Cream Legbars

[GaryDean26]

I like to hatch a small number of the second week eggs (of any promising girls), just in case something happens to the adults. Got the idea from Curtis

Then I like to wait for a while to watch for mature type and egg production. 1 year + seems to be the average age recommended by show OTs.

Guilty....yes I put three eggs from each of my foundation hens in the incubator for a "test" hatch about two weeks after they started laying. When those eggs hatched and we had two health cockerels and two healthy pullets we dediced to go ahead and build our flock. One of the pullets had a bound egg when she was about 9 months old and we lost her, but we were able to hatch (and keep) 6 pullets from her eggs before losing her (the last one hatched just hours after their month died). Now that her daughters are 12-14 months old we have selected the best one from that pullet and have been collecting eggs from her for the past two weeks to cary on that breeding line. Both of the pullets that we got from that hen in our test hatch are alive and doing well. One was rehomed last month to our elderly farmer across the street that loves the cream legbars and keeping talking about his "all blue hen" flock and other is in our sales pen where she continues to out lay half of the flock and although cream in color has a flaws that we decided not to breed forward (she is our #2 hens from the breeding line of the hen we lost). Going forward we will wait untill the pullets are at least 12 months old to hatch thier eggs, but when starting out we wanted to have some insurance in the incubator and to build our flock up quickly.

 

[write2caroline]

They do have nice stock. I had a cream Legbar Rooster and he was Glorious. He had a little bit of a crest but the pullets was not too poofy. Her eggs were almost green too. She was lovely too. Not friendly but I enjoyed watching them both. I thought the Roo would get feisty but he never did. He was really good with all my girls. I hope you enjoy your Cream Legbars.




Caroline

Unfortunately, I lost them both last summer but I plan to order more from GFF next spring.

 

[normanack]

write2caroline, I'm so sorry you lost your chickens. I hope the new ones are as lovely.

 

[normanack]

Cockerel questions:
1. What do you think of this guy? (He's about 20 weeks old.)
2. Given that he hatched from one of the two known (as far as I know) light-brown-egg-laying Cream Legbars in the U.S., would you sell him as a breed-unspecified chicken? Or a suspect-lineage (egg color) Cream Legbar?
Thanks for your thoughts.






In this photo he's the smaller one in the middle. For comparison, the hen on the right is an absolutely enormous Coronation Sussex, and the cockerel on the left is the same age as him.

 

[chicken pickin]

I was just curious as to what size crest is ideal in both a rooster and hen? I haven't seen too much talk about the crests to know what to select for in that area.

 

[HaplessRunner]

also, just FYI, i recently hatched two hybrid chicks from a CL hen + swedish flower rooster -- when they hatched, one had a HUGE white dot on its head, the other looked mostly chipmunk-y -- but both are now (at about 4 weeks old) looking like boys, so the auto-sexing traits have definitely gotten muddled...

I would love to see some pictures of these. Post them on the cream legbar hybrid thread.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/825092/cream-legbar-hybrid-thread

 

[ChicKat]

Thanks for your help ChicKat! That makes sense to me I was a little unsure when I bought it.

I just bought these 2 chicks yesterday from a local breeder that has purebread Cream Legbars to add to the ones I hatched last week myself... none of my blue egg layers hatched. I also hatched German New Hampshire (yellow chicks), Black Copper Marans (black obviously), Olive Eggers (gray chicks) and Welsummers.... so those are the other chicks in the brooder with these new ones. Really excited to have a couple of this cool breed!

Thanks again for your help.

You are very welcome. Nice chicks---don't forget to post updates!!

 

[ChicKat]

Of the 9 female CLs I have in my brooder, 2 of them have the chipmunk stripe and had a white dot on their head. Now that they are 3 weeks old, the 2 have clearly grown into females. On one, the spot grew into a crest (which I have never seen at 3 weeks). The other one's one spot just sort of fell out. I remember reading somewhere that the British standard allows for white spots on female chicks as long as the chipmunk pattern is distinct. But if I am wrong, most likely someone here will correct me.

All of my CLs came directly from GFF and are a mix of their 2nd line and their 2013 line.

Here are some pics of the females that had white spots.

And here is the top chick at 3 weeks:

Such cute chicks! As I understand it a white head patch (as yours show) is a requirement in female chick down for Silver Legbars - who knows perhaps it is an indicator of future silver or cream expression in adult feathers.... keep track! Post frequent updates. :O)

Some folks want to avoid any white patch on heads of female chicks so that there can be no ambiguity of chicks autosexing. I have had chicks with and without - but the large white on heads of males is distinctive -- so no doubts about chick genders.

 

[ChicKat]

Cockerel questions:
1. What do you think of this guy? (He's about 20 weeks old.)
2. Given that he hatched from one of the two known (as far as I know) light-brown-egg-laying Cream Legbars in the U.S., would you sell him as a breed-unspecified chicken? Or a suspect-lineage (egg color) Cream Legbar?
Thanks for your thoughts.






In this photo he's the smaller one in the middle. For comparison, the hen on the right is an absolutely enormous Coronation Sussex, and the cockerel on the left is the same age as him.

Maybe the lawyer's answer: " it depends...". if the person just wants a cockerel - then say mixed breed...IF the person selects your cockerel for breeding purposes... you would be obliged to do full and complete disclosure.

 

[ChicKat]

I was just curious as to what size crest is ideal in both a rooster and hen? I haven't seen too much talk about the crests to know what to select for in that area.

To some degree, it may depend upon the person raising the chickens.... Most people are going for a moderate - trim looking crest on the hens - Not too bouffant. For the roosters - the crests are much smaller once their combs grow full size..so I would say definitely smaller than the females.

You bring up a very good point -- Crests do deserve some attention from the Cream Legbar community. Everyone should weigh IN!!