Cream Legbars

[mellcrowl]

My understanding is that the only expression you will see is cream or gold. You can't tell if they are heterozygous for cream unless you do some breeding trials. A heterozygous cream bird will look gold. That particular hen looks gold to me. 

So since cream is recessive, does this mean my two pullets (a few posts up) are homozygous cream? I don't see any gold, but maybe they're too young to tell or I'm not seeing something.

 

[BuffyBugSlayer]

So since cream is recessive, does this mean my two pullets (a few posts up) are homozygous cream? I don't see any gold, but maybe they're too young to tell or I'm not seeing something.

From what I can tell from the pics they look cream to me.

 

[Naduah]

So, the one on the left in the first picture is a Pullet and on the right, a cockerel. The next picture is my other 2 pullets. I wonder why the Pullet in the first picture has such a large comb and darker? The other two pullets barely have a comb and yellow/orange in comparison. They're all the same age-around 7-8 weeks old. I found her comb difference from the others interesting. Anyone else ever have a Pullet with a fairly larger comb that's more reddish?

 

[Bantambird]

So, the one on the left in the first picture is a Pullet and on the right, a cockerel. The next picture is my other 2 pullets. I wonder why the Pullet in the first picture has such a large comb and darker? The other two pullets barely have a comb and yellow/orange in comparison. They're all the same age-around 7-8 weeks old. I found her comb difference from the others interesting. Anyone else ever have a Pullet with a fairly larger comb that's more reddish?

I have noticed that hens with straighter combs tend to have smaller crests. This is not 100%, but there does seem to be a trend for this in my flock. Crest genes are incomplete dominant, so a bird with only one copy of the cresting gene will have a smaller crest. A bird with a larger crest likely has 2 crest genes. This does not mean your cutie good or bad, just that she may be heterozygous for crest. I tried to use the hens with the straightest comb to make cocks with straighter combs, but the caveat is that you have the potential to create non crested individuals later on down the line if you breed together 2 heterozygous crest birds, as statistics tell us 25% of that mating won't have crests at all.

 

[rottlady]

I am sincerely hoping my hens all have tiny combs
THIS is the look I want in my birds. Smallest comb possible and a big bouffant crest (first two pics are possible mothers for my chicks) Bottom light colored bird is a GFF C line hen

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I am sincerely hoping my hens all have tiny combs
THIS is the look I want in my birds. Smallest comb possible and a big bouffant crest (first two pics are possible mothers for my chicks) Bottom light colored bird is a GFF C line hen

You know, something else that may factor into it is temperature. Someone (ChicKat?) mentioned that she suspected that high temperatures during a chicken's young life may lead to big combs. Heaven knows my birds (girls and boy) have huge combs here in South Texas, and they were doing their "growing up" in 90-100F heat. And @duluthralphie was initially totally perplexed by big combs on my pullets because his pullets/hens (in Minnesota) had very small combs.

- Ant Farm

 

[rottlady]

ha! mine should be all set. My house has been 57-59F since they got here

 

[Bantambird]

This is absolutely true. Here in Montana temps fluctuate wildly in the semi arid mountain shadow, so my hens mosly have larger combs, just some are more floppy and some more straight. Still, I bet they are smaller than those in the deep south. They are likely bigger than Minnesota chicken's combs. There are a few who have smaller combs, but even the ones with buffont crests generally have bigger combs than those depicted on these adorable ladies. Bird 1 and 3 look like pullets to me, the middle one looks like a hen.

 

[rottlady]

This is absolutely true. Here in Montana temps fluctuate wildly in the semi arid mountain shadow, so my hens mosly have larger combs, just some are more floppy and some more straight. Still, I bet they are smaller than those in the deep south. They are likely bigger than Minnesota chicken's combs. There are a few who have smaller combs, but even the ones with buffont crests generally have bigger combs than those depicted on these adorable ladies. Bird 1 and 3 look like pullets to me, the middle one looks like a hen.

1 and 2 are fullgrown hens I know that for sure- lady lives 1 town over from me. bottom hen I don't have any idea other than she is the image GFF uses on their Cream Legbar page

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

This is absolutely true. Here in Montana temps fluctuate wildly in the semi arid mountain shadow, so my hens mosly have larger combs, just some are more floppy and some more straight. Still, I bet they are smaller than those in the deep south. They are likely bigger than Minnesota chicken's combs. There are a few who have smaller combs, but even the ones with buffont crests generally have bigger combs than those depicted on these adorable ladies. Bird 1 and 3 look like pullets to me, the middle one looks like a hen.

This is Paula (of blessed memory) - check out her whack-o big floppy comb!






- Ant Farm