Cream Legbars

[caychris]

Im planning on going but only as an observer and possibly pick up a bird

 

[BeachBumBiddies]

Question for anyone who knows the answer...Are there crested & non crested Cream Legbars? Or are they supposed to all be crested? If they're not crested, does this mean they are a cross of some sort? Can I breed the crest in if they don't have it? Thanks in advance.

 

[ChicKat]

Question for anyone who knows the answer...Are there crested & non crested Cream Legbars? Or are they supposed to all be crested? If they're not crested, does this mean they are a cross of some sort? Can I breed the crest in if they don't have it? Thanks in advance.

Yes they are absolutely to be crested! Yes you can breed in the crest.

We are learning that the cresting gene is 'incomplete dominant' which - unlike completely dominant genes it means that if there is one copy it is influenced by the other gene.

So a Legbar with homozygous (two genes for a crest) cresting will have more expression than a Legbar with one cresting and one non-cresting gene or heterozygous.

Hope that is as clear as mud?!

 

[BeachBumBiddies]

Ok. Thanks. That's what i thought. Some of the ones I have don't have crests, but I am getting some Jill Rees stock & was wondering if I could/should breed them with my current ones that don't have crests, maybe to improve the line, but I don't want to muddy the Rees line either so I'm not sure what to do. Maybe just sell my non crested stock or breed the crests in?

 

[ChicKat]

Ok. Thanks. That's what i thought. Some of the ones I have don't have crests, but I am getting some Jill Rees stock & was wondering if I could/should breed them with my current ones that don't have crests, maybe to improve the line, but I don't want to muddy the Rees line either so I'm not sure what to do. Maybe just sell my non crested stock or breed the crests in?

Ahhh yes, it is that time of year to think about breeding strategy!!

So you have some with crests and some without. Certainly you will want to evaluate all the chickens and see which ones have the important traits that you want. One thing that is important and sometimes a bit 'tricky' is a nice comb. Of course the crest can 'interfere' with the comb. If you have one with a nice straight comb, that looks balanced, has 6 points and even serrations and a crest -- I would probably hold on to that one. If you have one that has good 'type' for a Cream Legbar -- that is another one to probably NOT sell. If you have a hen that is a really good layer of really nice blue eggs, there is another keeper IMO. It takes years to get a flock up to snuff...so think about what is most important to you and then find the chickens that you already have that match those qualities and hang on to them (a bird in the hand.....) If there aren't redeeming qualities on the ones that you have that lack crests -- it would be good to sell them to good homes as blue egg layers and then look for stock that has traits that you wish to incorporate in your flock.

 

[BeachBumBiddies]

Thank you. You have been extremely helpful. My cock bird seems to be of nice color & comb but has very little crest. The hens also have some traits I like & some i do not. I guess I will be taking a very close look at everyone to see who's a keeper (right after this cruddy weather clears up). Thank you so much.

 

[ChicKat]

Thank you. You have been extremely helpful. My cock bird seems to be of nice color & comb but has very little crest. The hens also have some traits I like & some i do not. I guess I will be taking a very close look at everyone to see who's a keeper (right after this cruddy weather clears up). Thank you so much.

A small crest on a male is not a bad thing BTW.... there is some gender influence on cresting too -- males always (well just about always) have a lesser crest expression that females... and the advantage of that is that it doesn't interfere with their combs. In the breed SOP, females can have combs that gracefully drape -- males are supposed to have combs that are straight and upright -- so a small crest on the male is a help with a good comb.

 

[chicken pickin]

Thank you. You have been extremely helpful. My cock bird seems to be of nice color & comb but has very little crest. The hens also have some traits I like & some i do not. I guess I will be taking a very close look at everyone to see who's a keeper (right after this cruddy weather clears up). Thank you so much.

If you get a chance you can post pics of your flock here we love to see new Legbar

And as always ChicKat gave you some good advise.

One thing I would like to add in is if you plan to breed your uncrested birds. It is to keep in mind that you plan to breed an uncrested CL to a crested CL to be able to get crested offspring, the offspring will only get one crested gene. If you then take those one crested gene offspring and breed them to each other or back to any other one crested gene CL, your next generation of offspring will either get 2 genes, 1 gene, or possible no crest gene. Im not sure if that even made sense lol.

My thought is if you have some non crested birds in your flock and if your other birds came from the same source then the crested birds could also potentially only have 1 crested gene and not 2 as required. In my mind if you are working with an incomplete gene the results might get muddied or confusing especially if you don't have good record keeping. Not to mention any eggs or chicks sold to other people, these people will then end up with this same uncrested/crested confusion also and not know what to do with uncrested birds, potentially repeating the cycle.

To me uncrested females should join layer flocks, uncrested males either sold off as a flock protector or for the soup pot. A moto that pertains to everything I do in life and I tell it to DH ALL the time is "Do it right the first time so you don't have to do it again" another good one is "Work smarter not harder". DH doesn't like working with me lol.

 

[chicken pickin]

A small crest on a male is not a bad thing BTW.... there is some gender influence on cresting too -- males always (well just about always) have a lesser crest expression that females... and the advantage of that is that it doesn't interfere with their combs. In the breed SOP, females can have combs that gracefully drape -- males are supposed to have combs that are straight and upright -- so a small crest on the male is a help with a good comb.

I agree with this. Im my CL flock I look for small crested males and medium crested females.

 

[chicken pickin]

Thank you! Thank you! I have got to figure out how to attach my computer to my phone Wi-Fi just so I can see my badges. Thank you to whomever nominated me !

Oh quick thought! If you use your phone to access BYC, when you are on the phone on the BYC website (any page) scroll to the very bottom of the page and there is an option for mobile/desktop view. HTH.