Cream Legbars

[CibolaChooks]

Hey i just wanted to share something and see if anybody else noticed this also. i just hatched my first two dark down chicks this month. to be fair the eggs they came from were quite a bit larger than my other eggs. maybe 15 grams bigger if i guessed. The first one i hatched within two weeks was as big as 4 week old LF polish and at that time he was twice as big as the other CL that were a week older than him. And as of today The second dark down roo to hatch is now twice as big as those other CL that are two weeks older than him. Has anybody else noticed the dark down growing faster than light down chicks. Or me being new to hatching does a bigger egg make that much difference to the type of growth a chick will have.

You beat me--I got a 50!

awww. my mind is really good with stuff like that.

 

[GaryDean26]

...Do I remember you having a friend with the gold legbars? It might be nice to see/know their down color on females. I have always been curious about the gold, being the "brown stripe type", which is described as the ground color being dark brown, but paler than the very dark brown stripe. It is also added that a pale ground color is to be avoided. Whereas the cream is described as the "silver-grey type". To me that would mean the females silver and cream legbars would be distinct from the golds at hatch. For silver/cream female legbar chicks, the stripe is also indicated as a very dark brown, but the ground color is left undefined....

Yes...I got started on Legbars from a breeder the next town up from us who had Gold Legbars that she breed from Plymoth Rocks and Brown Leghorns. I got 3 eggs from here and hatched a pair. Below is a photo I had on-hand of the pullet as a chick and at about 6 months old. I have other chick photos of her, but done think I have any photos of the cockerel. I remember the cockerel was a light carmel color. After I got them and started learning about the Legbars I decided that I wanted to recreate the Cream Legbar from the Gold Legbars. I started learning the genetics and put a pretty solid plan together on how I was going to go about doing crosses. I conducted a pretty extensive search for the stock I wanted to use but that was about as far as I got before I learned that the lady I got them from was also planning on creating an "American" Cream Legbar using only breeds that were readily available in the U.S. I offered to work with her on the project since we were just 25 minutes from each other working on the same thing. I then learned of Greenfire Farm and the imported Cream Legbar so changed focuses and started networking with everyone I could find that got them in the first wave hoping that after a few years when the supply was up that I would be able to get some of the imported stock. My wife knew it was just a matter of time before I had them, so she suprized me with Cream Legbar early on and the coop space for the recreation project is now dedicated to working the Greenfire line to standard. I know the lady I got them from has since sourced a Greenfire cockerel that she crossed with her Glod Legbars to start her own bloodline of Cream Legbars. She reported to me that she is now seeing 75% blue eggs and 75% crested birds. She also is continuing her all American Legbar Project which is now on its F7 generation. I can't wait to see how the American Cream Legbar turnes out. She introduced the blue eggs from Americaunas, and cresting from Icelandic. I was going to use different crosses so my version would have been an intresting comparison. I am still tempted to go back to that project since I now know so much more about what the Cream Legbar is than when I was originally working out that breeding plan.

 

[dretd]

Hey i just wanted to share something and see if anybody else noticed this also. i just hatched my first two dark down chicks this month. to be fair the eggs they came from were quite a bit larger than my other eggs. maybe 15 grams bigger if i guessed. The first one i hatched within two weeks was as big as 4 week old LF polish and at that time he was twice as big as the other CL that were a week older than him. And as of today The second dark down roo to hatch is now twice as big as those other CL that are two weeks older than him. Has anybody else noticed the dark down growing faster than light down chicks. Or me being new to hatching does a bigger egg make that much difference to the type of growth a chick will have.
Its your eyes that are good with stuff like that

The ideal score was zero--so your eyes are very accurate!

Do you have a gram scale you could use to track weights? I got a food one at Target that wasn't too expensive. Not sure your reference for the large size? The eggs that you gave me ranged from 45.2 to 58.0grams with most right in the middle. Of the two that hatched A would be considered Medium and B a Large.

