Cream Legbars

[dretd]

I have two roosters. One is larger with more color and is more confident. Which is more desirable

They still look pretty young to be making any final decisions. Personally I like the second one better, his color and tail are better. As for the body, I suspect that he is maturing slower than the first and may fill out later, especially since he is the submissive roo. I would be inclined to separate the two Roos so that the submissive one gets a chance to be on his own. I suspect his confidence will increase along with his secondary male attributes! Do you have room for two pens?

 

[texas75563]

Yes, I'll post pictures when they arrive. Rare Breed Auctions is indeed the place. Down to less than 7 hours. My weakness is crele coloring.

 

[blackbirds13]

Nice looking boys everyone, they look so much better than even last years normal.
Rarebreeds auction is a dangerous place to hang out in...very dangerous

 

[ADIDAS]

They are about 4 months old, so you are probably right about making final decisions.

I don't have two pens yet, so will need to leave them together for now.


One of the pullets doesn't have a crest. How big of a fault is that considered?

 

[puglady]

Nice looking boys everyone, they look so much better than even last years normal.
Rarebreeds auction is a dangerous place to hang out in...very dangerous

 

[lonnyandrinda]

They are about 4 months old, so you are probably right about making final decisions.

I don't have two pens yet, so will need to leave them together for now.


One of the pullets doesn't have a crest. How big of a fault is that considered?

Bred to a crested male you should get mostly crested offspring- it is a dominant trait.

 

[GaryDean26]

Thanks everyone for their comments regarding hatching pullet eggs vs hens eggs.

I committed to a CCL rooster instead of an Ameraucana because I thought the eggs from this group/breed would be bluer.
I feel a little discouraged as I read the comments re: greenish eggs, but the birds themselves have such endearing personalities that I refocus my enthusiasm.

And now I'm waiting waiting waiting for the CCL pullets to lay something I can compare to my Buff Ameraucana...which brings to mind another comparison: size. Does anyone weigh their eggs in grams? I don't have much to compare to, but the Ameraucana pullet eggs range between 45 and 48 grams, rarely 50. Because of the Legbar influence, I thought the CCL's would weigh in at about 60 grams?

Yes...I weigh my eggs periodically. I just weighed 8 eggs from my foundation hen that produces our largest eggs. Hers were 65-67 grams. Yep...we are very proud of her (and she is even cream colored and good sized with great type).

We have some of her pullets that have been laying for about two months. One is already laying 60 grams eggs and looks like she will follow in her mothers footsteps in eggs size. We currently have 2 hens and 16 pullets that are laying. I would say that 58-60 grams would be a good average weight from what we tracked our first year and what we are seeing from our pullets this year.

 

[RyeRanch]

Those are great egg weights. My flock will occasionally crack the 60 gram mark, but seem to lay eggs in the mid 50 gram range. They have been laying for about 6 months now.

 

[GaryDean26]

Our big egg hen was producing eggs right around 60 grams untill her first moult. After time off she jumped for the 60-61 gram range up to the impressive 65+ gram range.

If your pullets are cracking 60 grams, they should be able to produce some big eggs come April.

They are about 4 months old, so you are probably right about making final decisions.

I don't have two pens yet, so will need to leave them together for now.


One of the pullets doesn't have a crest. How big of a fault is that considered?

Research shows that birds with only one cresting gene can have really large crests while hens with two cresting genes can have really small to a negligable crest. I am guessing that a lot of these "non" crested hens have the cresting gene, just not the modifiers to produce the large crest.

I went a head and breed a "non" crested hen my first year because I only had two hens to work with. The cockerel also was tiny crested so I was concerned that I would be producing a lot of "non" crested pullets, but 2/3 of the pullets from that pairing came out with good cresting. I am not going to breed any more non-crested pullets since I have better material to work with now. I guess I will learn how big of a defect it is when I breed the pullets from the non-crested hen next year. Hopefull they will all produce well cresting offspring. I haven't got any non-crested pullets from the two crested hens so I am guessing that I will be okay mosing forward.

In exibition a non-crested hen would be disqualified, but for breeding you can get from a non-crested hen to a crest line if you need. It just takes more work.

 

[sol2go]

Those are great egg weights. My flock will occasionally crack the 60 gram mark, but seem to lay eggs in the mid 50 gram range. They have been laying for about 6 months now.

I just love all this chicken talk - "crack the 60 gram mark" =)
Thanks for the egg weights from lonnyandrinda, garydean26, ryeranch, etal!
My pullets are starting to get more color around their eyes/comb...waiting waiting waiting.
Very interesting to note the egg weight can increase post-molt; is that typical for hens?