Cream Legbar Working Group: Standard of Perfection

[GaryDean26]

I was going to get to the female color but am short on time tonight so I will come back to it after we discuss the wing type and male wing color.

Color—Female
Wings: Fronts, Bows and Coverts—silver-gray, faintly barred.

Primaries— gray, very faintly barred.

Secondaries— gray, faintly barred, the outer web stippled with lighter gray and cream.

Here are some female wings. The parts of the wing are the same as the males (i.e. Primaries, Secondaries, Coverts, Wing Bars, Wing Bow, Front, etc.) but the colors are very different.

Below is the wing of a Light Brown Leghorn. The Legbar hen would have barring. Unlike the cockerel the barring is not very crastic on the hen. The barring gene effects the black pigments in the feathers, but doesn't have much of an effect on the red pigments that make up the brown coloring in chickens.

Here is a juvenile wing of an actual Legbar. The leghorn wing above shows the even grey color in the Primary Feathers (this is more brown in the Crele birds, and more gray in the Cream birds due to the Cream Gene diluting the red pigments that make the brown color). The Juvenile Legbar wings doesn't have an even grey color on the Primaries. It show to have some of the Cream/Grey color like the Leghorn Cockerel does about. On the hen the Cream/Gold regions are Stippled (which is described as peppered). So the Standard here is for the even grey color. I am wondering what we actually have in the wings of out females. Again this is the part where you post wing photos of your hens to discuss. I haven't discussed this with any APA judges so I don't know how this is judged, but assume that the stippling on the winds would be a defect since it is not in the standard. I am not sure if it is like the "dark grey" wing bow of the make it impossible breed.

 

[Danapickens]

I don't see egg color and cresting listed as allowances for variation between varieties.

I am not sure how the British Standard has the Cream Legbar Listed, but if I remember correctly the Autosexing Poultry Association of Great Britain listed the Silver and Gold Legbars as one Breed and the Cream Legbar as it own breed. I know that I saw it listed that way in something that i read last month with the first sentence of the information on the Cream Legbar saying that the Cream Legbar is closely related to its progenitor the Gold Legbar.

That aside, Yes we have Gold Plumage in our Cream Legbars. Every breed that is accepted into a Standard is required to have distinguishing feature to distinguish it from every other breed. The features that would distinguish the Cream Legbar from the Silver and Gold Legbar would be the Cresting, Blue Eggs, and the Cream Gene. From that standpoint the cream gene is 33% of the value of the Cream Legbar.

I have at least one cream Hen in my flock and possibly two, but assuming that I only had Gold colored birds, I would start by selecting for the best gold birds each year and breed them focusing on body type, production, egg color, etc. Then after several breeding season had set some of those traits in my line I would bring in new blood from someone who was fortunate enough to have the cream gene in their line and able to fix in through proper selection and culling. I would then be able to finish off my birds with the cream plumage from the new blood brought in with the added advantage of not having to cull birds with the better body type, production, temperament, hardiness, etc early in my breeding to retain those precious few birds with the correct cream color.

With the exception of a few colors that are caused by multiple genes that can be really hard to breed out, color is the generally the easiest thing to fix in a line. So if you aren't seeing cream yet, be patient and work on traits that others will want in their line so you can do an egg swap later on.

 

[Danapickens]

This post is so encouraging as a new breeder. Thanks!

 

[duluthralphie]

I have been busy and unable to follow the thread often.

I just wanted to mention if it has not been mentioned the Cream legbar club is re-working a few items at the behest of the APA. I do not have my notes here...so I am just relying on my memory.

I believe it was a percentage of color, such as no more than 30% of the comb can be red..... and the amount of off color a bird can have..None of this matters as nothing is final yet.

It is just something we are looking at, as the APA suggested some of the original SOP was too vague or not narrow enough...I hope I got that right.

 

[WVduckchick]

I have been busy and unable to follow the thread often.

I just wanted to mention if it has not been mentioned the Cream legbar club is re-working a few items at the behest of the APA. I do not have my notes here...so I am just relying on my memory.

I believe it was a percentage of color, such as no more than 30% of the comb can be red..... and the amount of off color a bird can have..None of this matters as nothing is final yet.

It is just something we are looking at, as the APA suggested some of the original SOP was too vague or not narrow enough...I hope I got that right.

Good to know some things are being considered and reconsidered.

 

[HaplessRunner]

The Fourth Annual Show has now been scheduled. Get pictures of your birds submitted during the entry period.

https://www.facebook.com/events/531106827351287/

 

[GaryDean26]

The Cream Legbar show is a great place to look at birds and gain a critical eye of what to look for in the breed. The judging has been very extensive the past three years and so the winners show what a good birds could look like and provide great feed back to flock owners. I encourage everyone to enter. This may be the last year that it is an open entry so don't put it off to next year.

 

[WVduckchick]

Are pictures from last year’s available to see anywhere?

 

[HaplessRunner]

Yes, go to the Cream Legbar Club Facebook page. Once there, click the Events TAB. You can find the winners of our first three online shows listed in the Events.

 

[WVduckchick]

Yes, go to the Cream Legbar Club Facebook page. Once there, click the Events TAB. You can find the winners of our first three online shows listed in the Events.

Found them. Thank you.

Being new to the breed, I still find it difficult to differentiate some of the golden creles from the creams. Many are obvious to me, but some, not so much.
What specific traits am I overlooking?