Cream Legbar Pictures

[SoCalhens]

And thank you to all the responses to my question regarding the difference between the Rees line of Cream Legbars vs other breeders stock of Cream Legbars. I found everyone's replies to be extremely helpful and very informative.

 

[Amy King Hanson]

I am surprised by the range of light to dark that I'm getting. I kind of like it. There are a few odd balls.

 

[sol2go]

so an older rooster would be better?

I find the cockerels are calmer as they approach the 1st year, and/or put the cockerel with hens not pullets.

 

[sol2go]

These are my CL called The Golden Girls and a few of their eggs.

Thanks for sharing your flock pictures!

 

[sol2go]

I am surprised by the range of light to dark that I'm getting. I kind of like it. There are a few odd balls.

You may start to recognize patterns from the down to feather stages.
Do all your pullets/hens have dark crests?

 

[Amy King Hanson]

You may start to recognize patterns from the down to feather stages.
Do all your pullets/hens have dark crests?

I have found the lighter chicks end up being a lighter color with Carmel chest. The darker chicks end up being a little darker with chestnut chests. All crests are dark so far with one or two white dots, lol. I'm working on finding a hen that'd help with that.

 

[Amy King Hanson]

The darker hens neck feathers also seem more silverish and contrast the dark feathers in a striking way.

It's hard to capture in the barn and she's not full grown yet. Some of the other birds above are birds that my customers have hatched out and send me updates. When I received it I was excited to see the correlation of down to feathered out.

 

[cubalaya]

I find the cockerels are calmer as they approach the 1st year, and/or put the cockerel with hens not pullets.

i was thinking that an older rooster would show resistance to disease and i could tell whether he would be mean or nice. we dont tolerate man fighting or mean roosters here and i would hate to get a young one and have it get mareks or something else


my hens have shown no signs of disease and they both are laying big greenish/blue eggs now

 

[sol2go]

I have found the lighter chicks end up being a lighter color with Carmel chest. The darker chicks end up being a little darker with chestnut chests. All crests are dark so far with one or two white dots, lol. I'm working on finding a hen that'd help with that.

The darker hens neck feathers also seem more silverish and contrast the dark feathers in a striking way.

Your down to feathers experience correlates with mine.

The striking contrast you are seeing between (neck) hackle feathers and the body is due to the influence of "cream"; those pullets/hens have two copies of the "cream" gene ("ig"=inhibitor of gold) which inhibits the expression of gold. So it would be accurate to describe the hackle feathers as cream.

As the Cream Legbars are a gold based bird, if the pullet/hen does not have two copies of the cream gene, then the hackle feathers are a warmer color - gold - and have less contrast compared to the body.

The dark crest is a separate element which is striking on its own. Sometimes the dark crest will spread down into the hackle feathers and mask much of the color, without regard to gold or cream.

Describing some of the feathers as caramel is yummy! There are also other ways to describe those influences. The Cream Legbar down pattern reflects a wild-type genetic basis. The chest color on the pullets/hens is referred to as "salmon", which is typical for a wild-type chicken. If the pullet/hen is cream, then the salmon color is a little washed out looking compared to a pullet/hen that is gold. There is also a red/chestnut influence which may make the area around the head, neck & crest a little richer chestnut (caramel =) color in both the gold and cream colored pullets/hens.

That's both fun and helpful to have updates with your customers. Have you found the Cream Legbar Club website? It will offer a range of appearance information that may be helpful as a breeder (Standard of Perfection - SOP).

I am interested to know other's experience with breeding away from dark crests, which are not correct for the Cream Legbar SOP. I have a sprinkling of hens that are cream with dark crests, and regardless of the roosters (which are unrelated and produce correctly colored offspring from correctly colored hens), I have not been able to eliminate the dark crest in favor of a lighter grey/cream/chestnut crest. It may take a few more generations but I enjoy the variations as well.

 

[sol2go]

i was thinking that an older rooster would show resistance to disease and i could tell whether he would be mean or nice. we dont tolerate man fighting or mean roosters here and i would hate to get a young one and have it get mareks or something else


my hens have shown no signs of disease and they both are laying big greenish/blue eggs now

I agree that an older rooster has many advantages. In general, I have found the breed to be healthy and friendly regardless of age, and not likely to be mean or aggressive.

That's great that you are seeing large eggs from your hens, as some do lay on the smaller side. If you ask around, you may find an older rooster that can contribute a bluer color and maintain egg size. There are lots of breeders on/near the East Coast. In addition to the BYC buy/sell/trade pages and the BYC Cream Legbar thread (separate from this thread for pictures), the Cream Legbar Club has a FB page and a breeders directory on their website.