Discussion of Legbar Standard of Perfection for -Alternative- Legbars - SOP discussion

[rebel-rousing-at-night]

Yay - so glad that you are involved with CLs - and congratulations on having so many chicks to choose from.

You may be onto something with careful looks at the chipmunk stripes. In her book genetics expert Sigrid Van Dort says that the stripe can tell you what the underlying e-Locus IS -- so if the stripe is white-- that is a silver e-Locus - if the stripe is brown it is a gold e-Locus -- (cream wasn't mentioned)---- If the theory applies -- perhaps a cream-coloured chipmunk stripe (the lightest one on the back of the chick) indicates a cream, ETA -->perhaps the center dorsal stripe indicates the amount of black pigment - melanotic -- opps sorry if I misspelled that...

I had a chick with very white underbelly and chin - and she feathered to a very melanotic (black pigment) adult - although her breast didn't have the dark feather edges that we are seeing a lot of now-a-days. She had lots of black in her neck-hackles. Most of my chicks are very cream on their underbelly and fuzzy-butt.

Just as chicken pickin says, the longer you can keep them the more you will know....but down and adult color -- I haven't seen anyone with the definitive answer about the correlation as of yet. Email those phone pictures to your email -- and grab them from there to post. (it's a thought anyway!)

I wish so much of my mind hadn't gotten stolen away as my age keeps advancing.

You see, it that hadn't happened I would be able to remember which chick is who by color,markings etc. Since this last group of chicks is the largest group and still in the regular portion of my house I am trying to study them more. I did learn on here about looking at the straightness or not of the combs. I'm wanting to mark the ones I like best before I put them with any others. It seems once they loose their chick down and get a lot of feathers when there are so many looking the same I can't keep them apart in my mind.

I need to really go over these and band (make a written list too) the better females as far as eye stripes and bodies with a color and also band the ones that don't have the best defined markings.

Come to think of it when I bred rabbits I was much younger and tried to never have 2 of the same color, breed, or sex because I didn't want to make a mistake in my breeding. At least if push came to shove I tattooed the rabbit's ear. Goodness, guess I was a lost cause with identity even then. I think I will blame that on too many responsibilities.

I just don't understand chick down very much. A few years ago I bought day old Marans in the blue,black,splash. They seemed to be good about chick down to adult color. Now I have one Marans chick that I bought as a blue copper but when it came it looked very different. No white anywhere. A little bit of brown on it's face but to me the chick looked black...not blue. It may be a very dark almost black blue which I've never had.

 

[ChicKat]

Hi Rebel-rousing-at-night,

You are soooooooooooooooo right. Cream Legbars change so much it is like they are a kaliedoscope - It really does take leg banding and a note book -- almost with a page per chicken.... The Cream Legbar Club has some forms that one of the members generated stored in the 'clubhouse' for people to use. Photos help a little. And bands need frequent changing...etc.

It's a lot of work.

Had a couple of blue Isbars that I thought were black when chicks -- maybe that blue will develop for you over time?

ETA - just have to come back and say the fewer the chickens - the easier life is. LOL

 

[ChicKat]

Thanks for your generosity - all of you kind folk who gave me ovations​

- as a result I got a PM from Rob Ludlow (Nifty-chicken) BYC founder/owner to tell me that I'm an ovations master and in the top 0.05% of garnering ovations. You are are the BEST group! I betcha that there are others out there that also got that email -- CP?, more? why not share. and again Thanks to you in the BYC community!

 

[BuffyBugSlayer]

That is great Chickat! You have been very helpful to me and generous with your time. There are several CL enthusiasts that go above and beyond in my opinion.

I hate to admit it but, I have just recently figured out what ovations are and how they work (I am bit slow

) and have been really bad about giving them out. But whenever I receive one it makes me feel good so I need to share the love more!

 

[ChicKat]

That is great Chickat! You have been very helpful to me and generous with your time. There are several CL enthusiasts that go above and beyond in my opinion.

I hate to admit it but, I have just recently figured out what ovations are and how they work (I am bit slow

) and have been really bad about giving them out. But whenever I receive one it makes me feel good so I need to share the love more!

kind thoughts greatly appreciated -- and the total contributions of everyone who is active, be it: answers, questions, theories, observations, thought provoking statements or surmises helps each of us build a better CL!

 

[rebel-rousing-at-night]

Yeah, congrats ChicKat. When people take their time to explain the info in such a way I can visualize...it helps me a lot.

I personally enjoy the more relaxed breed threads, such as this one and some of the others as well. I understand the seriousness of breeders working towards a SOP for different breeds but since I'm not an exhibitor or a serious breeder I can't really contribute so a lot of the discussions are lost on me.

I'm planning to take some pictures of this youngest group of CL. I hope their coloring will be close in the pictures to what they are in real life. To be honest the different colorings are a bit confusing to me. What I mean is a while back the coloration was one of the draws for me to the breed. I've always loved the Crele color. As I read in various threads and saw pictures I began to understand the color I liked so well was wrong. lol I'm really glad there is this thread and that the color I like hasn't been totally kicked to the curb. I do wish however that the name Crested Cream Legbar had been kept. To me the word crested gives the breed a little more of a flair.

 

[1muttsfan]

I don't think Crested was actually an official part of the name, although I quite like it too. I personally like the Milles.

There are several threads I refuse to go on just for the sheer rudeness and intolerance to opposing opinions, or sometimes even innocent questions. BYC is my place to relax and enjoy myself with other like-minded folks, not be ignorantly berated by the ill-informed or bullheaded.

 

[ChicKat]

same here rebel-rousing-at-night, IMO there really isn't any excuse on earth for people to be uncivil to one another over their chicken ideas...in the UK there were even some folks name-calling some that were new-to, - but in-love-with the breed -- with names that could have resulted in legal action for such things as libel. We chicken people can all become self-appointed experts with just a little knowledge...and IMO strong opinions are good - but they need to respect everyone else's point of view.

A couple of years ago - I was in the exact same boat that you were -- and I felt that the bird that drew me to Cream Legbars in the first place was being kicked-to-the-curb. Even as recently as the start of this thread way last October I thought that to preserve the beauty of the original that we would have to develop another variety SOP -- During the course of this thread, i more or less came to the conclusion that the one being called crele is more correct, or closer to correct than the direction that the breed WAS going. most important thing is autosexing -- and I think that is dependent on a wild-type plus barring -- and the more clean and distinct the barring - the better you know that your CL has barring genes. The babies need to have chipmunk stripes....no doubt. As a consequence, it seems to me that the 'originals' - especially have less departure from the autosexing - shown in the plate that Punnett published in the genetics journal.

Perhaps this is one of the worlds more complex chickens to work on - and it is attractive to us newbies because of the advantages of autosexing - the quirkiness of the crest, and what will be most important of all for small backyard flocks - the plentiful blue eggs. Lots of work to do for those who aren't afraid to roll up their sleves! Lots of challenges for people who have the attitude of "bring it on!!!" -- and in the mean time really nice chickens and nice folk to talk with about them.

Can't wait to see your pictures!

1MuttsFan - YAY for a weigh-in from the U.P. - still a bit chilly up there?

 

[1muttsfan]

Its officially spring - the last snow in my yard melted yesterday

 

[sol2go]

please send some snow to California next year!