Cream Legbars

[faykokoWV]

If they had blue feet then they would look just like my Cream Legbar x Bresse hybrids. I love the white crest. But personally I think it is going to be difficult to remove the white sports from the flock. Others will probably speak up about this. My Cream Legbars don't have that in them. I culled heavily to improve the flock and make it closer to the SOP. But if you do decide to keep them, I would recommend informing all buyers that your flock can produce them. Some people will not want to have to deal with white sports popping up in the hatches.

I agree - buyers would need to know - that is one of the reasons I mentioned the heritage of my flock - other GFF owners may see this pop up as well. I'm wondering if this gene is more prevalent in the lighter colored stock - As I said, this is 3'rd generation before this popped up.

Here is one of my adult roosters

 

[DCchicken]

I agree - buyers would need to know - that is one of the reasons I mentioned the heritage of my flock - other GFF owners may see this pop up as well. I'm wondering if this gene is more prevalent in the lighter colored stock - As I said, this is 3'rd generation before this popped up.

Here is one of my adult roosters

I hatch mostly light gray cockerels and have never seen white sports. But my Cream Legbars were Greenfire's 2013 line. So maybe it was removed by then. And I have hatched hundreds of chicks this year for swaps. Are yours from their earlier lines? I hear the earlier lines are better layers.

 

[bamadude]

I got 1 cream legbar chick to hatch from shipped eggs. Im a little disappointed. Pretty sure its a female tho

 

[chicken pickin]

I got 1 cream legbar chick to hatch from shipped eggs. Im a little disappointed. Pretty sure its a female tho

Thats a bummer but congrats on the chick that hatched.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I hatch mostly light gray cockerels and have never seen white sports. But my Cream Legbars were Greenfire's 2013 line. So maybe it was removed by then. And I have hatched hundreds of chicks this year for swaps. Are yours from their earlier lines? I hear the earlier lines are better layers.

I think you just got lucky. I've heard of white sports popping up from all the GFF lines.

Mine are from the earlier lines. My first year of hatching I saw NO white sports. The second year I saw about 1 in 20 white sports. This year (third year) it's more like 1 in 10. Yikes. I've brought in two boys from another line that has never had white sports. They will be my new breeding boys within a few weeks. I have a male white sport saved, and he will be test mated against each of my females to eliminate the recessive white carriers. But first I have an egg color problem that is more pressing, and these new boys should also help me fix that. I have one boy from my own male being test mated right now to check for egg color. The first set of his offspring are set to hatch in about 2 weeks.

 

[blackbirds13]

Quote:
I agree. I have stock from almost all the lines starting in October 2011 to the Rees lines now, so A, B, C and 2013 and I did not have this show up until last year in a July hatch. I had maybe 1 in every 2 or 3 batches of hatching eggs so I figured it was probably just one hen throwing them so I tried several pen set ups and got it down to a few suspects and rehomed them and my suspect rooster. My last hatches were free from sports. I think it may show up quite quickly for some but it may take a few generations for others. Hatching for just one year is not a good indicator at this point as the gene is recessive and can compound itself as it goes forward. I have the Rees line to add in so I may try test-mating the older laying girls I keep with a young white spot male I have and maybe the boys from my own flock with an older white sport hen I have but that will be later this year if I do or I may test for it next year but not sure I want to keep an extra rooster overwinter just for that so I may source one next year for this purpose, same with the hen. I'm not really bothered by it at this point and think I'll just test and cull if it shows up again.

Quote:
The tone of the stock is not any indicator. The gene is recessive so you won't know until it shows up. You can test your females by putting them in with the white sport individually and seeing what hatches. IF you get a female you can test your male. If you have more than one male rooster there is no guarantee they all carry the gene. You may find out you have stock within your flock that is free from the gene.

 

[GaryDean26]

I hatch mostly light gray cockerels and have never seen white sports. But my Cream Legbars were Greenfire's 2013 line. So maybe it was removed by then.

ha..ha..haa...If GFF hadn't fix the cream gene (something they can see) by 2013, then they surely didn't breeding out something they couldn't see (recessive white). I would assume that ALL cream legbars flocks in the USA have it.

If you are seeing white sports in you flock that means that your cockerel is carrying it. If you aren't seeing it in your flock that means that your cockerel/s probably isn't carrying it. I am guessing that about one out of 6-8 cream Legbars are carrying it in flocks that aren't seeing any white sports.

