Cream Legbar Working Group: Standard of Perfection

Thanks for your kind comments about sophie ChicKat. There's nothing so wrong with her personality. My personal preference is for an easy going hen. This girl is just spunky! Storms up to crowd the door at treat feed time. Always under foot..gets all tall and "bring it on" expression when I go to pick her up. Cute though just not my favorite. Otherwise though she's also the shortest. So shes probably a little too small. I need to get something to weigh her with. Her body tapers too much at the tail I think. Truthfully I think she's going to be a breakfast egg layer but well see! Maybe ill test her with elvis. Sophie and 1 other are at the bottom of my list but the other is taller broader beautifully built compared to the others just lots of gold and chesnut and no crest! So I hesitate to take the size and build she offers out of the equation. But no crest?!

Sophie is about 6 months old only. Elvis was fending for himself in a friends mixed pen and had a bunch of tail and crest pecked out and didn't probably really get what he needed for ideal growth in with mature hens and Roos from about 3 months old on until a few days ago so he's still pecked and dirty and ratty looking but he's 6 months old plus about a week. I gave him away at about 3 months old because of the kink in his crest but decided to see if i could trade something to get him back and see how he turns out.
I had a CL that didn't have a crest as well-- she did have greater size, longer legs, etc. than the other two that I bought with her...
I wanted to post this picture (it's on the internet as well) of Jill Rees's top winner in the UK last year, named Lillian

Jill gave me permission to use the picture -- Remarkable that Lillian has quite a lot of chestnut in her crest. A person from the UK told me that a darker crested bird placed behind Lillian and they thought that the darker crest was more correct. Not sure if that meant less chestnut in the crest...and of course the crest is just one facet the judge will look at.
 
Wow that is very interesting! Thanks for the picture and background. I need to look at this a little longer and will be so interested what others think about it. The first thing I notice is a fuller crest than any of mine..Lillian does have the full round look. Rather than the tall broad look from what I can tell there anyway. She's pretty.
 
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Earlier I had said the article about prepotency was in Practical Poultry but it isn't -- it is in the Nov/Dec issue of Poultry World magazine.  Article is called "Prepotent Males" by Grant Brereton

There was a discussion of prepotency recently on . . . a thread. Heritage breeds thread, maybe? Fred's Hens started that discussion.
 
Quote: The preference for a tented tail and avoidance of a pinched tail has been around forever. I think the theory is that the pinched tail shows the bird is narrower and will therefor lay smaller eggs. I think this is an old wives tail, honestly and more of an aesthetic preference. The tail is more like a nose--it may be big or small and the folks with a big schnoz don't necessarily breathe better than a small nosed person.

I have several hens with perfect tents--Light and Dark Brahmas, Speckled Sussex and Salmon Faverolles. The first two lay a med/large egg and the last two lay a medium egg. My two best layers--an EE and my Welsummer, each have more of a pinched tail but they lay an extra large to jumbo egg 5-6 days a week. So no correlation from my flock and in fact the reverse is true.
 
I guess it has been suggested that the tent is more about laying longevity. I've noticed the same but would not know regarding longevity. I wonder if its just the result of breeders that valued production over form got worse form by default. My ameraucana laid an egg it seemed like every day and had a gorgeous tail. So I guess any combo is possible.

I wonder if Lillian has a good tail tent! My question was due to so rarely seeing these good layers with good tails I wondered if it was even a sought after trait for all breeds.
 
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Wow that is very interesting! Thanks for the picture and background. I need to look at this a little longer and will be so interested what others think about it. The first thing I notice is a fuller crest than any of mine..Lillian does have the full round look. Rather than the tall broad look from what I can tell there anyway. She's pretty.
She may have a bit of extra pouff there in that shot-- It is the exact same hen that is pictured front and center in our webpage at www.CreamLegbarClub.com
 

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