Cream Legbars

[chicken pickin]

Here's my most recent hatch of Rees birds. One is hard for me to sex (the one with the dark small v on its head). It seems male, but has lighter color chipmunk stripes and that small v spot on its head. What do you all think?

Do you have any more pictures you could post of it? Top view and side view to see the eyeliner?

 

[ChicKat]

Here's my most recent hatch of Rees birds. One is hard for me to sex (the one with the dark small v on its head). It seems male, but has lighter color chipmunk stripes and that small v spot on its head. What do you all think?

Yep, I think that you are right male...based on the lack of the continuous dark dorsal stripe down the back.....the chick in the lower right corner is a good example of continuous stripe.

 

[tdhenson86]

More pictures of the confusing chick (it has clear eye liner which confuses me most).

 

[Scatterknit]

A little bit of a sad day here, I rehomed my main CL male. He was a wonderful male great type and color and well behaved but just entirely too loud everyday and me being in a area with somewhat close neighbors I felt it was the right thing to do. The man I sold him to was wonderful, he breeds Welsummers and has for many years and he now is breeding Cream Legbars, he drove all the way up from Connecticut to pick him up and I also sent him with 1 dozen CL hatching eggs. It is nice to know that there is another breeder with my stock now just incase I ever need to get more birds in the future.

I Still have all my hens and pullets and my Rees trio and 20 CL chicks to grow out and evaluate.

It's funny how we grow attached to the roos. Even when they're obnoxious. I guess because they're like the eye-candy old boyfriend - gorgeous to look at but really sometimes not worth the trouble.

You will have fun watching your new babies grow out. Maybe one will turn out to be a less vocal beauty!

 

[Scatterknit]

They never talk about the hardest parts of raising chickens -- but it is very neat that he will still be at work and you will have access to those genes should you ever need them! IT also sounds like with 20 chicks you are going to be a busy person.

from my hatch -- only one female. At first I faulted her for not being autosexing enough...but now that she is thoroughly dry -- she does have all the 'right stuff' -- maybe just too much of it. LOL


Previously I had thought that her chipmunk striping wasn't evident enough- but I see it as pretty clear right now. It's almost 24 hours since hatching. The interesting thing is the degree of darkness in the dorsal wide stripe. For males I wonder if THAT makes the barring more crisp - dark/light contrast -- versus the more pale gray barring. These new babies are so small that they make the juveniles outside look as big as horses. (well almost) -- And the two outside cockerels exemplify the dark barring versus light barring that I am referring to:



Left more contrast - right less contrast



Foreground more contrast background less contrast.....

Gorgeous! Look at those nice combs!!

I think I am destined to be the wonky combed rooster Mom. All three of my 3/5 hatch Rees line roos have seriously pathetic combs.

Sigh.

 

[chicken pickin]

Gorgeous! Look at those nice combs!!

I think I am destined to be the wonky combed rooster Mom. All three of my 3/5 hatch Rees line roos have seriously pathetic combs.

Sigh.

Its not just yours, there are still lots of CL males out there with wonky combs and it seems that many of the Rees line males have that floppy comb trait. It is something that needs to be worked on in future generations., selective breeding will help.

 

[ChicKat]

Gorgeous! Look at those nice combs!!

I think I am destined to be the wonky combed rooster Mom. All three of my 3/5 hatch Rees line roos have seriously pathetic combs.

Sigh.

Thanks Scatterknit -

Comb was the first thing I started to wrok on -- and I was lucky to have a foundation sire with a straight and upright 6-pointed comb -- but it flys away at the back...... Still not there yet..we all have sooo much work to do.

 

[Double Kindness]

I'm so confused.. is it pullets that are chipmunk colored at hatch or are those cockrels?

It doesn't help that I am sick atm.

 

[caychris]

I'm so confused.. is it pullets that are chipmunk colored at hatch or are those cockrels?

It doesn't help that I am sick atm.

Both can be chipmonk but the girls are more crisp and usually do not have a headspot. Darl V shape on the head, Crisp dorsal and secondary striping and strong eyeliner are all hallmarks of a female. Males can be similarly aligned but striping is more muted and almost always have a large whitish headspot. If you have a female with small headspot and or indistinct striping I would not breed her as autosexing should not be ambiguous. I always assume male if the markings are ever unclear as the female markings are supposed to be distinctive. Sometimes you are pleasantly surprised with females but I would make them layers first and breed them only if they have improved egg color/qualities.

 

[dretd]

I'm so confused.. is it pullets that are chipmunk colored at hatch or are those cockrels?

It doesn't help that I am sick atm.

Hi Kimberly. I hope you feel better soon!

The girls are typical brownish/tannish wild type chicks with a very distinctive dark brown stripe that starts with a 'V' at the beak and runs all the way to the rump. There are cream/tan colored chipmunk stripes that run on either side of the dark brown back strip and are generally outlined by seal-brown to black fine lines. I see a head spot on my girls more times than not and it can be quite bright, but always contained within the borders of the darker brown head stripe. My boys are variable with about 1/3 being the lighter downed variant looking creamy-tannish, about 1/2 are a medium to light silvery-slatey (grey tomes instead of cream tones) and the remainder are a darker charcoal-slate grey with or without cinnamon color. Those last ones are the ones that can have chipmunk stripes that are blurry but can be confusing. I only will use the lighter and silvery-slatey variants for breeding. Down color/pattern is my second cull (the first being egg color/shape/size). I am very conscientious about maintaining good autosexing in my flock--probably the most important feature of the breed IMO.

Recent basket of girls, the one on the left has an obvious headspot. You can see there is variation in the color of the brown, but it is always brown--not grey. The brown stripe along the back should be broad and very crisp.:

Group of boys from last year--note some have a bright headspot and some of them its so diffuse that it doesn't look like a spot but more of a frosting. You can see a few with a light blurry chipmunk stripes. The Brits have down in their SOP and the boys say it is much paler in tint than the girls, the pattern being blurred and washed out from head to rump and describe it as a pale silvery-slaty.

A different set of boys from this year--fewer boys with chipmunk stripes in this hatch.

Typical lighter downed boy. As a side note, if you look at his comb closely, you can see it is off center to his right at the back. He has a very large crest that was not obvious as a chick and his comb is indeed very wonky as an adult:

Picture of a female chick with a bright headspot. Notice how it is contained fully within the borders of the dark 'V'? Her tone is also tannish-brownish and her upper eyelids have the very dark Cleopatra eyeliner. The boys can have some eyeliner, too, but it is generally washed-out and pale in comparison to the girls and especially the upper lid is very pale in the boys.

Hope this helps