Cream legbar roo over Brahma hen and others

[JChipowsky]

I've just started my flock and my initial plan was to just have cream legbars and bielefelders. We ended up with 2 cream legbar pullets, 2 easter egger pullets and 6 light Brahma pullets with our cream legbar cockerel. I'm wondering what the crosses will be like. I know with the cream legbar hens the offspring should be auto sexing and they will just be little legbars.
Cream legbar roo over easter egger hen could look like anything in the mix and lay green, blue or possibly brown eggs?
Cream legbar roo over light Brahma hen, no idea on looks size, eggs would be green?

 

[NatJ]

We ended up with 2 cream legbar pullets, 2 easter egger pullets and 6 light Brahma pullets with our cream legbar cockerel. I'm wondering what the crosses will be like. I know with the cream legbar hens the offspring should be auto sexing and they will just be little legbars.

Correct about the pure Legbars.

Cream legbar roo over easter egger hen could look like anything in the mix and lay green, blue or possibly brown eggs?
Cream legbar roo over light Brahma hen, no idea on looks size, eggs would be green?

Cream Legbars are supposed to breed true for the blue egg gene.
That means the rooster should give it to every chick he produces, which would mean every daughter will lay blue or green eggs (green eggs are blue eggs with a coating of brown on the outside.) So you should expect blue or green eggs from the daughters of the Easter Eggers, and green from the Brahmas.

All chicks should have white barring on their feathers, over whatever other colors and patterns they show.

From the Easter Egger, yes there are quite a few possible colors & patterns you could get.

From the Light Brahma, you should get sex-linked chicks: daughters showing gold and sons showing silver. The "silver" on the sons may look yellowish or dirty, rather than the clean white of their Brahma mothers. Those sons may also get red leakage in their shoulders & wings as they grow up. Both genders should have black on their hackles & tails (like the Brahma), and may have some black in other areas too (all with the white lines of barring across it. The sons of the Brahmas may be colored like poor-quality Delawares.)

The Brahma hens should have pea combs, and the Easter Eggers might too. From any hen with a pea comb, you should get at least some chicks with pea combs. But the chicks' combs are likely to be bigger and less tidy-looking than what their mothers have, because of crossing with the single-comb Legbar rooster.

Because the Brahma hens have feathered feet, their chicks will probably have feathered feet too (but probably fewer feathers than the brahmas have.)

 

[Chikyboy]

All eggs would be blue or green.

 

[JChipowsky]

Correct about the pure Legbars.



Cream Legbars are supposed to breed true for the blue egg gene.
That means the rooster should give it to every chick he produces, which would mean every daughter will lay blue or green eggs (green eggs are blue eggs with a coating of brown on the outside.) So you should expect blue or green eggs from the daughters of the Easter Eggers, and green from the Brahmas.

All chicks should have white barring on their feathers, over whatever other colors and patterns they show.

From the Easter Egger, yes there are quite a few possible colors & patterns you could get.

From the Light Brahma, you should get sex-linked chicks: daughters showing gold and sons showing silver. The "silver" on the sons may look yellowish or dirty, rather than the clean white of their Brahma mothers. Those sons may also get red leakage in their shoulders & wings as they grow up. Both genders should have black on their hackles & tails (like the Brahma), and may have some black in other areas too (all with the white lines of barring across it. The sons of the Brahmas may be colored like poor-quality Delawares.)

The Brahma hens should have pea combs, and the Easter Eggers might too. From any hen with a pea comb, you should get at least some chicks with pea combs. But the chicks' combs are likely to be bigger and less tidy-looking than what their mothers have, because of crossing with the single-comb Legbar rooster.

Because the Brahma hens have feathered feet, their chicks will probably have feathered feet too (but probably fewer feathers than the brahmas have.)

Thank you so much! This actually helps a lot, considering I really want the sex link and auto sexing. I do love the size of the Brahmas, will they be in between the size of them and the legbars?

 

[NatJ]

I do love the size of the Brahmas, will they be in between the size of them and the legbars?

