Cream Legbars

[flyingmonkeypoop]

you have already acheived auto sexing on your crossed birds. you have only had them a cpl years right.

Yep, it is just the way it goes with the matings I've done. The thing I love most about my project, is that they lay so much better than anything else here. Even my production leghorns and production bred rocks/wyandottes pale in comparison to the rose combed ladies

 

[crazypetlady]

To those of you who have CL in cold climates, any comments on the conditions that your birds can handle, or extra measures you take?
I was really surprised to see the photo of a CL in snow!
I haven't been able to find any information on how the CL's handle temperatures and weather, beyond warm and balmy.
Also interested in the same information for CL crosses, such as with Penedesenca's aka "olive eggers".

If this has already been covered somewhere else, or in this thread, please help me find it.
Thank you.

My CCL roo lost most of his comb to frostbite, he had a nice coop to go into but seemed to like sleeping on top instead. Now that the frostbitten part has dropped off he looks much better. It never seemed to bother him at all. I need to get a pix of him now.

I got 6 eggs today from my 6 hens!! I'm so excited, I have been waiting so long for this day. BM6 needs to come over and bring the egg color chart so we can see how they rate.

 

[normanack]

I would happily trade eggs with you, but my pullets will not likely be laying until spring, so it would be a while, and I am not sure yet how they will turn out as adults. They did come out of some really nice blue eggs. You might keep your eye on the Paypal/Egg swap, there are several CCL breeders on there that occasionally put eggs up in the swap.

If my pullet ever decides to get off her fuzzy butt and lay some eggs, I'd be interested in a small swap with you. True blue eggs are a big goal for me.

Keep warm -- February in Michigan seems like the longest month of the year.

 

[1muttsfan]

February in Michigan is about half way through the winter - everyone talks about spring but that doesn't happen until May around here, ugh. One of the reasons the RC's sound like such a good idea. Will be heading to Florida for a little break next month thank goodness.

So of the three 15 week old cockerels I have, 2 have crooked combs. Just to be clear, I should not give up on them just yet, as their combs may straiten? They both have really nice crests, which I think that is why the comb is displaced. One of them has better color than either of the other two. I have another little guy in the brooder, 3 weeks old, that is already starting to get a big crest tuft. Poor little fellow has had a rough road so far, had an eye injury that seems to be improving with medication, and he is getting very friendly since he is handled twice daily to put the meds in.

 

[GaryDean26]

Wondering if BYC members are more likely to hatch pullet eggs, or wait for eggs after the hen's first year?
Has anyone noticed if their chicks are more vigorous, possibly even larger at hatching/maturity if they come from a hen instead of a pullet?
Any thoughts on whether the age of the cockerel/rooster matters?

Last year we hatch pullet eggs after the girls had been laying for a few weeks so we could build up our flock quickly (and yes to make back some of the expense we paid to get Legbars from the 2011 GFF flocks). I also was paranoid that if I waited for a year that my flock would all be taken by a predators or illness before I was able to get any back-up stock to carry on our flock . We DID end up losing one pullet to a bound egg about 3 months after she started laying. I am glad that we were able to get some offspring from her because she was our top layer and her offspring add a lot of breeding options to our flock.

We now have 14 pullets between the age of 5-8 months they are laying well. Although we did swap a few dozen pullet eggs from the four 8 month old girls we plan to just hatch and sell from our two remaining foundation hens this year. They are both still paired with our two foundation roosters, but we plan to put them together with a young cockerel next month.

We did not have any losses from what we personally hatched from our foundation flock last year (just two cockerel and a pullet from GFF stock).

Going forward we plan to used hens over a year old for breeders and put all the pullets in a laying flock their first year.

 

[sol2go]

GaryDean26 - your plan seems to match most of the recommendations I've read, just wondered what the typical practice seems to be.
I have waited out the first year before hatching, but have also thought I'd like to hatch some chicks in case of pullet loss...

 

[blackbirds13]

GaryDean26 - your plan seems to match most of the recommendations I've read, just wondered what the typical practice seems to be.
I have waited out the first year before hatching, but have also thought I'd like to hatch some chicks in case of pullet loss...

Oh I'm way to excited to see what hatches out from my F1s to wait a year. I have 3 that are 1+ years but the rest are newbie layers. Maybe when my flock is bigger and more stable for specific traits I'm trying to improve on I'll wait but....I'm not known for my patience so probably not. I'm not as concerned about pullet losses as I am about Rooster losses as that's been more of the issue for me. I would think most folks hatch as soon as they can. Goodness knows how many pullet eggs I've had in my shipments of hatching eggs.

 

[heirloomorps]

GaryDean26 - your plan seems to match most of the recommendations I've read, just wondered what the typical practice seems to be.
I have waited out the first year before hatching, but have also thought I'd like to hatch some chicks in case of pullet loss...

We usually start hatching from pullets (any breed) around 10 months if we have parents/other stock of them... otherwise we start shortly after they lay their first egg.

 

[blackbirds13]

So looks like all three juvenile pullets are laying - maybe they look a bit green in this light but got 6 eggs from 6 girls - yippee

 

[babymakes6]

WOOHOO!!!