Cream Legbar Working Group: Standard of Perfection

[ReLova]

Its definitely not a girl but it was sold as a pullet and looked like a darker pullet to me until it started growing these wild colors a few weeks ago.

 

[Bantambird]

Its definitely not a girl but it was sold as a pullet and looked like a darker pullet to me until it started growing these wild colors a few weeks ago.

Sounds like dinner

 

[ReLova]

Yup. We figure about the time the quail are ready it might be ready too.

 

[rottlady]

I’m not sure that male that once looked female is purebred
The colors are really odd

 

[GaryDean26]

Here are the female tails. I put these second for a reason because where the proposed APA Cream Legbar standard generally follows the British Cream Legbar standard which was based on the English Leghorn the female tail is one that does NOT follow the British standards.

Tail: Moderately long, carried at an angle of thirty-five degrees above horizontal.

Many breed standard use the same angle for both the male and the female. If the male is listed at 45 deg, the female is listed at 45 deg. This standard has the female tail at 35 deg which is 10 degrees lower than the male. Don't pull out your protractors and fuss over exact angles. 30-60 degrees are the range that the judges are typically looking for on breeds with a 45 deg angle. If the tail is lower than 30 degrees then point deduction are more severe and it is over 60 degrees point deductions are more severe until it hits 90 at which point they will disqualify the bird as it will not be show quality. The mark of quality in a breeding flock is its ability to produce consistent offspring. It should be your goal to work towards the highest percentage of the offspring possible to fall between the 30-60 degrees on both the male and the female. When you get to 100% year after year then if you want to get the protractor out then go right ahead.

Main tail—feathers broad and overlapping.

Again broad feathers are a sign of good growth rates. Skinned tail feather aren't a culling point but should be used as a tie breaker between birds that are equal in other ways.

Coverts—broad and abundant, extending well onto main tail.

This broad and abundant on the coverts is the same thing as the moderately full description we say for the male. The female tail should be full.

Here is our APA Leghorn again. Look at the fan of the tail from the side view. What you want to see is about 4-5 feathers width of fan of the APA Legbar to match the APA Leghorn. When breeds are developed the breeders fir form to function. Hens with the fanned tail have the bone structure and build for longevity in egg production. APA breeders and judges are familiar with this type and so it is what has been put in the APA standard for the leghorn because we want productive hens.

The English Leghorn hen below has zero fan to her tail. The tail comes to the neat point. These angles and points are what characterize the English Leghorn. While the APA Leghorn is a breed of curves (i.e. curved back sweeping tail, curved breast, etc.) the English Leghorn is a breed of angles (straight line to the back, triangle shape to the tail, and as we will cover later a wedge shaped body where from the side view you see a straight line on the bottom of the bird that with the line of the back forms a wedge with the point at the breast and wide side at the tail). The tails that come to a point are considered a not productive body type in the APA culture. These english hens with the tail that come to a point can lay a storm of eggs but they are short lived. For the breed to be better acceptable but the APA culture and better meet the design of the breed we have a fanned tail type for the APA Legbar hen.

The hen below shows the straight line back with the long, 35 deg, broad, overlapping fanned tail that were are looking for in the Cream Legbar.

 

[Bantambird]

her back will be naked until fall, sadly

this one is higher than some

 

[Sherol]

View attachment 1446940
These are two of my suspected culls as their combs are very crooked. How easy is that to fix thru breeding? The one on the left is the widest and longest in the back, and probably the largest so far.

I would not cull on a comb as my first disqualifier until I had a lot of other things right in the bird. I think I have read from those that show a bad comb is only a few point deduction. A good comb on a bad bird is not what you want to be breeding. Work on a good body type with an eye on comb and don't select DQ types of combs. When you start to get a lot of good looking birds then you can start selecting for the better combs.

 

[Sherol]

Some of my females.. various ages. I noticed when I looked at a photos of the Jill Rees bird I have included, that many of my birds did mot seem to have the fan tail. I wondered if it was where they were in molting or a characteristic. Now I know to look for the wider fan as I choose breeders.

 

[BenTN]

I would not cull on a comb as my first disqualifier until I had a lot of other things right in the bird. I think I have read from those that show a bad comb is only a few point deduction. A good comb on a bad bird is not what you want to be breeding. Work on a good body type with an eye on comb and don't select DQ types of combs. When you start to get a lot of good looking birds then you can start selecting for the better combs.

I think these three boys will be fed for awhile until I can see more of how they fill in/out, temperament etc... this is my first attempt at breeding so culling will be a loooooong process until I feel confident.

 

[GaryDean26]

I would not cull on a comb as my first disqualifier until I had a lot of other things right in the bird. I think I have read from those that show a bad comb is only a few point deduction. A good comb on a bad bird is not what you want to be breeding. Work on a good body type with an eye on comb and don't select DQ types of combs. When you start to get a lot of good looking birds then you can start selecting for the better combs.

The order of culling priorities depends to a large degree on your goals but I feel strongly that as long you have chickens on your property that the first priorities should always be vigor and utilities. Many rare breed have a lot of excitement generated around them and they are the must have chicken for every backyard flock for a year or two. People add them to their flock with great hopes but if they have physical weaknesses or are not productivite they replace them with the next hot breed after a few years and the popularity of the breed dwindles to almost zero. On the other hand, if the hot rare breed are easy keepers, productive, pretty, and friendly they become a staple in their flock as owner can't imagine keeping a flock without them. So, first you need to have a hardy productive chicken. If you don't have that you don't have anything. The first few years with a flock you are probably going to be focusing on things that relate to health and production like weight, build, shape, activity levels, etc. After the line "settles" and you are getting a lot of consistency in size and shape you work on other things like combs and color. There is a 5 year plan for establishing a flock on the Heritage Livestock association's web page. I have listed the links below. Chapter one addresses selecting for utilities in meat breeds. Chapter 2 address selecting for utilities in laying breeds and chapter 3 is the 5 year plan for breeding to a standard of perfection.

HERITAGE CHICKEN MANUAL

• Chapter 1. Selecting for Meat Qualities and Rate of Growth
• Chapter 2. Selecting for Egg Production
• Chapter 3. Ongoing Selection of Breeding Stock

This 5 year plan doesn't cull for color until the 3rd to 4th year for males and not until the 5th year for the females. So...there are a lot of cosmetic faults that can be passed early on and addressed later.