Cream Legbars

[KPenley]

Ha! I think Jett and Lucy can hold their first meeting of the "Holding Out Egg Club" this week lol.

 

[redchicken9]

These are my two breeder roos this year, Macbeth and Macduff. I culled 2 other more dominant roos and since then Macbeth's comb that I posted earlier has really grown. The level of chestnut on the shoulders is minimal also to the level of gold that shows up in the wing bay on the secondaries is also pretty much not there at all. I have a theory that as the males grow the gold that shows up in the secondaries can help indicate how colorful the rooster will eventually be. I am going to try to track this in some of the boys I hatch this year. I have gotten a couple male chicks that are not my own to use as a comparison also. I have a really great Canon EOS 30D to use so I hope I can get some really good images to record the stages. I just need to remember to do it regularly. I know some make light of the difference in how pictures can alter the real colors and tones but as an artist and familiar with Photography I know it does so I am hoping that using a really good (and expensive) Digital Single Lens Reflex camera will help keep the details and colors true to life. These were taken at the end of a really nice sunny day but in the shade so the sun did not 'flash' the white/cream and lighten it more than it really is, especially with all the snow still on the ground and I was able to zoom in and get some really good close ups. They are both still young, only born in September and October of last year but I am happy with both, despite their individual faults as I had to no options but to hatch like crazy after my rooster died from a dog attack (my husband's new puppy) and live with what I got. I feel better having 1 and a spare as they say. Macbeth is my baby but not the Alpha and Macduff's comb has a very slight bend at the end but stands upright and he is also just a smidgen more colorful in the saddle and shoulders.

















normanack -

Your female seems that she may have a lighter gold hackle so she may be able to breed towards cream. And if she is from the first line she may be a layer of nicely sized eggs something you definitely want to hold on to in the future. I am not sure on the boy though he looks really gold in the hackle and saddle. The chestnut on the shoulders is separate to that but also looks a bit much but he seems to have a nice tail angle, good yellow legs but it does seem like a bit too much gold and if you look at his secondary feathers in his wing bay you will see how dark gold they are. His comb has a flop but so did my original male and he threw lots of straight combs so I don't really see that as a hinderance (though serious it is still only a fault and not a DQ per the British SOP). You may have to hatch a lot to see an improvement in the chicks but you should be able to work on type and see what you get for females from this breeding but with males needing 2 cream genes I don't think you can get there with these two and for females the ratio of cream hackles would be also very low.


One of my crazy crest girls.

Can I say I'm jealous? Nice color on those boys! Great camera. Ever since you first mentioned it, I have been watching the color in the secondaries. Glad you are set with males to breed for this year. Thanks for helping on the logo. Sooner or later we should have that figured out. I lost steam, but see more has been done. Keep us posted. Also love to see the classic side view on the boys to look at type. Thanks ever so much for sharing these pictures!

 

[ChicKat]

Can I say I'm jealous? Nice color on those boys! Great camera. Ever since you first mentioned it, I have been watching the color in the secondaries. Glad you are set with males to breed for this year. Thanks for helping on the logo. Sooner or later we should have that figured out. I lost steam, but see more has been done. Keep us posted. Also love to see the classic side view on the boys to look at type. Thanks ever so much for sharing these pictures!

x2 Very nice pictures.

 

[ChicKat]

Ha! I think Jett and Lucy can hold their first meeting of the "Holding Out Egg Club" this week lol.

Patience....all things cometh to she who waiteth. -- Soon. Can't wait until you are going to be telling us the good news.

 

[ChicKat]

Excellent, Bama1!

Oh, by the way where is ChicKat?

Hi -

Rinda was right -- I was on-the-road-again. :O)

 

[ChicKat]

I am very excited to be getting my first cream legbar chicks in 2 weeks; am told they will be lines B & C, 4 pullets, 1 cockerel and whatever else they
decide to send along for warmth. Hoping they have good type, but never know what I will get.

Congrats.

Hoping that they will all be excellent.

 

[ChicKat]

My first cream legbar zipping right now.

YAY!!!

Congratulations. that's a zippy chick. Glad you are back.

 

[GaryDean26]

Here are some recent photos of my flock. Far from perfect, but we didn't think we would be to this point for another 2 years, so we am happy with the progress over the past year.

 

[normanack]

Very impressive! I love your rooster's picture-perfect comb points. He's gorgeous -- and your hens are not to be sneezed at, either. Pretty girls.

