Cream Legbars

[GaryDean26]

My next question is going to be how much do everyone's eggs and hens weigh ;-) My 4 lb hen about 9 months old lays about 64 or 65 gram eggs. They are steadily getting bigger as normally happens I guess.

The question I'm really thinking about is type.. so I wanted to start out with the goal of the chicken. If it is a layer and we don't really need it to weigh that much then the leghorn type makes sense. Leghorns are little and lay big eggs.

If we want a bigger bird for any reason (because the SOP says so? because they might fly less and be calmer? or other reasons) then the rounder type makes sense to me.

Personally I care about auto-sexing with egg laying primarily so all that makes me think the leghorn type would be my choice. The good feed conversion and flightiness of the leghorn are good things IMO because it should enhance that "predator avoidance" skill when free ranging that's been advertised for the breed.

It detracts some from the cuteness factor that the rounder birds have and risks taking away some pet quality to me.

Sorry for the confusion...I just checked the Henderson's guide and the largest breed listed as a Laying breed was the Miroca listed at 7lbs. Laying breeds that were listed at 6lbs included the Spanish White face, Redcap, and Catalane. Other medium weight layers would be the Americana (5.5lbs). By heavy weight layers I was thing of breeds that are good layers. Yes by definition a heavy weight layer breed IS a dual purpose breed. I am not sure what the in year laying records are for the Plymouth Rock or Orpington, but was thinking that I had heard of laying strains that lay 6 eggs a week at the peak of production. I am not sure what size eggs they lay or how much they eat but would think that you could still have an efficnet layer that is more than 4-1/2 lbs.

I put about 15 CLB hens (all over 12 months old at the time) on the scale in October before culling. The smallest hen was a hair under 4lbs. All the rest were between 4-1/4 to 5 lbs. I would have to check records, but think my average eggs size is about 65 grams. with about a 4 gram average egg size variance from individual hen to individual hen. My record is a 73 gram single yolk egg and 81 gram double yolk egg (both from the same two year old hen who averages about 69 grams eggs)

 

[WHmarans]

wow great data! I think that is about what my double yolk egg weighed from the hen that now typically lays 65 gram eggs and weighed 4lbs at about 8 to 9 months old. Looking at that great greenfire farms video they don't look like leghorns! They look more like your drawing to me.

 

[ChicKat]

This week we took a video of our Rees legbars. The video camera washes out the color a little, but you'll get the general idea. The HD resolution setting will give you more detail.

Thanks for the update, it's a beautiful video.

 

[DeltaBluezTess]

This week we took a video of our Rees legbars. The video camera washes out the color a little, but you'll get the general idea. The HD resolution setting will give you more detail.

Very nice birds and I hope some of their chicks make their way to the PNW ;-)

Diane

 

[CibolaChooks]

wow great data! I think that is about what my double yolk egg weighed from the hen that now typically lays 65 gram eggs and weighed 4lbs at about 8 to 9 months old. Looking at that great greenfire farms video they don't look like leghorns! They look more like your drawing to me.

The male does look like the drawing. Im really surprised about the female. I do think she looks a lil bit leghorn. When she stands up her neck and body looks pretty long and so are her legs. Normally jills hens ive seen with short stubby legs and small rounder body

 

[CibolaChooks]

This week we took a video of our Rees legbars. The video camera washes out the color a little, but you'll get the general idea. The HD resolution setting will give you more detail.

How much do these to weigh

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
I sense hostility coming from your post to me.. I am a walking genetic calculator and not a breeder, and I love helping around here, but I think I am going to think twice, next time I am around here, and let you do the helping

 

[WHmarans]

The male does look like the drawing. Im really surprised about the female. I do think she looks a lil bit leghorn. When she stands up her neck and body looks pretty long and so are her legs. Normally jills hens ive seen with short stubby legs and small rounder body

Hi Steen, I should have put a little more clarification in my comment. I was talking about the Greenfire video looking more like the proposed CL drawing... rounder than a leghorn. So it sounds like we agree.. your female looks a little more leghorn type. But your girl still doesn't look quite as sleek as a leghorn to me. But I definitely have not seen show quality leghorns much.

Or are you saying the hen in the video looks a little leghorn to you too? That would be surprising to me. The video hen looks rather roundish to me.

 

[CibolaChooks]

I think she looks between the two. there's only one second you can see the length of her body clearly. And for a few seconds how long her neck is. Her legs are surprisingly long for a jill bird. Even my one hen if shes bent over picking at the ground her neck looks shorter and can look rounder. Theres a few sec of the vid you can see the hens real form

 

[GaryDean26]

Quote:
Nope...just don't see why you won't let me call a breed that specifies 6# hens a medium weight breed unless I can produce some type of document where Mr. Pease refers to them as a medium weight breed. You are the walking Genetic calculator, and I am the walking Cream Legbar History book. On your watch you will keep people corrected on the genetics. On my watch I will keep people corrected on the history.

The history of Auto-sexing breed is that the stuff coming out of Cambridge were NOT true to the type of the foundation breeds. The Cambar for example being the first of the auto-sexing breeds was accepted with an SOP that required 8lb cocks, white shanks and feet, and red ear lobes, even though the Campine SOP was for 6lb cocks, slate/blue shanks and feet, and white ear lobes. They were obviously not breeding to the type of the Campine when they created the Cambar, but rather taking the most vigorous and strong birds from every cross to take advantage of the good qualities of both breeds and arriving at the end of the project that was a new breed being neither Campine not barred Rock, but rather a blend of the two making it a Cambar. The same was true for the Legbar. They apparently were not breeding to the Leghorn type (even if they did use a lot of out crosses to Leghorns to increase egg production or used the Leghorn type as their model when considering what a good laying breed should be built like) but rather were keeping the strongest birds from every cross and retaining good qualities from all the foundation breeds not to create an auto-sexing Leghorn, but rather a new breed that was neither Leghorn nor Barred Rock but a Legbar.

I don't feel our aim is for an auto-sexing Leghorn that lays colorful eggs. I feel the Legbar is a unique breed and deserves being preserved and breed to it own standard not breed to the Leghorn standard.