Cream Legbars

Aloha kakou.

I started a new thread called White Sport Cream Legbars. If you have any experience with white sport cream legbars, please visit the thread and share any knowledge or advice that you may have.

Mahalo, Puhi
 
With all the discussion of roosters and breeding methods (I've learned a lot from all of you! Thanks!) I'd like to know more about how people are managing having multiple roos. I'm not yet doing any real breeding and would like to have ideas for pens and coops if and when I do -- on a very modest scale.

Currently I have one large coop, a good-sized chicken yard, and a hardened run (like a dog kennel). All the chickens are together in my hobby/laying flock. Eventually I'd like to breed my pair of heritage Barred Rocks (their original breeder will provide me with hatching eggs to vary the gene pool) and my trio of Cream Legbars (until I can afford to buy one or two more).

Do you keep your breeding birds in separate smaller quarters permanently? Do you switch them in and out of a larger space and flock? Do you keep a bachelor pen, or allow roosters in with the hens? Thanks for your thoughts and advice.

I have one rather large hen house all the females and my original two roos are in. This pen can be split up into 4 different breeding pens in the spring. the wire is rolled up and pushed to the side and stays in the pen in case i need to separate anyone for any reason. I set up two breeding pens for my best two CL roos hatched this year and took the best two hens from my original stock to put in with the two boys. Due to certain form features and crest and what not i know i don't have the boys in with their moms. I have maid 6 new breeding pens total this year 4 of which are for different breeds that will be permanent pens for them to live in. They are smaller but have adequate space for a permanent home. I will swap out hens or roosters when i get some that move more towards the SOP. This years grow out pen has become my extra roos pen. And ill probably have to build another grow out pen next year.

Whoops .

As far as knowing what hen laid what egg and which babies belong to what hen. You can put food coloring in their vents. the eggs will be colored and you can determine who laid what and which hens lay in which box. once you figure that out you can build separators or hatching treys that you can move the eggs into right before lock down. That way you can track which hens eggs are hatching and you can toe punch the babies or use leg bands to keep track of them as they grow. If you only keep pairs in your breeding pens its even easier and the eggs can be marked and put in hatching treys and the babies moms will always be known. if you toe punch them you can throw all the babies together and you will always know which chickens belong to which pairs as they grow. the bands can fall off. Their are ways and it can be rather easy to tell which babies belong to certain hens. Also if you only keep pairs in your pens you can certainly know what your parents are producing compared to other pens. you can then determine real quick which roos or hens you want to keep or how to shuffle them to get better results towards the sop.
 
Hmmmmm - if I build the dividers big enough so the just hatched chicks stay separated from each other during the fluffing out stage, then I can mark them (band them or whatever) when I move everybody out of the incubator. Having the just-hatched chicks crawling all over each other while drying out was the part where all my plans were going astray. Having a couple of small incubators, rather than one big one, might also help. LOL How did this "borrowing a chicken to eat the squash bugs" turn into this obsession with breeding legbars? Sneaky birds.
 
Hmmmmm - if I build the dividers big enough so the just hatched chicks stay separated from each other during the fluffing out stage, then I can mark them (band them or whatever) when I move everybody out of the incubator. Having the just-hatched chicks crawling all over each other while drying out was the part where all my plans were going astray. Having a couple of small incubators, rather than one big one, might also help. LOL How did this "borrowing a chicken to eat the squash bugs" turn into this obsession with breeding legbars? Sneaky birds.

yuckyuck.gif
It started with borrowing? Yes, very dangerous.
 
I put a nest box and dummy eggs in my CL coop today. My flock is 21 weeks old and are starting to show signs that they are getting near POL. Two of my four pullets have nice red combs and wattles and my head cockerel is looking for action. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will lay in the next month instead of waiting for the spring.
fl.gif
 
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I started the summer with 7 chickens. Now I have 68 plus another batch being shipped from GFF in the next few days. How did this happen? Maybe we need a Cream Legbar support group..let's call it CCL Anonymous.

"Hi, my name is DCchicken and I am a Legbar breeder."
 
Th
:yuckyuck   It started with borrowing?  Yes, very dangerous.


That person who "loaned "you a chicken is the worst kind of enabler! I have had people ask to borrow baby chicks. Just during the cute phase. But I held out, knowing that then they would ask to borrow a chicken coop and then maybe some acreage. LOL.
 

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