@Fire Ant Farm
You may get several different views with several different conclusions -- My oldest male is the quintessential gentleman with his hens. At one point I thought that he would starve because he was so activly giving food to the hens. LOL -- (He didn't of course)---- He is really gentle with the hens, and they don't get worn out -- or defeathered, even if only two hens are with him. He really is good. However, he will be what I call overly protective - to a fault. I notice when I work the pen he is in -- he will position himself between me and the hens....and although it is controlable, he will come after me -- but he actually hasn't 'attacked' in some long years -- but I do squirt his face with water if he gives me a 'hairy eyeball'. Of the others -- only one young one with two hens was wearing out the back feathers on one of them -- strangely - that one is terrified of me - and runs.
Newbie question here- Does it matter whether the chickens are cream or gold or are we striving for cream birds?There is a lot to learn still, but in general, cream pullets have a gray tone to their feathers and a whitish to pale yellow color on the first set of hackle feathers. These can change by the third set of feathers ( one of my lines goes from white to dark cream by that third set, probably because the adults are in the shade and the chicks in the sun), but those first feathers are a pretty good tell. If a bird has a lot of autosomal red they can have a brownish overtone to the wings and back, but the feathers are not brown. Non cream birds tend to feather in more warm brown and their first hackles are golden. But this can change line to line and breeder to breeder.
These are two hens who are similar in hackles.
This is a dark cream hen. Notice the cool gray tone to her feathers. She has a lot of red in her and passes that onto her offspring, but they are cream (wing tell in males, early gray and light feathers in females).
This is a gold, or one copy of cream though i have never gotten a cream bird out of her, hen. Notice the warm brown tone of her feathers.
My understanding of recessive genes is that it will show 'all or nothing' --- I use the example of recessive whites. a normal looking Cream Legbar could carry recessive white. You would need to have two copies of recessive white to have it show -- It doesn't produce a slightly lighter albeit normally patterned CL when only one copy is present.
Thanks for the input, everyone. So, it sounds like there's not a major tendency, just inter-individual variation in CL rooster behavior. I would never consider a rooster a pet - and I don't actually really think of the girls as pets - they're just sweet and fun to be with, so I agree with the livestock categorization. I am motivated to have them comfy with me so that they let me handle them if I need to check them out or tend an injury. I don't have little kids, but would not tolerate an attack from a rooster. ChicKat, that's an interesting point regarding good to hens/mean to humans and vice versa. It's anecdotal, but I spent some time reading centrarchid's thread on setting up his front porch family group of American game fowl (I think that was the breed), and those groups had extremely effective and protective roosters that regularly went to the mat for the hens/babies, but they were all very hand tame for centrarchid. So it's certainly possible, even with a more "wild" breed... (Not sure of the details of his "hand taming" techniques.)
Thanks for the info Ant Farm -
He does sound like the ideal!!!! A goal to aim for. Maybe the young one would be as nice? Keep 'em both and give the neighbors eggs. JMO.The adult Cream Legbar male I currently have is just perfect. He courts the hens wonderfully finds them food and is gentle on them, he always has a watchful eye on all his girls even though they spread all over the yard, he will walk from area to area to check on them. He has protected them from a hawk as of late and not a single chicken was lost. He also is gentle with all of the chicks that are running around with broodies, he eats with the chicks and also will stay close to the little ones. He is very tolerant of the juvenile males that are in the yard, he allows them to be part of the flock and only on occasion has to give them a little warning to keep off his hens and the juveniles quickly back down. He is also people friendly, he will hang around us and we can walk the yard with out us having to look over our shoulder. My kids do the chores sometimes and he just goes about his business with his hens and waits for food and treats to be thrown. He seems to know people are not the threat and he is the one to step out of our way when we walk through.
So far I find him to be the perfect male, the best I have had. The only issue I find with him is he is FAR from a good looking CL male, and early on I was planning not to keep him because I can only keep so many males around here. But because he is just an awesome male bird, I don't know I might just have to keep him. But it would be between him and one of my younger cockerels, and the cockerel is a better representation of the breed. AGH there is always decisions to be made
I have had a few nice CL males but have also had some not so nice CL males, some a little nastier than others. I will not keep a nasty male here, no matter how nice he looks.
