Cream Legbars

[chicken pickin]

Hapless Runner- have your read the sex-linked thread? https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information Post 1 is long but VERY informative. I will apply my (limited) knowledge to your situation:

Sexlinks are made two ways.

1. Non-barred rooster over barred hens. This creates boys with a head spot and girls without (most black sexlinks/black stars are produced this way). You cannot create sexlinks with your setup because you are using a barred rooster (Cream Legbar). You will not be able to sex any mixed chicks using headspot. The headspot chick appearing male is purely coincidental in your case.

2. Gold (red)-based cockerel X silver-based hen. This creates gold/red female chicks and silver/white male chicks (most red sexlinks/red stars are produced this way). It is POSSIBLE you could come across that with your EE hen as there is no way to know if she is silver based or gold based without test mating. You could grow them out and see if it works.

As you can see from the sex-linked thread it is much more complicated than this, as some breeds work better than others even if they have the correct barring or gold/silver genes, but that is the simplified version of how it works.

Sorry for my limited knowledge of Cream Legbars But would they be considered to carry the gold gene? I have noticed that when I cross my legbar rooster over my silver laced cochins and silver laced wyandottes only 2 colors chicks are produced. Ive only done 2 hatches so far but even before reading this It seems my reddish brown chipmunk chicks are pullets while the silver and black chipmunk chicks look like roosters. Could I have possibly made sexlinks with this combo?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Sorry for my limited knowledge of Cream Legbars But would they be considered to carry the gold gene? I have noticed that when I cross my legbar rooster over my silver laced cochins and silver laced wyandottes only 2 colors chicks are produced. Ive only done 2 hatches so far but even before reading this It seems my reddish brown chipmunk chicks are pullets while the silver and black chipmunk chicks look like roosters. Could I have possibly made sexlinks with this combo?

I just edited to add that to my post.

"ETA: Cream Legbars are gold based in case you didn't realize that. The only way to make sexlinks with Cream Legbars is to cross a roo with a silver-based hen, or to put a CL hen under a non-barred rooster. And even that will only work if the chick down colors are light enough to see the difference between the males and females."

Yes you have accidentally created red sex links! Congrats!

 

[chicken pickin]

I just edited to add that to my post.

"ETA: Cream Legbars are gold based in case you didn't realize that. The only way to make sexlinks with Cream Legbars is to cross a roo with a silver-based hen, or to put a CL hen under a non-barred rooster. And even that will only work if the chick down colors are light enough to see the difference between the males and females."

Yes you have accidentally created red sex links! Congrats!

Very cool!!!That makes me happy. Thanks!!!

 

[harriedhomemaker]

whoo Hoooo -- yep, you need one just like that one. :O) Thanks for the link.
Not an experienced breeder, just a rookie, but I'm thinking in the perfect world...I would want 3 runs/pens for 3 lines so I could do spiral breeding, then a grow out pen for each sex, a sick-bay or quarantine pen...separated and far away. So I think Ideally I would divide a big run into about 5 spaces. Part of the time the grow-outs could be empty, and they wouldn't need to be as large. I find that my CL roosters have reached sexual maturity earlier than my pullets so I pull the roosters out by themselves to avoid stress on the pullets...who must be stressed enough just coming into lay - and that is a vulnerable time for pullets. JMO.

Good luck with it AND -- please keep us updated as you progress. Really interesting stuff.

Thanks for the input, Kathy.

I love advice and opinions, especially before embarking on something expensive and permanent!

Maybe our barn/coop building will provide content for a future article in a Cream Legbar Club newsletter.

 

[chicken pickin]

It just so happens I only have Cream Legbar rooster(no girls for him) so I made a pen for him with silver laced cochins and silver laced wyandottes also a silver penciled EE( I don't know if she would work or not). I have been calling the chicks EEs So I suppose I should start calling them Red Sexlinks I guess.

 

[HaplessRunner]

Hapless Runner- have your read the sex-linked thread? https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information Post 1 is long but VERY informative. I will apply my (limited) knowledge to your situation:

Sexlinks are made two ways.

1. Non-barred rooster over barred hens. This creates boys with a head spot and girls without (most black sexlinks/black stars are produced this way). You cannot create sexlinks with your setup because you are using a barred rooster (Cream Legbar). You will not be able to sex any mixed chicks using headspot. The headspot chick appearing male is purely coincidental in your case.

2. Gold (red)-based cockerel X silver-based hen. This creates gold/red female chicks and silver/white male chicks (most red sexlinks/red stars are produced this way). It is POSSIBLE you could come across that with your EE hen as there is no way to know if she is silver based or gold based without test mating. You could grow them out and see if it works.

As you can see from the sex-linked thread it is much more complicated than this, as some breeds work better than others even if they have the correct barring or gold/silver genes, but that is the simplified version of how it works.

Rinda,

Yes, I read this sometime ago and reread it recently. It is informative and I appreciate the link and your thoughts. There was no intention to create sex links and the pairings that occurred resulted from a convenience for me. As you noted, I had a barred rooster over an unknown (black-based) EE hen and the barred rooster over a red (gold)-based hen (RIR). which violates the rules for making sex links.

