The Legbar Thread!

[ChicKat]

ChicKat; Well said. That was very interesting and informational...

I had a black chick that looked just like that last year. Same exact everything at that age. Even the clearly marked head spot. He turned out to be a hen that lays white eggs... This is what she looked like at 10 weeks. She is stretching up because she was messing with the buckeye. I might be wrong on this and yours could be a roo.

wow stryker - that is interesting! Both no salmon, and white eggs--- and it looks like no crest - Were the eggs from your own CL or did you obtain them from another source? Have to say - possibly if you got it from another source, an egg mix up? I have found the crest to be really dominant when I crossed my Cream Legbar male with a non-crested Isbar. However, it is a pretty hen.....

Different topic --> is that electric wire I see by the netting fence? How do you power it? And do you have elect wire top and bottom?? Out in the yard, I have so much raccoon activity that I think I would feel good if I had something more than I already have to deter predators.

 

[tdhenson86]

Quote: They are from the same lines. It is crazy to me. These are all the Jill Rees birds I have and some started laying earlier and some later. ???

 

[tdhenson86]

Quote: x2! I would really like to know more about this. I have two males who matured much faster than any of the other males or females. They were breeding the hens they were with (I had them with 5 hens and the rest of the pullets they came with) at 4 1/2 to 5 months old. Then, I had a few that took a little longer and are still smaller, but all of them are now breeding the hens and pullets successfully.

 

[stryker]

wow stryker - that is interesting! Both no salmon, and white eggs--- and it looks like no crest - Were the eggs from your own CL or did you obtain them from another source? Have to say - possibly if you got it from another source, an egg mix up? I have found the crest to be really dominant when I crossed my Cream Legbar male with a non-crested Isbar. However, it is a pretty hen.....

Different topic --> is that electric wire I see by the netting fence? How do you power it? And do you have elect wire top and bottom?? Out in the yard, I have so much raccoon activity that I think I would feel good if I had something more than I already have to deter predators.

That black chick came from a breeder that gave me the chick to see if it would be a nice roo or what ever it turned out to be. It did come out of a blue egg as far as I know. Last year the breeder had blue and brown eggs as far as I know. Brown were from Rhodebar. He did add brown leghorn several years back. I know what you are thinking," Blue is very dominate when mixed with white and crests are also dominate". I will check to see if this hen was from white eggs. I only have maybe 2-4 out of 6, I believe that only lay the blue egg, two white eggs, and two with crests that are large while the other two crests are small to so, so. Just thinking to my self, "Might have to get new blood "rooster" for those who do lay the blue eggs and have larger tuffs."

It will be interesting to see what that black chick will turn out to be.


That fence is actually 4 foot tall, 2 in x 4 inch welded wire. The kind that keeps sheep in. I attached 5 inch t-post electric insulators on the T posts and put 4 strands on the fence. The lowest wire is about 4 inches off the ground. I have a 15 mile fence charger in an area that is about 20 by 150 feet. It will shock the snot out of the birds when they try to perch on the fence and their tail feathers touch the wire. I don't have trees that are big enough so raccoons don't have an opportunity to jump over the fence. I mainly have skunks and lots and lots of neighbors dogs. I see them every day in my yard. I also have a 1" by 1" by 12 inches heave duty wire what is connected to the bottom of the fence. This apron is just laying on top of the ground with grass growing through it to keep it down. I used those cheap aluminum clamps that are used to connect rabbit cages together.

Her comb is twice as large as the legbars. She usually has back feathers, lately the warmer weather really perked up my roos.


No crest and, she acted like I was going to put her in the pot today!




Even in this picture, The roos that I have; have removed a lot of the lower hen's tuff on the left, but there is still little to some to show she has a little tuff. I have 4 roosters for 33 hens and I am thinking that I might have to take two away due to how rough they have been to the females lately.

Just noticed that her legs are not yellow. Must be dirty or something. She will go to someone who wants white eggs and labeled as a barnyard special.

I kept the insulator a little lower than the top part so the varmints can hopefully get shocked before they get over the wire. I am hoping that is the case.. On corners, I have 2-3 inch connectors to make the corners. My foot is for reference of how low it is.



Sorry for being off topic. I do not have it plugged it up right now, due to the ground frozen rock solid and the birds are in my greenhouse. Raccoons are the worse in my opinion compared to weasels and skunks.

 

[Phage]

Even in this picture, The roos that I have; have removed a lot of the lower hen's tuff on the left, but there is still little to some to show she has a little tuff. I have 4 roosters for 33 hens and I am thinking that I might have to take two away due to how rough they have been to the females lately.

Do you think that because there are 4 of them they are competing and breeding all the time?

What is the maximum reasonable number of hens to keep with one cockerel and still have great fertility?

 

[ChicKat]

Thanks Stryker - I appreciate the tour. Wish the varmits were not a problem -- but I think you have a good solution there!

Phage -- I think that 10h:1roost isn't at all bad. There may be variables though.

 

[Phage]

Phage -- I think that 10h:1roost isn't at all bad.  There may be variables though. 

Thanks, that is very helpful.

 

[sweetdreaming]

Thought that this may be of interest to some Legbar raisers -- I just entered the 9-week weights for my chicks -- and then wondered what our spreadsheet average was for chick weight at 9 weeks -- and it is 1.55 pounds.  

There are only 19 chicks who have weight entered at 9 - weeks -- so [COLOR=800080]thanks[/COLOR] to those of you who are helping us gather stats~

There are two heavy weights in the 19 entered for that age group - both male and both were over 2# at the 9-week mark.  

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I finally ordered a scale. One is a digital platform scale that goes to 2.2# (1 kilo in 1 gram increments) and the other is like a hanging fish scale that goes to 10#. My first JR hatch is 5 weeks old now (I sure wish I could get them out of the foyer, but it's still too cold and blustery!!). Don't know the weights yet, but I'm surprised that there is a pretty big variation in size thus far since my breeding stock is pretty uniform. I'll post weights and pics when I can. I'm fixing to put an ad in Craigslist today to sell about 1/2, if any of ya'll are within USPS overnight range. I've also got nice hatching eggs..... I got 100% hatch rate in January! These are JR roo x my original stock F1's.

 

[Finnie]

I am officially a cream legbar owner! I have been reading this thread since December, and I am up to page 99 so far.

I'm just going to jump ahead now and start reading the current stuff.

Last night I picked up my two chicks from a breeder, but she could not tell me their hatch date. She said she thinks the male is at least two weeks old, and the female could be from a few days to a week. (She is obviously not much of a record keeper.)

Can any experienced legbar folks tell me from these photos what a more accurate age for them might be?

The female:













The male:














Here they are with some known five day old Marans chicks, for size comparison:






Thanks in advance! I am really excited to finally have legbars.

 

[Junibutt]

I am officially a cream legbar owner! I have been reading this thread since December, and I am up to page 99 so far.

I'm just going to jump ahead now and start reading the current stuff.

Last night I picked up my two chicks from a breeder, but she could not tell me their hatch date. She said she thinks the male is at least two weeks old, and the female could be from a few days to a week. (She is obviously not much of a record keeper.)

Can any experienced legbar folks tell me from these photos what a more accurate age for them might be?

The female:













The male:














Here they are with some known five day old Marans chicks, for size comparison:






Thanks in advance! I am really excited to finally have legbars.

@finnie, that does not look like a Cream Legbar female to me. The male sure does, but the female definitely has some other mix. From the eye pattern, it looks like it has some laced blood in it, may be Gold Laced or Blue Laced Red.