Cream Legbar Working Group: Standard of Perfection

[KPenley]

When referencing the standards or proposed standards once they have been broken down we could create a catalog of images under each that help everyone see the comparative differences within, especially when it comes to type and the like.

This would be wonderful, and definitely a page on the new website! Perhaps an odd question series...but if all/most of the USA CLBs would be considered short of the cream standard, then where do we go from there? Do we need to form a group to discover and import new correct colored CLBs? (field trip

) Or can the correct color be bred in through another breed?

 

[Dahlisgrams]

Is there anyone who would like to take over maintaining the membership/interested party list for this project? My schedule has drastically changed very unexpectedly and I will not have enough time to devote to this for at least a few months. If no one can do it, I'm happy to resume once I'm able.

 

[redchicken9]

Once again, I lost a long post I was working on, in the last sentence. Because I need to redirect this is shorter. Next post, I will list the UK standards broken down and numbered. There is some repetition. Please look at numbers 1-15. Line by line. Re-post your questions and/or comments and/or satisfaction with each line. There should be some things that all are satisfied like Cream Legbars are a breed of British origin! 5-10 truly loving, truly committed responses will shed light on which stones need the most polish. I will make a response before 6pm PST if no one gets the ball rolling. If you understand what I am asking, please start. Walt, having you here to answer questions or participate is needed, please stay involved. I, we, need to learn the cream legbar standards to do this! This may be the most painful part, but you, meaning each you reading this are being asked to help. Blackbirds13, great idea on having images to support the standards referenced. Those that can add images along the way, please do. KPenley, I guess that will get answered eventually!

 

[redchicken9]

1. Origin: British

2. Classification: Light

3. Egg Color: Blue, Green or Olive

Male

4. Carriage: Very sprightly and alert, with no suggestion of stiltiness.

5. Type: Body wedge shaped, wide at the shoulders and
narrowing slightly to root of tail.
6. Back long, flat and sloping slightly to the tail.
7. Breast prominent, and breast bone straight.
8. Wings large, carried tightly and well tucked up.
8. Tail moderately full at an angle of 45 degrees from the line of the back.

9. Head: Fine.
10. Beak stout, point clear of the front of the comb.
11. Eyes prominent.
12a. Comb single, perfectly straight and erect, large but not overgrown,
12b. deeply and evenly serrated (5 to 7 spikes broad at the base),
12c. extending well beyond back of the head and following, without touching, the line of the head,
12d. free from ‘thumb marks’ or side spikes.
13. Face smooth.
14. Ear-lobes well developed, pendent, smooth and free from folds, equally matched in size and shape.
15. Wattles long and thin.

16. Neck: Long and profusely covered with feathers.

17a. Legs and Feet: Legs moderately long.
17b.Shanks strong, round and free of feathers.
17c. Flat shins objectionable.
17d. Toes, four, long, straight and well spread.

18. Plumage: Of silky texture, free from coarse or excessive feather.

19. Handling: Firm with abundance of muscle.
20. Neck hackles cream, sparsely barred.
21. Saddle hackles cream, barred with dark grey, tipped with cream.
22. Back and shoulders cream with dark grey barring, some chestnut permissible.
23. Wings, primaries dark grey, faintly barred, some white permissible;
24. secondaries dark grey more clearly marked;
25. coverts grey barred, tips cream, some chestnut smudges permissible.
26. Breast evenly barred dark grey, well defined outline.
27. Tail evenly barred grey, sickles being paler, some whit feather permissible.
28. Crest cream and grey, some chestnut permissible.

29. Beak yellow.
30. Eyes orange or red.
31. Comb, face, and wattles red.
32. Ear-lobes pure opaque, white or cream, slight pink markings not unduly to handicap an otherwise good male.
33. Legs and feet yellow.

34. Weights
Male 2.70-3.40kg (6-7lb)

35. Serious defects:
Male's comb twisted or falling over,
36. Ear-lobes wholly red.
37. Any white in face.
38. Legs other than orange, yellow or light willow.
39.Squirrel tail.

40. Disqualifications: Side sprigs on comb.
41. Eye pupil other than round and clearly defined.
42. Crooked breast.
43.Wry tail.
44. Any bodily deformity.

Female

45a. The general characteristics are similar to those of the male, allowing for the natural sexual differences,
45b.except that the comb may be erect or falling gracefully over either side of the face without obstructing the eyesight, and
45c.the tail should be carried closely and not at such a high angle.
46. Neck hackles cream, softly barred grey.
47.Breast salmon, well defined in outline.
48. Body silver grey, with rather indistinct broad soft barring.
49. Wings, primaries grey-peppered;
50. secondaries very faintly barred;
51. coverts silver grey.
52. Tail silver grey, faintly barred.
53. Crest cream and grey, some chestnut permissible.

54. Beak yellow.
55. Eyes orange or red.
56. Comb, face, and wattles red.
57. Ear-lobes pure opaque, white or cream, slight pink markings not unduly to handicap an otherwise good male. (added note, ie not acceptable for female)
58. Legs and feet yellow.

