Legbar

To begin with, I hand raise all my chicks so they're typically all very tame and friendly. However, Belle, my legbar, is relatively timid, but is still gentle and overall pleasant. She was my slowest to lay, even though my other chicks were two weeks (or more) behind her. She started laying recently, around 7 months. She's also not nearly as productive as my Olive Eggers, which was a little surprising to me, but she lays a gorgeous blue egg, and I'll also cut her some slack due to the weather.

Got a pair of these as my starter flock, and am actively working to expand it. The Legbar is just the sweetest little bird! They stay nearby when foraging, lay blue eggs (which was my selling point), and are auto-sexing. I personally think they have the best-tasting eggs of all the eggs I have tried.

I really like this breed. I got mine from a breeder. They are the silver color not the brown.

They lay very pretty blue and blue green eggs. There are the friendliest birds I have. Very sweet little personalities. Cute little crest. The rooster is a great watcher of the flock but very friendly to people.

I have had two cream legbar hens and currently have only one. Both were at the bottom of the pecking order. They are so sweet. Floppy has slept out of the coop/run a few times as she disappeared and didn't return until the next morning. We live next to wooded areas and I know there are predators around but she always returned so I would say she is savvy. I would love to have more legbars.

I love my cream legbars!!! I am hopeful that I can hatch some soon.

We LOVE our CCLB's! I keep reading all the posts about them being 'flighty'. I do not see that in ours - but they are our babies. Handled and cuddled from day 3. These were the first chickens that we chose ourselves. I only wish I could have afforded more than two. Once the first two matured, we purchased a male from a different breeder. At the time of this writing, he is only 9 weeks. Now HE is flighty! But, not the girls. Not sure if I have used enough characters for my review. I will add some pictures of our beautiful girls and our handsome young man.

The girls started laying at 22 weeks. One of them gave us two double yolk eggs in her first week of laying!

Beautiful green to blue eggs that are larger then most other colored egg breeds, very pretty bird and to top it off you can tell girls vs boys on day one! We started breeding them because our Ameraucanas are so difficult to sex accurately and we needed a breed that we could sell as sexed chicks but they have really grown on us.

I’ve raised Crested Cream Legbars for 3 years now, and have loved them from day one. They have an amazing temperament that you can’t help but love. Highly recommend this breed if you are looking for large blue eggs. The auto-sexing trait is also a plus! Know from the day of hatch if you have a cockerel or a pullet.

I have named my hen "Gidget". She is quiet, spunky, small and very friendly. She hasn't started laying yet, but I know she is getting close. The rooster is of course, "Moondoggy". He has very pretty coloring, but not sure if we will be keeping him or butchering him. He is rather loud at times.

I purchased a pair of these from My Pet Chicken (overpriced I know, but I only needed a small order) and still have them. They'll turn a year old in a few days and overall, they've been good birds. I skimmed reviews of them for a year or two - back when they were 'rare' and expensive and became curious about them. They're decent enough layers, but not the 'egg laying machines' early reviews made them out to be - They're about on par with my Orpingtons, Rocks, & Marans - but a far cry from Leghorn productivity. Disclaimer here that they are hatchery birds and not from a breeder, so I'll concede that may be a factor there. I probably average 4 eggs/week from each of the girls - not terrible as I raise 'Heritage' birds and don't usually expect an egg/day. They did take their first winter off.. The eggs are an attractive enough baby/sky blue..

Temperament - skittish for a long time. They've calmed down a lot as they age despite no regular handling. They don't want to be petted or cuddled, something I don't really do with my birds anyway but they'll let me catch them for vetting, testing, exams - although an occasional cornering is necessary. I have great roosters in my flock, and I attribute their calming down to the presence of the pair of roosters. In general, they don't panic and run when humans are around and you can walk among them in coop, run, or yard without them becoming alarmed.

In summary, they're good "middle of the road" chickens to me. Decent enough layers and active enough foragers with attractive enough feathering. My only "cons" are personal preference I suppose, in that I'd easily take a heritage breed over them. That being said, I have colored egg layers on hand on-and-off (for my kids) and do prefer these to Ameraucanas I've had in the past.

I think whether you like or dislike these birds comes down to what you are looking for. I have not cared for them much because they are so nervous and flighty compared to my chubby DP hens. Worse, they seemed to pass this nervousness onto birds I added to the flock after them. We hatched a batch of CL chicks with some Marans at the same time. Even as week-old chicks the behavior differences between the two breeds were startling. However they are probably calmer and friendlier than a lot of the Mediterranean breeds. They do lay pretty eggs and were dependable layers for me – 5 per week. Also they are svelte little things so they do save on the feed. We just have a small city backyard flock so the things I don’t like might be an asset for someone with more space and in need of effective foragers. These birds can definitely take care of themselves. I may get more when I make it out to the country but I won’t be adding any more to the backyard.

i only own one but my one is half blind

My original birds were flighty and nervous. Since then the generations have settled down and become the foundation of my flock.

I currently have two flocks of legbars the original cream and the whites (double recessive). The color of the eggs in unbeatable.

I am working on getting the gold out of my birds but it is going slow.

I have changed my mind 180 degrees from where it was after my first year with these guys.

