Cream Legbar Working Group: Standard of Perfection

[duluthralphie]

I can see his crest, he just doesn't have the chestnut coloring on his crest like I do. It's like a skull cap. I have had males with the tuft sticking out from under the comb like that. If you can find for him a hen with a better looking comb, I bet you can get some decent offspring. Hatch lots, cull lots, and it will come. Takes years, though.

That is really stretching the meaning of a crest. But I agree there is one, kind of.

I think the crest should be more than a skull cap. But that’s the challenge of a large comb and a crest. There just isn’t a lot of real estate on the top of the head.


That lack of chestnut on the crest and on the chest makes it more likely I would use him to breed a cream legbar line.

That was kind of what I started with to make my creams. With the right hens you could get decent color in a few generations.

However, I prefer to breed for form and body before color.

I think the body defects, the back and tail set make him unusable. Once you get that high set tail in the blood line they are hard to get rid of.

 

[duluthralphie]

View attachment 2492870
Look for hens with straight blades in the back like these.

The other thing would be to breed to small combed hens like these.

Neither of these hens have large enough combs but they could bring his comb into line.

I would think the top hen help with the crest, however would not help the tail set. The bottom hen would help the tail set, crest and comb.

Never be afraid to breed to whites. It allows you to look at body type without
the distraction of the colors. Also the whites are still colored you just don’t see it.

 

[Bantambird]

So you can see that in order to have both the large straight comb and the crest, the male needs it to flow like fabulous hair instead of a bufont like the ladies. Your guy just needs a little more definition on his wispy crest. Look for hens with combs that stand up in the back. The ladies refused to hold still for me, but you can begin the process of breeding straighter combs by looking for straighter combs. My own birds started out with leaning combs too. Culling out that dearnable white tail feather is a chore, but like anything, it takes patience and lots of cockerels. Hens can also correct tail angles. Choose a low tail angles girl for your boy. I have many faults yet with mine, I've been in it 7 years and I see many more before this hot mess is finished, but I love their quirky personalities and beautiful colors.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

His color is not too bad for a Gold Crele, however the duckwing could be better. The white tail feather is not good.

He needs a better breast and more pronounced keel. The comb is terrible.

His tail angle is too sharp. His hackles are closer to cream than gold crele at the bottom.

I only see a slight crest. I almost need to use my imagination to see that.
There is something wrong with his back line, but that could be the result of such a poor tail angle.

I would cull him or breed him to a squirrel.

Dang, I bet you have some awesome birds based on your standards! Since you're getting too old to mess with them, maybe you should just send them to me.

 

[duluthralphie]

Dang, I bet you have some awesome birds based on your standards! Since you're getting too old to mess with them, maybe you should just send them to me.

The Standards are something we shoot for, very few birds will ever make it.

I am as tough on my own birds as I am on others birds, maybe tougher.

I am not trying to be rude when discussing the birds and the SOPs. I just take them very seriously. We have enough people fighting the Legbars being approved by the APA without us presenting less than nearly perfect birds.

Then there always personal preferences, I really like the second bird I posted. But her crest is a little too large and her comb is way too small.

Living in a frigid area means large combs are killers. So many of my birds have smaller combs on purpose.

As I recall that’s a 5 point deduction. I am too lazy to look it up today.

Her body is nearly perfect to me.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

The Standards are something we shoot for, very few birds will ever make it.

I am as tough on my own birds as I am on others birds, maybe tougher.

I am not trying to be rude when discussing the birds and the SOPs. I just take them very seriously. We have enough people fighting the Legbars being approved by the APA without us presenting less than nearly perfect birds.

Then there always personal preferences, I really like the second bird I posted. But her crest is a little too large and her comb is way too small.

Living in a frigid area means large combs are killers. So many of my birds have smaller combs on purpose.

As I recall that’s a 5 point deduction. I am too lazy to look it up today.

Her body is nearly perfect to me.

I like smaller combs, too, even though I'm not a fan of huge crests that seem to go hand in hand with small combs. I free range a lot and we have a lot of aerial predators, so the birds having good visibility is very important to me.

I can't find where point deductions are mentioned. The standards I have from the club just point out ideals and the breed guide mentions something about an article in the future specifying point deductions.

I am sure my birds are culls by other folks standards, but what I got from local "breeders" were even worse, and I had lots of bad luck with shipped eggs from better flocks. (0% hatches.) Figured I might as well work with what I got while continuing my quest for better stock.

I probably have one hen out of 7 that I like and I'll be separating her to be able to ID her eggs and keep those chicks to work with.

This is not that bird, but I do rather like her type. She has very bright barring, and it struck me how well she was blending in with the hay and leaves. Very washed out tawny coloration, maybe a split?

 

[duluthralphie]

I like smaller combs, too, even though I'm not a fan of huge crests that seem to go hand in hand with small combs. I free range a lot and we have a lot of aerial predators, so the birds having good visibility is very important to me.

I can't find where point deductions are mentioned. The standards I have from the club just point out ideals and the breed guide mentions something about an article in the future specifying point deductions.

I am sure my birds are culls by other folks standards, but what I got from local "breeders" were even worse, and I had lots of bad luck with shipped eggs from better flocks. (0% hatches.)

I probably have one hen out of 7 that I like and I'll be separating her to be able to ID her eggs and keep those chicks to work with.

This is not that bird, but I do rather like her type. She has very bright barring, and it struck me how well she was blending in with the hay and leaves. Very washed out tawny coloration, maybe a split?

View attachment 2492973

I would think a cross. Body type is good. I would like a little more back length.

I like the large crests as long as the bird can see up. I would have preferred a standard of large crest and small comb.

 

[Deenok]

Here’s my baby girl when she was young. Like maybe 12 weeks. Here’s they egg she lays almost daily thus far. Will get updated pic.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

I would think a cross. Body type is good. I would like a little more back length.

I like the large crests as long as the bird can see up. I would have preferred a standard of large crest and small comb.

I have Houdans too. That's enough crest for me. Can't let those suckers out at all.

I like the small tassel-style crests on my crappy birds I have now, lol.

 

[halefamily_flock]

Does anyone have experience getting their birds tested for the blue egg gene? I came across this resource in another thread that looks really interesting...
https://www.silveruddsblue.org/testing-for-blue-egg-gene