Cream Legbars

[Bantambird]

Glad he is doing well. 

I have noticed that trauma in my flock can result in white feathers.  When Amazing Grace had her wing torn off -- she had some strange white stripes during subsequent growth.  If a chick went through trauma or illness -- I saw more white -- or even wider bars.  Kind of makes sense since the default feathers are white -- it could be that  the pigment doesn't get added during the growth time when the chicken is fighting to live, or to regain health.  

I noticed this happens in my older birds a lot, especially ones that pick fights or are at the bottom rung. There is one hen who always gets one white feather in her otherwise dark crest.

 

[ChicKat]

I noticed this happens in my older birds a lot, especially ones that pick fights or are at the bottom rung. There is one hen who always gets one white feather in her otherwise dark crest.

You know, that reminds me -- my oldest CL has gotten larger barring in her once totally dark crest as she gets older.... like a human 'going gray'

--- The bottom of the pecking order ones -- maybe it is job-related stress?

 

[dretd]

Speaking of Dumbledore, I think I posted here when he played hero and got attacked by dogs while trying to draw them away and protect the rest of the chickens. I thought I'd post a follow up.

As a reminder - before picture:

After the attack:

Anyhow, he's doing great, better than ever. My little Captain America...

- Ant Farm

Holy Moly--He is quite the Super Hero indeed. I am amazed at the healing power of chickens. He has bounced back remarkably well and quite the handsome fellow to boot!

 

[dretd]

Quote: Thanks for the link--I will go over and check it out when I have the time.

I do love playing with the calculator. I have found that the images it puts up don't do a very good job of matching the real chicks I have hatched when I have done mixes and start combining genes--just my observation on what I have done. Not enough nuances available. The image it created above does look like a solid black upper and a tan/buff lower chicken. I think the photos you have provided are very interesting and you can see the layered subtleties. They appear to be a very dark brown color with almost what looks like some black lacing. Quite pretty, actually.

Here are a few angles of that girl I had mentioned previously that I think is overly melanized and could be a candidate for Ml/Ml. She is Gigi (Clara's grand daughter) and her mom Goldie is pictured next to her in one of the photos showing the breast. She has some melanized breast tipping, especially coming in from the sides. I think that the description in the SOP that says well defined breast was trying to eliminate this type of bleeding of melanin from the body. To me, she is a very good representation of grey in the body instead of my more common taupe/mousy color I seem to have, but at a cost. Her hackles are dark and there is not much contrast between the body and the hackles. If you removed the barred dappling from strong barring, I suspect that you would end up with a color that is very similar to the photos you posted.



For those who don't know, Clara (pictured below) is the hen I hatched from eggs via a breeder in CA who got his original stock from Jordan family Farms. JFF has since dispersed their stock. Some folk on FB have commented that they felt that line was overly melanized. I think that she is a nice girl, although she lacks the contrast in the hackles I would like to see and seems to have 'wimpy' barring. I was on the fence with her on her dilution status, and it turns out that she throws non-cream offspring when bred to cream-expressing roosters. She is one of my favorites, thought. She doesn't exhibit the melanin breast tipping so this melanizer may not be Ml after all, or this is how Ml/ml looks.


It just shows how much variation you can have in three generations of Cream Legbars with regard to color and pattern. As you have said before, Chickat, they are a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors. I am trying to focus on type more than color at this point to build a better Cream Legbar. Gigi has decent type but has inherited too much underfluff from the Rooster line and so she looks unbalanced to my eye. I haven't hatched anything from her and may not breed her.

 

[mellcrowl]

Just found this pair on Craigslist. I don't know much regarding tell quality CLBs but I've been wanting to get a couple from GFF. They want $29 for the pair. Are they worth it or is that a sign they aren't very good quality birds? Would you risk picking them up just in case they are nice birds? I just want the true blue eggs and I like the looks of this breed.

 

[dretd]

Just found this pair on Craigslist. I don't know much regarding tell quality CLBs but I've been wanting to get a couple from GFF. They want $29 for the pair. Are they worth it or is that a sign they aren't very good quality birds? Would you risk picking them up just in case they are nice birds? I just want the true blue eggs and I like the looks of this breed.

