Cream Legbars

[ChicKat]

Clucksworth gave a great view of these pullets - and I agree.

• The thing that struck me first was the lack of crests.
• Next they look like a fine lot of healthy pullets and they are very uniform. It's interesting that the lower hackle feathers are probably what would be called cream and the uppers surrounding the head are very orange-y. They are young...and if yours are like mine they tend to lighten as the grow older.
• Are any laying as of yet? Are the eggs more green-blue or more clear blue?
• Did you get chicks or did you get hatching eggs...and do you have photos of the parent birds that you would be willing to share? I'm curious. Have you weighed them?

It does look like you have a good place to start -- and if these were my pullets I would work on crest first. In some ways the cresting gene has a tricky behavior IMO. It expresses much much more on the female than on the male...so any definitely crested male should get you there in a couple of generations. Your offspring from these pullets will carry one cresting gene if your rooster is homozygous. By making sure that you never pair the resulting chicks with a male that lacks a cresting gene (homozygous - i.e. two pairs of the gene) you should always have crests going forward. If you pair anything with only one cresting gene with another chicken with one -- (heterozygous) -- you could be getting crestless chickens. This is going to be increasingly important going forward. If you find a large crested male with a straight comb you are going to find a rare bird. Straight comb with any crest should be helpful to you. If the male you use has only one cresting gene, then you could get chicks without crests. :O( - It will be one way to know the make up of your rooster.

Bottom line is IMO it is a beautiful bunch of pullets and they are very similar - so you will probably have a real continuity in your flock. Thanks for posting the pictures.
I'm also really curious of the parent birds for these pullets.

 

[Clucksworth]

Clucksworth gave a great view of these pullets - and I agree.

• The thing that struck me first was the lack of crests.
• Next they look like a fine lot of healthy pullets and they are very uniform. It's interesting that the lower hackle feathers are probably what would be called cream and the uppers surrounding the head are very orange-y. They are young...and if yours are like mine they tend to lighten as the grow older.
• Are any laying as of yet? Are the eggs more green-blue or more clear blue?
• Did you get chicks or did you get hatching eggs...and do you have photos of the parent birds that you would be willing to share? I'm curious. Have you weighed them?

It does look like you have a good place to start -- and if these were my pullets I would work on crest first. In some ways the cresting gene has a tricky behavior IMO. It expresses much much more on the female than on the male...so any definitely crested male should get you there in a couple of generations. Your offspring from these pullets will carry one cresting gene if your rooster is homozygous. By making sure that you never pair the resulting chicks with a male that lacks a cresting gene (homozygous - i.e. two pairs of the gene) you should always have crests going forward. If you pair anything with only one cresting gene with another chicken with one -- (heterozygous) -- you could be getting crestless chickens. This is going to be increasingly important going forward. If you find a large crested male with a straight comb you are going to find a rare bird. Straight comb with any crest should be helpful to you. If the male you use has only one cresting gene, then you could get chicks without crests. :O( - It will be one way to know the make up of your rooster.

Bottom line is IMO it is a beautiful bunch of pullets and they are very similar - so you will probably have a real continuity in your flock. Thanks for posting the pictures.
I'm also really curious of the parent birds for these pullets.

Great overview, Chickat - I think I well crested male would do a lot of good on these pullets!

 

[chicken pickin]

Not sure what the US breeders will say on here, but here's my opinion as a UK breeder.

Firstly, do you hens have any crests? The crest is very important for a true cream legbar and differentiates it from it's close relatives the silver legbar and gold legbar. In addition, I can also see that there is a lot of gold in the hackle feathers of you're girls, typically in the UK we won't breed from birds with gold hackles but the US seems to be me lenient and shows a bit more appreciation for birds with a bit more colour/chestnut. I also think that their heart girth should be a little broader and their bodies should be longer- however this may be better displayed when the pullets grow a little older and have time to fill out.

However on a positive note, I do like the colour of the breast of the bird and overall colour of the body. I like the tight tail and I think it has a good angle and the yellow legs look magnificent. I am also impressed by how straight the combs are on the pullets are.

