Cream Legbars

[BuffyBugSlayer]

That was my thought too. That tails get higher as they age. What is the age of the rooster that you posted Lonny? He is really nicely colored and looks so substantial.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

If I'm remembering right he was from a hatch in February, maybe early March. So he's about 6 months old. Here he is at about 4 months old:





When I posted these on facebook someone asked if he was cow-hocked (knock kneed). That's why I posted the pen picture that is very dark- you can clearly see not only does he sit straight on his legs but they have a nice width between them- indicative of a good body width and weight. Moved him to another pen tonight but forgot to stop and get his weight LOL!

 

[sol2go]

I actually find that the tail angles tend to get higher as they mature, in my limited experience.

Eta you are shooting for a 45° tail angle according to the British standard and proposed us standard.

x2

BuffyBugSlayer - your cockerel seems more stout than lanky at this point which seems good compared to my lanky boys, his tail feathers are nicely barred, not showing streaks of white, and I also like the way he holds his wings. Yea for a cream pullet!

Speedy2020 - I've also noticed small cream girls, another thing to work on...=)

 

[speedy2020]

Here is a picture of some of my males. I have a lot of male to choose from and only see 1 or 2 with straight comb out of 13 cockerels.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

They are still young to make a final decision on comb. Sometimes they "grow into it" and it straightens out, and sometimes not. Also the combs will keep growing until they are about 15-18 months old- so a straight comb now doesn't mean a straight comb at maturity.

 

[DCchicken]

They are still young to make a final decision on comb. Sometimes they "grow into it" and it straightens out, and sometimes not. Also the combs will keep growing until they are about 15-18 months old- so a straight comb now doesn't mean a straight comb at maturity.

I have also had a cockerel with a straight comb that started to flop after getting frost bite or other damage to the comb.

 

[GaryDean26]

What?? You dared to call a rooster a rooster??? How DARE you??

Have you taken the "What dialog of English do you speak" Quiz yet? Some people will go to their death arguing that sugary water should be called pop while others will do the same for their preference of the word soda, coke, or a fizzy. Some people call their parent's sister "aunt" with the word rhyming with "can't" others rhyme with the word "want" while some think that both are silly things to call their "auntie". Some people use the word "bad" to describe something that is extremely cool and others understand anything that is "bad" to be unpleasant or dull. Hmm... what are some of my other good ones, Twinners vs. Twinkies to describe two people wearing the same outfit, license plate registration vs. tags for what you get to place on your car from the motor vehicle department, then possibly the most confusing I have come across is that depending on what state you are in you have to know if DUI, DWD, DWI, OWI, OUI, OVI, or DUII is the correct term to refer to drunk driving.

I could go on an on linguistics (I studied a foreign language for my 2nd college degree), but coming back to the use of the word rooster, cock, cockerel. None of them are absolute terms. Rooster is the most common term used in the USA today. It is not however used at poultry shows. The shows have categories for cockerels (male chickens under a year of age) and cocks (male chickens over a year old. If you talk to the APA show community (which I am guessing is NOT what the Heritage Chicken community identify them self as) they use the word cockerel and cock to indicate the category that their bird would be placed in. If they have a 12 month and one day old male chicken it is no longer a cockerel and to call it such would be incorrect and a no-no. However when you talk to big breeders they use the word cockerel with more liberty to refer to any male chicken that is either being bred to older females or who is in his first year of breeding even though they often grow out these birds for a year and a half to 3 years before they use them in the breeding pen.

Etymologically: "Cock", on the other hand, has no clear provenance. Only the French, our erstwhile linguo-twins, have a similar word (coq), while pretty much every other European tongue uses some version of that old Germanic hana or the Latin gallus. But the OED speculates that it started out as an echoic word. Cocks go “cock-a-doodle doo,” after all, and tend to cluck incessantly.

So I guess if onomatopoeia is more your style or if you can pardon my French call it a cock.

If you prefer names that can walk the walk rather than names that just talk the talk or else prefer the Puritan ideal of avoiding words with sensitive double meanings then use the word rooster.

Finally, if you want people to think that you are a first category type of person, but really are more comfortable in the 2nd category when it comes to sensitive double meanings than you can go with a 3rd category and incorrectly call a mature male chicken by the word for an juvenile male chicken which is cockerel. That is the category that I often use. Incorrect, but since it is a word that not many people understand you sound more knowledgeable than if you say a common word like rooster as your alternative to cock (The truth is I am fluent enough in multi-dialects of the English vernacular that I can use all three terms interchangeably with relative ease).