Hi Mellcrowl! They are far too young to judge quality except for some obvious body defects like wry tail or similar. $29 seems very reasonable for the pair and I would grab them and grow them out. I think you can get a reasonable assessment on the females by about 6 months but the males I grow out at least 8 months before I decide if they are going to be decent or not.

 

[ChicKat]

Just found this pair on Craigslist. I don't know much regarding tell quality CLBs but I've been wanting to get a couple from GFF. They want $29 for the pair. Are they worth it or is that a sign they aren't very good quality birds? Would you risk picking them up just in case they are nice birds? I just want the true blue eggs and I like the looks of this breed.

follow this link to a page on the CL Club's website. There are some listings of considerations etc. there that may help you with your decision.

http://www.creamlegbarclub.com/17-cream-legbar-purchase-checklist-questions

For a nice healthy pair the price is not bad...remember GFF's price is for day-olds and you have to buy a minimum - of I think 6 chicks and pay shipping. compare that to these you can buy just 2 and they have a couple of weeks of feed under their belts.

I would say go for it!

 

[AR Razorback]

Pics are loading today. These are the bonus chicks I got with the trio because he hatched all roos except 1. Going to mark them so I can see progress. Not sure which one came from which hen. One of the little roos looks like he may have some of the auto sexing problems I heard talked about because he has the darker head but still has a light spot. Chicks are 3 days old. I saw something about a double cream roo on a thread and can't find it now. Still learning about CLs and didn't understand that.

 

[AR Razorback]

Pics are loading today. These are the bonus chicks I got with the trio because he hatched all roos except 1. Going to mark them so I can see progress. Not sure which one came from which hen. One of the little roos looks like he may have some of the auto sexing problems I heard talked about because he has the darker head but still has a light spot. Chicks are 3 days old. I saw something about a double cream roo on a thread and can't find it now. Still learning about CLs and didn't understand that.

Well thought I did! Haha

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I do love playing with the calculator. I have found that the images it puts up don't do a very good job of matching the real chicks I have hatched when I have done mixes and start combining genes--just my observation on what I have done. Not enough nuances available. The image it created above does look like a solid black upper and a tan/buff lower chicken. I think the photos you have provided are very interesting and you can see the layered subtleties. They appear to be a very dark brown color with almost what looks like some black lacing. Quite pretty, actually.

Here are a few angles of that girl I had mentioned previously that I think is overly melanized and could be a candidate for Ml/Ml. She is Gigi (Clara's grand daughter) and her mom Goldie is pictured next to her in one of the photos showing the breast. She has some melanized breast tipping, especially coming in from the sides. I think that the description in the SOP that says well defined breast was trying to eliminate this type of bleeding of melanin from the body. To me, she is a very good representation of grey in the body instead of my more common taupe/mousy color I seem to have, but at a cost. Her hackles are dark and there is not much contrast between the body and the hackles. If you removed the barred dappling from strong barring, I suspect that you would end up with a color that is very similar to the photos you posted.



For those who don't know, Clara (pictured below) is the hen I hatched from eggs via a breeder in CA who got his original stock from Jordan family Farms. JFF has since dispersed their stock. Some folk on FB have commented that they felt that line was overly melanized. I think that she is a nice girl, although she lacks the contrast in the hackles I would like to see and seems to have 'wimpy' barring. I was on the fence with her on her dilution status, and it turns out that she throws non-cream offspring when bred to cream-expressing roosters. She is one of my favorites, thought. She doesn't exhibit the melanin breast tipping so this melanizer may not be Ml after all, or this is how Ml/ml looks.


It just shows how much variation you can have in three generations of Cream Legbars with regard to color and pattern. As you have said before, Chickat, they are a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors. I am trying to focus on type more than color at this point to build a better Cream Legbar. Gigi has decent type but has inherited too much underfluff from the Rooster line and so she looks unbalanced to my eye. I haven't hatched anything from her and may not breed her.

Intertesting. If I may, I'd like to post pictures of Paula here again, in the context of this specific conversation and the photos posted above. Chick pics, and then POL pics, which were my most recent. I got her from My Pet Chicken, via Meyer - which is where I got the other two, which look very similar to each other but not really like her. (She died from Marek's about a month or so ago at roughly 35 weeks old, but I have five 10 week old pullets that I hatched out from her and Dumbledore. And a cockerel, though I have no idea which one is hers...)






Paula is on the right in this photo:

Paula is on the left tin this photo:


- Ant Farm