Cream Legbar Working Group: Standard of Perfection

[KPenley]

A question for the folks who know a bit about genetics...I have a 'baby roo', 15weeks old and larger than all my other FL girls including Marans, Orps, and a GLW... He also has some flaws...to much orange and in general a bit darker in color (not as cream as you'd want)...so at what point do his 'flaws' for show limit his use as a breeder...pic below...(and he's more bronze and darker than the pic reveals)

Just my two cents...but I consider all my birds in project stage right now. So, if you have a better rooster, then the use the better one. If not, then this guy is your breeder. Health, shape, then color are the areas in order of importance to me. If you're asking if he's a carrier of cream, then only his offspring can tell you that best wishes!

 

[enola]

I like the length in his back. I think he has fairly good form. His color may not be the best, but there are a lot of breeders that say to build the barn first. Then paint it.

 

[stake]

Just my two cents...but I consider all my birds in project stage right now. So, if you have a better rooster, then the use the better one. If not, then this guy is your breeder. Health, shape, then color are the areas in order of importance to me. If you're asking if he's a carrier of cream, then only his offspring can tell you that best wishes!

KP:
This is my main guy, He has a few flaws;but imho, closer to the standard...he was 7 points before the frostbite....size wise, he's just about right...junior at 15 weeks is about 1/2 lb less and may dwarf him is 6mos...

...

 

[lonnyandrinda]

KP:
This is my main guy, He has a few flaws;but imho, closer to the standard...he was 7 points before the frostbite....size wise, he's just about right...junior at 15 weeks is about 1/2 lb less and may dwarf him is 6mos...

...

While I agree this guy is cream and your younger boy is gold, the younger one looks like he will have better body shape. This guy looks "front heavy" and has almost no "back" to him, plus a lot more red in his earlobe. It could just be the "above the back" camera angle giving this appearance, you know him better than I.

If I were you, I would hold on to both for now, and test breed the young guy to a cream hen. You can tell gold from cream at about 6-8 weeks in the offspring. If half are gold and half cream, he is a carrier. Those gold offspring will be cream carriers, as well. If they are all gold, he does not carry a recessive cream gene, and all of those chicks will be gold but cream carriers.

 

[stake]

While I agree this guy is cream and your younger boy is gold, the younger one looks like he will have better body shape. This guy looks "front heavy" and has almost no "back" to him, plus a lot more red in his earlobe. It could just be the "above the back" camera angle giving this appearance, you know him better than I.

If I were you, I would hold on to both for now, and test breed the young guy to a cream hen. You can tell gold from cream at about 6-8 weeks in the offspring. If half are gold and half cream, he is a carrier. Those gold offspring will be cream carriers, as well. If they are all gold, he does not carry a recessive cream gene, and all of those chicks will be gold but cream carriers.

L&R:

Although pics do lie, I mostly agree....the main guy has a couple of other traits that I like, he's hawk savvy, and he's a really good roo to the flock....non-human aggressive, and lets a 10wk old mixed baby roo roost next to him in the coop....I only have one 15wk old ccl girl of marginal quality to mate him with at present....so the breeding program will not be happening til next year....

Enola, liked the comment about painting the barn...the whole genetic thing is a steep learning curve....want to breed one or two generations with the big boy then breed back to the godzilla baby boy.....who knows?

 

[HaplessRunner]

Eastern Region Cream Legbar Event - August 4, 2014
August 4th Eastern Region Event—Hosted by Anthony Markley - Regional Director
This will be a live presentation of Cream Legbars that demonstrates the effects and the influences of the ‘Ig’ and ‘ig’ genes upon the physical appearance of the Cream Legbar.
Also shown in this demonstration will be a pair of white “Cream Legbars” which display the effects of recessive white genes.
Location:
Lovettsville Library
12 North Light Street,
Lovettsville, VA 20180
Library Phone numbers: 540-822-5824 Voice 540-822-5998 Fax To contact Anthony Markley directly: [email protected] Phone: 540-822-9043
Date and Time:
Monday, August 4th at 7:30 PM
Directions: http://library.loudoun.gov/Portals/0/pdf/branchdirections.pdf
Note: All attendees are requested to wear clean clothes to avoid transmission of diseases from one chicken flock to another. Attendees will be allowed to look but NOT to touch the chickens shown in this presentation.

 

[ChicKat]

what a quiet thread.. that is because all the answers to all the questions regarding this have been found -- right guys?

Found this book and thought it was so interesting because we have touched here and elsewhere on how the appearance of chickens has evolved.

https://archive.org/details/standardbredlegh00drev

In particular this illustration caught my eye:

I think if it were 1874 two of my cockerels whould have perfect tails---

seriously though, some of the illustrations in that book are excellent - and they really do reflect some nice looking 'types'.

 

[enola]

I have two roosters, they appear to be models from 1874 and 1905.

 

[GaryDean26]

ChicKat,

I thought that this Leghorn morphology was interesting. It show the tails of winning Leghorns in the USA from 1869 to 1911. I would guess that Figure 20 in the reference that you posted would be from the late 1890's. And YES, illustration 20 is along the lines of what I envision the Legbar to be.

.

Yep...I read the same book this Spring. I love how much information went into a single breed. The Plymouth Rock book was about 4 times a long, but I get that one all read.

 

[ChicKat]

I have two roosters, they appear to be models from 1874 and 1905.

IMO those were very good vintages.

...my newest guy - despite his awful tail -- I don't know why he does this to me --- is going to be so big I may have to change his name to 'Hulk'. He's still the front runner for replacement to his dad....but there are more eggs in the incubator - so who knows.

Interesting that the lower the tail --- the longer the back. Just illusion? or reality.