Cream Legbars

[RichardF]

I have 6 week old roosters and they are not making a sound! It's not fair..

Here is Tuesday and Wednesday's hatch, they just got moved to the larger cage this Morning they are so cute!!

Good looking chicks. I love the heating pad I have always used heat lamps and have never thought of that. Seems more natural for them to snuggle under something to get warm.

 

[FarmerMac]

x2

Thanks folks, I was hopping for a boy, I had bough two young CL last year and lost one to a predator. The other one found him dead in the coop run, my guess is that the alpha rooster killed him as the CL was chasing the hens to mate.

 

[ChicKat]

Yes, I knew your boys crowed early, and as Dumbledore is from you, no surprise his sons do as well. Perhaps they were crowing even earlier and I missed it. The two that are crowing also have the matching pink-ing up of their combs.

They are doing so well and are so happy and lovely (despite being a little too cramped in the brooder - I'm working on their outdoor home tractor this weekend). Paula's babies (boys and girls) are all the most friendly and bold - just like their mother (must be hereditary). The poor auto sexing girls from her are going into hybrid/layer pens (not the CL pen), so I can ensure the pure CLs in my yard will always clearly autosex. None of her boys will be kept for the CL breeding for the same reason. I just set 8 of Lissa's eggs yesterday... Excited about that, as she is the best looking one, most saturated eggs, and at least so far, has been most Marek's resistant (still relatively well). Dumbledore is doing fine, no signs.

Interesting update. Dumbledore continues to be an amazing and solicitous rooster for his girls, but as you warned me might happen, he has started to make threatening "runs" at me through the wire when I walk by the coop, though when I stop to face the coop, he walks away, no attacks on me directly. But my great big Naked Neck rooster, Severus Snape, does the same thing to a lesser extent when I'm in their coop (and he is also a wonderful and solicitous rooster). I try to pay attention, and it almost always is when I am somehow near one of the girls and my intentions aren't clear (Dumbledore is I think warning me to be careful in general, but I think he's still a bit hypervigilent since the attack. I wonder if he stops when he recognizes me, rather than a large moving shape.) Snape sometimes gently taps me on the back of the leg gently, like "I'm watching you", when I'm with the girls (he could easily rip a pretty big hole back there). As long as I can still effectively take care of them, and can figure out how to avoid setting them off in a way that I get attacked (which has not actually happened with anyone), I am happy to have them protecting their girls. I see it as them doing their job, essentially. If they begin to become unreasonable/neurotic about it, then I will reconsider, if for no other reason than the fact that I need to be able to change food and water safely.

- Ant Farm

Really good insights.

Ice was never 'agressive' until one day when I stuck a camera in his face. 'in his face'. For him -- a squirt bottle of water -- right in the kisser -- was all I ever needed. He was so shocked with the first face-full he didn't know what to do. Being a quick learner, he thereafter avoided me -- but definitely considered me a threat to his hens. Really conscientious protector, as your Dumbledore has proven.

Two of Ice's sons were mean -- and became pelts.

A third son was sweet as pie -- and every night below freezing in winter 2014/2015 I brought him into the kitchen in a pet carrier to avoid frostbite to his comb -- because I was really concerned with tail-angles that year and he had a low-tail. Fast forward to one summer day when I let his water run out -- shame on me -- and he attacked while I was emergency refilling -- I couldn't have been more surprised. He is now slated for being a pelt, he attacked a feeder I was filling a few weeks ago -- and took a chunk out of that white plastic..... youch! --

A grandson of Ice named Lazy Boy - son of the one of the mean ones Heart (who may have had my 'best' CL coloration) - is the best disposition cockbird here. And Lazy Boy may have the 'worst' coloration and definitely the worst tail angle - but because he isn't aggressive -- he has a quality worth preserving. So the theory of mean being inherited -- maybe Lazy Boy breaks the rule. By coincidence, he has smaller spurs than any other male here, so maybe testosterone ties in with mean in the male chicken? Only set some line bred eggs from him that would have been 7/8 Robin and got no hatch from them.... Maybe he is even infertile, or there was an incubator malfunction, or I set the eggs too early, or Robin is too old for chicks, or -- and on and on -- Maybe the genes are too close by this time of inbreeding and 3/4 Robin genetics is as close as I will get to replicating her.


This guy just hatched today -- he's 3/4 Ice genetics...

More than you ever wanted to hear, I know, I know. ;O)

 

[chicken pickin]

Because of too many males, or a male that is mean -- I have processed several for eating, I find them good, very lean though (which I prefer) -- less plump than I would expect a true dual purpose breed to be.  Processed some hatchery barred rocks some years ago that I had  An apples and oranges comparision though -- they were old hens and these are young or mature males -- but I prefer the Legbar taste to grocery-store chickens.  

Chicken pickin here on BYC had put up some photos of chickens she had prepared and they looked really good.  

For me their growing rate seems about the same as other breeds.  You may have a very vigorous strain of CLs.  :O)  I've only had 7 other breeds though over the years that I have had chickens and several of those I got at POL....so hopefully some others will weigh in with their comparisons. 

These pictures show a pure CL male and CL mix male. The CL in the top pic is on the left. The CL in the bottom pic is on the bottom.

 

[Red Banks]

These pictures show a pure CL male and CL mix male. The CL in the top pic is on the left. The CL in the bottom pic is on the bottom.

