Cream Legbars

[KPenley]

@Enola, if you have the patience to wait....wait until some point between October and March and try again with a CL hatch. I had terrible luck hatching during the summer ( you know, April through September lol) but great 100% hatch rates during the cooler months.

 

[enola]

It is not a fertility problem though. The chicks develope they just die on day 19 or 20 without pipping. And it is only the CL eggs. Chicks from CL rooster X Leghorn chicks are all hatching.

I have some EE rooster X CL hens eggs in the incubator to see what happens.

 

[chicken pickin]

My legbars have arrived and I'm excited to get pretty eggs mine are 15wks old when should they start laying

Congrats on your new Legbars! From what I hear people say roughly 24weeks is a typical age for a CL pullet to start laying though like all chickens the range can vary quite a bit.

 

[speedy2020]

It is not a fertility problem though. The chicks develope they just die on day 19 or 20 without pipping. And it is only the CL eggs. Chicks from CL rooster X Leghorn chicks are all hatching.

I have some EE rooster X CL hens eggs in the incubator to see what happens.

Have you try to control the humidity 40-45% on the 1st 18days? I have great success with Brinsea Eco 20. I filled 1 reservoir with water for the 1st 18th days. At lock down I filled both reservoirs and add a towel to increase the humidity to approximately 65-70%. I am only candle the eggs 10 & 18 days so less chance of transfer bacteria to the egg.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Chickenpicking, what antibiotic did you use after the tetracycline?

My eggs are fertile. They develop right up to lockdown and then die before pipping.

When I cross my roosters with other breeds they hatch with no problem. So the problem may be my hens. They all came from the same place.......

It was I who mentioned the tetracycline. While treating with tetracycline all eggs laid during that period hatched and thrived. After I stopped the antibiotic (two week course) I went right back to losing chicks. It was knocking the infection down but not eliminating it, I needed something more powerful. I took some dead chicks in for testing at the state university. They cultured the bacteria from the yolk sac infection and determined it was an e coli infection most sensitive to Baytril and Bactrim DS. My vet would not prescribe Baytril, he said something about the USDA was coming down hard on vets in the US who prescribed it for poultry even though it is commonly used in poultry in other countries. The Bactrim did the job though. Costed me a whole breeding year, too!

I have had marginal hatch rates, too. At first I put it off to shipped eggs. Eggs from my own layer flock I hatched side by side hatched great in the same incubator. Last hatch I got 11/19 hatched of the Cream Legbars set. A few were infertile, a few early quitters and 5 that I eggtopsied that DIS very late--they had begun to absorb the egg sac then died. Not sure why, didn't culture them. I did incise the skin over the skull (calvarium) to see if there was an obvious hernia. There has been speculation in Swedish Flower Hens that late DIS might be due to skull problems from two copies of the cresting gene. In a normal chick, there is a small fontanelle (gap between the two halves of the skull cap or calvarium) that runs down he midline and in these DIS chicks I did find the brain tissue was not protected/the overlying bone was thinner or absent than expected. It could be that the dead chicks had already decomposed several days before necropsy as they sat in the incubator, or perhaps they did not get the extra 2 days of bone growth to make the calvarium thicker. That was really the only thing I saw that was not as expected.

I also had a 50% hatch rate under my broody. So for whatever reason, I am only getting about a 50% hatch rate from my unrelated hens (roos are from 1 breeder, 2-lines, 2 hens are from another breeder--2 lines, one hen is from a 3rd breeder). If I figure out if there is a temp or biological issue, I will for sure post my results. in the mean time, know that you are not alone in your results!

I would see if you have a nearby lab or university that will test either your birds or some eggs/chicks and see if there is something else going on. It costed me about $100 for the testing and cultures, and about another $100 for the vet visit and antibiotic. But then I knew what was going on and exactly what to do to fix the problem. I have never had this problem in my Cream Legbars- only in my Isbars. But that was my experience.

Congrats on your new Legbars! From what I hear people say roughly 24weeks is a typical age for a CL pullet to start laying though like all chickens the range can vary quite a bit.

X2

 

[Kathyb2]

I just hatched a pair of cream legbars. I am not new to chickens. I would like to try breeding legbars and I have never done that. It is going to take me awhile to read all 500+ pages of this thread

. My legbars came someone who purchased legbars from Greenfire farms in 2013. How would I find hatching eggs that are not related to the two chicks I have?

 

[bamadude]

Personally im glad the thread is called show off your roosters instead of the other term.

 

[chicken pickin]

So Im wondering if possibly my newest little lone chick to hatch might not be pure CL. Its markings and color seem slightly off and it has a very tiny black dot on its head. Unless it is just a bad example of a male CL chick but I haven't run into that problem yet so Im not sure.

If it is a cross it would be a Silver Spangled Spitzhauben cockerel x Cream Legbar hen. He did jump the fence a few times while I still had him but Im not sure he mated the hens.

This is the chick

 

[caychris]

So Im wondering if possibly my newest little lone chick to hatch might not be pure CL. Its markings and color seem slightly off and it has a very tiny black dot on its head. Unless it is just a bad example of a male CL chick but I haven't run into that problem yet so Im not sure.

If it is a cross it would be a Silver Spangled Spitzhauben cockerel x Cream Legbar hen. He did jump the fence a few times while I still had him but Im not sure he mated the hens.

This is the chick

Doesnt look CLB to me.

 

[ChicKat]

I just hatched a pair of cream legbars. I am not new to chickens. I would like to try breeding legbars and I have never done that. It is going to take me awhile to read all 500+ pages of this thread

. My legbars came someone who purchased legbars from Greenfire farms in 2013. How would I find hatching eggs that are not related to the two chicks I have?

There are probably several ways that you can insure some genetic diversity to begin your breeding line.
1. You could get hold of some of the Jill Rees line,
2. You could get chicks from someone who's originals came from GFF in 2011 or 2012.... some people are very serious about their records...
3. You may even find someone near your own location that will have Cream Legbars that you know will most likely have a different parentage than the ones that you have.

I have heard that even a different premises can be beneficial. Be sure to ask the person that you are getting the eggs from as much as you can about the background of the parent birds and the length of time that they have had them. The Cream Legbar Club -- www.creamLegbarClub.com has a list of the dues paying members on the website - and those who are interested in selling have it listed by their name.

Congratulations on your hatch...and best of luck with your Cream Legbars.