 

[jerryse]

Have you taken the "What dialog of English do you speak" Quiz yet? Some people will go to their death arguing that sugary water should be called pop while others will do the same for their preference of the word soda, coke, or a fizzy. Some people call their parent's sister "aunt" with the word rhyming with "can't" others rhyme with the word "want" while some think that both are silly things to call their "auntie". Some people use the word "bad" to describe something that is extremely cool and others understand anything that is "bad" to be unpleasant or dull. Hmm... what are some of my other good ones, Twinners vs. Twinkies to describe two people wearing the same outfit, license plate registration vs. tags for what you get to place on your car from the motor vehicle department, then possibly the most confusing I have come across is that depending on what state you are in you have to know if DUI, DWD, DWI, OWI, OUI, OVI, or DUII is the correct term to refer to drunk driving.

I could go on an on linguistics (I studied a foreign language for my 2nd college degree), but coming back to the use of the word rooster, cock, cockerel. None of them are absolute terms. Rooster is the most common term used in the USA today. It is not however used at poultry shows. The shows have categories for cockerels (male chickens under a year of age) and cocks (male chickens over a year old. If you talk to the APA show community (which I am guessing is NOT what the Heritage Chicken community identify them self as) they use the word cockerel and cock to indicate the category that their bird would be placed in. If they have a 12 month and one day old male chicken it is no longer a cockerel and to call it such would be incorrect and a no-no. However when you talk to big breeders they use the word cockerel with more liberty to refer to any male chicken that is either being bred to older females or who is in his first year of breeding even though they often grow out these birds for a year and a half to 3 years before they use them in the breeding pen.

I am comfortable with any of the terms . Therefore I can adapt to others preference . I tend to avoid cock . I mostly use that term in showing .

 

[chicken pickin]

I don't know about anyone else but I am getting so tired of horrible hatch rates from my CL. Last batch set 10 eggs all developed till the end and only one hatched. And today is day23 of another batch of 10 eggs, only one pipped and she was upside down and pipped for somewhere between 24 and 36 hours so I just helped her. But her abdomen looks odd and shes bleeding from it. I don't know if I caused it or if it would have happened anyway. I also candled the other eggs and no movement. This is how it has been most of my CL hatches since I started hatching them in Feb.

I am very frustrated. Maybe its my incubator but other breeds I hatch seem to do fine so Im not sure. Between the really bad hatches and some of my CL with bad attitudes Im starting to wonder if I want 2 pens of CL now, not sure if its worth it

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I don't know about anyone else but I am getting so tired of horrible hatch rates from my CL. Last batch set 10 eggs all developed till the end and only one hatched. And today is day23 of another batch of 10 eggs, only one pipped and she was upside down and pipped for somewhere between 24 and 36 hours so I just helped her. But her abdomen looks odd and shes bleeding from it. I don't know if I caused it or if it would have happened anyway. I also candled the other eggs and no movement. This is how it has been most of my CL hatches since I started hatching them in Feb.

I am very frustrated. Maybe its my incubator but other breeds I hatch seem to do fine so Im not sure. Between the really bad hatches and some of my CL with bad attitudes Im starting to wonder if I want 2 pens of CL now, not sure if its worth it

Have you tried treating your breeders with a round of tetracycline? This could be a yolk sac infection problem.

I had a simlar problem with my Isbars last year, they would hatch and all die at 3-4 weeks of age. Turned out it was a specific strain of e coli present in my hens (both raised from the same breeder) that was being passed to the chicks as a yolk sac infection. A round of tetracycline for the adults temporarily fixed the problem but I ended up needing a stronger antibiotic from a vet to actually clear up the infection in my breeders permanently.

The fact that it was taking 3-4 weeks to kill the chicks was very unusual, yolk sac infections typically kill chicks just before or just after hatch. By 10 days at most. So it took me a long time to figure out that was what was happening.

ETA: Are you hatching other breeds alongside it fine? If not I would hatch something else with the CL next time to rule out incubation problems. If the other breed hatches fine then it is not a temperature/humidity issue. All my other breeds were hatching and thriving just fine, even when I brooded them WITH the Isbar chicks. Only the Isbars died.