The 2 pullets that hatched A and B (all weights in grams):
Initial egg weight A:50.4 B:56.7
Chick wt at hatch: A:35.0 B:36.8
3 days A:43.4 B:45.0
7 days A:60.9 B:58.8
17 days A:141 B:125

So Beatrix came from a larger egg and hatched 12 hours earlier (pipped 24 hours earlier) than Agatha. Agatha is growing faster than Beatrix and started to pass up her sister at about a week.

 

[dretd]

.... I decided that I wanted to recreate the Cream Legbar from the Gold Legbars. I started learning the genetics and put a pretty solid plan together on how I was going to go about doing crosses. I conducted a pretty extensive search for the stock I wanted to use but that was about as far as I got before I learned that the lady I got them from was also planning on creating an "American" Cream Legbar using only breeds that were readily available in the U.S. I offered to work with her on the project since we were just 25 minutes from each other working on the same thing. I then learned of Greenfire Farm and the imported Cream Legbar so changed focuses and started networking with everyone I could find that got them in the first wave hoping that after a few years when the supply was up that I would be able to get some of the imported stock. My wife knew it was just a matter of time before I had them, so she suprized me with Cream Legbar early on and the coop space for the recreation project is now dedicated to working the Greenfire line to standard. I know the lady I got them from has since sourced a Greenfire cockerel that she crossed with her Glod Legbars to start her own bloodline of Cream Legbars. She reported to me that she is now seeing 75% blue eggs and 75% crested birds. She also is continuing her all American Legbar Project which is now on its F7 generation. I can't wait to see how the American Cream Legbar turnes out. She introduced the blue eggs from Americaunas, and cresting from Icelandic. I was going to use different crosses so my version would have been an intresting comparison. I am still tempted to go back to that project since I now know so much more about what the Cream Legbar is than when I was originally working out that breeding plan.

I have to say your wife sounds really nice!

I too, had thought about recreating the Cream Legbars some years ago. I had thought about using some South American Composits as a start--I had seen a few pictures from a BYCer selling eggs that had a crest and was diluted (I have no idea with what) and was thinking it was about as close as you could get to the original but then reality struck and I though "wow, what a huge amount of work." Plus I'm already being called the crazy chicken lady by my family--that would seal the deal put me in a whole new category

 

[1muttsfan]

I took that color test once before and scored a 15. Took a little more time this time around and managed a 3.

GaryDean, your wife is great! What a nice gift. Maybe I will tell my BF about that

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I think I got a 10 or 11 when I took it a few months ago, and 1muttsfan I agree I was more careful this time and got a 3.

 

[lawatt]

I think I got a 10 or 11 when I took it a few months ago, and 1muttsfan I agree I was more careful this time and got a 3.

i just tried it and got an 11...

and by the way, one of my broodies just hatched out two CLs, a boy and a girl, that i got from Deann (juststruttin) -- they are the center & right foreground chicks in this picture:


looking forward to seeing how they grow out! the boy seems to have a lot of blue/grey...

 

[GaryDean26]

...I too, had thought about recreating the Cream Legbars some years ago. I had thought about using some South American Composits as a start--I had seen a few pictures from a BYCer selling eggs that had a crest and was diluted (I have no idea with what) and was thinking it was about as close as you could get to the original but then reality struck and I though "wow, what a huge amount of work."...

I wasn't worried about the work. The project was mostly for the educational value of how to get from point A to point B in creating a breed. If it was easy there would be no satifcation in being able to pull it off.

I just figured that I could learn just as much from working within the imported lines and since they were available that seemed the logical choice.

 

[dretd]

Quote:
I hope you get a chance to give it a try!

My main problem is that I live inside city limits and although I am exempt from the chicken ordinance because of my zoning, I live in a fishbowl with some very close neighbors then a whole subdivision of expensive homes right behind my 5 acre property across the creek. One rooster=charming, a whole boatload of roosters required to develop a breed=a visit from the noise ordinance officer and a whole lot of headache I don't need. So by work I really mean trouble with neighbors.

 

[sol2go]

Amazing, and thanks for taking the time to do this experiment!

This is a fascinating analysis of how we see colors, particularly the color blue:
http://www.radiolab.org/2012/may/21/sky-isnt-blue/

thanks! I have a new book on order =)