Probably yes.

 

[JChipowsky]

I realized I put this thread in the wrong forum
Should have been the general breed discussions.
I'm adding to my question, still the cream legbar roo
What will the offspring be like with black copper marans and blue laced wyandottes?

 

[NatJ]

I realized I put this thread in the wrong forum
Should have been the general breed discussions.

I think this was a good place-- you wanted a prediction based on the genetics involved.

This is the section of the forum where genetics questions often get asked, even if they have nothing to do with exhibition or the Standard of Perfection for pure breed chickens.

I'm adding to my question, still the cream legbar roo
What will the offspring be like with black copper marans and blue laced wyandottes?

With Black Copper Marans: chicks with a pattern similar to Black Copper Marans, but possibly with the copper part spreading a bit further, and white barring running across it all.

For the Wyandottes, do you mean Blue Laced Red? Chicks would have a pattern of either black & red or blue & red (about half each way), with the pattern not being exactly lacing but perhaps somewhat similar, and white barring across it all. The "red" might actually look gold or cream; I'm not quite sure how the genes for Cream and Red are going to interact when you cross them.

Or do you mean Wyandottes that are blue all over, with darker blue edges on the feathers so it looks laced? If you have that kind of Wyandotte, half the chicks will be black and half will be blue, with all of them having white barring. The blue ones might have darker edges on the feathers (lacing) or they might not; I'm not entirely clear on how the genes for that work.

Either way, chicks with a Wyandotte mother are likely to have a rose comb, although there is a chance that some will have a single comb (because some Wyandottes carry the gene for not-rose comb, which lets them produce single comb chicks.)

All the chicks, from any mother, should have a small crest and the blue egg gene, as well as the white barring, because those come from the Legbar father.

 

[JChipowsky]

I think this was a good place-- you wanted a prediction based on the genetics involved.

This is the section of the forum where genetics questions often get asked, even if they have nothing to do with exhibition or the Standard of Perfection for pure breed chickens.


With Black Copper Marans: chicks with a pattern similar to Black Copper Marans, but possibly with the copper part spreading a bit further, and white barring running across it all.

For the Wyandottes, do you mean Blue Laced Red? Chicks would have a pattern of either black & red or blue & red (about half each way), with the pattern not being exactly lacing but perhaps somewhat similar, and white barring across it all. The "red" might actually look gold or cream; I'm not quite sure how the genes for Cream and Red are going to interact when you cross them.

Or do you mean Wyandottes that are blue all over, with darker blue edges on the feathers so it looks laced? If you have that kind of Wyandotte, half the chicks will be black and half will be blue, with all of them having white barring. The blue ones might have darker edges on the feathers (lacing) or they might not; I'm not entirely clear on how the genes for that work.

Either way, chicks with a Wyandotte mother are likely to have a rose comb, although there is a chance that some will have a single comb (because some Wyandottes carry the gene for not-rose comb, which lets them produce single comb chicks.)

All the chicks, from any mother, should have a small crest and the blue egg gene, as well as the white barring, because those come from the Legbar father.

Thank you. The wyandottes were just labeled blue laced, so really it could be anything.

 

[NatJ]

Thank you. The wyandottes were just labeled blue laced, so really it could be anything.

I would guess blue laced red in that case, because those are moderately common.

When they are sold as "blue laced red," you can actually get ones with lacing in black, or blue, or splash. Splash is a light gray or almost white, sometimes with bits of black or darker blue as well. All of those versions have the same red ground color; it is just the lacing on the edges of the feathers that will be different.

With your Cream Legbar rooster, using a hen with black lacing would mean all the chicks show black in their pattern, with no blue or splash.

Using a hen with blue lacing would give the results I mentioned, with half showing black and the other half showing blue.

Using a hen with splash lacing will produce only chicks that show blue in their pattern, with none showing black or splash.

(Since your rooster is a Cream Legbar, with no blue feather gene, you will not get any chicks that show splash. Splash only happens when the chick inherits the blue gene from both parents.)