Just a clarification,
are those chicks from Ice? I don't think anyone had a very young chick photo of Ice, because I got him when he was about 8 weeks old, I think. ;O)
The yellow cockerel in the first photo is Larry. The black cockerel is Liam. The dark chick in the 2nd photo from the other breeder is Lance. The lighter one from the other breeder is Leo. No I don't have any chicks photos of Ice. I don't have any chick photos of Blaze either.
Liam we breed. Larry, Lance, and Leo were never breed.
Good and bad for Liam, Ice, and Blaze??? That is like asking for good and bad about your children.
Liam: The best thing about him was his size and vigor. I also really liked his comb. It was the huge English Leghorn type comb and was perfectly erect. He had a lot of faults though. The biggest was his temperament. He was not a cockerel that you wanted to ever turn you back on. We didn't trust him around children and carried a rooster pole with us any time we were working with his flock so that we could tap him on the belly to keep him out of flogging range. He also was a selfish eatter. Most cockerel only eat after the hens get their fill. Liam on the other hand would push the hens out of the way when a Grasshopper was caught or when treats were given to the flock. He produces many cockerels with good temperament (which I attribute to their mothers) but we never breed any of his sons. He also had a high tail angle, was single crested, and incomplete for the cream gene. We breed several of his daughters.
Ice: We were really happy when we got Ice. He was from the same flock as Larry who we lost at about 10-12 weeks old. Ice gave us another line to broaden the gene pool of our flock. Like Liam he had a perfectly erect comb. He had a fly a way comb, one there rises above horizontal with the ground and that seemed to make enough clearance between his large crest and blade of the comb that they didn't interfere with each other. His comb was smaller than Liams and one of this sons came out with the best comb/crest cockerel I have seen on a Cream Legbar anywhere. We wanted to breed that son but ran out of coop space to keep him so he was sold in trio to a 4H mother for her daughters to work with. Ice was our smallest cockerel. His offspring we notably smaller but had better angles and shape than what we saw from other breeders. His temperament was better than Liam but we kept the rooster pole when working with him. Like Liam he was also gold.
Blaze: After culling 18 of Liams sons our first year we were elated to source Blaze. He had a better tails set which was going to help compensate for the high tails that Liams line was producing, he was complete for the Cream Gene that was going to help compensate for all the gold in our flock from Liam and Ice, but the best thing about him was his temperament. No need for a rooster pole when working with his flock. He would run from us and hide behind his hens. There was no chance of him ever challenging us. His sons were the sweetest cockerels. We kept his best boy in 2013 and his best boy in 2014 and breed and they replaced Liam and Ice in the breeding rotation. We now have a 2015 son from Blaze and two grand sons out of his 2013 son. We have never had any problems with any of those cockerels. Our 18 month old can collect eggs by herself with no fear of the cockerel. We didn't like the wave in Blaze's comb though. His sons also have gotten this wave to their comb. He wasn't as large as Liam and his offspring are smaller than Liam's.