Flocks that are seeing white sports are producing 50% + carriers which is why you should tell people if you are seeing white sports. It makes the white sports 3-4 times more likely.

Really there is nothing wrong with the white gene. I think the white cockerel that FayKoKoWV posted is a nice bird. A few people are building all white flocks. The color is going to be 10 times easier to get right than the Cream Variety, so type in the whites should progress quickly (they will have to work hard to achieve reliable auto-sexing though which I think should be a goal for an auto-sexing breed).

Breeding it out isn't that hard. It just requires that you cross all your breeding stock to a recessive white bird (of any breed) and hatch a half dozen chicks from each bird. If they are all colored you can be fairly certain that your breeders doesn't carry RW. If they are a carrier the odds are that 50% will come out white so you should see at least one white in a hatch of 6 chicks.

 

[DCchicken]

ha..ha..haa...If GFF hadn't fix the cream gene (something they can see) by 2013, then they surely didn't breeding out something they couldn't see (recessive white). I would assume that ALL cream legbars flocks in the USA have it.

If you are seeing white sports in you flock that means that your cockerel is carrying it. If you aren't seeing it in your flock that means that your cockerel/s probably isn't carrying it. I am guessing that about one out of 6-8 cream Legbars are carrying it in flocks that aren't seeing any white sports.

Flocks that are seeing white sports are producing 50% + carriers which is why you should tell people if you are seeing white sports. It makes the white sports 3-4 times more likely.

Really there is nothing wrong with the white gene. I think the white cockerel that FayKoKoWV posted is a nice bird. A few people are building all white flocks. The color is going to be 10 times easier to get right than the Cream Variety, so type in the whites should progress quickly (they will have to work hard to achieve reliable auto-sexing though which I think should be a goal for an auto-sexing breed).

Breeding it out isn't that hard. It just requires that you cross all your breeding stock to a recessive white bird (of any breed) and hatch a half dozen chicks from each bird. If they are all colored you can be fairly certain that your breeders doesn't carry RW. If they are a carrier the odds are that 50% will come out white so you should see at least one white in a hatch for a 6 chicks.

I cheated and used a dominant white bird like the Bresse with a a Cream Legbar roo. Didn't want to take any chances with a recessive white. I wanted to go all in. Plus the blue feet with the white crest is pretty cool looking.

I still would highly recommend that people disclose it, if just to avoid the customer getting angry in six months when a possible white bird pops out. It turns the discussion into "Yeah you warned me that might happen" instead of the "this isn't a Cream Legbar".

 

[ChicKat]

I thought I'd share a picture of this little guy growing out - his parents were both CLB - I have 100% GFF stock and I'm on my adult birds are 2nd and 3rd generation out of my original stock

I have two of these boys that hatched this year.. I 'm still trying to decide what to do with them!

FaykokoWV -
nice little guys. One thing that is so interesting, is that they have nice tail angles, look good for type- - nice clear yellow on the legs - because of course they have no melanizers to put darkness anywhere. Sure would like to know what gives them the white. Thanks for posting.

 

[GaryDean26]

I cheated and used a dominant white bird like the Bresse with a a Cream Legbar roo. Didn't want to take any chances with a recessive white. I wanted to go all in. Plus the blue feet with the white crest is pretty cool looking.

DC we call cheats Hybirds. They are not considered Legbars and are totally different than a white sport. The most popular of these white crested hybirds are what people are calling SBELS (Super Blue Egg Layers) or Sapphires. The SBELS and Sapphires are created from Crosses to White Leghorns. I personally have a 17 month old White Crested Legbar Hybird that is from what we think must have been a Black Copper Marans/White Leghorn Cross. She is much larger than any of our pure Cream Legbars and lays an lime to olive green egg(which is also much larger than the CLB eggs).

I still would highly recommend that people disclose it, if just to avoid the customer getting angry in six months when a possible white bird pops out. It turns the discussion into "Yeah you warned me that might happen" instead of the "this isn't a Cream Legbar".

Yes...to improve the Legbar we need to have uniformity in the offspring. This mean separating the colors from the whites. If your are seeing white sports then the colored offspring from those pairing are going to be 3-4 times more likely to be carriers which could make a lot more culls for people that don't want the white offspring. No one should assume that they don't have recessive white in their flock though. It IS in the North American blood lines and if you have not test mated for it you have to assume that it is hidden some where in your flock.