Cream Legbar vs Shetland Hen

chfriedmam

Songster
8 Years
Dec 20, 2015
299
588
241
North Hollywood, CA
Any hints on how to tell a cream legbar chick from a Shetland Hen (when they aren’t black)?

I’m in that happy position of having ~25 chicks. I know that 8 of them are cream legbars and 10 are Shetland Hens and the remainder are from my black copper Moran, and or an iceberg chicken that I have both of those bread with an opal legbar

Ps yes brooder is substandard. They hatched early and I work the next few nights- scared to put them in my garage brooder yet
 

Attachments

  • C63ED989-8E90-44E9-8060-FEA465096349.jpeg
    C63ED989-8E90-44E9-8060-FEA465096349.jpeg
    752.4 KB · Views: 69
Do they have different leg colors?
This is a good idea, so I started looking at them a little closer when I change their housing today. Unfortunately, the black Shetland hens have black legs but I think the lighter ones do not. . They are a Landrace, so they are like birds related in a big extended family with similar looks, but they have no standard of perfection. I think I have identified Shetland hens that look like cream legbars because they already have the beginning of the little tappit on their head. And the opal Legbar x Bcm checks that I have are easy to see because their legs are lighter, and they have a white dot on their head and the tiniest hint of feathering on the feet.

I think I’m gonna have to wait and see on the cream legbars but unfortunately you know I try to weed out the males early, but I can’t do that because some of them might be Shetland hens, which are not auto sexing

Photos for fun: black Shetland, I think lighter Shetland, Bcm mix
 

Attachments

  • 1CA71F40-337F-4A19-A21E-A8E24243CD6A.jpeg
    1CA71F40-337F-4A19-A21E-A8E24243CD6A.jpeg
    415.7 KB · Views: 28
  • 7615DDFF-2033-415A-B642-B4286C6ADAE2.jpeg
    7615DDFF-2033-415A-B642-B4286C6ADAE2.jpeg
    418.1 KB · Views: 17
  • DD7709E3-0EE2-4483-AC85-569CF2C5A424.jpeg
    DD7709E3-0EE2-4483-AC85-569CF2C5A424.jpeg
    382.4 KB · Views: 16
I took a closer look/feel and the difference is apparent.

Shetland hens have their little tappits already coming in
They also, the brown ones, have a more jagged back pelatternbinstead of the straight stripes of the CLs
And shetlands are heavier

Truth is, a week old they look quite different
54763D74-34F0-497B-812E-068284AF8C7A.png
4AC5CCB2-BA0B-49D7-B9D2-C984D1C018D2.jpeg
5BD89032-AAE0-4978-BC32-CEFFE6FC6ECC.jpeg
 
Any hints on how to tell a cream legbar chick from a Shetland Hen (when they aren’t black)?

I’m in that happy position of having ~25 chicks. I know that 8 of them are cream legbars and 10 are Shetland Hens and the remainder are from my black copper Moran, and or an iceberg chicken that I have both of those bread with an opal legbar

Which breeds are the roosters vs. the hens? Or do you have them in separate pure breeding groups?

The Cream Legbars and Opal Legbars should have barring. Any chick with a father of those breeds should have barring. Any male chick with a mother of those breeds should have barring.

Do any of your Shetland Hens have barring? If they do not have barring, then you can use the barring gene to help sort which chicks have which parents (or check your sorting, since I see you have already noticed some differences.)
 
Which breeds are the roosters vs. the hens? Or do you have them in separate pure breeding groups?

The Cream Legbars and Opal Legbars should have barring. Any chick with a father of those breeds should have barring. Any male chick with a mother of those breeds should have barring.

Do any of your Shetland Hens have barring? If they do not have barring, then you can use the barring gene to help sort which chicks have which parents (or check your sorting, since I see you have already noticed some differences.)
Oh, to clarify, the CLs and Shetlands are from eggs I bought. I’ve been able to is those now

Then I have 6 chicks from my Opal rooster and a couple of my hens
The 2 Marans hen/Opal rooster mixes are also easy. Mainly black with feathers on feet

The Isbar hen/Opal rooster chicks are yellow and unbarred. It was kind of process of elimination. I think Shetlands can look like that, but these guys are smaller and no crest. The Shetlands had crests at hatch nearly
 
I have a pen with mostly cream legbars, one solid black shetland hen, and 1 shetland roo. Cream legbars are easy to spot bc boys have the white spot on their heads and the girls are chipmunk striped. Because of the nature of a landrace breed, it's harder to tell typing early on with a Shetland. Shetlands are a smaller bird than a Cream Legbar, and will lay a greener egg. My experience is that fertility is lower and they are harder to hatch than the legbars. Mine have gotten a bit mixed up and I'm hoping that the cream legbar will add some hybrid vigor to the Shetland. I'm hearing that Greenfire Farms (first legal importer of the breed to US) is having fertility issues with their legbars and shetlands this spring.
Shetland Dad:
IMG_0670.jpeg

Shetland Mom:
IMG_7723.jpeg
 
Is Greenfire the only imported of Shetlands in the US right now? I can only find four or five farms online that sell them and they all seem to get their stock from Greenfire. I'm very interested in breeding for conservation (and perhaps trying to add some Whiting True Blue for a Colorado-Shetland hybrid) but have a lot to learn before I start breeding them.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom