Cream Legbars

[sol2go]

I actually just joined that group yesterday! I will definitely check that out, thank you!

And yes, I have a major soft spot for animals! Always have and always will..
Since living here, I've picked up 22 strays in four years. Some had microchips so I would drop them off back with their families, others I fostered until someone was willing to adopt them.
There is a huge problem with people having too many animals here then abandoning them or not having adequate fencing to keep them contained to their property.
I guess I am also adding to the problem with my many chickens but I'm keeping them forever so it doesn't really count, right?

My neighbors have been eyeing my two Easter Egger's and Australorp so I am going to give them to her since she has a disability and cannot drive anymore.

I am asking the Jill Rees vs. Curtis Hale question regarding Cream Legbars because this Sunday I will be driving three hours towards San Diego to pick up a Lavender Orpington,
an Isbar, a Fremch Lavender Marans and a Cream Legbar. The Isbar, LFM, and CL will be from Secret Hills Ranch. They have both lines and asked me to pick one so of course I came here so you all can advise me since there's nobody I trust more on the matter than all of you.

Straight from Secret Hills Ranch:

We are very proud to have Cream Legbars from the first Greenfire Farms Import, Curtis Hale XL Egg Bloodlines, Cream Legbar Club Western Region Director Kristin Rye and from Greenfire Farms Import From England of Championship Jill Rees Cream Leg Bars.​

We have two groups of Cream Leg Bars that are completely unrelated bloodlines. The first grouping is a Jill Rees Rooster from Imported Bloodlines with several SHR Hens. The second is a Curtis Hale Bloodlines Rooster known for very large egg size being bred to SHR Hens. Please specify if you would like birds from our Jill Rees or Curtis Hale Bloodlines. Thanks!​

What do you guys think?

Those are reputable sources for CL lines, interesting phrasing. I have never been to Secret Hills Ranch but my niece lives in Alpine and has mentioned that SHR is a known resource in the area.

 

[Exotica]

Those are reputable sources for CL lines, interesting phrasing. I have never been to Secret Hills Ranch but my niece lives in Alpine and has mentioned that SHR is a known resource in the area.

I'll let you know how it goes!

From Secret Hills Ranch:

One of their hens


A Jill Rees roo

I am a bit unsure now since I noticed that their hen's color is incorrect. The SOP states hens should be cream and gray..
I may pick one up anyway since they're just going to be pets but what do you guys think?

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm pretty sure Chickens Galore vaccinates first day and then offers a booster. My friend has also taken her chickens purchased elsewhere to C.G. to be vaccinated.
fyi - there is a vet in my area that will vaccinate for Marek's, reasonable rates. She has also taught me how to do it, but sometimes I just prefer to take them in.

The booster explains the reviewer's visit back to Russell for vaccination. I had no idea there were boosters for Marek's. At what age are the boosters recommended? I never heard of discussions or researched any info that ever said anything about boosters - none of my breeders ever mentioned it to me either unless they just assumed I knew.

I have a vet also that I love for my chickens - he never mentioned vaccinations to me either. I guess everyone assumes you're an expert on medical issues regarding chickens just because there's a little coop in your backyard.

Can you PM with your vet's info? Sure would appreciate expanding my contacts.

Smiles and TY!

 

[Sylvester017]

I got a pullet egg today. She is 23weeks 5days. Its kind of a blue green, I cant tell lol. Looks bluer in the pic than I think it is, I see a green tint, my DD sees blue...

Beautiful depth of color! My Ameraucana's sky blue eggs photographed deeper than they looked from my naked eye which is why I don't post my egg colors. Too misleading depending on the camera taking the picture and what the computer color screen transmits back. My particular 'puter makes things look greener than they are so all my blues are "off." Gotta get my busy techy DH to fix it if he can.

 

[Sylvester017]

Turquoise perhaps? I love getting that color. Do you notice shell sheen? Most of mine are a matte or "eggshell" texture, only a few have a nice waxy or shiny sheen.

Does anyone else have Ameraucanas? I do get my most saturated truest blue from a Wheaten Ameraucana, and it happens to be shiny too.

I'd be interested to know if that egg has a double yolk? It looks like a really nice size for a pullet egg.

Hi - I too have a Blue Wheaten Amer and she gives a sky blue and not green like our friend's Amer. However our Amer girl gives a pale blue but at least it is blue (that is, whenever her Highness decides to lay for us!) Her eggs fluctuate in range from 2.1 to 2.25 oz. Once she layed 2.5 but never a double yolker. The only breed we have that lays a glossy rather than matte finish is our littlest Black Silkie who lays glossy pinks. The Partridge Silkie, White Leghorn, Buff Leghorn, and Marans layed more matte.

Anyone have any ideas on what causes one chicken to lay glossy and her fellow breed lays matte?

 

[Sylvester017]

I took a few pics of the pullet egg after I accidentally dropped it

I have a seriously bad habit of doing egg "photo shots" lol and often at least one egg falls to its death, some times more.

This is the egg after I pulled the membrane out of the inside. The inside definitely bluer than the exterior. I can now see the green hue better.





This is a moment before I dropped the egg, trying to get a pic showing its pullet size.


Egg pictures are hard as the colors often don't show true. I do believe it is bluer than my other eggs, though it definitely does still have a green tint.

Something I've noticed about my Ameraucana's sky blue eggs is that they are a pretty light blue but the moment my oily fingers touch the surface or the egg sits on the counter in the dish for a couple days or the egg is soft-boiled in the Egg Genie the outside shell turns greenish. Does this also happen with CL blue eggs too?

I love that the inside shell has the blue inside like the outside.

 

[Sylvester017]

I asked him if they were vaccinated and he said he wasn't sure.. It was too late to order the vaccine online by then since they were too old

My area code is 91706 and I know it's bad.. I'm probably going to get flamed but when I checked online it said I can only have 5 chickens
although my BOTH my neighbors that have lived here for over 30 years have about 30 each.

I started with 5 and then they came over asking me why I didn't buy more. I told them about the 5 max limit and they laughed saying they've lived here for years plus we have many people in my neighborhood that have over 5 chickens, but they don't speak English.
As long as they're all hens - I should be fine.
What's sad about this area is that there are many strays.. and the shelter is overflowing.
It's so bad that I've called animal control on this one house two streets over that keeps a full grown Light Sussex in a bird cage about three feet tall
and 2 feet wide by 2 feet tall.. The poor thing can barely move around. There is no roost and the floor is made of wires. That poor
chicken has never touched grass. It's been a month and when I call back animal control says they are too busy to come?
I ended up asking the owners to sell her to me for $40.. it got up to $60 but they said no and didn't speak English even though I had the cash out while I was pointing to her.

There is another dog with a huge tumor on it's neck that I've also called in but once again animal control has been too busy to come.


On Craigslist, it says his chicks are vaccinated but on Yelp some people say that he only vaccinates some? I've been very careful with biosecurity.
I don't let my neighbors that own chickens into my back yard but they do look at them through the glass door in my room.
Is it a risk if my neighbors have chickens on both ends next to my house? We have 6 foot walls separating both sides and theirs are kept in a coop with run while mine free range.

I'll check tomorrow and let you know since he is holding a Serama Show at his place!

There are many backyarders that exceed the maximum limits on hens and some push the envelope by keeping roos. It all depends on your neighbors. You're ok because you have chicken neighbors but if one of THEIR neighbors happen to complain it could trickle down to your yard being disbanded. It all depends on the mindset of your neighbors and neighborhood. Our neighborhood is fairly nice. But our friends two blocks away had to disband their flock because of a nasty neighbor that has been classified a nuisance caller by the City Hall but they still had to disband the flock because the authorities had to follow the letter of the law. If a neighbor complains about our 4 hens we are allowed to move them indoors as "house pets" up to 5 hens allowed (makes no sense but that's what the ordinance allows).

There's not much you can do about air borne diseases when you have chickens in yards on both sides of you. Wild birds will carry viruses, bacteria, parasites, worms, etc from yard to yard. That's why you have to have a worming and lice/mite maintenance schedule for chickens. We've tried keeping the wild birds out of the yard by changing to Brite Tap water nipples and treadle feeders for the chickens to deter wild birds, rats, mice, insects, etc but there's no way to completely keep out the pests. Therefore there's the need for routine health maintenance treatments. Keeping birds penned without free-range does not ensure they will be disease/parasite free.

And thanks for checking for me!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quick question - for Cream Legbars, would you rather go with the Jill Rees line or Curtis Hale line?

Thank you!

I'm not NEARLY as experienced as others here, but since no one else answered this question, I'll take a stab. In any chicken breeding program, you have choices about what features you want to encourage/keep, and sometimes you have to choose - if you work exclusively on egg color, you may struggle to accomplish the feather coloring or conformation you are looking for, and vice versa.

Honestly, it depends on what you are looking for and what you like, especially if you do not have roosters and are not planning to breed them.

The Rees line has produced some really beautiful birds, and their appearance appeals to a lot of people (Jill Rees has won awards in the UK for them); they are generally quite light in overall coloring. It is my understanding that the focus in the development of this line is coloring/appearance. Unfortunately, it seems that clear auto sexing has taken a bit of a hit, and in some of these babies, it's hard to tell girl from boy at hatch. There also seem to be more green eggs (vs blue) - but that may be anecdotal, I'm not sure what the actual data would show.

The earlier line (Hale, I guess) is darker grey (better if free ranging with hawks), more blue eggs (again, I haven't seen numbers/denominators, just seems to be what folks say), and pretty clear auto sexing at hatch (that is, easy to tell girls from boys). For example, I ordered a group of two pullets and one cockerel from Meyer Hatchery (via My Pet Chicken), which have the Hale line best I can tell. The little girls were dark grey with obvious female markings, and the boy was almost completely yellow - a no brainer (unfortunately, the boy didn't make it). In an earlier shipment I got a more yellowish pullet, but she still pretty clear female markings (though not a perfect head vee). Some in this line seem to have some more brownish coloring which may not be preferred per SOP (others will have to comment on this), but again, if you want backyard pets, it shouldn't matter.

Here's the thing, though. You are a sweet pet loving person. If you get a Rees-line chick and get a bum deal with poor auto sexing, you could get a "pullet" that turns out to be a cockerel, in which case it sounds like you would need to find another home for him. That could be hard on you as you get attached. If it must be a pullet, Hale line may be safer. Before you go, study as many chick photos of both sexes as you can find - then look at the chick you are offered to try to make sure you get a girl.

Final caveat. If these birds have been propagated beyond original source, some of these features may not hold true unless your source is breeding toward the standard or toward a goal (e.g., only breeding those birds that were born with clear auto sexing features). If the source is just making more baby CLs to sell and not selecting/culling, you may discover drift. Not sure how quickly it would happen, though.

Someone else PLEASE step in and correct any mistakes I make...

- Ant Farm

 

[KPenley]

I'll let you know how it goes! From Secret Hills Ranch: One of their hens A Jill Rees roo I am a bit unsure now since I noticed that their hen's color is incorrect. The SOP states hens should be cream and gray.. I may pick one up anyway since they're just going to be pets but what do you guys think?

I think I would ask for more pictures of stock lines before I chose. Curtis' birds are beautiful, and I lucked out and got a beautiful hen from the Rees line, so both have great possibilities. I haven't seen Kristin's birds in a while but I'm sure she worked hard on them too. The hen you pictured is probably light gold or a heavy carrier of red, but she does have a nice body shape. Hopefully she is paired with a rooster with a lower tail angle to bring that down. The cockerel is young and needs to finish growing in. Looks like he'll have a nice tail and coloring. I hope he is paired with a hen with a longer keel. Best wishes!

 

[Exotica]

There are many backyarders that exceed the maximum limits on hens and some push the envelope by keeping roos. It all depends on your neighbors. You're ok because you have chicken neighbors but if one of THEIR neighbors happen to complain it could trickle down to your yard being disbanded. It all depends on the mindset of your neighbors and neighborhood. Our neighborhood is fairly nice. But our friends two blocks away had to disband their flock because of a nasty neighbor that has been classified a nuisance caller by the City Hall but they still had to disband the flock because the authorities had to follow the letter of the law. If a neighbor complains about our 4 hens we are allowed to move them indoors as "house pets" up to 5 hens allowed (makes no sense but that's what the ordinance allows).

