Memorial day hatch a long !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cerise1924]

Never had legbars before, how can you tell the males from the females?

My understanding is that the males will have a cream-coloured spot on the top of the head, and lighter overall colouring. The females will be a bit darker, and will have "chipmuck" stripes on the back.

Do you see these patterns on your chicks? I'm curious!

-Cerise

 

[chonsey]

Will post a pic tonight, maybe all girls, they were still wet when I left for work this morning. Didn't see any significant spots..... we'll see.

 

[GaryDean26]

I candled last night and have 32 Cream Legbar eggs on track to hatch Memorial Day weekend.

Below is is an exaggerated example of the male and female Cream Legbar. I say exaggerated because the breed used both Danish Brown Leghorns and English brown Leghorns to create the breed and the Danish birds were based on a dominant wild type pattern that produces dark offspring and the English birds were based on a recessive wild type pattern that produces light offspring. The dark birds have cockerels which are as dark as the pullets but the pullets have the crisp dorsal stripe, black eye liner, and a Vee on the top of the head with the point going between the eyes. The light type has fuzzier dorsal stripes on the pullets but the males show almost not stripes at all and are much lighter in over all color. Below is a light male and dark female. The V shape is not really clear on this pullet but the chipmunk stripes are the give away. The give away on the males is the large white spot on their head.

 

[GaryDean26]

He is a more typical example. Lighter pullet on the Left, then dark male, then darker female, then light male. The wings are covering the dorsal stripes on the pullets but you can see they have that Vee on their head and are a brown color. The dark male is a dark grey color with large white head spots. The light male is rarely this light, but again a white spot on the head.

And here is a dark male (back) and light male (front). This is about a light and the "light" males normally get. Again large white spots on the heads of the males and not stripes (although the back is a darker color than the sides and belly).

 

[Cerise1924]

He is a more typical example. Lighter pullet on the Left, then dark male, then darker female, then light male. The wings are covering the dorsal stripes on the pullets but you can see they have that Vee on their head and are a brown color. The dark male is a dark grey color with large white head spots. The light male is rarely this light, but again a white spot on the head.

View attachment 1401084


And here is a dark male (back) and light male (front). This is about a light and the "light" males normally get. Again large white spots on the heads of the males and not stripes (although the back is a darker color than the sides and belly).
View attachment 1401094

Thanks so much! This is very helpful and interesting. I am glad that you included both an exaggerated example and more typical examples. My own CCL hatch didn't come through, as the shipped eggs just weren't so good.

However, I am trying again with a Cream Legbar x Olandsk Dwarf cross. Do you think a crossbreed of this type will have any kind of autosexing characteristics? That would be nice, but I'm not counting on it.

-Cerise

 

[chonsey]

No eggs this time, looks like 3 Roo's.

 

[GaryDean26]

Thanks so much! This is very helpful and interesting. I am glad that you included both an exaggerated example and more typical examples. My own CCL hatch didn't come through, as the shipped eggs just weren't so good.

However, I am trying again with a Cream Legbar x Olandsk Dwarf cross. Do you think a crossbreed of this type will have any kind of autosexing characteristics? That would be nice, but I'm not counting on it.

-Cerise

Are the eggs from a Olandsk Dwarf male and Cream Legbar females? If so it would be possible to form a sex-link with males with a small white spot (but not as big as pure bred males) and females with no spot. It looks like the Olandsk chicks come out yellow so this could ruin the visibility of the head spot. You can't see it on pure yellow chicks but if they get the Legbar color showing through or any red coloring in the chick down you might be able to see who has head spots and who doesn't.

 

[Cerise1924]

Are the eggs from a Olandsk Dwarf male and Cream Legbar females? If so it would be possible to form a sex-link with males with a small white spot (but not as big as pure bred males) and females with no spot. It looks like the Olandsk chicks come out yellow so this could ruin the visibility of the head spot. You can't see it on pure yellow chicks but if they get the Legbar color showing through or any red coloring in the chick down you might be able to see who has head spots and who doesn't.

Thank you so much! I find this topic very interesting, and appreciate your knowledge. Yes, it is an Olandsk male and a Legbar female, for the first generation. The seller also gave me eggs that were laid by the hens resulting from that first cross. I don't know if the head spot would continue on to a next generation of hybrid birds.
I'll look for a small white spot, understanding that it may be lost amidst yellow down.

-Cerise

 

[GaryDean26]

Thank you so much! I find this topic very interesting, and appreciate your knowledge. Yes, it is an Olandsk male and a Legbar female, for the first generation. The seller also gave me eggs that were laid by the hens resulting from that first cross. I don't know if the head spot would continue on to a next generation of hybrid birds.
I'll look for a small white spot, understanding that it may be lost amidst yellow down.

-Cerise

Well...I have wondered why no one was playing with Bantams and Legbar. It would be fun to have what you are working with. The sex-link will not work with the hybird hen. The Hybir hen will be non-barred and you need a barred hen and not barred cockerel for the sex link to work. It produces 100% barred males and 100% non-barred females.

 

[chonsey]

I finally got my memorial day french copper maran hatching eggs a few weeks ago from My pet chicken & they are hatching!