Cream Legbar Hybrid Thread

[Junibutt]

Hi junibutt

My CCLx RIR pullet started laying at 24 weeks and she lays the most beautiful olive green egg. It's better than I could have hoped for. Not dark but almost a pastel olive colour if that makes any sense. Unfortunately I am unable to post a photo. She is a consistent layer and I would say I get an average of about 6 eggs a week. The eggs are medium sized but the best thing about her is her personality. She is by far my friendliest chicken and will follow me around and jump on my knee if I sit down and doesn't mind being picked up at all and I think she is quite pretty as she has a little crest and is chestnut coloured but has a golden collar and very slight barring which really just gives her a textured look rather than being a solid colour.. Sadly her sister has developed paralysis with Marek's disease and whilst I am getting the odd egg from her, it is a paler colour but still pretty. Personality wise she is the same. Perky and confident when handled despite her disability.

I am desperate to breed more of this cross as I love the egg colour and personality but my RIR is not obliging me with any eggs yet. I have slipped one of the olive eggs under my broody though but I'm only 5 days into incubation and she could be mated by her father the CCL or a cockerel that was supposed to be a welsummer but I now think may be a cross breed or brown leghorn. I'm really only keeping him for eye candy as he has the most amazing range of colours. Gold and orange and dark red and black and iridescent green and violet. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what if anything I get from that egg.

Looking at the list of traits you want, you are not very exactling are you!!!

I would aim for one or two of those at the most and anything more that happens by accident is a bonus. My CCL roo is doing a good job and I like all the birds I have bred from him so far and he has passed on the blue egg gene to all. Juvenile roosters are a bit of a pain especially if there is no senior rooster to keep them in their place and since your youngster is a cross breed I would be inclined to keep the CCL daddy, but I would recommend you get a RIR hen and breed that cross, from my experience.

Regards

Barbara

Hi Barbara,

Appreciate your input. I did cross him with an RIR and have a pretty girl from that cross as well that even has a crest. However, the RIR lays a lighter color egg so I am not expecting the egg color I desire. Also, she only lays 5 (sometimes 6) eggs a week and actually due to a stressful event stopped laying 2 months ago and hasn't laid since. However, I am encouraged to know that you are getting a pastel Olive color from the RIR cross. That possibly means that if everything goes right, I may get a slightly darker color than that.

I guess will have to wait for one of them to lay to decide on the roosters.

For your reference, I am posting their pics again.

Top one is the Red Star cross and bottom RIR cross standing with
Red Star cross cockerel

 

[Junibutt]

In my opinion, your egg will not end up to dark. However, if it did you could cross her back to another CCL or blue egg rooster and get lighter green eggs.

While you can get an olive egg from a redstar cross, I think you'd be better off getting a Marans hen and crossing her to your CCL. You can also buy hatching eggs to get your own olive eggers. I admire your willingness to try your redstar-ccl cross, but I think you'd be happier with your results if you started with a Marans or Welsummer.

Thanks for your input, however, as I mentioned, I live in a busy city neighborhood and have my limitations to what I can do and how many chicken I can have especially since my coop is right under 6 neighboring apartments. The Red Star and the RIR are grandfathered in by my kids and will be here till they die. So I had to live with what I had, plus getting a Maran hen or a rooster in Chicago is close to impossible and I did not want to blindly order something I did not like. In addition, although beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, I do not care for the looks of Marans and I think if it wasn't for the egg color, they would probably be extinct by now.

Last but not the least I am on this forum for a reason, I love Legbars and their colors and want to arrive at my own version of an Olive egg laying chicken which has the colors of a Legbar hybrid.
At worst, I will fail but whatever I get will be my own version.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Still no pics but there are a few of them now! All are bearded. One has a for sure pea comb, one looks to have a single comb, and a couple look like walnut/rose combs. The bearded chicks are soo cute.

