Cream Legbars

[aart]

We do not all see blue in the same way was the jist of the article. While some of us would see the blue others would see the greenish blue. In addition the light source makes a large difference on how we see blue

True, makes it hard to photograph and the difference in monitors and out own eye.
The light source is true too, I used to do color compounding(plastic) sample testing for automotive trim, we had to view and compare our product to the master under 4 different lights....the differences were pretty amazing.

 

[Sylvester017]

View attachment 1608171


Our first year with Legbars we breed three pullets in 2012. One laid a really big egg that tended to have a green tint to then and had a chalky texture. The other two laid eggs that were power blue but were really small. One of them had the chalky texture and the egg color faded with laying to were the eggs were almost white after a few months. The other has a smooth texture and kept a fairly consistent color to the end of the laying season. Our goal was to get big eggs, powder blue color, smooth texture, and to not have the eggs fade to almost white. We got a lot of variation and very little consistency the first few years. We started to get control over the breeding after that and have been making progress for the past four years on the egg traits. Last year get over 80% of the pullets laying the smooth texture eggs, power blue color, and no fading to the nearly white color with two thirds laying big eggs (i.e. over 70 grams).

A note on egg color. I think that it is possible that the hens that have egg color fade only are carrying one copy of the blue eggs gene. Four years ago we culled all the cockerel from hens that had fading eggs and toe punch all the pullets from those hens. None of the pullets from the fading eggs mother got fading eggs, but the following year were were getting one out of seven hens with fading eggs color. We culled all of those hens. We have created some cream legbar crosses. Their eggs are never as blue as our pure Legbars. My wife can line up the Legbar Crosses and the Pure Legbar eggs without telling me which are what and I can sort them correctly into the pure Legbar and the Crosses. When we started with the breed the pure Legbar eggs all looked like the cross eggs that we now get, so our egg color is improving. They will never be a Robin's blue though. They are a very light blue. They are defiantly blue though. We have a friend over to the house once and from across the room 30 feet away so saw the eggs sitting on the counter and exclaimed "Those eggs are blue!" She almost ran across the room to inspect them closer. She didn't know that chickens could lay blue eggs and was totally stunned. I love that type of feed back. I can barely see a difference from year to year and sometimes wonder if I am making any progress at all, but feed back like that lets me know that I am.

I only found one photo of the egg color we get. There is only one Legbar egg for contrast to the Olive Eggs of a Marans/Legbar Cross. That is what all out ours look like though in color.

I read an interesting article on this some time ago. It had to do with our (human) limitations of color perception with blue and the way we interpret it.

We do not all see blue in the same way was the jist of the article. While some of us would see the blue others would see the greenish blue. In addition the light source makes a large difference on how we see blue.

I have had some that are "robin" blue while in the nest or on the right background, only to be a more powder blue when brought to another light source and background.

Not really on the point of the conversation, but interesting to me when we are discussing blue eggs.

I never had a Cream Legbar but did have a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana who layed the prettiest blue eggs. The eggs were a pretty light blue but definitely blue at the time they were collected. However, after letting the blue egg sit out on the counter in the skelter for a few hours we noticed the blue starting to look more greenish blue. We concluded that the air somehow oxidized/changed the color exterior of our blue eggs. We weren't imagining it as I had a conversation with another Ameraucana owner who noticed the same thing about their blue eggs. They seem to "turn" when left out at room temperature. Since I never refrigerate our eggs I never noticed if immediately refrigerating made any difference in preserving the fresh-layed blue color. But since there is air in the fridge also I imagine the eggs would've also turned greenish there as well. Anyone have ideas or similar circumstance?

 

[WVduckchick]

I never had a Cream Legbar but did have a Blue Wheaten Ameraucana who layed the prettiest blue eggs. The eggs were a pretty light blue but definitely blue at the time they were collected. However, after letting the blue egg sit out on the counter in the skelter for a few hours we noticed the blue starting to look more greenish blue. We concluded that the air somehow oxidized/changed the color exterior of our blue eggs. We weren't imagining it as I had a conversation with another Ameraucana owner who noticed the same thing about their blue eggs. They seem to "turn" when left out at room temperature. Since I never refrigerate our eggs I never noticed if immediately refrigerating made any difference in preserving the fresh-layed blue color. But since there is air in the fridge also I imagine the eggs would've also turned greenish there as well. Anyone have ideas or similar circumstance?

Interesting theory. I have 5 CL pullets. 4 lay lovely light blue eggs. All blue in my mind, but pale. The other girl lays with a more greenish hue. Her eggs are also smaller at this point. I might try putting some in a ziploc bag and compare to ones sitting on the counter after a few days. Wonder if that would make a difference?

 

[Sylvester017]

Interesting theory. I have 5 CL pullets. 4 lay lovely light blue eggs. All blue in my mind, but pale. The other girl lays with a more greenish hue. Her eggs are also smaller at this point. I might try putting some in a ziploc bag and compare to ones sitting on the counter after a few days. Wonder if that would make a difference?

I'm not sure putting the blue egg in a Ziploc would preserve the color from oxidation as there will be air inside the Ziploc too. Just a theory and something we have to live with -- eggs turning a different color. We saw some mixed colors of eggs in one carton -- browns, white, blues, olives, being sold at our local market. First time we saw mixed eggs in a carton sold commercially!

 

[WVduckchick]

I got 5 again today!
They look so much more blue in person. Camera just can’t capture it properly

 

[HaplessRunner]

Entries to Date for Fourth Annual Cream Legbar Club Online, Virtual Show

As of December 6, 2018:

Cream Legbars: 14 cockerels and 14 pullets
Golden Crele Legbars: 1 cock, 3 cockerels, and 2 pullets
White Legbars: 1 cockerel and 1 pullet

Your hens and cocks should be coming out of their annual molts and growing new feathers for the winter. Please get your pictures taken! The online show is open until December 22, 2018.

Happy Holidays to all from the Cream Legbar Club!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

@WVduckchick you should enter your roo in the contest!

 

[WVduckchick]

@WVduckchick you should enter your roo in the contest!

Hmmmm I’ll try to get some nice pics of him over the weekend.

 

[Bantambird]

Sorry I haven't posted on this thread in a while, but I've had some turnover among my legbars. My older hens are just too old to maintain fertility, so they have been retired this year and their daughters are in growout. There are currently 9 pullets and one yearling hen left, and 2 yearling cocks and several cockerels. It's been a bit of an upheaval but we will be back on track soon.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Sorry I haven't posted on this thread in a while, but I've had some turnover among my legbars. My older hens are just too old to maintain fertility, so they have been retired this year and their daughters are in growout. There are currently 9 pullets and one yearling hen left, and 2 yearling cocks and several cockerels. It's been a bit of an upheaval but we will be back on track soon.View attachment 1717551

What a lovely little lady....