Given the violation of sex linking rules, I did find it interesting the traits that we see in our cream legbar chicks also occurred in these chicks. As I noted in the write up earlier, feather sexing did conform with both male and female determinations. So since I did not follow the rules to make sex links, however advertently or inadvertently, is there a reason for the apparent transmission of the autosexing characteristics on the appropriate genders in these chicks beyond coincidence? I certainly would like to know.

Tony

 

[GaryDean26]

I'd love to get input from the experienced breeders out there on breeding pen numbers/arrangement.

We are meeting with a contractor tomorrow to discuss building a barn. One of the lean-tos on the barn is going to used in part for a chicken house for my Cream Legbars.

If you had a 25' x 10' space to play with, how many pens would you divide it into? I don't plan on breeding any other breeds of chickens, though I am contemplating using part of the space for turkeys. I do have other chicken coops and pens that I can use for small breeding groups, but I plan to make the barn Legbar central. I am just getting started, so I really don't have any idea how many groups of CLs I will have as I attempt to improve my flock via breeding.

I was thinking of dividing it up similarly to this coop. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/big-coop

Thoughts?

This is what we did with our 25' x 10'. The coop already had the frame spaced at 4 feet a part so to make things easy we made our pens 4 feet wide when we had it converted into separate pens. It was designed to house 500 hen, free range flocks, for commercial egg but we had it divided up into five (5) 4'x10' pens, a storage room, and platform on the end to put 50 gallon water drums to attach automatic waterers to. One thing I like about this is that it has an Axel with car tiers that attach on the end by the storage room and water barrels and hitch on the other end that goes over the ball of my truck making this one big chicken tractor. We don't have enough land to rotate its location on a weekly basic like the free range commercial flocks do, but we do rotate every 6 months.


Front View of unfinished coop


Back View of Unfinished coop


Inside view of coop.


Front of coop with doors open.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Rinda,

Yes, I read this sometime ago and reread it recently. It is informative and I appreciate the link and your thoughts. There was no intention to create sex links and the pairings that occurred resulted from a convenience for me. As you noted, I had a barred rooster over an unknown (black-based) EE hen and the barred rooster over a red (gold)-based hen (RIR). which violates the rules for making sex links.

Given the violation of sex linking rules, I did find it interesting the traits that we see in our cream legbar chicks also occurred in these chicks. As I noted in the write up earlier, feather sexing did conform with both male and female determinations. So since I did not follow the rules to make sex links, however advertently or inadvertently, is there a reason for the apparent transmission of the autosexing characteristics on the appropriate genders in these chicks beyond coincidence? I certainly would like to know.

Tony

Good questions. With a Cream Legbar dad, all the chicks should be barred when grown and thus have a headspot at hatch. Some of your chicks only have the faintest hint of a headspot though so I guess it is hidden by another gene. Also the "chick striping" is called wild-type, Cream Legbars carry it and most EEs carry it, as well. I can't tell for sure in the photos, do the EE mix chicks have pea combs? Pea combs are really hard for me to sex until they are about 8 weeks old. I would be unsure of a certainty of gender on those two. I do agree the other chick with the headspot does look like a boy to my eye, again pretty young to be sure though. Post in a few weeks, I am interested in knowing your results!

 

[lonnyandrinda]

This is what we did with our 25' x 10'. The coop already had the frame spaced at 4 feet a part so to make things easy we made our pens 4 feet wide when we had it converted into separate pens. It was designed to house 500 hen, free range flocks, for commercial egg but we had it divided up into five (5) 4'x10' pens, a storage room, and platform on the end to put 50 gallon water drums to attach automatic waterers to. One thing I like about this is that it has an Axel with car tiers that attach on the end by the storage room and water barrels and hitch on the other end that goes over the ball of my truck making this one big chicken tractor. We don't have enough land to rotate its location on a weekly basic like the free range commercial flocks do, but we do rotate every 6 months.


Front View of unfinished coop


Back View of Unfinished coop


Inside view of coop.


Front of coop with doors open.

Awesome setup! I can't tell what is the thing sticking out next to each door? With the move we are making big plans for a coop. We are thinking of using a setup like this:




This would allow us to make an isle in the middle with 4 coops under the carport awning on each side (split by the pole dividers) with runs extending outwards, and have the shed area in the back for feed and supplies. We will still use our chicken tractors, etc, but these will be the secure pens for the $$$ chickens. We hope to have two to three CL pens, one to two Isbar pens plus we have ordered Jubilee Orpingtons, Croad Langshans, Exchequer Leghorns, and will have some Barnevelders, too all hopefully running next spring! Exciting stuff!

 

[normanack]

Thanks for the input, Kathy.

I love advice and opinions, especially before embarking on something expensive and permanent!

Maybe our barn/coop building will provide content for a future article in a Cream Legbar Club newsletter.

Ahem. I hereby request article submissions to the Cream Legbar Club Newsletter. Doesn't have to be done by an expert (the building or the writing!). Illustrations need not be formal. Just show us what works for you.

CLC Newsletter editor Anne