Personally I think compromise has to be made regarding standards and individual climate and how the birds are bred. It doesn't make sense in a super cold climate to sacrifice your birds health and wellbeing for written standards. But of course this is my opinion and there will probably be some who don't agree
So disappointed that SO MANY of these pictures and links do not work anymore. I'm reading back through through this entire thread and I can follow along because so many of the links are no longer workinghttp://blue-eggs.co.uk/#/legbar-history/4554275782
I found this website that may help with the history and also color issues. These roosters look totally different than the ones I've seen, but I don't care for the color as much.
I think Ice should be on the Logo myself.He is absolutely beautiful!
I had a young trio that I hatched from CJWaldon, but I gave them to a friend because some of my flock got a respiratory illness. I didn't want to take a chance on passing it on further, so I gave her my entire flock. She is waiting for the test results to come back before we hatch anything from any of those birds. They are not laying quite yet. I do have 12 eggs in the incubator from Madamwlf and CJWaldon that are going strong, so I am getting my flock started back up again. They have quickly become one of my three favorite breeds for their friendliness as well as their beauty.
Do you mean like this? Where he is almost all white? Instead of the defined barring or are we talking about something different here?
Doesn't the rooster in this photo have what is termed a "thumbprint" on the front of his comb? Just curiousShape: Male
Comb: Single; large, straight and erect, deeply and evenly serrated with five to seven spikes, extending well over the back of the head, without touching the line of the head, free from side spikes or thumb-marks. A
Beak: Stout, point clear of the front of the comb, slightly curved. B [chickat] - If blue line is used, beak extends farther. Blue line is intended to be a 90-degree intersection with the white line that traverses beak and eye line. If orange line is used, then comb extends farther, orange line is more vertical with the horizon.
Face: Smooth (or finely textured, mine with small feathers)?
Eyes: Large, bright, and prominent. Round in appearance. C [chickat] Just about every cream legbar picture that I have seen has prominent bright eyes.
Wattles: Moderately long, uniform in size, well-rounded, skin soft. D
Ear-lobes: Well-developed, hanging about one third the length of the waddles wattles, pendent, smooth and free from folds, equally matched in size and shape. E [ chickat]circled in green, I think it is a fold....however slight it may be...and I think that the wattles are a bit more than a third covered by the earlobes.
Crest: Small, above the eyes and extended back towards the end of the comb. F [chickat] - does that mean ending above the eyes, as in a straight line from the eye level to the back of the head would show where the crest needs to end. That doesn't make sense..... above relative to ....what point?
Head: Medium in length, symmetrical, well balanced, and of fine quality.
Neck: Long and well covered with hackle feathers.
[chickat] Neck very long and very densely covered in feathers..... (he looks like a lion when he flares them)...
Back: Moderately broad at the shoulders, narrowing slightly toward the tail, long in length, with an even slope to the tail. Saddle feathers: Abundant, moderately long and sweeping to the tail.
Tail: Moderately full, carried at an angle of forty-five degrees above horizontal. Sickles: relatively longer than main tail, and well curved.[chickat] he has a great tail, had long streamer sickles which made him look very flashy and flamboyant...but he shed those and is in the process of growing out some more.... He does carry tail at different angles depending upon what he is doing.
Wings: Large and carried close to the body without dropping. [chickat] see tail at 45-degrees picture]
Breast: Prominent, well-developed, carried forward and upright.
[Chickat] My rooster is very upright...his breast was more prominent...maybe I need to up his rations. BTW he is weighing in at 5.25 pounds and was hatched in January.
Body and Fluff: Body moderately long, sloping to the tail, broad in front tapering slightly to the rear. Keel of good length, following the line of the back. Feathers: moderately long and close to the body. [chickat] I think that the ideal body would be longer than my guy, I did compare to a Punnett piece of art but since the stance is different it is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. Feathering is very dense and surprisingly soft.
Legs and Toes: Legs moderately long, straight when viewed from the front. Thighs medium length. Shanks round, strong, and free from feathers. Toes: four, long, straight, and well-spread. [Chickat} I think the legs and feet, shanks and thighs are a fit to the SOP
[chickat] did a close up on the legs cropped from a picture and I think that they are strong, the right length and toes are well spread. Hard to tell when he is walking past. This is s crop from the picture above where he is with the white EE
How do we correctly count comb pointsShape: Male
Comb: Single; large, straight and erect, deeply and evenly serrated with five to seven spikes, extending well over the back of the head, without touching the line of the head, free from side spikes or thumb-marks. A
Beak: Stout, point clear of the front of the comb, slightly curved. B [chickat] - If blue line is used, beak extends farther. Blue line is intended to be a 90-degree intersection with the white line that traverses beak and eye line. If orange line is used, then comb extends farther, orange line is more vertical with the horizon.
Face: Smooth (or finely textured, mine with small feathers)?
Eyes: Large, bright, and prominent. Round in appearance. C [chickat] Just about every cream legbar picture that I have seen has prominent bright eyes.
Wattles: Moderately long, uniform in size, well-rounded, skin soft. D
Ear-lobes: Well-developed, hanging about one third the length of the waddles wattles, pendent, smooth and free from folds, equally matched in size and shape. E [ chickat]circled in green, I think it is a fold....however slight it may be...and I think that the wattles are a bit more than a third covered by the earlobes.
Crest: Small, above the eyes and extended back towards the end of the comb. F [chickat] - does that mean ending above the eyes, as in a straight line from the eye level to the back of the head would show where the crest needs to end. That doesn't make sense..... above relative to ....what point?
Head: Medium in length, symmetrical, well balanced, and of fine quality.
Neck: Long and well covered with hackle feathers.
[chickat] Neck very long and very densely covered in feathers..... (he looks like a lion when he flares them)...
Back: Moderately broad at the shoulders, narrowing slightly toward the tail, long in length, with an even slope to the tail. Saddle feathers: Abundant, moderately long and sweeping to the tail.
Tail: Moderately full, carried at an angle of forty-five degrees above horizontal. Sickles: relatively longer than main tail, and well curved.[chickat] he has a great tail, had long streamer sickles which made him look very flashy and flamboyant...but he shed those and is in the process of growing out some more.... He does carry tail at different angles depending upon what he is doing.
Wings: Large and carried close to the body without dropping. [chickat] see tail at 45-degrees picture]
Breast: Prominent, well-developed, carried forward and upright.
[Chickat] My rooster is very upright...his breast was more prominent...maybe I need to up his rations. BTW he is weighing in at 5.25 pounds and was hatched in January.
Body and Fluff: Body moderately long, sloping to the tail, broad in front tapering slightly to the rear. Keel of good length, following the line of the back. Feathers: moderately long and close to the body. [chickat] I think that the ideal body would be longer than my guy, I did compare to a Punnett piece of art but since the stance is different it is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. Feathering is very dense and surprisingly soft.
Legs and Toes: Legs moderately long, straight when viewed from the front. Thighs medium length. Shanks round, strong, and free from feathers. Toes: four, long, straight, and well-spread. [Chickat} I think the legs and feet, shanks and thighs are a fit to the SOP
[chickat] did a close up on the legs cropped from a picture and I think that they are strong, the right length and toes are well spread. Hard to tell when he is walking past. This is s crop from the picture above where he is with the white EE
I didn't know what stitliness meant when I read that earlier but the legs on the left bird definitely seem to be exactly thatI am not sure if anyone commented on this or not, but the bird on the left seems to meet the description .....so far, but the bird on the right does not.
Breast: Prominent, well-developed, carried forward and upright....the bird on the left is a good example and the one on the right not so good. Bird on the right back is too short and has excessive tail angle...note that the lower breast is flat and not rounded. I would suggest using the bird on the left as the proper example of the breed type.
When looking at the beak length be sure the beak does not need trimming as that will make it look longer.
Does anyone have white in the face of a young bird? This is a DQ in Leghorns...something to consider??
Walt
The legbars are doing fine. All the cocks lost all the tips to their combs last winter so no worries with them this year. They are all naturally dubbed. We haven't had any really cold weather yet. We got snow a week ago and it has been cold since then. It has hover around 30 deg F for morning temperatures and high 30's to low 40's during the day. Today was the first day in the low 20's. Yes, the smaller combs work just fine. The English Leghorns are know for their ridiculously large overgrown combs and since the Legbar is an English breed at one point I though that they should have overgrown combs so that they look more English (along with the tails with no fan to them that just came to a point). The APA Legbars are different though. The overgrown combs lead to lower vigor and the zero fan tails are viewed to be less thrifty birds in the APA world. So yes, smaller combs (the APA book shows "large" single combs that are much smaller than the images in the PCGB standards book for a "large" comb. Note: When I started out with chickens I was taught that long narrow tips (spaghettis noodle points), Backward curving points (shark fin points), deep serration, notches on the back blade of the comb, etc. were indication of low vigor. I didn't understand why until I kept 15 cockerels over the winter to see how combs faired. All the cockerels with the thin points, backward curling points, deep serrations, etc. got frost bit. All the cockerels with the correct shaped combs didn't get frost bite. So...there is hope for the combs.how are the birds dealing with the cold these days? I have slightly sized down my single combs, although I know they are SUPPOSED to be large single, I tend to angle towards medium single in some birds when they show up.
Man the eggs for oac170 and oac 191 are stunning! Has anyone ever had a bird lay those shades?I keep every first pullet egg....hollow (blow with gizmo) it out, and let it dry.
Here's a photo of Robin's first egg.....
I'm saying it is a bit lighter than oac179 -- and I would like to see more stauration in clb eggs. Y'know you can't go by the right side because that is reflecting all the light...and y'can't go by the left side because that is in shadow. It's impossible to get an exact photo, good match etc. -- but I'm saying lighter than oac179.... as a benchmark.
It is fascinating the range of colors we all have. (which I think is a good thing. I like to be able to tell each chicken's egg -by looks. )
I am no expert by any means but what my else are seeing with my limited experience and for Future people reading this as I know this is quite old (Btw- I haven't read any further to see if anyone else answered already)Good notes. By the way the Middle Farms birds belong to Bonnie Hall, the same one that I quoted from Facebook. Scartop Poultry is Amanda Rowe. Although Emily deGray is considered one of the top authorities on Cream Legbars in the UK, it appears that she is no longer breeding Cream Legbars (this was stated on Bonnie's website). I assume she still has a flock for herself but she no longer buys and sells them. Those are three of the names that fly thick and heavy when you talk about correct UK Cream Legbars on the internet.
For type discussion: this is my adult rooster. I feel his type is wrong but I don't have the terms to say why. He just seems too compact/stocky. I feel his boys are much closer to what we are aiming for? Can anyone pick out what I'm trying to say?
