Chicken Breed Focus - Legbar

[jhomestead]

This is Perch. She is one of our two Legbar hens. They are very independent ladies and forage well. We just got another pullet and a cockerel to raise up and hopefully join them!

 

[erysette]

I have wanted Cream Legbars since I first started dreaming of raising chickens. I finally got my hands on two little babes this weekend. I hope they end up somewhat friendly with enough handling.

The little lady.

The little dude.

 

[mymilliefleur]

What is the average size for a Legbar? I was surprised at how small they are. My hens are probably only 3-4 Lbs, not much bigger then my EE bantams. Also, is it just me or are Legbars not always the brightest bulbs in the coop?

 

[Ashdoes]

What is the average size for a Legbar? I was surprised at how small they are. My hens are probably only 3-4 Lbs, not much bigger then my EE bantams. Also, is it just me or are Legbars not always the brightest bulbs in the coop?

Our CL were pretty petite, that contributed to their thriftiness though. And yeah, I called them AirHeads...they aren't stupid, but seem a little in the clouds.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

What is the average size for a Legbar? I was surprised at how small they are. My hens are probably only 3-4 Lbs, not much bigger then my EE bantams. Also, is it just me or are Legbars not always the brightest bulbs in the coop?

Mine are full size birds...with one line being a really good size, probably 5 to 6 pounds, while the other is lighter, probably 4 to 5 pounds.

No, mine aren't the brightest bulb in the coop either. None of my designer birds are my best birds....too much inbreeding with the rarer breeds or those they focus on a particular goal, like egg color.

LofMc

 

[All Ball]

My girls are all from the same roo, but a couple are petite while the other two are normal-sized, so I assumed there is genetic variety. The petite girls lay bigger eggs - poor things - I guess they have more leghorn genes?

And mine seem as bright as my other breeds.

 

[duluthralphie]

Hi all.

As was mentioned I have legbars. I have a fairly large flock of legbars. I have them in all three of the proposed colors by the legbar club to the APA.

I have 25 in my Colored legbar breeding flock. 3 roosters and 22 hens. I hatch them weekly. I am working towards the proposed standards, I have a body size and shape now that I like. I have had them for 4 years now. (I think, time sure flies)

When I first got them I almost dumped them as a breed, I did not like the shape of the body, they seemed flighty and not at all friendly. I wanted the blue eggs so I kept at them. Each year they got a little better and those blue eggs can not be beat!

The current flock I have I can reach in and pick up at most times. Some are a little skittish some are not. That is the same for most flocks. As far as hardiness, I live in Minnesota, my birds free range except during breeding season. Of course, breeding season is a little longer for me that most people. I start hatching in December for show birds. I showed Legbars last year in both the Cream and White colors.

I am thinking of cutting down on the legbar numbers. I have pretty well saturated the market around here with legbars. I am an NPIP licensed Hatchery so I send them or their eggs all over the country, however, I am getting to old to continue this.

Back to the "free ranging" I find them quite hardy and just spooky enough a predator has a hard time getting one of them. They run like road runners when they want to. They will always be a part of my flock.


Now for the truly beautiful birds, I raise the white legbars. They are a double recessive white, which means they will breed true. I have an adult flock of around a dozen whites at this time and about 50 white chicks. They are a stunning bird that lays the same blue egg. My regular flock of colored legbars will give me around 15% whites. When @DwayneNLiz mentioned she got eggs from me I have figured there is a 15% chance in the eggs she got of getting a white.

Some people will say they can sex the whites, I do not make that claim. However, I have not kept track enough to know for sure. With the whites I sometimes do not know until 10-12 weeks which sex they are.

I wish I could take as good of pictures as Holm's does, I do not. Will post a few here of the ones I have.

One of the things, I would like to note is the weight, I do not have the Proposed SOPs in front of me, but as I recall the roosters are 6-7 pounds. I thought that was extremely large, it is not if you give the roosters time, they are extremely broad chested when adults. I worry about cockerels being able to reach that. Also because of the single comb, it will be hard for us northerners to show them, they do take a nasty winter trimming from frostbite.

I am building a "warm" area in my pole barn to try and keep some decent combs over winter, but the cost could make that impractical.

Also when buying these, and breeding try to keep the combs and crests in line. You will notice Meyers hatchery, does or did advertise their whites as "Frost White Legbars" a name play to gain customers, and they stated the combs fell to the side halfway back. That is a defect!

That is not something to brag about. Those of us breeding legbars work hard to get straight medium size combs with crests on our roosters. Small combs and crests is what I want on my girls.

If you have questions join us on one of the several legbar threads. Or just ask me, and hopefully I can direct you to the right person if I can"t answer you.

I caution you to not read too much into these pictures, the blue of the eggs is hard for a cheap phone camera to pick up and the other birds are just pictures of legbars I have taken over the year for whatever reason. Some were taken to show faults other to show high points.

I do have some very nice white earlobes on some of these, it seems in some case I have lost the whiteness when going for other traits. A White earlobe is a must on a show bird to me.






The below picture shows the winter trim problem. This was last years show cockerel. I did not breed him though because of a few things he has I do not want.

















































































BTW Getting a crest and a comb is much harder than one would think.

 

[duluthralphie]

What is the average size for a Legbar? I was surprised at how small they are. My hens are probably only 3-4 Lbs, not much bigger then my EE bantams. Also, is it just me or are Legbars not always the brightest bulbs in the coop?

Hens are proposed in the standard at 6 pounds, pullets at 4 so they are larger than most people think. Mine have finally gotten to those weights but it took work and feeding a high protein Game bird feed to them to get to those weights. Even with that they all do not make it. Personally, I would like the SOP a pound lower. but SOPs are not suppose to be easy to reach. They are the perfect bird.

My legbars are like any other bird, I would not call them stupid. But then no chicken is real smart.

 

[mclanea]

We've got 2 CLs coming up right now, 6-7 week range. They are so much smaller than the RIRs which are a year old... like 1/3 the size at this point. Their most notable feature to me is how much more they like being handled vs. the RIRs.

 

[DocumentedPure]

I love our sweet little Legbar, but I don't think she is very healthy. I got her for blue eggs, and being able to know she was definitely a pullet. Since her comb grew she has always done a lot of head shaking, which I attributed to her comb or crest bothering her. Now I'm thinking something else is wrong. She is 8 months old and still not laying. She has heavy breathing and when I listen to her back it sounds liquids or like if you inhaled and exhaled into a paper bag.

For Legbar owners,
do your birds shake their head more than other breeds?
Do you find possible health defects in the breed?
Do they sometimes take more than 8 months to,lay eggs?

I don't know if I'd get another, not only because I think she's unhealthy, but because the others seem to pick at her extra large comb. As far as personality, though, she is one of the calmest we've had.

Here is a list of common diseases that plague poultry, along with some treatment options. I hope this helps.
http://www.poultrysupplies.com/index_files/Page398.htm