Cream Legbars

[Ashdoes]

DCchicken, that is exactly why I will probable not continue with the Creams next year. I thought it would be a lot of fun, to breed and sell these beatiful crested birds, that happen to lay beautiful blue eggs. It is not. They need so much work. I only have one hen that is correctly colored, and my male is crap. Luckily the male chicks seem to be looking better right now, but I don't have the willpower to grow out 50 birds hoping for a trio that look decent.
It's fun right now, hatching the chicks and I'm selling most of them, but I just can't imagine next year being any easier. We'll prob break even on the parent stock, but in no way would we make money on this.
At the end of the season I'll keep 7-10 pullets, just to keep my egg basket diverse, but that is all. I hope one day, every chick that hatches is perfect and guaranteed exact SOP.

 

[GaryDean26]

--End of Rant

A poultry book I recently read that was published many years ago had some really amusing commentary. The author said that he is never impressed by people that advertised they were selling "John Smith's" line of birds, "Bill Johnson's" line of birds, or "Jim Taylor's", line of birds. He said that the those with good birds will tell you where a certain cockerel or a certain hen was sourced from or breed from if you ask, but that they treat all their birds as their own and sell them based on their merits alone and don't base their value on what line they are from. I think that about everyone that is making good progress with their Cream Legbars is now taking credit for the progress they have achieved. If offered some Rees line birds to work with I think that about every one of them would accept them and use them to improve their line, but it would probably be a much smaller portion that would advertise that they received or were using Rees line stock because the value in the line is what it brings to the quality of your line, not the name it brings to your line. I would hope that people that are making the investment to get better stock. I am still spending $2 for every $1 I recover through sales of surplus hatching eggs and stock. It is my goal to some day break even, but I know that chickens won't make me rich and breed them for satisfaction of owning better birds that I would have if I buying them from others and that are custom tailored to my own liking.

Never saw any willow legs on my Basques only white before I selected away from it.

I brought in 19 Basque my first year to start my Basque flock. I saw white, yellow, willow, and blue shanks. I don't think I had a single cockerel that was complete for yellow skin and clear undercolor. I breed a white shanked cockerel my first year and got lucky with him being a carrier for the recessive yellow skin. There is always a lot to learn, and I find it fun when I can figure out what my breeders are carrying and predict the results. It is a game at times.

 

[DCchicken]

I want to apologize if anyone took my rant personally. It was meant as a little bit of advise. I was reminded of a client that came to me that bought some Bielefelders and said, "I can't wait to make a lot of money". So much focus has been on profit and not enough on fun. Chickens are fun. It should stay that way. Although it's been a long winter, so those little birds owe me some fun.

But for those that want to make a run for the mystical profit, just go into with eyes wide open.

 

[CibolaChooks]

A poultry book I recently read that was published many years ago had some really amusing commentary.  The author said that he is never impressed by people that advertised they were selling "John Smith's" line of birds, "Bill Johnson's" line of birds, or "Jim Taylor's", line of birds.  He said that the those with good birds will tell you where a certain cockerel or a certain hen was sourced from or breed from if you ask, but that they treat all their birds as their own and sell them based on their merits alone and don't base their value on what line they are from.  I think that about everyone that is making good progress with their Cream Legbars is now taking credit for the progress they have achieved.  If offered some Rees line birds to work with I think that about every one of them would accept them and use them to improve their line, but it would probably be a much smaller portion that would advertise that they received or were using Rees line stock because the value in the line is what it brings to the quality of your line, not the name it brings to your line.  I would hope that people that are making the investment to get better stock.  I am still spending $2 for every $1 I recover through sales of surplus hatching eggs and stock.  It is my goal to some day break even, but I know that chickens won't make me rich and breed them for satisfaction of owning better birds that I would have if I buying them from others and that are custom tailored to my own liking

Ive often thought this was funny. I see allot of ameraucana people do this. One in particular on the auction thread. People like to say that their Paul Smith lines and they think it sells their birds for them, and in some ways it does. But in reality they are no longer paul smith lines. He dosesnt pick the breeders and he doesnt decide who to cull so they are no longer Paul Smith lines. I have smith birds but i think of them as my own line with paul smith as supplying my original stock. That in it self is a big bonus but it still takes good decisions and proper breeding to keep a line in good shape

 

[WHmarans]

Maybe they're somewhat trying to give credit to the person that improved them up to the point where they obtained them.

 

[WHmarans]

I want to apologize if anyone took my rant personally.  It was meant as a little bit of advise.

1 vote for not offended. I have no dog in this race either way. I just love seeing pretty legbars with good egg color. I just really hope a fox doesn't get those super expensive birds!

 

[GaryDean26]

Yes, it is probably the same in all breeds. I know we have the Bev Davis, Wade Jeane, Ron Presley, etc. lines of Marans. I tell people what line my Marans are because some lines knick well together and others don't. I read in one of the old poultry books that farms would order RIR from three different sources when starting a flock and see which one thrived the most in there particular location, and we cull the other two lines. They would never cross the line of RIR because doing so would destroy all the consistency and be near impossible to regain. So identifying your line by the name of the breeder does have its place. Note: the old poultry book noted that most breeds didn't have the problems with crossing lines that the RIR did. In other breeds crossing lines was advised to start a flock and in those breeds once you had developed you own line the origin of your foundation stock didn't matter much.

 

[WHmarans]

So identifying your line by the name of the breeder does have its place, but once you have developed you own line that becomes obsolete.

How many generations do you think it is before it probably becomes obsolete? my wild guess more than 4 ?

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
it could become obsolete earlier than that if you are not careful, bad breeding can make lines obsolete very quick, but if you breed those lines with the same goals as the line starter you could extend that timeframe

 

[CibolaChooks]

Maybe they're somewhat trying to give credit to the person that improved them up to the point where they obtained them.

I imagine most are just giving credit to the original breeder.