Cream Legbar Working Group: Standard of Perfection

[normanack]

I have a question, if just the two giant sickles are squirrel and the rest of the tail is correct - is it still a squirrel tail?

Not if your other chickens have bitten off just those two long sickle feathers.

(I did rescue those feathers from the coop and used them to decorate a Christmas present.)

 

[redchicken9]

Here is an excerpt from a very old book (1921) Standard Poultry for Exhibition: A Complete Manual... - By John Henry Robinson

"Nearly all high-tailed birds carry their tails at times so high that if judged with the tail at highest angle they would be disqualified for squirrel tail. A judge in passing on the point is supposed to take into consideration the tendency of birds to throw the tail up when excited and to make an effort to have the bird pose with the tail at a proper angle. Unless a bird persists in throwing the tail past the allowed limit for disqualification a judge does not disqualify it for this fault , but he does discount as serious fault the carrying of the tail at any angle higher than that described in the Standard for the breed..."

So it would only be considered squirrel tail it is always is carried beyond perpendicular, not if it flicks up beyond because to roo is excited. Does anyone know what the tail angle is going to be in the proposed SOP for Cream Legbars?

Right now the draft is at 45 degrees for males, lower for females (35 degrees). The original Legbar tails look to be this, back to Punnett's paper.

Someone else help here, I think a tail can be pinched two ways. There's the flat and vertical way (tent walls not spread) and the all the feathers are all at one spot like a ponytail (is this how to describe?). Mine tend to lean towards the first.

 

[dretd]

Right now the draft is at 45 degrees for males, lower for females (35 degrees).  The original Legbar tails look to be this, back to Punnett's paper.

Someone else help here, I think a tail can be pinched two ways.  There's the flat and vertical way (tent walls not spread) and the all the feathers are all at one spot like a ponytail (is this how to describe?).  Mine tend to lean towards the first.

Thanks for the clarification on the tail angle.

I think of the tail that is laterally compressed (narrow tent) as a pinched tail (like someone is pinching it from the sides) and the one where the fan isn't open and the feathers are gathered to a point as a pin tail. Not sure if that's a real designation or not but it just has made sense to me.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

When I think pinched tail I think of a tail like these ones in post 226: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/732985/csu-chicken-state-university-large-fowl-sop/220
But I suppose both of your descriptions would be pinched tails. With a few minutes research it seems to be a very common problem and a fairly difficult thing to breed out.

 

[ChicKat]

Thank you all--

I know my chickens spend their time being excited (to see me) - because I am a walking-talking source of treats. (It's bad, really). That's why their tails are always up.

Interesting about the judging approach.

Loads of things to look at for the chickens....pinched, pin, squirrel - Lions and tigers and bears - Oh my... (sorry, I couldn't help it).

 

[ChicKat]

Not if your other chickens have bitten off just those two long sickle feathers.

(I did rescue those feathers from the coop and used them to decorate a Christmas present.)

bitten off....

I saved the white sickles that Ice first shed... I thought they were molted.

Seems like my guys have gone through some variations on exactly what their tail configurations are. As I recall, once those two white - racing stripe - sickles were gone, they never really grew back. Could this be age-related?

Exactly what age is considered 'mature' for a rooster? (not just ready to breed is it? Do they have to be a year old?) -- Also-- do your roosters get lighter as they grow? AND...while I'm throwing out questions.... doesn't the-older-the-rooster, the-better-he-looks work? And don't the prizes in shows go to the old ones? Just seems that if he is older he has had more time to work on his flamboyance, and his saddle feathers have grown longer and more draping.

 

[dretd]

I know my chickens spend their time being excited (to see me) - because I am a walking-talking source of treats. (It's bad, really). That's why their tails are always up.

No kidding, walking Pez Dispenser. I find it funny when people ask here on BYC what their friendliest breed is and I am thinking which one of my birds runs the slowest to me when I call?

I have to be careful I don't step on them as they crowd me walking around. I made the mistake of having a piece of bread in my mouth (I was multi-tasking) when I was bending over to pick up a feed pan and Millie, my Dark Brahma, rushed over and like Shamu, jumped up and snatched out of my mouth! She was the friendliest that day.

I have a Border Collie and having a tail up over the back is a fault called a gay tail. Her tail even curls up like a Huskies when she is really happy. It does come down to 'normal' when she concentrates on something important like the horse (faux-sheep) or the frisbee. It would be interesting if your roo/s with the squirrel tail/s would look 'normal' if they were in a cage at a show?

 

[ChicKat]

Such a good observation. I wonder too--- Somehow, I can't see my animals in a show.... Fortunately this particular rooster -- has a comb that traverses his head diagonally, BTW it was a flop-over comb too---but subsequently has grown to be upright. ( Seems like that question was in a thread awhile ago in one of these threads. Hope the asker reads them all. ) So I think that there are enough 'strikes' against him....that he wouldn't get in the door.

For birds that show, it takes a LOT of handling to make them comfortable with that right? You more or less need to train them to be calm when confined, handled, and in a crowd. This little rooster tries to protect his hens from everything... I wonder if he would freak out were he ever to see a show.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I would say before I would call a rooster "mature" they would have to be at least 8 months to a year old, not just breeding already.

My understanding is younger roosters tend to win over older roosters in shows, because they tend to have better feather condition overall and no "battle scars" like frozen comb points.

I also believe there are two different styles of showing- cage showing, where the judge may look only or reach in and get the bird out to inspect it closer but then immediately puts it back- and tabletop showing, where the bird must be trained to stand on a table while being handled. Obviously that takes more taming and training. Carrying a bird around with a handful of meal worms is a great way to teach "human has treats" and "I get treats when I let him/her hold me."

 

[ChicKat]

Thanks Rinda!

My pullet is definitely laying a greenish-blue. All her eggs are consistent, and saturated to be oac151, but if I were to name the color independently of thinking of it as from a blue-egg gene bird, I would say it is green. So--- USA Cream Legbars are laying "green" as well as being blue egg layers..... Just no olives in the USA......

I think Anne had pointed this out some time ago, egg colors are falling on the 'greenish-blue' pages. - IMO the idea egg would be oac213, oac235 or oac256. Although oac255 would be nice it's probably not realistic.