Wow.....these look good. Someone really knows how to process a chicken!

 

[RonoKT]

Those are good looking carcasses, what age where they? They are meatier than I had expected.

 

[PDPercherons]

My upcoming three cockerels are an interesting group. The one was an early crower. 1 week of age and squeeking. He's also the one who has already bit me three times and spurred me. He's a sharp looking bird but I have no desire for aggression. I'm thinking he will go. At this point I'm trying to hold out. I want to grow them out and go from there.

I had worried that by not marking my pullets as chicks that I'd have problems figuring out who was who. Not so. Tim's group are more solid on their body. My other Rees girls are very light, but then that's why I wanted those eggs. My C/Rees girls, are not cream.

 

[duluthralphie]

Wow, lots to read...

I would not say my CLB's grow any faster than my other birds. I think they are about on par with other layers, definitely not as fast as my dual purpose or meat birds.

I do not keep roosters around that are mean to hens, even serial rapists find themselves moving along or lying in a roaster. I just do not tolerate it whatever the reason. I know this is kind of "one way" of me, but I will not change the way I raise and keep my chickens just to make one rooster happy and luvable to his girls. It is easier to find another rooster. That said I do have one rooster that is "rude" to me, he is just staying around until I have another one to replace him, I need his genes this time of year and he is my only pure Speckled Sussex. However, there is a soup kettle in his future.

My CLB are not what I would call tame. I do not sit with them and talk to them or anything else. They are a tad flighty. I have 2 roosters and they are very good to the girls. However, I had to move them to a smaller breeder pen this time of year as I needed theirs for turkeys. When I moved them to the smaller the pen the older rooster kicked the tar out of the younger one. Almost ripped his comb off him. I had them in a pen that was easily divisible into two and then do fine now. I needed to do that anyways as I am trying to isolate which pairings gives me the white sports. I want to try and raise a flock of them to show in an open division, as I think they are beautiful even if not SOP.


Now the CLB in the pan... WOW WOW WOW. That shocks me you got such a meaty bird from them. Did you feed them differently to get them that size? Do you know how much they dressed out at and what age?


I look at the proposed SOP's saying 7 pounds and I think I have runts!

RonoKT, I think we have to remember you are in England and you might have birds that are slightly different than ours genetically more varied.


RichardF, The heating pad is not my Idea, it is Blooie's I read about it on her MHP thread and tried it and I like it. I get happier birds, I am using 1/4 the electricity I do with heat lamps. There is no down side, Pasty butt is a thing of the past. The only thing is my DW is not happy with me ordering 2 heating pads a week, I hope to have enough soon.

 

[ChicKat]

Wow, lots to read...

I would not say my CLB's grow any faster than my other birds. I think they are about on par with other layers, definitely not as fast as my dual purpose or meat birds.

I do not keep roosters around that are mean to hens, even serial rapists find themselves moving along or lying in a roaster. I just do not tolerate it whatever the reason. I know this is kind of "one way" of me, but I will not change the way I raise and keep my chickens just to make one rooster happy and luvable to his girls. It is easier to find another rooster. That said I do have one rooster that is "rude" to me, he is just staying around until I have another one to replace him, I need his genes this time of year and he is my only pure Speckled Sussex. However, there is a soup kettle in his future.

My CLB are not what I would call tame. I do not sit with them and talk to them or anything else. They are a tad flighty. I have 2 roosters and they are very good to the girls. However, I had to move them to a smaller breeder pen this time of year as I needed theirs for turkeys. When I moved them to the smaller the pen the older rooster kicked the tar out of the younger one. Almost ripped his comb off him. I had them in a pen that was easily divisible into two and then do fine now. I needed to do that anyways as I am trying to isolate which pairings gives me the white sports. I want to try and raise a flock of them to show in an open division, as I think they are beautiful even if not SOP.


Now the CLB in the pan... WOW WOW WOW. That shocks me you got such a meaty bird from them. Did you feed them differently to get them that size? Do you know how much they dressed out at and what age?


I look at the proposed SOP's saying 7 pounds and I think I have runts!

RonoKT, I think we have to remember you are in England and you might have birds that are slightly different than ours genetically more varied.


RichardF, The heating pad is not my Idea, it is Blooie's I read about it on her MHP thread and tried it and I like it. I get happier birds, I am using 1/4 the electricity I do with heat lamps. There is no down side, Pasty butt is a thing of the past. The only thing is my DW is not happy with me ordering 2 heating pads a week, I hope to have enough soon.

Really good info! Thanks.

Thanks chicken Pickin' -- the classic - yummy roast

- a good example of CL. (Mine aren't that pretty -- lol -- I throw it in the slow cooker and forget about it until it falls off the bone -- and I usually only take segments -- leg & thigh, and breast --- Yours are like artworks - (y'know the old dutch masters.)

 

[ChicKat]

My upcoming three cockerels are an interesting group. The one was an early crower. 1 week of age and squeeking. He's also the one who has already bit me three times and spurred me. He's a sharp looking bird but I have no desire for aggression. I'm thinking he will go. At this point I'm trying to hold out. I want to grow them out and go from there.

I had worried that by not marking my pullets as chicks that I'd have problems figuring out who was who. Not so. Tim's group are more solid on their body. My other Rees girls are very light, but then that's why I wanted those eggs. My C/Rees girls, are not cream.

Interesting tie-in with early crow and early aggression. Something to watch for. Thanks for the info.