59. Weights Female 2-2.70kg (4-6lb)

60. Serious defects: Ear-lobes wholly red.
61. Any white in face.
62. Legs other than orange, yellow or light willow.
63. Squirrel tail.

64. Disqualifications: Side sprigs on comb.
65. Eye pupil other than round and clearly defined.
66. Crooked breast.
67. Wry tail.
67. Any bodily deformity.



Let’s show we are serious about cream legbars! This is the meat and substance!

 

[ChicKat]

See, I'm away for a day---and look at all that happens. There are a lot of dynamics going on here.

An expert suggestion was made to me that the new club that would be formed would be called the American Cream Legbar Club. Short, sweet and to the point.

I also cut and pasted this from the Ameraucana Breeders Club, it is their LOGO and thier - mission statement if you will:

The purpose of the Ameraucana Breeders Club is to encourage the continued improvement of Ameraucana bantams and large fowl through breeding, exhibition, and dissemination of relevant information.


I want to know why in the heck we are going to do this and what we intend to accomplish. Thus a statement of purpose to be the star that we will navigate by, as we come to the concerns and cross roads that will arise.

So-- I want to volunteer to work with the others in this group that are interested in this part of it to target completing a mission statement and working logo within the next week. Again as prototype, for the working group.

I agree so much that the function that the breed was designed for should not be LOST so that pretty feathering will result. Breed improvement - once we would get recognition and establish what constitutes a cream legbar in the USA - would be good basics....

As far as working logo, I think that a photo of a cream legbar family that is digitally changed to a more logo like format would get us started.

Also thinking that we could/should possibly 'standardize' the workgroup with google docs, since it is pretty readily available and...free, and -- they also have things like circles where those working on a portion of the activity could have a real-time virtual meeting. We may need to sharpen up our computer skills a bit.

I think I am leaning toward following the Ameraucana club, maybe because they have the blue egg gene. I think that any info from the Marans or any other club would be equally valuable.

Also I would like to work with Redchicken9, GaryDean and a couple of others who have interest in this to tighten up the checklist of what needs to be accomplished/done. I know Walt (thank you Walt) has made priceless suggestions that we will be working toward in the next 5-years as well.

Last thought - (from my days as a project manager) for our success we need to make sure that we keep the scope under control and don't get that dreaded 'scope creep' to come in and make the thing larger than we need for our goals of 1. Establishing a poultry club for the people who raise cream legbars 2. See if we become positioned to take up Greenfire Farms generous offer to help us establish a registry for our birds based upon their model. 3. Put some structure in place early in the lifespan of Cream Legbars in the USA so that we do have a registry now when there are few birds, rather than in 5-10 years when the task of tracing breeding backgrounds would be much more difficult and error prone.

 

[redchicken9]

ChicKat, your post came in as I am tearing myself away from the computer. My scope of focus is the standard. With participation this is the ball I can help carry. Starting goal enough conversatin to draft or confirm existing standard in 30 days. Not from scratch, but on the back of the UK standard.

 

[ChicKat]

 

[blackbirds13]

This would be wonderful, and definitely a page on the new website! Perhaps an odd question series...but if all/most of the USA CLBs would be considered short of the cream standard, then where do we go from there? Do we need to form a group to discover and import new correct colored CLBs? (field trip

) Or can the correct color be bred in through another breed?

I see this as e a "strive-towards" type of approach in regards to all aspects of the legbar - crest, comb, physical type, plumage...I see the breed as a light standard, autosexing, blue egg layer, cream and barred birds in it's simplest form. I don't think that the function should be any more or less important than type or plumage - I think the Marans suffer from that. I'm not trying to make the standard fit the birds I have but rather the true intent behind the origination of the breed. I assumed I would be breeding better representatives of the breed and not just propagating what I have with all it's flaws/inaccuracies that are in a majority of the birds we have. I don't think we need to import, just spend sometime getting the birds up to form while deciding what that form should be.

unsure what this means-:
I agree so much that the function that the breed was designed for should not be LOST so that pretty feathering will result. Breed improvement - once we would get recognition and establish what constitutes a cream legbar in the USA - would be good basics....

I think part of our purpose is as the ABC logo state to encourage continued improvement...breed towards a specific goal

Wouldn't we need to have representative birds in order to get breed recognition? and I'm of the mind set that breed improvement should be sought after at all times. I'm looking at the whole bird when i think of establishing what constitutes a cream legbar.

I can assist with any photo editing or digital manipulation as I have the full Adobe CS suite. Plus I can draw just about anything - My Masters is in Fine Arts. All dependent on time available.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Is there anyone who would like to take over maintaining the membership/interested party list for this project? My schedule has drastically changed very unexpectedly and I will not have enough time to devote to this for at least a few months. If no one can do it, I'm happy to resume once I'm able.

I would be happy to take over this part of the project and keep a running list of members/interested parties/contributors. Do you want to forward what has already been sent over to me or should everyone just resend to me?

Rinda

 

[Dahlisgrams]

I agree that their function should not be lost in pretty feathering. I would also vote for blue eggs as the standard as green/olive invites the possibility of other genetics getting involved.. just my opinion, fwiw.