Cream Legbars

[chicken pickin]

I candled my eggs yesterday (day 7) and I can't see a thing going on in my CL eggs. I can make out the air cell but the rest is just dark. Is this normal for blue eggs? Does anyone candle or just hope everything is going well?

Also one of my little CL pullets is trying to go broody I think. Yesterday she was sitting in the nest box in the afternoon while I was cleaning and when I put them up about 8:30 last night she was still in the box. I pulled her out and boy was she mad! Growling and puffed up! I collected the eggs and this morning she was out and about. I have never had a hen hatch out eggs before as it seems like a risk but I may have an opportunity is she keeps this up.

I can candle them around day 4-5 and see the spider veining. Maybe your flashlight isn't bright enough? Give them a few more days and try again. That said I try not to handle my incubating CL eggs too much.

 

[BuffyBugSlayer]

I think I will put in new batteries and try again in a few days. It worked great last year on brown eggs so maybe the batteries are just going dead. I guess it is possible they are all duds but I sure hope not!

 

[dretd]

I candled my eggs yesterday (day 7) and I can't see a thing going on in my CL eggs. I can make out the air cell but the rest is just dark. Is this normal for blue eggs? Does anyone candle or just hope everything is going well?

Also one of my little CL pullets is trying to go broody I think. Yesterday she was sitting in the nest box in the afternoon while I was cleaning and when I put them up about 8:30 last night she was still in the box. I pulled her out and boy was she mad! Growling and puffed up! I collected the eggs and this morning she was out and about. I have never had a hen hatch out eggs before as it seems like a risk but I may have an opportunity is she keeps this up.

Sounds like she is broody to me. They tend to growl a lot, flatten to cover the eggs and puff up like a turkey when you take them off the nest--my avatar is a broody Speckled Sussex.

I made my own candler and can see into blue eggs fine. I took a super-bright 220 lumens LED mini maglite and fitted it with a collar I made with duck tape (folded lengthwise leaving a 1/8 inch sticky edge on the long end). You need an absolutely dark room so I just candle in the cradle to minimize handling after dark.
This is day 4:



This is day 7 same egg:

Leave more of a lip on he leading edge if possible--you don't want the egg to be too close to the lens as it can overheat the egg. I adjusted it before candling.

Just saw your note so thought I'd add a note. Batteries could be your issue for sure--if they take AA or AAA I personally highly recommend Enegizers Ultra Lithium batteries--they are silver and blue and made for electronics. I have used them in my gamecam and they even work when its 15 below. Excellent product.

 

[BuffyBugSlayer]

Your avatar is exactly what she looked like when I put her on the roost! Just like a turkey. I told my husband she was growling at me and he didn't believe that chickens can growl. I will be sending him out next time to remove her, ha!

Thanks for the pics and notes. I may add the duct tape lip and a change of batteries is in order. It takes three AAA and I don't have any so I will definitely buy the Energizer Ultra lithium batteries.

You guys are always so helpful

 

[tdhenson86]

Then this is something you should keep in mind for your future offspring you raise up. Take lots of pictures, often. It is very important to have photos of your birds before molt, after molt, before frostbitten combs and wattles, even at various stages of development. Not just for your own reference but also like I said for customers that are interested in obtaining good stock, they will want to see what the CL males look like with their combs to see what they might be getting in their chicks they purchase.

I do my best to take new pics every few weeks so I have it for my own records. My Rees CL are June hatches and I have tons of pre winter pics of them, his comb was not a good one, very floppy. He lost his comb over winter and looks dubbed. But I do have before and after pics.

Again this post is for everyone I think lots of pics are important, but that's just me.

Back to the issue of pictures. I need to do a MUCH better job of this! I'm glad for all the suggestions! I want to make the breed better and better and I rely heavily on advice of people on here. By the way, @chicken pickin , the other day when I posted pictures of my main male, I posted the wrong pictures. You were right he did look dark in the pictures. He was male number 3 that I just posted today and darker than the one I've been using. I wondered why he looked so much like a barred rock!

 

[Bluefield]

How hard is it to deal with the earlobe color they all look off to me 3 seems the closest though 1 seems better for back and tail. 4 seems nice but lobes seem yellow. What is with the various combs do you have rose comb or is it frostbite issues.

4 has the longest back n better tail set..he's the only one I would keep

 

[duluthralphie]

I candled my 7 creamette eggs in the incubator.. ALL 7 HAVE CHICKS IN THEM!!!!


And on that I am going to have a drink!

 

[blackbirds13]

All your boys' wings are carried too low. You may want to raise your roost so that the muscles get better use.

Okay. I've got somewhat decent pictures of all of the males I have left. They're 7 1/2 months old. So, they still have some growing out to do. I'm trying to decide who I want to keep. What are your honest opinions of each male? Number 1 Number 2 Number 3 Number 4

No 1 has better barring on hackle, saddle and wing bay. Cannot tell on the breast. Tail not as much white as the 3 and 4. Overall barring is uneven. Cannot tell on comb. Nice yellow legs. Back looks okay and tail angle too in these photos. No 2 has poor barring on saddle and hackle and secondary feathers. Overall messy barring. Tail looks high but no white and well barred and back looks short. Comb would be severely floppy. Breast looks good. No 3 is dark barred. Secondary feathers lack white barred areas. Tail is high back is short. His breast is lacking. No 4. A lot of white in tail. Not barred in secondary feathers. Barring does not seem as messy as others. His toes look crooked and he appears a bit stilted in the last photo but he looks nice for size. All their ear lobes are too red and appear a bit yellow. I'd use 1 and 4. Depending on size I'd go for No 1 and the slightly better barring but maybe No 4 for type as i cannot tell type on No 1.But that may change going forward. The backs and tails on the other two I would not breed forward If I had other options.

 

[ChicKat]

I candled my 7 creamette eggs in the incubator.. ALL 7 HAVE CHICKS IN THEM!!!!


And on that I am going to have a drink!

cheers!

 

[iPickYupik]

They don't look like typical female chick down pattern for CL. Do you have more pics of the side of their faces(eye liner) and top view?

Agree with chicken pickin @iPickYupik--I was only looking at comb and when I did not see the distinct V I normally get in my chicks, I called them boys. Not all chicks are uniformly downed and it could be that this breeder's girls are not as chipmunk-y as mine. Top shots showing their stripe down the head and back and accompanying chipmunk stripes would be great along with the eyeliner/side head-shot. Some boys can have eyeliner but it is not as dark as the girls and the girls tend to have dark liner on their upper eyelids and the boys don't. Basket of boys--big color range, you will still get some with chipmunk stripes but they are very blurred into the back stripe (lower right chick in the right photo) and they tend to be more on the grey or creamy tannish hues. I haven't uploaded the individual pics yet, sorry: Basket of girls--obviously a color range within the brown spectrum. Note the dark eyeliner and the crisp V on top of the heads:

Here are some more pics of my chicks. So did I get ripped off? No eyeliner really, no V and no distinct chipmunk pattern really?