 

[rebrascora]

Hi again junibutt

Yes my CCLxRIR looks very much like that. For info, my RIR hen lays a much darker egg than my red sex link, which is generally the way it should be I believe, so perhaps your red star lays a darker egg than normal or your Rhodie is on the pale side. Whichever, it hopefully means that your red star x will lay an egg like my RIR x. I have to say, your red star cross is pretty. Does she have a crest too? It's hard to tell from that angle.

Can't agree with you on the issue of Marans. I have a black and a blue and I really like the look of them, but here in the UK they have clean legs which is beneficial in our damp and often muddy conditions. I have put 3 of their eggs under my broody too, but I can't be sure which of the two cockerels will be the sire. Hopefully it will be the CCL and I will perhaps be able to tell when they hatch.

 

[Junibutt]

Hi again junibutt

Yes my CCLxRIR looks very much like that. For info, my RIR hen lays a much darker egg than my red sex link, which is generally the way it should be I believe, so perhaps your red star lays a darker egg than normal or your Rhodie is on the pale side. Whichever, it hopefully means that your red star x will lay an egg like my RIR x. I have to say, your red star cross is pretty. Does she have a crest too? It's hard to tell from that angle.

Can't agree with you on the issue of Marans. I have a black and a blue and I really like the look of them, but here in the UK they have clean legs which is beneficial in our damp and often muddy conditions. I have put 3 of their eggs under my broody too, but I can't be sure which of the two cockerels will be the sire. Hopefully it will be the CCL and I will perhaps be able to tell when they hatch.

The Red Star cross does not have a crest and yes my Red Star lays as darker shade of brown, almost as brown as the Barnevelder.
Good luck with your hatch!

 

[ochochicas]

Can't agree with you on the issue of Marans. I have a black and a blue and I really like the look of them, but here in the UK they have clean legs which is beneficial in our damp and often muddy conditions. I have put 3 of their eggs under my broody too, but I can't be sure which of the two cockerels will be the sire. Hopefully it will be the CCL and I will perhaps be able to tell when they hatch.

I agree with you! My Marans are awesome birds. The hens are not totally friendly, but they were not raised here and I don't think they were handled enough when young. In addition to being great egg producers, they are also quite large and would make better dual purpose birds than they production breeds like RIRs. I like all my birds, but the legbars are my least favorite. My new pen should be done this weekend so I an start crossing them with my Marans rooster and get some Olive eggers!

 

[draye]

What are the major crosses folks are doing for the Cream Legbars Hybrids?

The reason I ask I'm working on a project for Green/Blur egg laying Naked Neck. I've been crossing the NN to Easter Eggers. I have several GENN pullets and so far two are laying. A few more that should start soon.

I've also got some Isbar over Cream Legbars (someone called them Ice Cream Bars) eggs in the Incubator. I'm just wondering how these would work with my project.

Here's the thing though, I'm not a big fan if barring/cuckoo. Do the offspring all turn out with some barring on them?

I'm just working right now on getting the GENN to laying, trying to get closer to a blue color as the shell color.

Oh yeah, I also want to keep a pea comb on the birds. So do most of the hybrids inherit the single comb?

Most like if I were to use them I would most like cross them to the EE first cross.

 

[speedy2020]

I want Bielefelder dual purpose trait that large, calm, friendly, lay lot of blue egg, not flighty, pea or rose comb, but not sure how to proceed it yet.

 

[ochochicas]

What are the major crosses folks are doing for the Cream Legbars Hybrids?

The reason I ask I'm working on a project for Green/Blur egg laying Naked Neck. I've been crossing the NN to Easter Eggers. I have several GENN pullets and so far two are laying. A few more that should start soon.

I crossed my Turken with some legbars. Last hatch I had some really nice pullets that I was going to keep, but ended up selling them to make room for more babies. I have about a dozen more in the incubator now. They should be olive eggers, which is what I'm breeding for.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

I am also trying to hatch a CCL roo x a RIR and I also threw in my Buff Orp x CCL roo. I had to get rid of my CCL roo, so hoping to get a couple of eggs hatched, for some light green egg layers. I have a blue marans cockerel that I plan on crossing with my CCL asap. But he is only a couple of weeks old.