There's not much you can do about air borne diseases when you have chickens in yards on both sides of you. Wild birds will carry viruses, bacteria, parasites, worms, etc from yard to yard. That's why you have to have a worming and lice/mite maintenance schedule for chickens. We've tried keeping the wild birds out of the yard by changing to Brite Tap water nipples and treadle feeders for the chickens to deter wild birds, rats, mice, insects, etc but there's no way to completely keep out the pests. Therefore there's the need for routine health maintenance treatments. Keeping birds penned without free-range does not ensure they will be disease/parasite free.

And thanks for checking for me!

I'm actually going to Secret Hills Ranch this Sunday to pick up an Isbar, Cream Legbar, and French Lavender Marans!
Will update you after as to how it goes!

I'm not NEARLY as experienced as others here, but since no one else answered this question, I'll take a stab. In any chicken breeding program, you have choices about what features you want to encourage/keep, and sometimes you have to choose - if you work exclusively on egg color, you may struggle to accomplish the feather coloring or conformation you are looking for, and vice versa.

Honestly, it depends on what you are looking for and what you like, especially if you do not have roosters and are not planning to breed them.

The Rees line has produced some really beautiful birds, and their appearance appeals to a lot of people (Jill Rees has won awards in the UK for them); they are generally quite light in overall coloring. It is my understanding that the focus in the development of this line is coloring/appearance. Unfortunately, it seems that clear auto sexing has taken a bit of a hit, and in some of these babies, it's hard to tell girl from boy at hatch. There also seem to be more green eggs (vs blue) - but that may be anecdotal, I'm not sure what the actual data would show.

The earlier line (Hale, I guess) is darker grey (better if free ranging with hawks), more blue eggs (again, I haven't seen numbers/denominators, just seems to be what folks say), and pretty clear auto sexing at hatch (that is, easy to tell girls from boys). For example, I ordered a group of two pullets and one cockerel from Meyer Hatchery (via My Pet Chicken), which have the Hale line best I can tell. The little girls were dark grey with obvious female markings, and the boy was almost completely yellow - a no brainer (unfortunately, the boy didn't make it). In an earlier shipment I got a more yellowish pullet, but she still pretty clear female markings (though not a perfect head vee). Some in this line seem to have some more brownish coloring which may not be preferred per SOP (others will have to comment on this), but again, if you want backyard pets, it shouldn't matter.

Here's the thing, though. You are a sweet pet loving person. If you get a Rees-line chick and get a bum deal with poor auto sexing, you could get a "pullet" that turns out to be a cockerel, in which case it sounds like you would need to find another home for him. That could be hard on you as you get attached. If it must be a pullet, Hale line may be safer. Before you go, study as many chick photos of both sexes as you can find - then look at the chick you are offered to try to make sure you get a girl.

Final caveat. If these birds have been propagated beyond original source, some of these features may not hold true unless your source is breeding toward the standard or toward a goal (e.g., only breeding those birds that were born with clear auto sexing features). If the source is just making more baby CLs to sell and not selecting/culling, you may discover drift. Not sure how quickly it would happen, though.

Someone else PLEASE step in and correct any mistakes I make...

- Ant Farm

Thank you so much Ant Farm! I cannot begin to express how grateful I am for you reply.
I will study pictures incessantly today so I can be prepared tomorrow!
I'm still undecided as to what I want but this definitely helped me lean towards Curtis Hale's line!

I think I would ask for more pictures of stock lines before I chose. Curtis' birds are beautiful, and I lucked out and got a beautiful hen from the Rees line, so both have great possibilities. I haven't seen Kristin's birds in a while but I'm sure she worked hard on them too.
The hen you pictured is probably light gold or a heavy carrier of red, but she does have a nice body shape. Hopefully she is paired with a rooster with a lower tail angle to bring that down. The cockerel is young and needs to finish growing in. Looks like he'll have a nice tail and coloring. I hope he is paired with a hen with a longer keel. Best wishes!

Thank you, thank you! I have asked them for more pictures and will post them here as soon as I get them!