Cream Legbars

[Jewls819]

I copied(and now pasted) this quote from the Cream Legbar Standard of Perfection Thread



Originally Posted by ChicKat

I know all of you have seen this plate from Punnett's writing in Black & white

http://www.ias.ac.in/jarch/jgenet/41/1.pdf --> last page.

But I don't know that everyone has seen it in color

Great info! Thank you!

 

[Jewls819]

I would follow @chickat suggestion of banding the legs. You could then photo essay their growth and compare feather color (I'd love to see that). My four males had this color at hatch. All still resemble in color.

I'll post new pick at 12 sthis weekend.

Yes I will do that! I am so excited to start this project.

 

[Jewls819]

Looks like I might have been wrong about the sex, but good luck on your next eggs!

Hey we are here for the learning..I was not 100% sure myself. Thank you! I cant wait to hatch out more! I love my Dominiques but I have wanted Cream LB from the beginning.

 

[ChicKat]

Looks like I might have been wrong about the sex, but good luck on your next eggs!

I think that one was a bit of a difficult call-- until we really focus on the stripes for diffuse...Sometimes it seems like a female has darker stripes surrounding the light ones - or a bit darker down to make her stripe stand out... and it probably had more than one person going toward female for a bit. The really good thing too is that it helps us see in a photo what 'more diffuse' looks like.

:O)

 

[chicken pickin]

So I was thinking about next seasons breeding plans and I am trying to decide what I want to work on. I think I might have 3 pens going and likely working on different traits in each pen.

Pen 1 I may try to work on improving color and straighter combs
Pen 2 I think I will work on back length and tail angle (this pen I was going to do brother/sisters mating because their backs and tail angles are great, any opinions on this?) I may or may not do pen 2 Im not sure yet.
Pen 3 is the Rees pen and next season will just be hatching everything and growing them all out to see what I end up with

I was curious as to what you all cull for automatically even on an otherwise decent bird, what is a trait that is hard to work with and get out of your flock?

I have a cockerel that is to be culled and I noticed he has yellow tinged earlobes, I do not want yellow earlobes in my flock. He is a cull regardless but for future knowledge will the yellow earlobes show up dominant over white or will offspring be 50/50 yellow/white? I think I may have a pullet with yellow earlobes though she is still very young and Im not sure if I should use her, though I like her otherwise. I am leaning towards yellow earlobes being an automatic cull in my program but I am very new to breeding so I would love thoughts on this.

Also eye color, I have one hen that has a kind of greenish tinged eyes and so far most off spring have the reddish bay one of her daughters I have also has green tinged eyes. Also I just picked up a second Rees pullet yesterday and I guess didn't give her a very good look over since I was in a rush and I noticed her eyes are more on the yellowy side also. Id love to hear thoughts on working with eye color.


If anyone else wants to share there plans for next season I would love to hear them.

 

[KPenley]

Automatic culls for me this year are wry tail, squirrel tail, any other deformity, attitude, lack of crest, and health issues. In terms of color (if it shows up) I will cull for red earlobes, wrong color legs, recessive white, and lack of ig/ig.

Plans for next year include working on increasing size and proper shape in all lines, while keeping an eye on tails and color.

 

[GaryDean26]

My first year I focused on straight combs, laying ability, egg size, and weight. I culled for physical defects as well as green dermal spots on the legs, hen spurs, side sprigs (yep the only on in the flock with a sprig had to be the hen with the best type and color), low body weight, and non-crested birds

My second year I focused on size, tails, and full breasts. I culled for the same things as in the first year, and added red on the earlobes, high and pinched tails, autosomal red, and white on tail sickle feathers to the list.

This year I am going to go back to re focus on laying ability. I have a 15 pullets. I already have some favorites picked out for color and type, but we will see over the next 6 months who can get it done in the laying box before making any decisions on who to breed from that group.

I am pretty sure the yellow tinged on the ear lobes is recessive. My best cockerel and best pullet from last falls hatch both had it. I kept them anyways and both of them lost the yellow tinged as they matures. I was seeing about 50% yellow tinged 50% pearl white lobes from the group. I prefer the pearl white, but since the mature colors is white for the two that I kept with yellow tinged lobes I am happier with my decision to keep those two even though I want it breed out of my line.

Greenish eyes are a juvenile color. I have never seen them on birds after about 10 months old. If a mature hens has greenish eyes then I would work away from that in my breeding. I have seen what I call sunburst eyes. That is rays of color coming from the center to the outside of the eye. Some one mentioned in another breed that you want solid colored eyes and that the sunbursts were a color defect in the eyes. I didn't seen the sunburst in my other breed when I looked but did see in on some Legbar cockerels.

This is not the best example but shows some "sunbursts"



This eye is about the same color and has no ray come out from the center.

 

[ChicKat]

Also eye color, I have one hen that has a kind of greenish tinged eyes and so far most off spring have the reddish bay one of her daughters I have also has green tinged eyes. Also I just picked up a second Rees pullet yesterday and I guess didn't give her a very good look over since I was in a rush and I noticed her eyes are more on the yellowy side also. Id love to hear thoughts on working with eye color.


If anyone else wants to share there plans for next season I would love to hear them.

Just a word on green eyes... either in one of his books or in the seminar I attended (I think it was a book) Grant Brereton (UK poultry plumage genetic expert, editor of Fancy Fowl magazine, UK poultry judge -and much more) - said that we should wait until they are 2-years old to select breeding hens because that is when green-eye shows up and in the UK it is considered undesirable. -- (may depend on the breed) -- Most folks don't have the luxury or desire to wait for 2-year olds - but it does guarantee a line with some longevity and you definitely know how that chicken will mature...(size, plumage after molt, weight etc.etc.)

I do know what GaryDean26 is saying about blue in youthful eyes...we even used to have some calves that were born with a bluish color to the eyes - that became brown at maturity....

Eye color is definitely something we should be paying attention to.

 

[chicken pickin]

Thank You everyone for you comments so far on what you feel are cull points in your programs. I always love to hear what others are doing and also the results they are getting when they decide to work with certain undesirable traits.

Also thank you for your thoughts on eye color and yellow earlobes. I have yet to see the sunburst eyes show up but I will keep a look out. I will definitely keep an eye on the girls that so far are not showing the correct eye color, 2 are just very young pullets so color may still change and the other is a 1 year old hen so her eyes are green. I do plan to use them in the breeding pen for now since I am still trying to build up my flock. Eventually though birds with incorrect colored eyes will be completely removed.

As for the earlobes, I just love the white white lobes, I haven't made a full decision yet because I am still so early on in my breeding of my CL to cull too hard. So far earlobes in my flock are decent and white so I dont want to backslide. But I do think my plan is to cull out all yellow earlobes and red leakage earlobes if they show up.

 

[kattington]

Is this a roo? This chick was sold to me as a Cream Legbar pullet at 8 days old. It is almost 5 weeks, and I noticed red wattles today. I'll post a pic of it at 8 days old too. Can you still auto sex them at that point?