more friendly over here because we realize that everyone's birds are somehow flawed. Most people are trying hard to breed to the Standard, but will sell birds to other people, too. The really bad ones are called Easter Eggers, Easter Leggers or other words to make sure they are not used for breeding. The ones that have serious flaws but not DQ flaws may be termed 'not show quality', 'pet quality', 'off-type', 'gold tinted' 'hatchery quality' etc Cream Legbars. It respects the birds origins but does let the buyer know that the bird may not meet the Standard of Perfection in one or more ways. For me, it seems like the best way to handle it. Honest but not rude.
It looks like some of your hens are gold (only carry one or no copies of the Cream gene). Cream is a color variety of Legbar, so if you have birds that are gold instead of cream, they do not meet that color variety's standard--which is why you are getting pushback from breeders. I have seen photos of many British CL stock and many males appear to lack the darkly barred breast that is also called for in the standard, but for some reason they are not called out for that flaw.
If they are good looking other than the gold, they would be welcome in my breeding program since it is a simple flaw to fix. I would rather work with gold and remove it than a mostly red ear, or a very small size for example. If I were selling the birds I would tell the buyers they are from CL stock and that some are gold tinted so that you are up front about everything. The problem is that you appear to be new to Cream Legbars so you don't have the experience to know all of the other flaws in your flock--if they have any. I am willing to bet that your stock is better than the average breeder's here in the US!
What are your goals with the breed-have a nice backyard flock or are you planning on getting into showing or breeding Cream Legbars?