Overall I think these birds will give you a good foundation, I think you would get the best from these birds if you were to look into bringing it a roo with a particularly large crest, straight comb, good baring and little chestnut in colouration. This should produce offspring with a crests and a slightly more neutral colour, whilst also maintaining many of the positive aspects of your birds such as body colouration, tail, legs and comb.

Hope this is helpful,

Clucksworth gave a great view of these pullets - and I agree.

• The thing that struck me first was the lack of crests.
• Next they look like a fine lot of healthy pullets and they are very uniform. It's interesting that the lower hackle feathers are probably what would be called cream and the uppers surrounding the head are very orange-y. They are young...and if yours are like mine they tend to lighten as the grow older.
• Are any laying as of yet? Are the eggs more green-blue or more clear blue?
• Did you get chicks or did you get hatching eggs...and do you have photos of the parent birds that you would be willing to share? I'm curious. Have you weighed them?

It does look like you have a good place to start -- and if these were my pullets I would work on crest first. In some ways the cresting gene has a tricky behavior IMO. It expresses much much more on the female than on the male...so any definitely crested male should get you there in a couple of generations. Your offspring from these pullets will carry one cresting gene if your rooster is homozygous. By making sure that you never pair the resulting chicks with a male that lacks a cresting gene (homozygous - i.e. two pairs of the gene) you should always have crests going forward. If you pair anything with only one cresting gene with another chicken with one -- (heterozygous) -- you could be getting crestless chickens. This is going to be increasingly important going forward. If you find a large crested male with a straight comb you are going to find a rare bird. Straight comb with any crest should be helpful to you. If the male you use has only one cresting gene, then you could get chicks without crests. :O( - It will be one way to know the make up of your rooster.

Bottom line is IMO it is a beautiful bunch of pullets and they are very similar - so you will probably have a real continuity in your flock. Thanks for posting the pictures.
I'm also really curious of the parent birds for these pullets.

These are both great posts and really well said and explained. I agree with both of the assessments and advice given.

I will add in one thing, I personally think they have good back/body length. Often we see CL with a squinched appearance due to having short backs. I think yours look pretty good.

 

[ChicKat]

chicken pickin --

agree - right on target. they also have a nice tail angle....... mine tend to have very upright tails. --

 

[chicken pickin]

chicken pickin --

agree - right on target. they also have a nice tail angle....... mine tend to have very upright tails. --

And I also agree with this. They do have nice low tail angles. They look like the beginning of a good barn being built (minus the lack of crests).

My CLs also have high tail angles

 

[tdhenson86]

I think Spring has finally sprung! While we are going to get a little bit of a chill again next weekend, we are supposed to be near 60 today and 65 Monday. The snow is slowly melting and it seems spring is on the way! The daffodils are starting to pop up through the ground too. I'm so ready for spring!

Also, I just wanted to let anyone interested in a Jill Rees Cream Legbar Rooster know that I have updated my prices on my listing to include the price of shipping and the shipping box. Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...sters-updated-price-includes-shipping-and-box

 

[ShinShien]

New babies that hatched yesterday. Is this a male and a female? Three have yellow dots on their heads. Four don't.

 

[chicken pickin]

New babies that hatched yesterday. Is this a male and a female? Three have yellow dots on their heads. Four don't.

They appear to be a male and a female. But don't always go by some have head spots and some don't because females can have small head spots as well.

Do you have better pics in better lighting of them, over them for back shots and also side views of them.

 

[ShinShien]

They appear to be a male and a female. But don't always go by some have head spots and some don't because females can have small head spots as well.

Do you have better pics in better lighting of them, over them for back shots and also side views of them.

I can try. She's not happy when someone gets too close, though. There's 7 under her.

 

[Debs55]

In response to everyone who commented on these pictures, I hatched these from eggs from a local breeder whose stock came from GFF. Her stock was created if I remember correctly. I think I do have some pictures I will just have to look for them. The eggs were a very true blue not green. Oh and these pullets are not laying yet. Would they be worth breeding to sell chicks and hatching eggs even if they aren't crested?
The parents and an egg