Cream Legbar Working Group: Standard of Perfection

[ChicKat]

Well said Cp -- and good, first hand information for everyone to consider. Thanks!

 

[KPenley]

Hello! I was quite deep into this breed a year or so ago, sold them all but 1  "C" line hen I still have that I purchased directly from Greenfire. I am about to jump back on the chicken wagon again. Despite all the crazy controversy and drama this breed has caused and having the honor of being flogged and shamed by Jill Rees herself. I LOVE THESE CHICKENS!! Thought about a couple other breeds to obsess over But, I keep coming back to these. I am a very small breeder. I  did have some wonderful, perfectly laced, Polish that were taken by the local Bald Eagle. After much thought, I have found that the CLs are best suited for my environment.I love the eggs,  auto sexing and the crest. So whats up with the SOP? Are we gold, butter, chestnut ? Hopefully we are being true Americans with some diplomacy, coming up with a version that all are pleased with. I saw the first Rees flock at Greenfire a couple years ago and they lacked color on my opinion but, that`s why everyone jumped all over me.LOL.
And find it quite interesting that the REES Legbars at Greenfire prices have dropped dramatically. 

Hi! Long time no see! Welcome back! Cream Legbars are also very favorable in my environment.
In some ways we're in the same place as last year (the judges I wrote to in the UK described the ideal cream as "very pale butter" so not white nor gold) but hopefully with better attitudes and as always there are some things that are left up to interpretation. Breed to your best understanding of the standard and you will be good to go! Again, welcome back!

 

[rainbowhatchery]

whats the big difference with reese line and the reason they are more valuable

 

[dretd]

whats the big difference with reese line and the reason they are more valuable

Jill Rees is a prominent breeder and breed advocate from Great Britain and had some good luck with her birds at shows (I think she mainly showed females) so her birds are thought to match the breed standard more closely than previous imported lines which appeared to be more production lines.

Some people will find that her line will be a vast improvement over what they have and others will find that their own line is of better quality since they have already gone through one or more generations culling and doing selective breeding.

They are more valuable to some but other people prefer to actively avoid them.

Considering that GFF is selling only Rees Line right now the may seem more valuable because that is what they are selling. Their pricing is I think $29 for females, Meyer hatchery is selling straight run (looks like non-JR hens) for $33.60 and My Pet Chicken sells them for an astonishing $47 each (I think that they are owned by the same people and the difference might be shipping). So I am not sure you can say that they are more costly--not sure about value, I think that is in the eye of the beholder!

 

[ChicKat]

whats the big difference with reese line and the reason they are more valuable

Perhaps if you were to read the Cream Legbar threads on BYC you may find the information very eye-opening.

 

[KPenley]

We had a funny conversation about the straight run thing last year LOL! We figured it was a standard page setting thing but definitely weird.
As a word of encouragement about the Rees line. I got one of the good pullets from that line and she won first place at nationals this year. She is a great layer of large light blue eggs and I've gotten a good hatch rate at the house. Like any line that is less than 10 years old you will find some inconsistencies in the offspring of the first Rees birds imported, but there are some great birds out there. Best wishes with your birds!


Edited by Staff

 

[chicken pickin]

We had a funny conversation about the straight run thing last year LOL! We figured it was a standard page setting thing but definitely weird.
As a word of encouragement about the Rees line. I got one of the good pullets from that line and she won first place at nationals this year. She is a great layer of large light blue eggs and I've gotten a good hatch rate at the house. Like any line that is less than 10 years old you will find some inconsistencies in the offspring of the first Rees birds imported, but there are some great birds out there. Best wishes with your birds!


Edited by Staff

I also have a nice looking Rees pullet, I think she has fantastic qualities type wise and color wise(though she lays green eggs). I am tempted to try a small pen mixing a male of mine to a nice Rees pullet to see if I get a good outcome. Maybe the Rees line is a pullet line?

 

[KPenley]

Did my autocorrect help me mistype something LOL?

 

[rainbowhatchery]

thanks, we really like ours so far.

 

[sol2go]

I recommend taking lots of pictures over time so that you can keep track and compare later on. I am doing that with photos of my down colors and patterns then comparing them to the adults to see if there is a correlation between the amount of cinnamon in the males and the amount of chestnut as an adult (I actually like the chestnut and am not trying to breed away from it--it is allowed and I think they are prettier and more distinctive with some chestnut) I am also trying to see if the size of the head spot in the males is an indication of the crispness of the barring as an adult. I would like to get more or better-defined barring in the males and an wondering if that might be correlated with the size or shape of the headspot in the chicks.

If you do that and band I recommend that you mark your photos with the color band or hand-write the number or color a card that you photograph with the chick. Once you take lots of photos, they can get jumbled up and will lose their usefulness. Here are photos of Orange band as a chick--I should have put a band next to him becasue you can barley make out the band color:


And as a teenager:

older still:


Note that he has very light colored down yet is one of the most melanized cockerels I have. I am not seeing a correlation between down color and adult plumage at this time.

I am interested in the same thing. Let me know if there is a good way to coordinate efforts.