This breed has everything going for it, sweet, inquisitive nature without being bullish and overrconfident, layers pf beautiful sky blue or green eggs. Also, you can sex them on hatching! They are fabudabu!!! Everyone should have them in their flock!

We bought our CCL chick for $35 (plus her share of shipping) from Meyer Hatchery in mid June. I was intrigued by some descriptions and photos, but after she arrived, along with a White Rock, Buff Orp., Dominique, and Golden-laced Wyandotte, we read many comments that CCLs are flighty, unfriendly, afraid of people, or "definitely not lap chickens." Some other owners said the opposite.
It might be luck, or the fact that we handle all our chicks a LOT from the minute we open the mailing box. Here's our Amy at 6 weeks. Not exactly "unfriendly;" she's one of the cuddliest chickens we've had, and that's saying a lot. She loves being stroked and massaged on her upper back and neck.

Maybe Amy will suddenly become panicky or unfriendly as she matures, but that seems unlikely. Here she is this morning, age 10-11 weeks (08-31-15):

And here she shows her elegant form:

Of course we can't say anything yet about eggs, but for us the pet qualities come first. If you like a beautiful but somewhat comical hen, with a sweet personality, we would recommend trying a CCL. We only have this one data point, but if you want her to be friendly, it seems well worth giving frequent, kind attention from the earliest days.

Almost a year ago I purchased a flock of one year old unrelated legbars that came from a large breeder.

The hens are not friendly or sociable. They are avid foragers to the point of being neurotic and will dig and scratch everything in the yard. The rooster was so mean that he didn't last long before he had to be culled. The hens are quiet and are generally not aggressive to the other birds.

The Legbar eggs are XL to jumbo in size. They are a pale blue, not that pretty, and the shells are rough. After a year of raising/breeding these birds, I found that there are inherent problems with genetics and egg quality that make the eggs difficult to hatch. The few pullets I have been able to hatch from this flock lay white or tinted egg instead of blue. Despite the outward appearance of the hens and the price I paid for them, it is obvious that there is mixed genetics going on with them and they are not homozygous for blue egg genes.

As my hens approach 2 years old, they are already not laying well. They took the entire winter off to molt (3 - 4 months). Now their shells are extremely thin; the eggs are not suitable for hatching or for selling for eating. They are in a coop with other breeds of hens eating the same diet, so I doubt their lack of productivity is a result of their environment. The hens weigh an average of 4 pounds, so they are not good dual purpose birds.

In the end I think I was sold defective birds that the breeder probably knowingly culled from the flock due to mixed breeding and genetic problems. My birds are classic cream colored and have beautiful crests. The crests are the best thing about the birds. I wish now that I could get rid of the legbars, but I would never sell "defective" birds to someone just to pass my problem on to someone else. I even offered to give them away to a neighbor, and she didn't want them.

My Cream Legbar lays plenty of most beautiful sky blue eggs that are also almost round in shape. They are very friendly and also SUPER calm in your hands. To top that off they are autosexing! It is very ironic that these birds are not one of the most popular breeds.

So far, they are wonderful additions. I plan on keeping one 1 rooster. All 3 girls have crests and are so pretty. I took a chance on an auction on ebay. They are suppose to be from the Reese line. So just hoping to get the same sky blue eggs in the spring that were sent to me. These pics were taken around a month old and with my crappy phone. Sorry

Got my CCL a few months ago at about 4 months of age. She's been laying well at almost an egg per day and her eggs are the largest of my flock. She easily tamed and is pretty, like a lady with a bouffant hairdo. Unfortunately, she didn't have the blue egg gene. However, her eggs are a pale pink, inside and out so she still adds color to my basket. I was hoping to breed her to my black copper marans roo and get olive eggers but I guess that plan is squashed now.

I would have another one in an instant but would be more careful of the breeder. It was hard to find a pullet so I took a risk on someone without doing more research. Her coloring is good and she conforms well to breed standards except for the lack of that darn blue egg gene. Hopefully, more people will see how great this breed is for egg production and good breeders will be more common. Highly recommended for a backyard flock.


***Poppy is 2 years old now and is definitely a bit flighty but still follows me around. Her eggs are HUGE- 2.75-3 ounces! She my smallest hen and lays the largest eggs. She's good for at least 5 eggs each week and was reliable, even through an Ohio winter. Do the math, that's almost a pound of eggs each week! I would love to have another but they're hard to find. She was definitely expensive but I've been repaid in egg size and volume.

So honestly I hadn't heard of this breed until yesterday. I had one of my White Leghorn go broody on me totally unexpected there not know for being Broody. But my girl will not leave the nest despite pulling her out repeatedly for days. I finally gave up as my husband and I had been talking about adding blue or green eggs to our basket. (We currently have white and brown layers) So I went on a search for people local that have fertilized eggs for sale and there is a farm about 20 mins from me selling CLs. So I looked it up and was surprised it was a rare breed. Now I'm picking up eggs this afternoon and I'm excited and nervous as I've never had a hen hatch eggs for me before. Any suggestion to make this successful? This breed looks amazing and I'm excited to give it a try. The flightiness makes me a wee bit nervous as we do let our birds free range in our yard when I'm home. I'm hoping since the rest of the flock likes to stay in the yard the new birds will follow. I'll keep you updated, fingers crossed this is successful.