I was told that this is not describing the cream legbar as it does not reference the chilean hen, it's an earlier cross.
I'm headed to the mailbox to see if the British Poultry Standards have arrived. Truly there are nuts to crack here. Someone says, let's go with what we have and instantly I think the opposite. It's only two years in. According to GFF it took almost 2 decades to produce a bird that was genetically stable. From Punnett and Pease to then a first showing in 1947 to receiving a written standard in 1958, I think this is heritage. The cream legbar has a legacy, which should not be ignored. With a better guideline of what it is we want (cream legbars that are cream), we might all have stock that fits this with careful new importation. I do not have the skills or desire to re-make the cream legbar from my current stock, plus the aspect of stabilizing the retrofit. The best viable option seems to be improving stock with a non-red enhanced roo. The current disappointment in the GFF stock is that I'd want the genetic capacity to produce a cream legbar. As advertised a "supermodel" does not need to show up at the door, but a model that holds the genetic potential towards improvement is expected.
On the other hand, I think we have beautiful birds here. Ok some things like form can be improved, but can we stabilize the red enhancement? or is it too unknown? My birds are rusty or mottled, they do not seem crisp. A white feather in the tail may look flashy or fun, but white splashed in the primaries or rust mottled in many places seems without consistency. Since it can take decades to produce a genetically stable bird, I wonder if even with a vision of a red/rust/chestnut within our birds can it happen or if it is even more painful than the alternative to begin anew? Is red enhancement a desirable or undesirable trait? Can anyone speak to this?
Truly I could champion either position. More than being an instigator, which is also great (Omaeve), I'd like to be an explorer on this. Overall, neither exactly matter to me, my pure short term intent is to draft a standard we can move towards. This is a draft, not final, even if not accepted by all parties. In terms of drafting, it is easiest to draft a cream legbar standard that is based on all aspects of the official UK cream legbar. Tweaks like egg color allowed. However, there is no reason why we couldn't try a second version of a better ideal of what is seen in the US currently. White, well, white seems easy as cake. Plumage: Web, fluff and shafts of all feathers, in all sections, white.
So maybe the form could be cream legbar or legbar and the color be cream, all white, and this third color we see many versions of? For this third, we probably do not have the consistency of color and type to garner recognition. We may not even have cream legbars, but they are not unicorns they do exist. Please, please, if you have what meets the UK standards of cream coloring here in the US, please step up. Ultimately, we do need to make a move towards a vision. Maybe, just maybe, more than one could exist.
One added opinion is I do not like silver, to me it is the incorrect form of cream and bleached out.
