Cream Legbars

[tdhenson86]

Nice chickens Tim, 
gorgeous color of yellow in their legs!  What do you feed them?

I don't have any big secrets there. I feed them my local feed supply's grower until they start laying and then their laying mix. Ha ha! During the spring and summer, they can also forage.

 

[chicken pickin]

So does anyone have any specific breeding plans for this Spring. What type of breeding set up do you all have planned, whole flock breeding, single breeding, setting up in quads or trios. Anyone doing complementary pairing, mother/son father/daughter pairing, best male to best female pairing. If anyone is doing specific matings can you tell us why and what you plan to get from the mating, what are you trying to accomplish, what traits are you trying to improve on this year?

I have been thinking about how I want to go about this breeding season and I have been thinking that doing just one single mating pair for the year will work for me, I may do a few small test hatches with the same male and a different female or two to see how the offspring differ, but I haven't decided just yet. My single mating are going to be from what I consider my best male(and now only male since the others were culled) to my best female who might be his mother though Im not sure since last year I did not track. This year I plan to keep better record.

With this mating I am hoping to accomplish is a slightly lower tail angle(though I do have a possible cull pullet that might come in handy for working on lower tail angles). Ideally I hope to get creamier offspring and lighter crested females, keeping white earlobes. Also with this being a mature hen I can see features are still there that I like and has gotten better feather color after molt(molt is almost complete). She also lays a blue egg (most of my others lay greenish) Im hoping the nice blue gene is carried by my male and hope the hen passes the nice blue gene also. I still need to weigh them but I feel my male is a very decent weight and he matured and filled in very nicely very early on, so I hope he passes his size on also.

This will be my second breeding year and Im still in the test mating phase of Cream Legbars to see what I get from them and still trying to build a solid foundation flock. So I hope this year brings me some good offspring

My breeder male roughly 11months old






My breeder female roughly 18months old






Im not sure how I like the feathers on this hen where the salmon meets the gray, it seems to "fly away". Anyone have any thoughts on the feathering? Her breast is salmon the camera didn't capture the color well.

 

[chicken pickin]

This Trio here is my Rees trio, all 3 from Rees line. Both pullets will stay paired with this male and I will hatch what I can from them this Spring. My plan for this breeding trio and not sure yet what I want to accomplish the pullets are nice but my male is not as up to standard as I would like. The males in this line need a lot of work in my opinion so improving my males size/weight, over all type and color/barring in my Rees line is ultimately my goal. I am very excited to hatch from the Rees line and cant wait to see what I get and what I can work with.

Rees Trio roughly 7/8months old

 

[ChicKat]

So does anyone have any specific breeding plans for this Spring. What type of breeding set up do you all have planned, whole flock breeding, single breeding, setting up in quads or trios. Anyone doing complementary pairing, mother/son father/daughter pairing, best male to best female pairing. If anyone is doing specific matings can you tell us why and what you plan to get from the mating, what are you trying to accomplish, what traits are you trying to improve on this year?

I have been thinking about how I want to go about this breeding season and I have been thinking that doing just one single mating pair for the year will work for me, I may do a few small test hatches with the same male and a different female or to see how the offspring differ, but I haven't decided just yet. My single mating are going to be from what I consider my best male(and now only male since the others were culled) to my best female who might be his mother though Im not sure since (last year I did not track). This year I plan to keep better record.

With this mating I am hoping to accomplish is a slightly lower tail angle(though a cull pullet I have might come in handy for working on lower tail angles), Ideally getting creamier and lighter crested females, keeping white earlobes. Also with this being a mature hen I can see features are still there that I like and has gotten better feather color after molt(molt is almost complete). She also lays a blue egg (most of my others lay greenish) Im hoping the nice blue gene is carried by my male and hope the hen passes the nice blue gene also. I still need to weigh them but I feel my male is a very decent weight and he matured and filled in very nicely very early on, so I hope he passes his size on also.

This will be my second breeding year and Im still in the test mating phase of Cream Legbars to see what I get from them and still trying to build a solid foundation flock. So I hope this year brings me some good offspring

My breeder male roughly 11months old



My breeder female roughly 18months old

Fabulous chickens and great strategy thanks for the details. I think I will do some from my original pair, then when she is free of all fertilizaton from him pair her with her grandson - I'm doing Mother - grandson - and may do a few more Father-daughter. --- Have a really low tail angle male -- and may use him -- Obviously -- still formulating.

Going for lower tail angles mainly -- keeping the crests, color, combs and high productivity I like -- my eggs are OAC179 coming in at size large from my 3-year old. Just want healthy, pretty versions of what I already have - and some tweaks -- also finding out with the line breeding what recessives may be lurking. ETA - I guess overall - as time goes by I will select for less strength in the melanin....and a softer gray coloring.

 

[chicken pickin]

It sounds like you have a good plan for your CL. Its nice you have more generations to work with, that is great to have options. How many CL males do you have to work with? I ended up only keeping one male from my line and one Rees male and I as of now don't have any plans to mix the lines. I thought about keeping back up males but I try to keep the number of males I have to a small number to I don't end up with any noise complaints

 

[ChicKat]

I processed one last Sunday - so I am down to three adult males and 2-baby males....1 juvenile male.... too many boys. That's the CLs - then I have a juvenile IceCream Bar and 3 gorgeous Isbar males -- one of which I will keep and 2 that need to find a new place to live so my brooder babies can have that pen.

 

[losttexan]

I don't see many folks commenting on processing their males - how do they dress out compared to other heritage breeds? I know CLs are considered dual-purpose birds, but don't seem particularly well-suited for a decent table. I could be wrong - just wondering about options for those inevitable males that are too far off to sell . . . .

 

[chicken pickin]

I personally wouldnt call CL a dual purpose bird because a dressed out carcass isnt very large as compare to other dual purpose breeds. Though CL do dress out fairly well and taste great. I typically process my males at about 14-16 weeks of age. They dress out fairly nice at that age, my guess is about 3.5-4lbs. I have processed a 2yr old CL male as well as one that was roughly 6/7months again those dressed out nice also, not sure what the weights were though (no scale, I never weigh anything). My personal preference is to process males young since I like the texture better when they are under 16weeks of age. That said CL make ok table birds, I process all my extras for my freezer.

The pictures below are of a pure CL and a CL mix both males, the CL is on the left in pic one and on the bottom in pic 2, they were roughly 14 weeks at the time of process.

 

[KPenley]

Breeding plan for 2015. I've culled heavily this year down to 1 rooster and 3 hens. The hens are all different lines. All are cream, crested, and have good tails, so I'm working on type and lengthening the back of roosters for the next generation. I'm also keeping an eye on weights this year.
I will choose pullet offspring from each hen to create a three pen system for the future with alternating roosters.

 

[BeachBumBiddies]

hhhmmm..2015 plan?? Selling all the babies from my 1st Legbar line (which is "supposed" to be GFF line). Man they are some fertile chickens! And growing out my Reese line I just got from Green Fire directly & seeing who to cull &/or sell. I will then have at least 2 flocks of Legbars: with my Reese line being my 'A' flock, my original line being my 'B' flock, & maybe an integration of the two for a 'C' flock. Am I keeping too many birds??? lol