 

[CibolaChooks]

we cant tell for sure, cream is one of those genes that when in heterozygous form cant be express...

some of you may also be asking yourself this questions, is my bird het for cream?(when too rich of colored) or is my Bird Silver instead of cream(also genetically possible, when they look like silver crele)

this is quite simple to test for...

for cream testing you can get your hands on a good cream colored hen and cross breed your best colored males. if 50% of the males mature to be good colored males, then you have heterozygous cream on your roosters.. now if none of your roosters come out looking like correct colored cream. then cream is absent from that rooster. so hatch as many chicks you have can(30 at least)

as to test if your males or your line is Silver or not(some UK lines look straight up silver) get your hands on an incorrectly colored hen(gold crele looking) but with good type... Cross you best looking light male to this gold colored hen.. IF ALL of you hens come out looking like silver(hatch 30 at least) then the rooster is infact Silver..


its quite notable that one could start with a Silver legbar and cross it to gold Creasted legbar stock(that lacks the cream gene) and end up with birds that look like the CCL but are infact Silver, there is basically no way to know it just by looking at them as may silver males can show chestnut on their shoulders yet retain silver hackles and saddles

example. the Silver Crele Wyandotte, its hard to get them all Silver.(autosal red is one tough gene to get rid of). not this rooster lack cream and when mate it to any gold hen will produce Silver Crele females. source http://spottedwyandottes.webs.com/lgebtmcreles.htm







so if any of you want to take the short rout to "Cream Crele" looking birds by using your already red enhanced birds(by autosomal red) you may very well be able to pull it off shorter than you think if you use a Silver Legbar Male(if you can get your hands on) or a Silver Crele Leghorn male. nobody would be able to notice the difference, would be much easier to work with(silver is dominant, cream is recessive) while improving type.. would be no different than breeding for type on a gold creasted legbar line, while waiting for those nice colored birds to finaly land on your hands...

dont flame I was just letting my Theorist side loose on you guys...

Yay someone who knows it takes allot of work to know if you have cream or not.

Finally someone with sense who's not so quick to tear someones birds down. keep up the good post nicalandia. I am currently doing the test you laid out for us. I will see exactly what i get and it will be then that i decide if i will breed those back to the parents or if i need to find a different roo and pullets. soooooo refreshing to hear someone who knows what it takes and isn't so quick to promote their birds over someone Else .

I'd appreciate some candid assessments of my Cream Legbar pullet and cockerel. Don't hold back, I can take it.




Many thanks!

Please don't listen to these people who think their birds are the best and everyone should go buy theirs. your roo has the bent comb and what not so you do have allot of work to do to get these to standard and with that comb you would probably want to start with a different roo.. but no one can tell you your birds are gold or anything. Ive seen so many people who instantly put someones birds down because their not cream color. Don't forget all these people with silver looking birds that everyone is praising with nasty combs and bent/creased small none pendant shaped ear lobes started with ones colored like yours. and with all the other faults just the cream color doesn't make them perfect. so when you go to get a new roo please look at his form and not just the color if you want to be successful at breeding them towards show quality in the end..

one of my females looks to be cream the others don't. I wont know until i have offspring from them then breed those offspring back to the parents. who knows maybe i have all gold maybe only one of mine caries a cream gene. i wont listen to any of it till the proof is walking right in front of me. If you start out with a single gene cream bird that's your first generation. the baby's from them would still be looking gold if only one of your birds carries the cream. Most people have two lines and at that different blood within those two lines. So you never know who actually has the cream gene or not until you have tested it like the post quoted above. Your second generation will hopefully be caring one cream gene and its not till you breed that 2nd generation back to the parent who had the gene that you will you be able to see and be sure if any of your birds have the cream gene. Its not until that 3rd generation you can be certain what you really have if your starting out with only one bird that carries the cream gene or maybe birds with no cream gene. Maybe after all these generations none of your birds have the cream gene, if you work on from and go buy a roo and hen that does have the cream color it will only take you 2 generations to get your birds back to cream. You can go buy a roo from someone who's birds look to be cream. but if you take that roo and put it over your gold hens (proved to be no cream in them)you still wont have cream birds till you breed that 2nd generations pullets back to that cream roo you just bought again.

Allot of people who now have the silver looking cream legbars might not have liked it if others on here were so quick to tear them down and say their birds are gold ( OH look at mine, buy my eggs). They would of had to ignore the nay Sayers breed their birds anyway to get those cream colored ones their so proud of.. Yours need allot of work but don't get discouraged it may very well be you have all gold or maybe some of yours will have the single cream gene you wont know till you hatch a ton of them and breed those back.

Right now the cream color is the last thing on my mind. I could care less i will hatch as many as possible and see how they come out like post quoted above. I will cull very hard towards the standard and if i get cream by the 2nd or 3rd generation happy days. if i don't who cares, the person i got mine from is already a year ahead of me and I'm sure by then i can get some quality birds of form not just color from him and get that cream color back after a few generations.