Cream Legbars

[duluthralphie]

The way I understand it, the first Greenfire Farm imports were in the fall of 2010. They were from two different bloodlines in the UK. Some of the hens got Mareks and were lost so rather than keeping two breeding groups all the remaining hens were put in a single flock with one cockerel. That mixed to two lines of Hens breed to a single cockerel was the "A" line.

"A" Line Cockerel Image HERE

"A" Hen Image HERE


The pullets from that flock were breed the following spring to the cockerel from the other 2010 imported bloodline. The second flock became Greenthe "B" line.

"B" Line Cockerel Image HERE

In the summer of 2011 another bloodline was imported. It was not crossed with the first two flocks. It became Greenfire Farm's "C" Line.

"C" Line Cockerel Image HERE

In the Summer of 2012 Greenfire Farm Started to sell Juvenile pairs of Cream Legbars. These consisted of one cockerel and one pullet. One was from the A line and one from the B line. Everyone that got juvenile pairs were mixing the A line and B line in there breeding. The A line and B lines were related to each other anyways though so these two line are really the "2010" line. In the Fall of 2011 Green Fire Farm started to sell day old chicks from the A & B lines. They marked them with different colored legbands so that those intrested in setting up cross pen breeding groups could. In December of 2011 people started to get chicks from all three line. These were legbanded with three different legbars so that again people could set up cross pen breeding groups. In the spring of 2012 some of the chicks were reported to be getting the legbands tangles in the nesting pad that lined the bottom of the shipping boxes. Greenfire farms stopped banding chicks shortly after than so after the spring of 2012 none that got stock from Greenfire had any way of knowing if chicks from Greenfire farm were from the same or different breeding pens. So at that point everythng in became a mix of the A,B, and C lines or the "2012" line. In 2013 Greenfire farm started to beed pullets back to their C line cockerel. It is not clear if there were breeding daughters back to their father, pullet from the A & B line or both. These however were the Greenfire Farm "2013" line. Many people started calling these the "D" liine

"D" Line Hen Image Here

In the Summer of 2013 Greenfire Farm imported an additional line of Gream Legbars. This is the only line of Legbars that Greenfire Farm revealed the source of their stock. That line was imported from Jill Rees and is called the Rees Line. It was released early in 2014 as the Rees line it however is not Jill Rees' line anymore but rather Greenfire Farms "2014" line. The 2014 line however was sold separate from the earlier lines so instead of getting a mix of A&B lines like people got in 2011, a mix of A,B,C lines like people got in 2012, or a mix of A,B,C,D lines like people got in 2013 in 2014 people knew that they were getting stock from either the 2014 Rees line or from the mix of A, B, C, D lines.

"Rees" Line Cockerel Image HERE

Hope this helps.

I have read this. studied this, looked at the pictures and I still do not know what line mine are. I know what I was told they are. There is another person on this thread with the same birds as me.

I am going to show you a picture of them when I got them.

We will discuss afterwards so I do not influence you.




BTW they have Minnesota modified combs.. ( frostbite) Anything over a year up here has the same comb.

 

[Red Banks]

I have read this. studied this, looked at the pictures and I still do not know what line mine are. I know what I was told they are. There is another person on this thread with the same birds as me.

I am going to show you a picture of them when I got them.

We will discuss afterwards so I do not influence you.




BTW they have Minnesota modified combs.. ( frostbite) Anything over a year up here has the same comb.

I have Rees birds. I have at least one that looks like a bird from each line. My cockerels for the time being look like the Rees example.

 

[duluthralphie]

So these look like Rees?

 

[Red Banks]

So these look like Rees?

If I understand your question..... no, I am just saying that I have Rees birds and that different individuals in my birds look like the birds from all the different lines referenced by GaryDean26 (Curtis). I guess the point I was trying to make is that mine could be from any line and I know they are Rees straight from GF..... so I think it would be hard to identify by looks what line they come from. Maybe that is because I have not been involved in the CLs long enough to have the experience.

 

[duluthralphie]

If I understand your question..... no, I am just saying that I have Rees birds and that different individuals in my birds look like the birds from all the different lines referenced by GaryDean26 (Curtis). I guess the point I was trying to make is that mine could be from any line and I know they are Rees straight from GF..... so I think it would be hard to identify by looks what line they come from. Maybe that is because I have not been involved in the CLs long enough to have the experience.

Thanks, That is what I was trying to get. Mine are Rees also. I know who bought them and when.

The whole reason for this, is their are some people saying Rees birds do not produce "white Sports" I get one white sport out of every 25 eggs, (I have 7 hens) Which means one hen gives me a White sport about every 4th egg, which is correct on the Punnent square.

 

[GaryDean26]

I have read this. studied this, looked at the pictures and I still do not know what line mine are. I know what I was told they are. There is another person on this thread with the same birds as me.

I am going to show you a picture of them when I got them.

We will discuss afterwards so I do not influence you.

Well the cream legbar was released in 2011 and there have been a lot of breeding since then. Most people were breeding their birds at 6 months old to build their flock as quickly as possible. Some were starting a new generation every 6 months in a race to be the first one to have the Cream Gene fixed in their line, the first one to have cresting fixed in their line, the first one to breed out the floppy combed cockerels, the first one to breed 6 lbs hens, etc. By 2013 some people were reporting that they already were hatching 4th generation stock. By now there could be people with stock that are as many as 6 or more generation removed for the imported birds. So you aren't going to see a lot of resemblance to their 3rd great grandparents. Especially with all the mixing that has been going one between A, B, C, D, and Rees lines.

 

[duluthralphie]

These birds were not purchased from Greenfire until 2014.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I went out and got some updated pics of my legbars today. The girls weren't very cooperative though.


Sunny has been learning the ropes lately and practicing mating with the girls.







Luna, refusing to stand still for me, wandering through the woods.





Cher. She never developed a crest which is unfortunate but she has some nice cream hackles.





Stormy has a great crest but so much gold in her hackles. She wouldn't stand still either.







I have somewhere around 2 doz eggs in the bator now, half of which are Reese line. I'm anxious to see how they all turn out.

 

[dheltzel]

I went out and got some updated pics of my legbars today. The girls weren't very cooperative though.


Sunny has been learning the ropes lately and practicing mating with the girls.







Luna, refusing to stand still for me, wandering through the woods.





Cher. She never developed a crest which is unfortunate but she has some nice cream hackles.





Stormy has a great crest but so much gold in her hackles. She wouldn't stand still either.







I have somewhere around 2 doz eggs in the bator now, half of which are Reese line. I'm anxious to see how they all turn out.

Those are happy looking birds. You are doing very well with them.

 

[Red Banks]

Thanks, That is what I was trying to get. Mine are Rees also. I know who bought them and when.

The whole reason for this, is their are some people saying Rees birds do not produce "white Sports" I get one white sport out of every 25 eggs, (I have 7 hens) Which means one hen gives me a White sport about every 4th egg, which is correct on the Punnent square.

I have heard this argument before. Some people have very strong feelings about Rees birds. Have they made you question the origin of your birds? You have the facts about your birds.... obviously they are wrong.